ot car special editions

Difference is that Honda can screw things together properly, Ford can't.

I'd even trust the Italians and the French to do a quad-cam, 24v V6
before I'd trust Ford to do it.

 

Bear says...

Once upon a time I was workshop manager for a firm that fitted car
alarms. We got the contract with Maranello Concessionaires to fit alarms
to used and new Ferraris and Lamborghinis. My boss was dead chuffed
about this, because it meant us having a Ferrari/Lambo kicking around
most of the time for him to pose in when picking them up and delivering
them back[1]. This would have been great for him, if he hadn't weighed
about 25 stone. He found it almost impossible to cram his bulk into a
308GTB, let alone any of the more sporty versions we encountered. Once
he had squeezed himself into the cars he found he couldn't drive the
things. As there were only two people on the firm who were over 25 and
posessing clean licences it fell upon the other person ....me, to drive
these cars around.

[1] New cars were delivered on a trailer by M.C. I drove the old company
C15 van down to pick up the used ones from the compound at Silverstone
and drove them back, leaving the van behind.

 

SteveH says...

<coughcamchaintensionerscamshaftsandreg/recscough>

 

To be fair, the camchain tensioner issue was sorted out years ago. The
only rectifier fail I've had so far was on a Suzuki - however, my
brother had his VFR fry one, so he's fitted a heatsink and CPU fan to
his now.

 

It is more efficient yes, but it doesn't produce more power, you need to
increase the revs to do that, or burn more fuel.

 

No, they aren't *that* powerful, however, as Steve says, there's a lot
more complication, and the chain on these is 7 ft long!.

Yes, the old Rover was good too, especially the Vitesse version. Shame
about the rust though.

Yes, no engine likes that kind of life much.

None of the Fords handled well at that time. Try a Sierra estate!

Oooh, not nice.

I must admit I like curves, these new sharp angles just don't do
anything for me at all.

No, but I have seen one squeeze into an Arkley kit car!

It was a great engine, why change something that works? (eh Rover!)

<Snipped Text>

 

I must be missing something.

More efficient means, to me, more power from the same volume of fuel.
Or, to use a classical definition, efficiency is the ratio of energy
in (fuel) to energy out (torque, *not* power.)

On that basis, if a diesel makes more torque per unit volume of fuel
than a petrol engine, then it must make more power at the same revs.
Increasing the revs is just another way of using a greater volume of
fuel per unit time, and has nothing to do with efficiency per se.

 

Bear says...

Ummmm.....my quad cam V6 2.5 litre Mazda engine wasn't reliable. It ate
camshafts with a regularity that threatened to take my old VF750's title
as "Most unreliable vehicle I've had"

 

Hey, that's my line.

And it's HONDA by the way.

 

Sniff, sniff.....

<swims away>

 

The Fabia is a much, much smaller, lighter car. It's comparing a
Polo-sized car with a Mondeo-sized car.

My old ZX 1.9 TD returned mid-40s, and when driving gently, 50mpg. I've
yet to do a long gentle run in the Silver Tuddy, but to judge by the
econometer-thingy, I reckon low-to-mid 40s is about right.

 

Depends which car they're bolted into, as I said up there somewhere. For
example, in the Skoda Superb, the 1.9 only gives about 30mpg.

In the Fabia, it gives closer to 50.

 

*Ding*

For years, that's been the case, but the advent of Euro 5 and beyond
means new engines have to be developed.

Previously, you've been able to add common rail, CRTs and cats,
four-valve heads, etc etc, but there are limits.

 

*Smart*.

 

I'm sure this is right.

As said somewhere else in this thread, there's only so much you can do
to an engine to make it meet emissions targets. As the regulations get
tighter and tighter, sooner or later you have to design a new lump.

But the old Rover V8 has had a bloody good run for its money - something
like 40 years, innit?

 

The Older Gentleman was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Close to - AFAIR Rover got it in the early-to-mid sixties, so Buick
probably developed it in the late fifties...

 

<SNIP>

IIRC Granadas could be made in Dagenham or Cologne.

Certainly there was some Ford car that could be made in Britain or
Germany, and it was pot luck what you'd get; but if you got one with a
vinyl roof, it definitely be Germany.

My Mum worked in a Ford dealer at that time (late 70s/early 80s). Her
job involved sitting down with customers after they'd signed up to buy a
new car, and sorting out the nitty gritty of where to get it; she'd
either get hold of an existing one from elsewhere in the Ford UK
distribution network, or she'd arrange for one of the factories to build
it.

Obviously she wasn't allowed to bias the choice between the two
factories in any way. But the conversation used to go something like
this:

"Your new car will be from either Dagenham *WINK* or Cologne *WINK*.
Obviously you won't care one way or the other if your car's Made In
Britain *WINK* or Made In Germany *WINK*. But I should mention that if
you order it with a vinyl roof *WINK* then it'll be Made In Germany
*WINK* *WINK*".

--
<8P Wizard
Suzuki GS550 "I like that. Nicely shite" - TOG
Golf GTi 16v
ANORAK#17b BOMB#19 BOTAFOT#138 BREast#5 COFF#24
COSOC#8 DFV#11 STG#1

 

Orthopaedic?
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..73063../..16589.../..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
'^'

 

But you can't increase the revs, you wouldn't have enough time to
actually burn the fuel needed. That's why they run at lower speeds.

 

MkIV Escorts came from either Germany or Britain.

I was lucky in that I got one from Germany - essentially they were an
utterly shite car, but the German ones didn't rust in the same way and
also seemed to avoid the CVH death-rattle for another 30k miles.