In news:Xns95808B6669435adrianachapmanfreeis@130.133.1.4, Adrian decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows
Nah, it'll never be a classic. No front wheel drive Vauxhall ever will.
In fact, I'd go as far as to say that apart from possibly the Oldsmobile Toronado, no GM FWD product has been, or will ever be, a classic. Not many of them have ever been any good, never mind classic.
Some of the RWD stuff, on the other hand..
Monza GSi, Manta 400, Shoveit HSR, late 60's Camaros.. all good.
No, you're right. Maybe some of the early FWD Cadillacs might have the same "entertainingly bad" appeal that some big (RWD) Fords have also had? But you're still right.
Ascona 400 :) _Nice_.
I was very tempted by a rahter nice last-of-line Vauxhall Senator
12V recently (just after I discovered that my boat weighed just a bit too much for the Scimitar to tow). In the end the nasty typical-GM tart-trap interior put me off, and I couldn't track down the bod who was selling it anyway. Nice car, though.
Since we're being picky about classic-status I 'ope that's a V6.. ;)
The 4x4 Sierra certainly makes it. Always reckon it's a shame they didn't do the Estate with an autobox. And coming back to GM - isn't it a pity they never productionised the FF Monza and Senator? Those would have been nice indeed..
Interesting in a sociological sense and possibly classic, but still pikey. You'd admire the effort behind a well-preserved one, but you wouldn't be seen dead driving it.
Yeah, it's cool, isn't it. A McClaren F1 makes it because it's new and interesting. A Fiat Strada Arbath would (maybe) by virtue of the Special Interest Multiplier, but a school-run Strada wouldn't. A Morris Oxford gets in largely through age.
Don't see why not - interesting design, not bad old beasts. Worth a SOC-rating, going on classic in a few cases (esp. the early ones that haven't rotted away, and the Legacy has to be a smart bet for classic status real soon now)
Ah. You mean the Impreza, nyet? Nice car, I'd imagine, and with a pedigree as good as things like the Delta Integrale passim, but you're going to have to wait for the current mob to autodawinate before it gets classic status (well, it worked for the RWD Escort and for a maul of other things...)
Oh, I'd have said the Strada Arbath makes it through sheer barminess
- a stupid device, and therefore one with appeal. Or is it that you just said?
Running things-owned-in-the-past through it is interesting. The VW
1302S which was my first car would have merely qualified as a soc then (10 years old, horrible when new, no real mulitpliers) but would rate as a classic now. The Citroen GSA I had in the middle-80s and the 2CV after than would both have been borderline classics even then (being so good when new, and both with a "design classic" multiplier). The Scimitars, both of 'em, being magnificent beasts new and with design-classic multipliers and a wealth of years both get serious- classic ranking (the SE5 winning out, as is only right and natural) and I'm pleased to see that the current set of wheels ('90 Range Rover) definitely makes it as a classic (/good/ car, classic-design multiplier and 14 years old :) The FIAT Panda I had in the early 80s comes bottom of the list.
Not at all sure of that. Robin Rew used to do turbo'd Scimitars, but particularly in a SE5 I'd be /really/ worried about under-bonnet temperatures. Over and above that, the character of the Scimitar suits a big, low-revving engine (my last one was turning over at just over 2000rpm at an indicated 80 in lock-up 4th :) It's the whole thing of "lots of performance with minimum effort", which (IMO) best comes from lots of cubic capacity and very little weight. So I'd tend towards the V8, particularly as it weighs a little less than the Essex..
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