Problem being I'm coming from a BMW Auto and the Chim felt like a brute to drive to me!
Also I think a newer Chim will be more resellable in 6 months time when I get sick of it.
Mmmm, yeah, I can sort of see your point, although I drove both after getting out of a Saab auto and still considered the Chim to be easily drivable, but I've also got the Stag and GT6 so I'm a bit used to that sort of thing.
I'm not sure about resale of a Chim. There's absolutely loads about and a quick glance at Pistonheads shows that you can pick up a 12 year old 4.0 Chim for 5k. The cheapest Griff I saw was 8k, and that was for a 15 year old car. The Griffs will hold their prices better than Chims, providing it is looked after.
Anyway, you'll only want to sell the Chim in 6 months to buy something more raw as you'll be bored of it then, so just buy the Griff now and save the time, effort and money
Actually, being serious, I'd suggest you at least go and drive a Griff before you commit yourself. When I drove the Chim I got out thinking "Yeah, not bad, hmmm, do I want it?" and so on. My first thought when I got out of the Griff was "Christ on a bike!"
It was so much more what a sports car should be. It was heavy to steer, heavy on the clutch, cramped, loud and uncomfortable, but none of that even registered once you were out of the car park and on to the road. The engine revved freer and had an urgent, nervous feeling to it, like a caged animal that needed to be released, the feeling of acceleration was greater than the Chim and the feeling of speed was more noticable. You noticed every contour of the road. Nothing else seemed to matter, it was you and the car Vs. the world. It was more demanding to drive, both physically and mentally, but soooo much more rewarding than the Chim.
The Chim just felt like a bigger, more powerful, version of my GT6 which is no bad thing at all, but then the GT6 is, apart from the leaks, a car you could use everyday without too much fuss (and indeed I did, 80 miles a day for 6 months, during the winter) and consequently the Chim left me slightly cold on the excitement front.
By the way, I was comparing a Chim 500 against a Griff 500 and the difference was that noticable, comparing a Chim 400 against a Griff would probably be even more fun
Having said all that, if I went for either it would be the Chim, but only because I'd want to use it as a daily drive and the Griff is just too uncomfortable and raw for that, in my opinion. The Chim is a Lion. It looks good, it sounds good and it does what it needs to do without too much fuss (and obviously it spends a lot of it's time going nowhere
), while the Griff is a Cheetah. Pretty much the same thing, but smaller, lighter and considerably quicker! Oh, and just like the big cats, if you don't respect them, I'm sure they'd both be perfectly happy to kill you
