Most undeserving / overrated classic?

Reliant did use the Cologne 2.8 for the last few years of Scimitar production. Personally I prefer the Cologne V6 to the Essex - it's lighter and a lot happier to rev than the Essex, for a start.

Been done. THe 24V is a bit wide [you need to reshape the Scimitar bulkhead a bit to get it to fit]. I don't like the Cosworth 24V much - putting it in place of the Essex is just replacing the Essex's tendency to destroy camwheels after 100,000 miles with the Cosworth's tendency to strip its camchain after 70,000 miles.....!

"Dan Buchan" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@email.com...

Err I have to disagree a bit here... BL was an amalgam of Britsh Motor Holdings, which included Austin Morris MG Wolsely and Riley and Jaguar ...(It becam BMH when Jag joined) All the fwd cars were derived from Issigonis products and the rwd cars...ergo the Marina...were made by Morris The other bit came from Leyland who had bought and attempted to merge Rover and Triumph. In this they were largely unsuccessful...other than parachuting Spen King in from Rover to mess up the Stag engine. So these erstwhile competitors were all expected to live harmoniulsy together and produce a coherent product range...Is it any wonder they failed....? The best cars of the era were therefore those that preserved their original company genes but were unfortunately a little long in the tooth by then..... Maxi, P6, Dolomite, Innsbruck, MGB and Spit/GT6 etc were all creditable product and the XJ6 world class. After the BL merger what did we get? Abominatiosn like Allegro, Marina, TR7 followed by Princess (could have been ok) Metro, Maestro and Montego aaarrgh! These are all BL cars, arent in any way classic and their lack of following and negligible values reflect this. The only decent new corporate thing they did was the SD1 and that was so badly put together it was and is a joke. I cant think of anything else, can you? Rovers have became just Hondas with a badge on...and now its too far to get back. The K series engine doenst help much does it? Small wonder that BMW's and Audis and VW's dominate our roads... or that all the cars in my stable have original genes.. Dolomites Spits and an S3 XJ6...

Did we really win ww2?

Jonners.

Rovers were still Rovers when those came out, unlike the

I'd say they were just too expensive to even consider - given that they were never used outside the Daimler empire despite being cracking engines.

Hmmm.... 6 x times a set of Kenelm Lee Guinness at 2/6d each - about right. My modern calculator doesn't seem to deal with half-crowns. But a set of plugs for thirty bob seems reasonable.

Geoff MacK

And if the view through any of the windows shows grass it's not usually retrievable (he said sadly from bitter experience).

Geoff MacK

Well, we just have to disagree then.

Geoff MacK

Hmmm - fair point - not being a techie, I was sort of thinking it was a flat four a bit sideways - you win! What a lovely engine, though, whichever way up it was.

Geoff MacK

Er - me, or the taxman?

Geoff MacK

Mmmmm...

On the other hand they'd have been well and truely nuggered after Jaguar took over Daimler and canned the V8s. I don't even want to think about a Scimitar with an XK in it..

LOL :)

Adrian_S (Scimmie owners chew the fat while their cars chew the nylon)

And I have no doubt that Reliant could have produced an all-aluminium V using their expertise. Can you imagine a 3-litre V16 ?

Adrian_S

How can you say the V6 Essex is boring? they were pretty radical in their day - the first V6 to go into volume production I think?

As owner of a MkIV Zephyr and a Zodiac I have to say that of course............. though I guess you'd put them in the same category as the Scimitar........... :)

I had a similar experience with a MkII Jag - a bit like driving a truck - but hey, a mighty good looking truck at that, and they are 40 years old! still one of the classic designs and they still look great today

Mike

-- Mike Constantine Timaru New Zealand

The start of the rot, then? I can think of no benefits of a V6 apart from sideways use in a FWD car to save space. A decent 6 is either 'flat' or 'straight'. If you want a more compact engine, a V-8 is the ideal.

The original Ford Essex designs came about from needing a short engine for commercial use, ie the Transit. And space saving certainly wasn't needed in the MkIV cars...

By modern standards yes, but if you drove a 1950's or early '60's truck you would think differently I suspect !.. :~)

Not even nearly - that was, IIRC, the Lancia V6 in the Aurelia (sp..) some time in the 50s. The Lancia engine was a narrow-angle V, of course and I guess it's just about possible that the Essex was the first mainstream 60-degree V6. Still doesn't make it less of a dog, though. It's only a good engine if you compare it to a Pinto (against which it's brilliant, but then so is anything).

And only then as the German version...

I suspect not even the first mainstream V6, Buick had the alloy V6 its cheaper cast iron replacement in production years before Ford. Must disagree about the Essex V6 being worse than the Pinto -- much as I hate Pinto engines by the time it got to the Sierra it was a lot better still an overweight dog but at least the camshaft problem wasn't so widespread, most likely the credit for this belongs no to Ford but the big improvement in engine oils between the early 70s and 1990.

I have driven 1950s trucks that had more precise steering than a Mk2.

: And I have no doubt that Reliant could have produced an all-aluminium V : using their expertise. Can you imagine a 3-litre V16 ?

They did a small run of overhead cam versions of the 848 at one time. One came up for sale recently, but 1000 quid seemed a bit much to make the tricycle more fun ...

Ian