40 years of the Ford Transit...

Think every petrol Transit ever made can cruise at 70.

Did anyone see Top Gear where the German test driver took a Deisel Transit around the Nurburg ring? Apparently, it literally wasnt that far off the pace of a Jaguar Xtype they used on another show. Cant remember the figures, but it averaged something like 95mph?

Jono

11 seconds faster IIRC. 9.59secs for the Jag, 10.8 for the Transit with all unnecessary weight removed, but the transit was being driven by Sabine, one of the circuit 'taxi' drivers, and the Jag, a diesel BTW, was driven by Jeremy Clarkson. I seem to recall that Sabine knocked about half a minute off JC's time, when she drove the Jag. Mike.

Test driver? Nope, you misheard that Sabine Schmitz is a TAXI driver.

TAXI costs more to run in brake pad, tyres, and new suspensionthan it collects in fares - BMW foot the bill.

S-type diesel.

Target was 10min which would be about 75mph.

Wasn't bothered about speed at Nürburgring, it's lap time that counts. JC had taken the Diesel S-Type over, set a target of 10min and did lots of laps to get a 9min 59sec lap. Sabine took it out without having driven the car before and went round in 9min 12sec. Then bragged she could drive a van round quicker than JC had driven the X-type!

So Richard took a Diesel Transit over in the hope of rubbing a bit of salt in JC wounds. First lap was about 10 1/2min. So they threw Richard out of the cab, threw his seat out too, followed by the spare wheel and anything else that could out come easily, then taped up all the panel joints on the front to reduce drag. Found a super car for her to slipstream. She bounced up and down in the seat giving the Transit lots of encouragement and shouted at people to get out off her way but to no avail, she did it in 10min 8secs, said she was scared and had done her best.

Robert

No, they're _much_ worse.

There just aren't the words to describe how appallingly bad either of those engines was.

units

But neither were so slow that they needed yellow flashing lights protecting them....

If its the same unit that's fitted to Saab 96 v4s (the german built v4), then it seems a fine powerplant and sounds great. Maybe its down to the application?

"K.Shilcock" wrote in news:dbih2i$re9$1@sun- cc204.lut.ac.uk:

Just seems a little small for use in a van the size of a Transit.

I agree it was a fine powerplant (also used in Corsair). Inherant imbalance of a V4 meant they had to fit balancer shafts so it was very smooth.

Rich

Richard Polhill ( snipped-for-privacy@polhill.vispa.invalid) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I don't think it was the same engine.

The Saab/Corsair lump was 1.7, the Tranny/Capri lump was 2.0.

Not in itself damning proof, but IIRC they were different. This would tend to agree :-

It's not the same engine. The Transit (and, IIRC, the Corsair) had the 4-cyl derivative of the Essex V6, which was fit only for use as an anchor weight. The SAAB used the entirely different Cologne V4, as fitted to the Taunus of the day.

It's not.

I think the two engines are the same, just minor differances, obviously one being capacity.

my saab 96 v4 has a 1.5 lump.. it doesnt hang about (for a 30 year old car) but i can imagine that even with an extra few cc, the aerodynamics and weight would make response very sluggish in comparison in a transit.

Which two engines?

"Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@office.ajlelectronics.co.uk:

Probably the ones mentioned in the post he quoted.

But it would have been better to post below the quote.

Rich

Well, all engines are the same apart from minor differences.