My wife and I took a trip to Israel and we didn't exactly plan every day out. So, to allow a bit more freedom we arranged for a rental car. It didn't cost that much and unlike the USA you can rent a manual transmission! We both love our manual transmissions, so this was a very good thing.
Having done some Wikipedia research this car had at a max 138 hp and 123 lb-ft at the flywheel. This is by no means a fast car. In fact, considering the modern horsepower wars where tons of cars in the USA are breaking 150 bhp, 200 bhp, and many even clock in north of 300 bhp, this is a very slow car by comparison.
Here's the thing though, almost all the cars in Israel are city cars of the low horsepower variety. My Subaru BRZ, a Ford Mustang or Chevrolet Camaro of the four cylinder variety would be in the upper echelons of fast cars in Israel, even more so if you had a V8. But, one, Israel has fuel prices that are similar or in excess of much of Europe and two they have an enormous tax on cars, really close to 100%. My BRZ is a roughly a $60,000 car there. So most people buy cheap cars that can do everything for them. And this means a lot of compacts and subcompacts with small engines, often with 5 doors. Enough on that.
This car is all about momentum driving. Once you've gained any speed do your absolute best to keep it (except on that really twisty road down from the Golan Heights because it does not have the handling dynamics to take it at real speed).
