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New VW Arteon Shooting Brake eHybrid Owner With Questions!

11K views 73 replies 11 participants last post by  Cubbington 
#1 ·
Hi All,

I received my first PHEV company car last week, VW's Arteon Shooting Brake, and am loving it already; having been driving various diesels for the past 15 years this is so quiet and refined.

I've been lurking around the forum for a couple weeks, and I'm sure will ave many questions about making the most of the car, but my first 'want' is to make the most of charging on the go, so any advice on which are the best networks to use is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Nick
 
#2 ·
As this charges at 3.6kW I would not bother, that's around 10 miles per hour.
Charge at home, at the office if possible, supermarket destination chargers not Rapids. There can often be 7kW posts ar park and ride and railway stations.
Use zap map to check for payment methods, its not usually worth it with a slow charging phev , I have one, the ampera and it's not worth plugging in for 1/2 hour at the supermarket IMO.
 
#3 ·
@Spiny has the answer for you.

I made an attempt at charging [trying to charge] the Ampera in the wild a few times and it was just pointless. The total effort+risks versus result was just no-where near any benefit.

Obviously, if you happen to come to a stop right in front of a free charge point that you'll stay for an hour or two where you can charge, do as you please, but no provider that charges any money for the charge will ever be cheaper than just burning your biofuel ( ;) ).
 
#4 ·
@Spiny and @donald, many thanks, I think I've just experienced that...

After my first post, I checked Zap Map and found three locations near to my hotel just outside London this morning...ended up wasting 30+ minutes finding that two had time limits (probably resulting in a total of 7-10 range), PAYG required minimum topups, apps to download, credit cards to register, and one without a time limit I was unable to get the car into courtesy of a badly parked BMW X6...

I ended up filling up with petrol no problem and had to pay another £5.00 to get back into the hotel car park, so it's just cost more than I was ever likely to save, both from an environmental & financial point of view.

With regards to charging at home, I'm using the granny cable at the moment, but will get a proper charger fitted.

Charging at work isn't an option as my office is in The Netherlands 😂

Which networks provide free charging? Are there any catches? Nothing comes for free in this world!

I obviously chose the car due to the BIK benefits, but was hoping to reduce the environmental impact and reduce fuel costs whilst out on the road.

Which networks provide free charging? Are there any catches? Nothing comes for free in this world!

I'm not giving up that easily!

Thanks,

Nick
 
#5 ·
As above, I would not bother charging in public. Just leave charging to at home.

With the amount of new pure EVs hitting the roads each month, and the number of new chargers not keeping pace, chargers are already often a scarce resource.

Wanting to reduce the environmental impact whilst out on the road is a noble cause, but the best way for PHEV drivers to do that is probably to charge at home religiously, and then to leave public chargers available to pure EVs.

Clogging up public chargers with hybrid cars that a) charge slowly and b) have an alternative energy source will often just deprive the use of a charger by pure EV, and in doing so contribute to the holding back of EV adoption.
 
#6 ·
You can use any destination charger, Rapids - leave for the BEV's.
In the early days there were various Source (East, London etc.) networks, these had an RFID card and were free to use and often had free parking at the posts. There were other council networks around as well.
Many of these ended up with ChargeMaster now BP Pulse. Its a subscription and an RFID card, The PAYG App version is expensive, the sub OK only IF you can use a lot as in several times a week for hours at a time.
My local Waitrose has these as free to use posts but the Sub means its not worth it as I rarely stay more than 20 mins (and usually walk there!).

PodPoint has many units at Supermarkets and Carparks, these use an APP and are often free to use. Claim the charge during the first 15 mins with the app. I've used the ones at heathrow in the past.

The Motorway service areas used to have free 22kW (3 phase AC) units, 1 or 2 per area. Operated with an RFID card from Ecotricity, this "Electric Highway" has now gone having being bought by Gridserve. Hopefully the new Rapids will prove vastly better then the broken down Ecotricity ones and the 22kW posts will be retained for ZOE's

However Hotels are the interesting one. Many have Tesla Destination Chargers and are free to use, the Silver ones are for any car, these are Type 2 tethered. You can find other units at hotels , some will provide a 13A socket if asked though do offer to pay for electricity.
During the day it depends how you value your time waiting around for the car to top up!

The above are some observations make of it what you will and enjoy the car.
 
#7 ·
Just to clarify for you about the Rapids and also your VAG brand PHEV
When I first got my Golf GTE this info was helpful to me

Your car will only take AC charging via the type2 port-socket.
ie a Rapids' CCS or CHAD tethered cable won't fit.
If a Rapid has 3 cables on it, then it has a AC 22kw max giving type2 plug, which physically will fit your car but in my experience never actually connects properly at the logical giving electrons level - ie it won't actually work. Plus as noted above, the VAG PHEVs normally only drink at 3.6kw max, thus people don't like seeing a slow drinking car attached.

I did get quite into grabbing a charge wherever I could for free, supermarkets, some public carparks or business parks, but I didn't bust a gut - if there was one fine, else never mind.

Otherwise - if the charge point is not free £ - the price per unit of electricity mostly worked out really no cheaper than an Asdas' pay at pump. I got 55-58mpg on hybrid mode only driving in my PHEV. (with the gom above 5 ) You may know the worst time to drive a PHEV ( esp a VAG one ) is when the HV battery has just hit zero - the mpg is horrendous for the next 20-40mins.

If you're on a motorway and the HV drains, put the trip computer to instant mpg - when the ICE kicks in it'll say mid-upper 20's -- even if you're behind a load of Eddie stobarts

If your journey ends at a charging place & is under the HV battery range, do it all on electrons
(ie home work home, or home shopping centre )
ZapMap and Plugshare are very useful for seeing what's around.

If the journey is above it, then
- first few miles EV mode
- when you get to somewhere where the ICE will run for a good few mins (ie no traffic lights, jams, queues for a roundabout ), then put in to hybrid mode and so for the most of the rest of the trip
- when you get to within EV range switch to that planning (hoping) to arrive just before the HV is totally empty.

Many VAG PHEV owners will know of the sheer embarrassment of pulling up somewhere with the ICE having just kicked in a few moments ago --- the engine is still in a warm up cycle and won't cut out and you feel a right idiot at having to burn the dinojuice pointlessly.

I'm sure you'll enjoy the drive and soon be thinking of moving up to a full BEV.
 
#9 ·
VW website is a bit misleading tho - this suggests it has 7.2 drinking ability --- however the charge time is then the same as the 3.6 .....

View attachment 148330
Buyer beware.

It is still "wild-west" territory when it comes to 'data'.

I recall a few years ago (I don't recall precisely if it was Outlander or some Audi), for a PHEV it read in the specifications part of the brochure "CO2; 49g/km, MPG; 150mpg, Size of fuel tank; 10 gallons, Range; 1,500 miles" .... well, 'obviously' ... MPG times tank capacity, right?! :unsure:

I think we're past that sort of thing now, but 'EV specifications data' is still a minefield.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Thanks for the helpful responses all.

@Bill N , I knew there was some level of etiquette regarding the use of public chargers, but playing devil's advocate, and most definitely not wanting to cause any upset, I wouldn't want to become a pariah just because I wanted to use one of these.

My trip this week has involved parking overnight in Westfield Shopping Centre on Tuesday and my experience yesterday morning; all the spots I visited this morning were empty, and there is a bank of either 8 or 12 charging points in Westfield, none of which were in use (and there were quite a few PHEVs & BEVs parked in normal bays).

The infrastructure has to be made available to everyone - I don't want to deny a BEV driver the ability to charge, but if I have the option to do a worthwhile charge (not 30 minutes giving me a couple of miles of range), I want to do that without being damned for it 😊 Overnight stays at hotels I most definitely want to charge it!

That being said, I won't need to worry that much due to the limits of the car's charging time; @donald it's limited to 3.6kw, and has the same 218ps drivetrain as per the Passat GTE, rather than the 245ps as found on the new Golf GTE/Octavia vRS/Cupra Leon. I plugged it in on the granny cable last night, and the app indicated 5:20 hours to fully charge, which the app duly notified me when it was full as expected!

I do often have meetings that last a few hours, so could charge it fully on public charger, or at a customer's - I should have asked the customer I was with all day on Wednesday if I could plug the car into their mains, as they were showing me the initiatives they're taking to go carbon neutral, and I'm sure would have been more than happy to give me some battery power!

@Spiny , thanks for the names of the charging providers. Knowing that there are Tesla chargers available is good; going back to Westfield, there were a lot of Tesla Superchargers being used, and I did have look on the empty unit to see if it had any pay option for a non-Tesla to use, which it didn't.

@gladini , thanks for the hints on driving the VAG car specifically. I've been using the inbuilt nav when driving, as the manual says the car shuffles between the EV and electric modes automatically. On Monday I did a 300-mile round trip to Devon, and the car acted as expected, starting the journey in EV, switching between EV and ICE on the motorway and switching back to EV on the final part of my urban journey, leaving the battery almost empty when I arrived.

Regarding your comment about the car's economy when the battery hits zero. I did notice a few times on the journey back home yesterday that the car was getting a little bit of battery regeneration and switching to EV everyone and then. Surely this can't be good for the engine, as it was switching on and off with gentle throttle...does the engine get preheated at all? I'm thinking about a situation whereby you've driven entirely on EV and you're on the motorway at 70mph when the ICE kicks in and it's cold; from a mechanical point of view, that feels to me like it's putting a cold engine under a lot of stress and wear!

Unfortunately, I've been using Google maps via CarPlay for the past couple of years in my previous car, so the inbuilt nav in the Arteon is somewhat backwards by comparison! Apple Maps integrates with the car and displays route directions on the dashboard, so I'm going to experiment with that and see if the drivetrain changes as expected. If not, it's no hardship to change it manually.

Thankfully the majority of personal journeys are within the car's EV range, so I intend to charge it religiously when at home.

Thanks so much again for all your comments, it's been a great help so far.

Nick
 
#11 ·
I do often have meetings that last a few hours, so could charge it fully on public charger, or at a customer's - I should have asked the customer I was with all day on Wednesday if I could plug the car into their mains, as they were showing me the initiatives they're taking to go carbon neutral, and I'm sure would have been more than happy to give me some battery power!
This is about the only situation that would justify charging away from home .. when the outlet is privately owned and the owner is happy for you to do that.

It really isn't worth charging up on a 3 pin while you are out, I mean the effort versus the time it takes is a bit mad. But if a customer has a Type 2 outlet and you're parked in front of it, of course you should ask.

Don't try to overthink it. Just enjoy the car and let it do its thing, and charge at home unless a blatantly easy opportunity accidentally presents itself. You'll end up getting stressed otherwise if you get on to thinking about this sort of thing all the time.
 
#12 ·
Good morning @donald ,

Valid points, and I know you're right, I just have to get my head around to understanding I don't have to charge it all the time!

Having completed just over 600 miles in it so far, I am most definitely enjoying it, it really is comfortable, relaxed and long-legged...I had a 3-year old diesel Octavia vRS prior to this, which was one of the best cars I've owned, but the Arteon is on another level!

Thanks,

Nick
 
#13 ·
The other way to think about owning a PHEV is the battery is for short local trips, which can pretty much be 100% electric.

Then you have the ICE for long range trips.

As mentioned above, trying to arrange charging en-route is going to drive you mad and cost you money.

So just use it like any other car, but plug in at home when you can.
 
#23 ·
@cah197
The other way to think about owning a PHEV is the battery is for short local trips, which can pretty much be 100% electric.

Then you have the ICE for long range trips.
Have to say that's a very mature way to look at it (and I don't normally agree with anything cah197 says) but this is exactly how we use my wifes Outlander its never been charged on a public charger. I on the other hand have been fully electric for 81/2 years. If anyone ones to troll me for driving a PHEV bring it on but do it to my face not on a keyboard lol.
 
#22 · (Edited)
When I purchased a BEV, I accepted that long journeys would require planning and potential delays waiting for or searching for a suitable charger. The time required to charge from a destination charger means that I would typically only want to use one for a long stop ie overnight or on a day out. I also anticipate that in locations with only a couple of destination chargers there is a good chance that another BEV or PHEV will have got there first so would never rely on them for an essential charge. Equally, as Bill N said, it is unlikely that anyone using a destination charger would stay with their car, so again I would never rely on getting access.

Every mile that can be driven on electric is a good thing. I would encourage any PHEV driver to use a destination charger whenever they have a convenient opportunity, but as Donald said, don’t get obsessed about it, and leave us BEV drivers to look after ourselves.

Enjoy your new PHEV.
 
#26 ·
Hi @Soula,

Thanks for the different perspective regarding PHEV drivers using public chargers.

Seeing all the replies to this thread so far, I'm not going to obsess about charging while I'm out and about, but will do when it's worthwhile.

And thanks, I'm very much enjoying the car so far!

Nick
 
#24 ·
Had a PHEV before we switched to a BEV. Never used a public charger because it was never convenient, not because of concern for BEV drivers.. Still managed to do 50% of our mileage on electric before lock down, after that about 80% electric. Now we are fully BEV and would not expect to get preferential access to destination chargers. If we frequently undertook long journeys, I would probably have gone for another PHEV or ICE. Horses for courses.
 
#25 ·
I don’t think BEV drivers necessarily expect preferential access, I just think it’d be nice and polite for PHEV owners to have an appropriate level of consideration (or concern) for what’s the most pragmatic approach in a given situation - and all circumstances are of course slightly different.

So, for example, take a hotel with two Tesla designation chargers. One is only for Teslas, and a Tesla is using it. The other is designated for use by electric vehicles of any brand. Unless there’s a hotel rule preventing use of it by PHEVs, a PHEV driver arriving at, say, 8pm could legitimately choose to plug in and leave their car there over night. "First come, first served" and all that.

A BEV driver arriving at, say, 8:30pm is then not able to get any charge.

I have the view, and nothing is going to change this, that this would be a disappointing outcome.

Ideally, the PHEV driver would have considered that a BEV driver, with a car with the potential to make far more use of the scarce resource that is the single possible charger, would be better off being able to charge there. The net gain to the PHEV driver, and to the overall system, of a PHEV charging there is far smaller than the benefit to the BEV driver, and to the overall system, of the BEV charging there. The BEV driver would in many cases then need to plan in additional on route charging, with the potential for associated impacts on other BEV drivers, as well as the personal impact on their journey time.

The impact on the PHEV driver, should they have chosen to not charge, is far smaller in comparison.

It’s about making the best use of the scarce resource. If destination charging was far more prevalent than it is (relative to the number of BEVs), then obviously the equation would be different.
 
#27 ·
I don’t think BEV drivers necessarily expect preferential access, I just think it’d be nice and polite for PHEV owners to have an appropriate level of consideration (or concern) for what’s the most pragmatic approach in a given situation - and all circumstances are of course slightly different.

So, for example, take a hotel with two Tesla designation chargers. One is only for Teslas, and a Tesla is using it. The other is designated for use by electric vehicles of any brand. Unless there’s a hotel rule preventing use of it by PHEVs, a PHEV driver arriving at, say, 8pm could legitimately choose to plug in and leave their car there over night. "First come, first served" and all that.

A BEV driver arriving at, say, 8:30pm is then not able to get any charge.

I have the view, and nothing is going to change this, that this would be a disappointing outcome.

Ideally, the PHEV driver would have considered that a BEV driver, with a car with the potential to make far more use of the scarce resource that is the single possible charger, would be better off being able to charge there. The net gain to the PHEV driver, and to the overall system, of a PHEV charging there is far smaller than the benefit to the BEV driver, and to the overall system, of the BEV charging there. The BEV driver would in many cases then need to plan in additional on route charging, with the potential for associated impacts on other BEV drivers, as well as the personal impact on their journey time.

The impact on the PHEV driver, should they have chosen to not charge, is far smaller in comparison.

It’s about making the best use of the scarce resource. If destination charging was far more prevalent than it is (relative to the number of BEVs), then obviously the equation would be different.
No offence, we obviously have a completely different perspective, with respect to EVs.

When I made the free choice to get an EV, I needed to drive long journey occasionally and did not want to be dependant on the limited charging infrastructure so I chose to get a PHEV. I only charged at home but had I stayed in a hotel etc with a destination charger, I would not have hesitated to use it.

I now have a BEV and, if I was on a long trip and staying away, I would ensure that I have enough charge for the next morning before going to bed. Either by being plugged into a destination charger that I found to be available when I arrived or, more likely, charging up before arriving at the hotel. I would not consider any site with only a couple of destination chargers reliable enough to depend on, especially at somewhere like a hotel, where there is a high probability that they would already have been taken by another guest, a member of staff or even a passing EV.

If a BEV driver arrived at a hotel with enough charge to start their next journey, say about 40%, should they leave the chargers free in case another BEV driver (foolishly?) arrives with only a few percent remaining. I very much doubt it. I chose to get a BEV, I know the state of the charging infrastructure, it is my responsibility to deal with the consequences. Relying on the good will of other drivers is, sadly, a strategy that is likely to result in frequent disappointment, especially as EVs move into the mainstream.
 
#30 ·
I think this may have worked when EV drivers were a very small “club” of enthusiasts, but now EVs are moving into the mainstream, competition for chargers will be no different than competition for parking places. Ask a parent with small kids how often they find the reserved spaces used by people with older children, or no kids at all.

Enough said I think, best just agree to differ. May the charge be with you.
 
#33 ·
It's not as advanced as your 2 Series; it combines power from both ICE and electric motors to give it a boost, but keeps it in 2WD.

I had ordered a Volvo V60 T6 which had a similar power train as your 2 Series, however the order went through, we didn't hear anything for a few weeks and were then informed that the model year had changed...spec went down and price shot up...by which time the Arteon had become available as PHEV, which it wasn't when I first started looking at the beginning of the year, so a blessing in disguise really!

I was wary about the relatively low 150-ish bhp ICE in the Arteon vs 250 bhp in the V60, but it's strong enough and (fingers crossed!) I won't be able to lose my licence with it's combined 215 bhp and laid back driving style, compared to the Volvo's combined 350 bhp and 4WD...To my mind the Arteon is just such a beautiful car, and there are hardly any on the road...I like the exclusivity 😉

Couple of pics below, although after a week of driving it in very mixed weather it's filthy already...

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148650


Nick
 
#35 ·
Love your take it on it's styling @donald 😄 I think VW put a Passat in a hydraulic press first so it lowered, widened and lengthened it a wee bit, then went to town with the hammer!

Agreed, the Passat is a classy and understated looking car - my MD had a GTE which he loved, hence one of the first cars we looked at for me was the Arteon.
 
#36 ·
Another trip into the big smoke yesterday, and another unsuccessful attempt at charging!

Spent half an hour driving around Eaton Square, eventually finding one empty spot that had a Type 1 socket, then seeing another empty spot which was that SourceLondon network I saw in Westfield...the only option was to tap with their RFID card!

I'm not obsessing about it, but would like to try to cut pollution and EV it in London (not that I visit regularly).

Best,

Nick
 
#38 ·
To cut pollution in a destination city with your car/PHEV, select the mode which sustains the charge when leaving home, and use the charge for pure-EV-mode in city streets only.

So if you have (say) 20 mile electric range, turn to pure-EV when 10 miles out from your city-centre destination parking spot.

This not only reduces your pollution in the inner city but also reduces your overall fuel costs. Electricity is the energy of choice for slow city driving, much more efficient, much smoother, etc, etc ... so hold on to your charge and use it there.

If you are in slow traffic with the engine coming on and off, there is little worse for either emissions or for general comfort and refinement.
 
#40 · (Edited)
Good morning @gladini ,

Yesterday's journey saw 28 miles on pure EV before the ICE kicked in.

That was a mix of dual carriageway, national speed limit and 50mph roads. I wasn't driving Miss Daisy, but stuck to the speed limits and drove in a relaxed fashion.

The customer I was visiting let me charge the car, and I got just under 5 hours before leaving, so the battery wasn't full, but not far off - it's consistently taking around 5h 20m - 5h 25m to charge from the 3 pin plug, according to the We Connect app.

The journey home saw 22 miles purely on EV; the range was showing I had about 6 miles of battery left, but I'd started to climb the Air Balloon hill near Cheltenham when the ICE kicked in - if any of you know that hill, it's extremely steep, so I'm not surprised!

Cheers,

Nick
 
#41 ·
Good morning @gladini ,

Yesterday's journey saw 28 miles on pure EV before the ICE kicked in.
thank you - wow. ( and it will be useful real world for those thinking of this car

so 72% of the advertised "up to in theory, for comparison purposes only" 39miles value

72% of my Golfs' GTE "up to 31 miles" would have been 22 miles, and in fact with aircon on and generally not trying hard that's about what I got. I could get higher in summer + apollo13 mode ( almost 27 was house record I think )

Must admit was expecting your number higher, but the maths compares.
 
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#44 ·
Agreed, those official 39 miles have been squeezed out with a base-spec car, with an empty fuel tank on an oval test track with all the door seals and panel gaps taped up for maximum efficiency...

I am enjoying playing around with my driving styles, and I like your moniker for the GTE button!

One question you may also be able to help with, if not, I'll post in the VW section; how do you permanently disable the lane assist? Going into thin lanes in roadworks, and a couple of roads near me that have had single to dual carriageway conversion done has the car fighting me to go where it thinks is the middle of the lane - I hate it (it's the only thing I do hate, BTW)! I disable it in settings, then sync my user profile, but it comes back on every time I get in the car!

Thanks again for the tips re. maximising the battery potential on longer trips...not sure how many miles I'm going to get out of EV with these on the roof tomorrow though!!!

I'll leave the car in hybrid, and just look at the mpg when we get up there, apparently it's a 490 mile trip, so have brimmed the tank and am going to see if we can do it without filling up - I used to get about 550 miles to a tank in my Octavia 4x4 2.0TDI, so will be interesting to see what this heavier, smaller tanked wagon will do.

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Will report back MPG and thoughts when we're back!

Have a great weekend all,

Nick
 
#47 ·
Thanks, VW's colour options are pretty plain, apart from this!

I believe the Lane Assist gadget(s) are required to get NCAP 5* rating, so by law have to be on every time you switch on. It's a pain in my Ioniq, but at least it's a single button press to disable the dangerous behaviour where it tries to yank me back towards the middle of the road when I've pulled onto the verge to let oncomers pass on very narrow country lanes, not to mention tugging at me when crossing lanes on duals/motorways. Hate it.
Thanks @HandyAndy , I thought this might be the case, but worth checking. Like you I find it's random tugging when it thinks it's right distracting - you've reminded me that there is a button to access the assistance menus on the indicator stalk, so you don't have to go through and disable it via the infotainment system.
 
#46 ·
I believe the Lane Assist gadget(s) are required to get NCAP 5* rating, so by law have to be on every time you switch on. It's a pain in my Ioniq, but at least it's a single button press to disable the dangerous behaviour where it tries to yank me back towards the middle of the road when I've pulled onto the verge to let oncomers pass on very narrow country lanes, not to mention tugging at me when crossing lanes on duals/motorways. Hate it.
 
#49 · (Edited)
Well after an amazing week on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, which include a fair amount of kayaking, sea loch swimming and swimming in Fingal's Cave on Staffa(!), the Arteon was a joy to be in on the journey there and back!

We didn't use it much during our stay, however over 488 mile journey back which included an awful lot of traffic jams, slow progress through Glencoe and mile after mile of motorway it managed an impressive 43.5mpg overall. That was with charging it before we left, and managing to grab a quick 45 charge at a service station, giving about 30 EV miles overall.

What was interesting was the ability to charge in Scotland - it would appear that it's a government funded scheme and I completed two successful charges, one at a hotel on the first night as the traffic was so bad we missed the ferry, and the second charge at the Corran ferry terminal to Staffa - marked as the most westerly point on the UK Mainland. I'm yet to be charged for the topup at the hotel, but the ferry terminal was free, and now it's over 10 days since charging at the hotel, I think that may be free too (although the website said otherwise).

I just find it ironic that London's infrastructure on first experience is rubbish, and I've had two out of two options to charge the car in the middle of nowhere...

That GTE button is good too when you're stuck behind dawdlers ;-)

Nick
 
#50 ·
Hi Nick,
I'm currently considering the Arteon Shooting brake Hybrid. I'm completely unfamiliar with Hybrid Driving mods, but lets assume you were doing a 70 mile motorway journey in GTE mode. How much "charge" would that use? Or what mode would you use when on the motorway.
I'm manly getting the hybrid for local driving but am used to a 2.0 TDI o so also wonder how well it pulls from say 50-70, for overtaking and the like. Is it nippy as such?

Any further experience great appreciated.

Mike
 
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