Great Escape Classic Car Hire has introduced a new range of low cost 1980s classic cars for hire. Based at the company's Cotswolds HQ, the new cars are available to hire with the best value hire package on the market.
The range of new cars are from the 1980s and include a Saab 900 Turbo 16S, Peugeot 205 GTI, VW Golf GTI Mk1 and Rover SD1 Vitesse. Prices are just £95 for 24 hours use or £160 for a 48 hour weekend, including unlimited mileage, comprehensive insurance and full nationwide AA breakdown cover.
"Our customers want to drive the cars they remember from their youth and 1980s classic cars are the next thing in classic car hire," explains Graham Eason of Great Escape. "We've put together a range of iconic classic cars from the 1980s and by sheer chance, most of them are finished in period bright red.
"Some people are a little sniffy about 1980s classic cars but the Saab, Peugeot, VW and Rover are simply brilliant drivers cars. We can offer them so cheaply because they are more reliable than our older fleet - so they cost us less to run."
For more details on the new range of low cost classic cars to hire from Great Escape Classic Car Hire visit http://www.greatescapecars.co.uk/ or call 01527 893733.
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Where are the whale tales?

The 1980s. Big hair, big shoulders and big car spoilers. Nothing said 'sporting pretensions' quite like a large, fat rubber spoiler stuck on the back of your humble hot hatch. At Great Escape Classic Car Hire we've just added a Saab 900 Turbo with a full fat whale tale spoiler on the back. As we sit and stare in wonder at this iconic 80s throwback, we can't help wondering where all the fun and spoilers disappeared to?

Modern cars concentrate on low profile tyres, lowered suspension and little eyebrow roof spoilers to say 'speed' but it's all just a little discreet for us here at Great Escape. There is something endearingly innocent about the family sports cars of the 1980s, whose sporting adenda generally had some sort of purpose.

The whale tale spoiler that ended up adorning the rear ends of so many cars started life on production Porsche 911s. Pioneered on touring cars to increase rear end downforce and stick the front engined cars to the ground, it was Porsche that popularised the idea. The name reflects the design of the 911s spoiler, a massive assemblage that fitted over the engine cover and was intended to reduce the 911's famous tendency to create 911-shaped holes in hedges.

The popularity of the 911 whale tale led to plenty of copies, of which the classic Saab 900 turbo was the most obvious. Any saloon car with sporting pretensions suddenly had a rubber spoilerm, including the Cavalier SRi, Alfasud Ti and of course the XR3i. The Ford XR4i took the idea further with a massive appendage, which was later refined and enlarged for the Cosworth versions of the XR3 and XR4. Even the Porsche 928 got in on the act with a much-enlarged spoiler for the S4 version, replacing the wimpy S2's lip spoiler. The competition to get bigger and bling-er was made in the name of aerodynamics, a concept that car designers and marketers 'discovered' in the 1980s, after years of making 3-box bricks.

The whale tale spoiler was initially provided in unpainted rubber finish because manufacturers couldn't crack the paint technology required to cover a flexible surface. Many tried, resulting in flaking bumpers and spoilers a few years down the line.

The whale tale had it's day when insurers decided everyone was having too much fun and they needed to charge us for the pleasure. Insurance premiums for anything with a spoiler and GTI logo suddenly rocketed, resulting in manufacturers drastically toning down the external sporting paraphernalia.

At Great Escape Classic Car Hire we loved that era when designers had free reign to create great looking cars outside the dictates of insurers and before legislation strangled design scope. The whale tale spoiler seems to embody that spirit.

We've got a classic whale tale Porsche 911 for hire on our fleet as well as a brilliant Saab 900 Turbo with Aero bodykit. You can sample the whale tale effect from £95 for 24 hours. For more details call 01527 893733 or visit http://www.greatescapecars.co.uk/.

Red Hot Twins

Living on the edge of some beautiful countryside here at Great Escape HQ, I love great drivers cars. So our latest additions to the fleet are a bit of an indulgence really.

I've gone and added a couple of B-road banzis to the Great Escape Classic Car Hire fleet in the form of an early lightweight Peugeot 205 GTi and a late model Saab classic 900 Turbo 16 valve. From 1988 and 1989 respectively, these bright red 1980s motoring icons are just brilliant to drive and leave us all here grinning from ear to ear. So I've put them on hire and hope our customers love them too. Otherwise I'm stuck for excuses to tell my wife why we've got them. So come on, bag a drivers delight bargain - because these cars are available to hire at the lowest prices we've ever offered. Just £95 for a full 24 hours of unlimited mileage fun.

The Peugeot 205 GTI is a car I grew up with and the Great Escape version is the purist's delight. It's obviously red, with a nice red carpet inside, and features the peppy 1600cc 105 bhp motor that gives the nimble little Pug better balance and roadholding than the more powerful 1900cc lump. Performance is brisk rather than startling by modern standards but the 205's roadholding is frankly astonishing - the steering feel and handling make this car hugely entertaining at any speeds. Just watch out for the lift off oversteer!

The Saab 900 Turbo is an entirely different proposition. The Great Escape car is the full fat 175 bhp 16 valve turbo version in elegant three door form with red paintwork and in true 1980s style, plenty of black body cladding. Inside it's luxurious with full leather, electric sunroof and cruise control. For a front wheel drive car the Saab is superbly balanced with communicative steering, well spaced gear ratios and tonnes of power. We recently drove back to back with a 1980s 911 and the Saab easily cleaned its nose against the bigger engined, more powerful Porker.

Both of our new 1980s hot hatch hire cars are available to rent by the day, week or weekend. Prices are just £95 for either car for 24 hours or £16o for a 48 hour weekend. That includes unlimited mileage, insurance and full AA breakdown cover. For more details call 01527 893733 or visit http://www.greatescapecars.co.uk/

Break for the Border

It's a tough job but someone has to do it. This week at Great Escape Classic Car Hire we've been hooning around Mid Wales looking for great driving roads. It's all part of the planning for our Break for the Borders rally on July 2nd, creating a 200 mile route that will delight and entertain our customers.

The route cuts across to Ludlow, runs down through the Welsh Borders then back across the Malverns towards our base at Astwood Bank. It's a demanding but beautiful drive with some brilliant driving roads, including two of our UK favourites - the B4520 from Builth to Brecon and the B4521 from Abergavenny to Ross on Wye. These meandering switchback roads are always traffic free yet technically demanding for drivers - with beautiful scenery for passengers.

Our weapon of choice for this trip was a 1989 Saab 900 Turbo 16. This often-overlooked 80s classic is surely one of the era's greatest everyday driving cars. Values are finally beginning to rise as more fans begin to appreciate the dynamic balance of the chassis and the jaw-dropping performance of the blown 2 litre. For a front wheel drive car, the Saab is beautifully poised with excellent weight balance and sweet steering and controls. Our car was one of the 16 valve H engine full pressure turbo cars developing 175 bhp. Back in 1989 this was believed to be the maximum power that could be delivered through the front wheels.

Great Escape Classic Car Hire still has a couple of places left on its Break for the Border rally. For more details click here or call 01527 893733.