Grande Tourer (French I believe) = Grand Tourer in English! Simply means that the car is able to travel great distances at a fast pace. A 'GT' badge was therefore attached to vehicles with larger engines and capable of sustaining high speeds for long periods of time. Mostly this was two door coupe type body styles.
Injection = do I really have to tell you?
Therefore GTi meant that it was a car with a relatively large fuel injected engine capable of travelling long distances at high'ish speeds.
charrade gtti, theyre always a laugh!
obviously, theres the UT, but finding a reasonably rust free one is hard
205 gti, obvious choise, dont rot, and plenty to choose from
golf mk2 gti, 16v, can find them for under £1000
astra gte 16v, good engines, heads on them designed by cosworth, but the chassis arent that good and dont handle too well tbh, but a set of coilovers would help that
mazda 323 1.6 16v turbo 4wd......interesting one, not many about but theyre meant to be a right laugh!
rover 220/420/coupe 2.0 16v turbo, one of these would be make a nice tool with some work
metro gti with a engine conversion. eg. elise lump or 2.0 turbo out of another rover
any more?
Dunc
Pretty much agree with most of what Dunc says here. Charade GTti is a scream but they are hard to find. 3 cylinder sub 1 litre turbo charged pocket rocket that was 'restricted' (chips were available to unlock the extra power) - I kid you not!
Golf GTi 16v mk2 - not that recommended actually. Most people I know who had them felt it lacked the grunt of the 8v, it wasn't that much faster and certainly the early models weren't able to run unleaded. The 8v was a nicer drive. However, nothing to stop you getting a mk2 16v and then dropping a mk3 2.0 litre 16v lump in
In the early 1990's the Renault 19 16v was regarded as one of the best all round GTi's by most of the motoring magazines. Would be fun and different, but I can't even tell you the last time I saw one on the road.
Sticking with French cars, if you want a tiddler that's fun look for a LATE AX GTi. The GTi version sorted some of the build quality issues with the carbed AX GT but it's still a bit flimsy. You can drop in bigger engines too quite easily and the handling is excellent for such a small and light car
I wouldn't recommend an early non injected GT as they are poorly built and fall to bits.
And a very under-rated car is the Citroen BX 1.9 16v. There's a very rare 4x4 version too but you'll be stuffed if you need drivetrain parts! They're quick, look like an Airfix space invader vehicle and the ride is something else.
Also, if you like the 205 GTi don't overlook the 309 GTi. It's virtually a 205 GTi with a boot and never liked as much therefore can be picked up for less.
I can't believe that I've just recommended all these old French cars!
Oh, and for a real engineering jewel get a late 80's/ early 90's Honda CRX. Great looking mini coupe with superb engineering. Get one that isn't rusting and you'll have an excellent rice rocket.
From the same era as the CRX, how about a Honda Prelude 16v four wheel steering model (4WS or AWS)? My mate has one, it goes and handles amazingly and the four wheel steering (once you get used to it) is so good you wonder why all cars aren't fitted with it. The build quality is superb and it feels like it will last for ever.
Only problem though with old Jap cars is getting hold of some of the spares
Plenty of fun old cars out there, it's just finding one that is not about to die that's the problem!
