Why is it that people who own crap cars always insist on calling my 2 a hairdressers car??? Just last night my housemates girlfriend called it a hairdressers car, I said she was jealous cos she drives a slow ***** heap of S***. Everybody else conceded that I was right and I preceeded to give her car a bit more of a slagging off for good measure. hehe

Seroiusly tho, what do you lot say when you meet idiots like that?

...

im still confused as to what a "hairdressers car" means... ive heard it before but what exactly does it mean?

i think that the term 'hair dressers car' implies that it's a little homosexual as most male hairdressers tend to be.... i.e. it's not a REAL MAN's car...

to be honest I don't know many hair dressers that drive mr2's though, and i know alot of hair dressers...

what's up with this thread though, 'people who own slow cars' ? sorry to burst ur bubble m8 but if it's an N/A mk2 you've got then it's hardly the fastest car around...

not having a pop at the mr2, many of you know I highly desire an mr2 for the summer, but why the topic name?

Of course I'm not saying the MR2's are the fastest cars on the road but the types of cars that the poeple who go on about "hairdressers cars" tend to be cars like

Pug 105 (Deisel)
Rusty old corola
1.0 VW polo

in my experience

p.s. with hindsight I might have used a different thread name but I cant change it now

Let me see...

My Mk2 Golf was a very "manly" car.

It handled like a tank, did 0-60 in 12 seconds (automotive equivalent to three weeks) and was front wheel drive. How safe do you want to be?

The MR2 is AT LEAST twice as fast, very nimble owing to the fact that it weights nothing and is RWD, and it's engine is in the back... Definitely much more of a handful at the limit.

People who don't know about cars say the MR2 is a car for "hairdressers," because they look nice. Take them out for a spin flat out, get the back end out on a roundabout and then see what they think. If you can scare somebody ****less in it, then it's not a poncy car.

arguably though you could scare someone in any car if you were mad enough....

a 1.0 yaris would scare you if you were going sideways around a corner, or fish tailing towards oncoming traffic for example

dunno bout NA's but you are 100% guaranteed to scare ANYONE in a turbo who hasnt been in a MR2 before, even a stock one hehe, you dont even have to go totally ape with it. It's fun watching their reaction when you floor it in 1st... -> " "

yeah, some of my scariest moments were in my first car (a 1984 1.0L metro), not a car to try and drive fast, the brakes weren't too good!!

Hairdresser cars .. cheap "sports"cars .. usually more "show" than "go". The Mk1 and Mk3 are guilty of this.

The fact that the mk2 topped out a shade under 24k, put them out of the average hairdresser price range.

Now hairdresser cars are :-

MGF, MX5, MR2 (mk3), Z3 ..
The Elise is too hardcore (no carpet) and the VX220 doesn't have the right badge ..

It's where the tubby can shine .. it's as posy as the NA, but has the 0-60's to be a sportscar ..

Oi..

don't say MX-5

hairdressers cars:
BMW Z3
*REMOVED*
MGF
MX-5 (sorry)
206 cc
Audi Cab.
3 series cab.

these can all be good cars but the key 2 a hair dressers car is looks very nice but has the smallest engine you can buy in that car, like mx-5 1.6, 316, 206 1.6, neva have i seen/heard a hairdresser with an MGTF with induction roar, the point is there poser's with posin cars

s2000 ????????

for me that's got to be one of the manliest cars around, reving to 9000 revs with a bonnet that goes on forever, rare, menacing and combine it with good looks makes it a bloody fine car.

lol, i cant believe what i've just seen.. i'm in shock

s2000 and hairdresser car... the words just don't work together at all....

My housemates got one, just shown him this thread, he's off to the kitchen packing his knives, all 16st of him!!!! They are phat motors, only guy i know who can out pose me in the summer. B@stid!

I think S2000 and the Mk2 MR2 don't qualify as they were too expensive to buy from scratch (and Hairdressers never get 2nd hand cars) ..
S2000's are awesome cars ..

Ah...so doesn that mean that my MX-5 1.8iS isn't classed as a hairdressers car?

The only fast cars that are manly are cosworths.

You don't see a hairdresser in a sierra cosworth.... all these rubbish japanese cars, pfft!

cosworths - eww no !!

Bl**dy Fords .. can't stand them.

Spoon S2000 and civic goes up to 11000rpm...

the only firm to make 'manly' cars is TVR....

the muscular curves of them, the agressive low burble of the exhaust, the big 4litre+ engines growling away.... that is a man's car.

i was aware that the s2000 'has' 11,000 revs however I was led to believe that you can use up to 9000 before the rev limiter kicks in...

and cosworth.... please! fords are plastic

But they are hard...

Not normal fords, they're ****.

so for a manly car - you need a toolkit ..

I would have thought TVR's were womanly...as they are so curvy and come in pretty shades of purple

As far as Ford goes, I can make an exception for the Focus RS.

Afterall, it looks hard-as-nails compared to other hatchbacks and is quicker round a track than a Scooby.

I love TVRs. Gonna get me a Cerbera one of these days.

S2000s are great too - I love VTEC, but driving round at 6000+RPM ALL DAY would get on my nerves.

who gives a f..k wot anybody else thinks, !!

i've had mine called a hairdressers car by a few people but they seem to back out when i offer them a chance to try their luck against it. makes me laugh the way a rwd mid-engined turbo charged car with a reputation for spinning is classed as a hairdressers car, think how sissy that makes their cars, it's only an insult to them. fwd cars are the most sissy, 4wd cars whilst some are bloody quick they still offer safe and tame handling, rwd cars are for men esp when they have the power to back up their sportscar claim.

hav u noticed tho' that the term hairdressers car always seems to come from the mouth of your average max muppet. i remember reading an article in that aforementioned emergency toilet roll rag that listed cars like the mr2 and nissan 300zx twin turbo as hairdressers cars. the 300zx had a big writeup and dyno shoot out that particular issue.

so let me get this straight, a 3 ltr 6 cylinder twin turbo car is a hairdressers car but, saxos, novas and corsas with stupid plasticky bodykits are cool?????

ive never know a true car enthusiast call a car a hairdressers car - only the muppets.

ignore 'em

[quote name='Bobby-H' date='Mar 7 2004, 05:06 PM'] Why is it that people who own crap cars always insist on calling my 2 a hairdressers car??? Just last night my housemates girlfriend called it a hairdressers car, I said she was jealous cos she drives a slow ***** heap of S***. Everybody else conceded that I was right and I preceeded to give her car a bit more of a slagging off for good measure. hehe

Seroiusly tho, what do you lot say when you meet idiots like that? [/quote]
So er.... what did she drive? Just wanna know..

She drives the rusty old corolla, its quite old and has definately see better days.

lol, I get this crap plenty. Mines a N/A, still a 160ish bhp rwd car that handles like a dream in the dry and is lairy in the wet.

LOL, these are the type of people I am talking about

[url="http://www.barryboys.co.uk/"]Barry Boys[/url]

[quote name='louise3512uk' date='Mar 7 2004, 07:51 PM'] Ah...so doesn that mean that my MX-5 1.8iS isn't classed as a hairdressers car?

[/quote]
Mabe not just a Girls Car lol

doesn't help when Toyota F1 has Wella as a sponsor ..

the actual original hairdressers car for which the term was invented, was the ford escort cabriolet and i was brought up in essex where a LOT of people have ford escort cabriolets so i know. ive had my "2" Called a hairdressers car by someone who owned a mondeo, and then a mk1 mr2 which has done a 150,000miles and has no knowledge of mr2's what so ever, but i got my own back when i p***d all over him on the motorway and i reminded him of his nick name at 6th form which an ex spread about him (captain cumquick) he he he! revenge is soo sweet.

Well I guess my car's a hairdressers car but I really don't give a flying f say what you want

Dont worry about it..bottom line is it boils down to jealousy. I had the same things being said about my car behind my back by a couple of to5sers. And guess what...they have both bought mr2 turbos now..and what has really really pis5ed me off is that they are actually telling people I copied them even tho I bought my car last year..errr I dont even talk to them they are just randoms I used to briefly see at meets .

maxpower magazine used to have 'hairdressers car' next to the mr2 N/A as the description in the back pages. Maybe thats why its stuck in so many cretins heads. Its so funny because I remeber this same mag slagging off neons and graphics and they had many hateful remarks against jap cars before F&F was released. They were so biased towards the weedy euro cars.
Look at the state of the mag now...its so laughable they give guides on all the things they used to slag off and they practically ejaculate over jap cars. Such a saddo hypocritical magazine. Its so damn laughable they actually think they are at the forefront of the 'Jap car revolution' and every styling trend in the uk.They reckon they have single handedly created the whole import scene in this country (check website). Jesus....

Dunno bout you guys but I think Redline is the only general car tuning magazine you can read without feeling like a fool (almost heh)

Totally agree about the mags there, I think Redline is a top magazine. I used to buy all the other tosh ages ago but it's just rubbish now. I was never a big fan of fibreglass anyway

think most are tosh .. Banzai is the only one I get now ..

Actually, Good Housekeeping magazine is the way forward.

I dont do the muppet mags, but I like Evo.

Nobody has commented on my car for ages, I am waiting and ready fiesta girls.

audi tt, decent performance but imo thats a hairdressers car...

even the Z4 is lookin like one now, thing is i actually quite like it ,
nowt compared to me 2 mind u...

-Z

[quote name='Bibbs' date='Mar 7 2004, 06:56 PM']Hairdresser cars .. cheap "sports"cars ..  usually more "show" than "go". The Mk1 and Mk3 are guilty of this.

The fact that the mk2 topped out a shade under 24k, put them out of the average hairdresser price range.

Now hairdresser cars are :-

MGF, MX5, MR2 (mk3), Z3 ..
The Elise is too hardcore (no carpet) and the VX220 doesn't have the right badge ..

It's where the tubby can shine .. it's as posy as the NA, but has the 0-60's to be a sportscar ..[/quote]
I beg to differ. And on several points...

Firstly The mk1 and the mk3, in my book at least, are far more "sporting" than the mk2. Both are lightwieght, with razor sharp handling and responses. The mk2 was a flawed beast from its inception, to many compromises were made to driver comfort, and as a result it became an overwieght shadow of its former self. The turbo cured many of its ills, but exacerbated few of the others... Proving once again that more power doesn't mean more sporty. What it really needed was to be smaller, more agile, lighter, more involving, and less likely to spit you backwards through a hedge for no good reason. A bit like the mk1 and mk3... To be fair the mk2 wasnt a bad car, but it wasn't the natural evolution of the mk1, it should have and could have been so much better...

The VX220 is without a shadow of a doubt a bona-fide sportscar, badge or no badge... The cowboy hat toyota badge hardly exudes sporting credibility does it? Just like the Vauxhall they make a whole host of boring, run of the mill cars and one or 2 gems. The same goes for the vauxhall. Drive a VX220 and I promise it'll make any MR2 look like a ridiculous pretender. Likewise, 0-60's and pricetags dont make sportscars... A 35 year old MG midget would struggle to get past 60 in less than about 15 seconds, but could teach many modern so-called sports cars a thing or 2 about the delicacy's of chassis balance and driver involvement. You can spend up to £45k on a Mercedes SLK, but it has all the sportscar credibility of my mums metro.

So getting back to the topic, what makes a car a "hairdressers car"?

For a car to be a sportscar, it has to do only one thing. Entertain you by sheer virtue of its driving dynamics. Dynamics that urge you on to brake a little later, turn in a little harder and generally leave you grinning like a cheshire cat when you get out. How it looks is secondary to this, as are such concerns as comfort, top speed, size of the boot and weather the roof leaks or not. Not unimportant, just second to the sheer experience of driving the thing. The usual definition of "2 seats and no roof" is tosh. Any car can be considered as sporting.

To be a haridressers car you just have to make it look good. The dynamics are rarely as important as the gimmicks on board or the image in the marketing campaign. It can be fast as hell, but thats really only optional, what matter most is how the thing looks. But thats not all it takes... A hairdressers car is as much about the driver as the car, and thats the clincher, the hairdresser knows very little about cars and buys his car to make him look good, it's a piece of jewelery. A driver serious about his sporting intentions cares not how he looks in his car, just how he feels.

To cite just a few cars, whose gimmicks, marketing or general image are their single saving grace:

BMW compact
Audi TT
Merc SLK
Peugeot 206CC
Audi A4 cabrio

All are seriously flawed, in the name of pandering to people who dont have clue about cars. Any "real" enthusiast, wouldn't go near them.

To my knowledge there has never been any real marketing campaign for the mk3 MR2. Its pretty ugly, has less luggage space than an Elise, and is a nightmare on long journeys. When I first saw one I hated it, but I bought it anyway... Why? because the dynamics of the thing were so vastly superior to the competition, and it made me laugh my ***** off every time I drove it...

Thats a proper sportscar...

i agree with most of your comments, but please be more nice to my mk2 tubby

Lets be honest, a 'hairdressers car' tends to be a 'style icon' or fashion statement, such as the new StreetKa (I doubt you'll ever see a straight guy driving one of them...)

I would never put the MR2 (cept maybe the new one) into that category, as for the S2000, that is too angular..
The best example is the MX-5, it has the 'image' yet is a bloomin good car, but some blokes are put off cos they dont want people thinking they bite the pillow...

The MR2 is not a 'hairdressers car', i think it all comes down to envy...

i think if i had 20 odd grand to spend on a motor i wouldnt by a vx220/ sunday car / impratical/
look a bit of a ***** driveing it too lol, sundaycar ! mmmmmbye one of those cosy lump caterams thingys with the frog eyes, much coooler, mk3 mr2 well errrrrrrrrrrr no There only sold at a price now , were there droping money and will do for a few more years ,id rather buy a clean s2 elan which would be just as much fun more unique and hold its value better, brings me back to my car the mk2 m plate silver mr Love it ,the values still the same its rwd / mid engine / it feels like a drivers car to drive / i use it everyday 30 odd mpg and for the money i dont think theres much, that can look as good, im a fan of the mk2 i will keep her for years, im not tempted by nothing else !!!!!

if i had 20 grand id still buy a mk2 mr2 no question. Obviously one of the later models (maybe be from japanese direct imports mmmmmm ) and definately a tubby, not cos of its speed or 0-60 time but because of the way it makes a grin appear on my face when i can do insane corners AND at insane speeds compared to other cars I love this car, granted it scares the **** out of me sometimes but thats exactly what makes it so much fun! the mk2 is most definatley not a hairdressers car, you have to have guts (and preferably an empty stomach!) to drive one to its potential.. especially a tubby.