6 weeks and 4 days....

SteveH says...

This is TOG you're talking to. Money *must* have been a factor

 

Hang on, the Nissan Skyline is "Utterly boring A-B transport"?

Or perhaps the BMW 330i is..

Or the Audi Quattro.

 

Nissan Primera, ykims.

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..73063../..17250.../..3180./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4
'^'

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, _Ginge

Or, indeed, that devastatingly quick cross-country weapon, the Nissan
Primera.

--
Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

Show me the Alfa that competes with the Skyline.....

Or the Alfa that competes with that.

Latest ones, other than the RS series, then yes, they're just another
product of the VAG chassis design team.

 

There isn't one, Alfa aren't capable of building it.

How about the Alfa GT 3.2 V6, or even the 156 with the same engine..

Direct competition I'd say.

The S4 or the S6 would be Audi's real "German sports saloons", but let's
use the A4 Quatro 3.0 Manual as a baseline....

You can't say boring. Honestly.

Predictable, sure - and that's a good thing with cars.

 

There's a RWD 'proper' sportscar on it's way. However, it's more a
Porsche competitor than a Skyline competitor.

Both of which are _significantly_ cheaper than the BMW, ISTR.

Not to mention that BMW are almost as unreliable as Alfa these days.

Ultimately, they're a VAG chassis which means rubbery, lack of feedback,
and understeer biased handling.

They may be quick cars, but just because something is quick doesn't make
it a good car to drive. In recent years VAG haven't really produced
anything that could be classed as a driver's car.

 

SteveH says...

That all depends on the driver.

 

You like over-damped chassis, lifeless steering and overly-isolated
engines, then?

'cos that's what VAG products have in abundance.

Whereas the shite old 75 feels 'alive' both in terms of feedback and
sound. It's a proper driver's car.

 

You're getting the hang of it, keep going..

 

SteveH says...

You've never driven an Audi S3, S4 or S6 then. Or a Golf R32, Octavia
VRS or any of the other sports saloons or hatches that VAG have made in
recent years.

I take it you've done a lot of reading about them though.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Bear

Soul, character, drivers car, etc, etc...

--
Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

You've misspelt "Gay".

I honestly can't see the attraction for Nissans, Subarus et al; even in
standard trim they look irredeemably hom.

 

Don't *you* start ;-)

Acksherly, I could have had a CBR6 at the time. ISTR the 750SS cost me
about 6.2k (they'd just lopped a grand or more off the retail price - of
course they went on to knock another grand off later...) in 1997.

Steve's right in a sense - it's precisely why I bought the Duke. The
difference is that the Duke (touches every available piece of wood
frantically) has been reliable in the seven years I've owned it, whereas
not many - some, but not many - Italian sports cars are.

 

Fast and Furious stylee shite aside, I think you miss the point.

I don't particularly like Imprezas - they're very plasticky inside, and my
£1200 worth of bike that costs peanuts to insure regularly shits on them, at
least in a straight line and whilst still managing around 40mpg vs whatever
the pittance is they're churning out... I do however like Skylines, and if
you're looking for an interesting drive involving more 'arse-out action',
you want a nice ikkle 200SX.

 

Andy Bonwick says...

Some of us don't even buy them, we get given them to use on a permanent
basis. In those cases I don't GAF who made it or what model it is, I
just drive it and let them pay the bills.

Cars are tools, bikes are for pleasure.

 

Erm...

Civic VTi - how exactly is something that revs to well over 8k and handles
with it, "utterly boring"?

If they are, the strong secondhand residuals hint at others disagreeing with
this.

Hell, my, mostly Honda in drag, 216 GTi Twin Cam, with its relatively lowly
7,600rpm rev limiter and no VTEC, was bloody good fun for ragging, cross
country etc.

And you've obviously not spent any time trying to make progress down a wet
twisty road in an E30 325i...

Neither needed fluid levels checked every 1k, nor did they break down on a
regular basis, regardless of the fact they were more often than not thrashed
everywhere.

 

Quick, but unable to overtake a tractor...

 

The Older Gentleman wrote:
snip

My memory might be affected by the large quantity of burgundy I've just
consumed but a little googling brings up a thread somewhere in 2001
titled "Italian Bikes ..." and the words "The Ducati had travelled
precisely 53 feet from TOG's drive before it broke down."

Well I guess you can't fault the Duke if it was the spark plug, can you ?

 

(SteveH) struggled to ejaculate:

Whoa, hang on there.

I've been a passenger when you've been driving Steve - I'm sorry to
say this, but you can't drive worth a ****. Where are you basing your
comparison, therefore?

"Driver's car", my arse.

PS. **** off to a car group with this shit, eh?