[a little OT] Top Gear

ROFL :)

That's utter bull.

I live out in the country, it's a six mile drive just to get to the nearest shop. I drive an American car and I do the journey most days of the week. I also commute a round trip of 280 miles to work.

Over the years I've driven a wide range of vehicles both ownd and hired and the American, Ford, car that I drive is both the most fun and the fastest point to point of all of them with the exception of my Jag.

Yes, my Californian wife, it's short for Charlotte. :)

Charlie likes big American vehicles, or oddball UK vehicles. She doesn't rate much in-between, and insists that a car needs at least a large capacity V8 to be a proper car anyway - so there's no difference between a 2.0 Mondeo or a 1.3 Ka, it's just a four banger . . . :-/

I do kinda see her point of view . . .

Erm, would that Jaguar be a Ford too, by any chance? ;)

(I count post 1990 XJ40s, but it's not in a negative way. Whereas the X-type is most definitely a Ford, said like you're chewing a bad-tasting wasp).

Richard

How so ?

Are you trying to say that "pretty much any American car" has handling approaching that of pretty much any European car ?

...and still a winding country lane ! There's only the couple of miles that is the Gristhorpe-Bypass bit that's straight and A-road like :)

Earlier than that is before my time ! And anyhow, the number still around can be counted on your fingers, so they don't really count :)

Er

That's just stupid !

Yes, it even has a Ford key.

Oh righto, jings you must have levels of accent tolerance that I'll never rise to. Like Valley girls, you know, they're just soo mall rat Euuuuuuewwww.

I popped out to the local takewaway wagon while I was in Italy for my Friday night porchetta and chips. The bloke serving was pretty monosyllabic but his female assistant was quite chatty. After a bit she asked me if was a foreigner and when I said "Inglese" turned into broad valley girl speak, quite a surprise for me.

Me too, I used to wonder what people saw in cars with huge engines. I used to drive nothing but four pot cars. Then I drove my first four litre six cylinder car and got hooked. I disagree with the American taste for V8s though. Although they make the most magnificent noise, the ultimate has to be the V12. I've had the joy of drivign Merc, BMW and Jaguar V12s and they're a world apart from any other kind of engine.

I se me as more of a FORD F350 SUPER DUTY DUALLY man myself.

The capitals were very deliberate BTW.

why?

Try rdng bit snpd in rply. Thx.

Oh FFS, just f*ck off. Please.

It was only a couple of years ago that I made the move from four pot to I6. Mucho annoyance when I realised what I had been missing. Now I'm seriously considering a XJR8 and *now* you say a V12 is the one to have.

must resist, must resist, must resist...

Well I started off with a string of old shabby Escorts (all Mk3s) - mostly

I suppose I did have one 6-pot car (Diesel Omega).

Peter

:) It's more fun when we have another couple of Valley girls staying with us, it underlines that it really is a different language. Still, with one in three words being "like" at least I can follow one third of the conversation! :)

You're probably right there, however, every other car, SUV or pickup in the "little" town in the Central Valley desert where my wife greyup has a big V8 in there. You can get V6s, V10s and V12s, but the V8 is a bit like the 2.0 fleet car in the UK . . . everybody seems to have one.

Nice! ;)

Meanwhile, the closest we could have reasonably been able to afford was something V6 or inline 6, but we decided that it wasn't worth trying to get nearly there, we may as well just put up with an inline four . . . :(

But did it *really* have to be an OHV Ford inline four? :-)))

Peter

never forget the i5s, much better than the i4s.

I did.

It made no mention of country-lane handling, fuel economy, etc. etc. If it was relevent, I wouldn't have snipped it !