From : Richard Atkinson
To : david@goforit.co.uk
Date : 22 November 2001 21:00:31
David, I have recently been advised by my cousin of your website and feel compelled to drop you a line. I was very interested to see your site as my cousin, also a Twingo owner said he thought that he had seen what had been my Twingo. When I looked at the site there was M151LFT bold as brass, I was very surprised, I had never thought that I would see the car again, never mind on the 'net.
I am not sure when you purchased the Twingo, or indeed if you are the second owner, but I purchased the car new in September 1994 from the Renault dealership in Tours, prior to my year spent in France as part of my university course in Besançon. I was immediately struck with the capability of the 'little car', at home on the autoroute as well as in town and capacious does not describe the tardis-like interior. Soon the mileage began to shoot up, with regular trips to the Savoie, where she was registered, locally round the Franche-comte and return trips to my home town of Newcastle, encompassing a European trip at the end of my stay in France, taking in Germany, through to Berlin, ending up in Innsbruck in Austria before several weeks in the north of Scotland.
Upon my return, insurance reasons obliged me to re-register the twingo, hence M151LFT a Newcastle upon Tyne registration. However, although registered in England, she never stayed too long in the UK with regular trips to France. I noticed from your site you achieve 50mpg. This doesn't surprise me. I regularly returned high 40s and was once astonished with a 60 on a leisurely trip to the Scottish Highlands. Considering the Twingo is not designed as a motorway cruiser 40+ mpg at 80mph is impressive. Considering my cousin could never beat 35mpg despite returns to the garage for tuning.
Also, I noticed your photographs from the south of France, during 1997, M151LFT and I spent 6 months around Montpellier on a European work exchange. Before returning for a short while to the north east followed by 8 months in West London before I decided to sell her on.
I would be interested to hear when and where you acquired the car, as I note from the Twingo club site that you are London resident, quite a surprise to me when I part exchanged the car back in Newcastle, and strange in that I continued to live there for a further year before returning to the north east to work.
How far have you now travelled in the car, I sold the car with near 120,000kms in just under 4 years. Given the mileage that I continue to put on cars, I was concerned about availability of parts, and requiring a car to cover my regular return trip to Newcastle late at night. I now see that there is a raft of options available for Twingos, with headlights, speedos etc. I remember being without the car for two days when I had the alternator belt changed routinely at Renault on the Western Avenue (A40) and reputed to be the largest dealer in the country. Had the support been so widespread I may have kept the car a little longer.
I hope that you find some of the information of interest, as I was pleased to see the photos of the car now 7 years old looking as fresh as my photos taken when the car was brand new. I would be interested to hear from you. She has clearly gone to a good home.
Kind regards
Richard Atkinson