Paging Meatball Turbo

Of course they are - it's a 2-door coupe, not a motorway barge !

The official figures I have for the 75 2.0 8v TS are: Urban (city): 10.4 l/100km (= 27mpg) Extra Urban (75mph): 8.4 l/100km (= 33.5mpg) combined: 30.3mpg

Indeed. Note that the official figures don't give an accurate estimate of the economy you can expect, because that depends on so many factors. I drive my prelude to enjoy myself, and it tends to be fast A-road and some B-road type stuff, so it tends to be accelerating between and braking for each corner, yet I average 32mpg. If I drove it like I do my day-day car then I suspect it would return a figure somewhat higher than the official combined mpg.

For interest, the figure I have for the TS at 56mph is 6l/100km, which equals 47mpg!

Which I agree is pretty impressive for a 2.0 engine, and almost certainly better than you could manage with either of the preludes.

I thinks it's a completely different engine - I read somewhere (honestjohn?) that it's half a 5.0 v10 diesel from a Tuareg. I think it's used already in the caravelle or something.

I also recently dicovered that the 2.5TDi used in the volvo 850 / V70 etc.. is the same lump as used in your A6, but they seem to be a bit cheaper, so it's a option on my ever expanding list.

Have you seen my mum there?

Heh. No, that's o.k. As you say, it's just a theory. I'm sure there are dozens of exceptions, but in general it's probably true.

I'm not suggesting that either engine in the prelude is a paragon of economy - clearly they aren't. I do however imagine that they would offer better economy than Carl's current turbo lump, but if economy is the prime concern then they definitely aren't the best possible option.

Actually, whilst I'm being critical, it would probably also be worth taking a look at the boot of a prelude. Whilst it's not a bad size for a coupe, and will take, say, a weeks shopping, the rear seats don't fold, so the only expansion to the boot space is via the ski-hole, and it doesn't give you all that much flexibility when carting stuff about.

i wasnt having a dig, I was just saying, ur are so defensive.

No, off boost my turbo feels like a slug. No response, little performance and hard work to keep in the right gear.

I'm wondering if with the benefit of the VTEC system, I would get a sports car feel when I wanted it, and a smooth if a little slower around town car thanks to the higher compression ratio the rest of the time.

And with a Prelude, I get to keep double wishbones. Works in the Saab, worked in the Estelle, seems to work in the Prelude, only car I've had with struts was the Favorit, and that was a nasty understeery beast, even with rally spec shocks and decent tyres, and proper corner weight setup.

Sounds like tha APC on a saab, set at 6psi on the wastegate, the APC solenoid keeps it artifially closed upto 11.5PSI when everyhting is normal, but opens it based knock or overboost.

T3 tho wasn't it ?

Oh god, this is getting spooky, before I quite work and went back to uni as a mature student, I worked for another major highstreet brand, that is now part of the Morrisons group of stores, and I worked the liqour isle and Frozen foods. Oh dear, Oh dear, oh Dear.

Full boost from about 2750-3000, not much at all below that (comes in really quickly). Geared pretty low in the first few gears because of lack of boost, so you tend to be in second before you can get any boost out of it and 3rd before you can keep any boost on for any amount of time, which means very slow take offs, or lots of changes in stop start traffic, plus it is big and heavy(ish). And while the seats are pretty comfy for 20 years old, the position isn't

In article , snipped-for-privacy@recycle.bin spouted forth into uk.rec.cars.modifications...

Yep, trim 40 T3, and to think some people said stick on a trim 60 of an early 9000.

In article , snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com spouted forth into uk.rec.cars.modifications...

That would be the only thing I would miss on the Saab (non performance wise). It is useful, and the only way I'm goign to get anything similar with similar performance to the Saab or a Prelude would be either an Octavia TDi (good luggage but down on power and handling) or an Octavia

150T or vRS, all three of which are out of budget and either compromise handling, or distinctive looks or both. Other option would be a Volvo, and then only a T5 model would be what I'm after and then I'm back to the on/off boost scenario.

If that were the case, I might as well go for a Saab 9000 Aero 2.3 full pressure turbo 225bhp, and loads of luggage room, leather heated recaro seats with electric adjustment, full aircon, traction and cruise control with ABS, and better economy than standard turbos and Carlssons due to higher gearing, but a roughish one costs about £2.5-3k and a good to mint is in the £5-6k if you can find one.

That's a very safe way to earn some extra cash.

It is unless you have a pony tail and a 1 year long dispute (sex discrimination act) that is about to lead to you being dismissed, and when they realise that you are willing to be fired and go to tribunal (I asked what was next, when would I be given notice, and how much notice), they suddenly realised that a serious mistake in the warnings procedure had been made, as two warnings of an escalating nature had been given by the same deputy manager. They would have to scrap all warnings past the first verbal one, which in the period of a year had expired from my record, but they couldn't promise that the short hair for blokes rule wouldn't be enforced in future.

Fine I said, take two weeks notice of my leaving to return to college.

Their response, "what would it take to get you to stay?". They wouldn't pay what it would take to keep a basic shelf filler/supermarket assistant with plans to go to uni, to throw all his future plans away and stay a shelf filler. Simple as that.

I'm not sure that they would !

My 200bhp Turbo lump (allegedly) offers better economy than the 2.3 - and I imagine the 2.3 offers better economy than the 2.2 VTec ? Or does it ?

Having said that, Carl's current lump is plenty old - it's bound to use more fuel than a modern engine.

Totally meaningless.

My TI has double wishbones all round - the 405 (struts and torsion-bar) had noticeably better ride/handling/grip.

The same applies to most Hondas !

Yep - almost exactly the same. I don't think the Rover setup takes "knock" into account though.

Oooh, does it come in 180bhp-guise ?

Almost all the A6s are in underpowered-mode :/