proper german crap!

Hmm German + Crap, those 2 words do not go together, German + un-reliable, or German + un-economical might go ok together.

If there is one thing you have to say, German cars are built properly, try shutting the door on a brand new Nissan or Toyota, then come and shut the door on my 3 yr old Audi, you will then know what quality is.

Drive along the motorway in a German car and see how much wind noise you can hear, see how many times you think you have stalled your car at junctions.

I'm not bitter btw :)

ah i think YOU have to close the door of a new toyota or honda hehe. close the door on a citroen is probably more the tin can noise you were searching for :) german cars are ok i just find them a bit dull these days, old audi's and VW's were cool now they all look the same. modern jap car looked stupid and weird these days but i like stupid and weird i.e the new micra :)

This may have all been the case 15 years ago...

???

Have a test drive in a new A6 or A8.

How can a car built 15yrs ago be quieter and smoother than a car built today, especially an Audi

It could be a W126 Merc and sound like this:

" "

Ten points for being the FunniestRallyCarEver? !

in news:KNydnd1 snipped-for-privacy@pipex.net, "Vamp" slurred :

My mum's xantia doors close with a more solid thunk than those of my mate's '96 BMW 320. The ones on my old AX shut with more of a 'ding' than a 'thunk', so you might have a point with those.

What's that saying about birds of a feather? :-)

Shame Julian Stafford isn't arround the group these days. He has one, he took me for a drive, it was awesome.

Went to 30 to 100 and back to 40, to overtake a chavvy looking Saxo VTS who just happened to be in his way arround some very twisty lanes that he knew very well. I was glad that day I wore brown underwear.

I'm sure it wasn't quite one of those, what with that being the ultra rare and _very_ expensive swb Sport Quattro....

Heh, the last one that went under the hammer was a snip at £96,000....

Oi, PeteM! My £250 for a weekend in one of them is burning a hole in my pocket - give me a call when it's ready :)

No, sadly, not exactly one of those, just a standard 20valve.

Although I believe he had the dialynx manifold and some other "Tweaks". Quick enough.

BTW, if you want to commit some sacriligious butchery, Dialynx can take a standard quattro coupe and turn it into one of their SWB sport replicas.

Oh yes.

I've wanted one of those for ages.

I'd not call it sacriligious given the limited numbers of the real thing out there.

Now, would you consider it when between £3-5k will get you a scruffy but solid and serviced (fully functional) 10 valve quattro (remember you are going to cut it up, so scruffy would be a better prospect than mint), plus what ever Dialynx charge for the conversion?

or get Rob to do it for you with his angle grinder and mig in his shed.

If I had the cash, I'd do it tomorrow.

Not the Rob bit, obviously, 'cos I'd want it working this century.

wouldn't cutting and shrinking it really weaken the whole car? plus it doesn't look quite right in the pics

There's no reason a proper conversion should weaken the shell, there's plenty of them around being used on road and track that haven't broken in half yet.

Even the real ones don't look quite right, as they're incredibly badly proportioned.

Believe it or not, a cut and shut isn't automatically a dangerous vehicle. It's only the pikey ones made from two right offs, welded with a blowtorch, and flogged at the local auction that might fall apart.

If a person knows what they are doing, where to cut, where to overlap, where to butt, and where to re-inforce, and actually welds properly, there is no chance of there being a problem at all.

The real short wheelbase ones don't look right at all without the silly full on ground force stuff to back it up.

But the big chunk of steel pulled out of the middle is still all weight saving, in the end, as well as having a tighter turning circle etc.