Big Roadies don’t need a big car

What road trip would be complete without seeing
some weird shit on the way? I give you,
Gandalf Cart Man!

With a long weekend off on the cards and not much else to do the girlfriend decided that it would be a fantastic idea to drive to Cape Reinga. A 836km+ round trip. Our vehicle? A 1.3 litre Toyota Vitz...

The Far North of NZ is full of twisty roads
that are a drivers paradise.

Don’t get me wrong now, I think the ideal roadtripping car is a nice, decent engined GT or a ballistic missile of a sportster, but this little Toyota Vitz did itself proud and may have changed my perception on what a fun car can be.

This might seem like I have gone mad but I assure you I have not. After a bit of research into the Vitz I found that even though it is ‘only’ a 1.3litre compact, it is equipped with VVT-I , Toyota’s answer to the early 90’s variable valve timing fight amongst manufacturers. As a result our little road trip mobile was to my currently out of touch car senses, more powerful than it has any right to be, feeling much more responsive than my old 1500cc 91 Pulsar which needed to be foot-to-firewall to get anywhere at any pace.

In a strange twist of providence Driven’s cover story for today’s edition discusses the Top Compact Cars of 2013, with my top pic being Ford’s Fiesta ST. I'm not the only one who thinks so. These British folk seem to agree (and we all know the Brits know how to review a car).

With all that said, I still reckon I’d have even more of a blast on roadies in an actual sports focused car.

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On Throttle New Zealand

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