Top Gear last night...

It's a BMW. People like them.

Oh yes

Same as any BMW 1 it's to say "I have a brand new BMW" despite the fact everyone knows they are useless and over priced. But with the added benefit of saying "I have a brand new 3L BMW". That said I was watching Motors TV and actually spotted a nice 1 series, though not overly keen on the bonnet vent and rear wing I like the flared arches and the way they blend into the body removing the rear doors along with the big flames it spits out the back. (Shame it's slower than a Kia then)

To part fools with their money I s'pose.

Had double the power of the Healey. Good item to prove that power to weight ratio plays an important factor though and just cos you can bolt things onto a car that you find in the Max Knobhead mags doesn't mean you can make one that handles.

:-)

Not in a Capri....

when's it repeated?

I think it's on this Sunday @ 19:00 on BBC2.

Justin.

RWD, straight six, 3.0. Why on earth does it need a point?!

Was the Frogeye equipped with a Sprintex? Sounded... perky.

MX-5... Damn. I didn't want to see that. I know I can get one next year :(

Doubt it's more exciting than the roads around Duns. Plus, they have oncoming traffic ;)

Richard

Well they now have a small RWD car that they could easily convert to AWD should they want a shot WRC as well as F1.

Because it's £32k. I'd have the Golf...

It did indeed sound cool. The pug had what, 80 more bhp? It actually did better than i expected considering it was on air suspension and was loaded with stuff.

I've driven the 116 and the Beetle, which is basically the same things further down the line. If the difference in chassis feedback, responsiveness and control is similar, I'll have the 130i, because I actually quite like feeling like I am driving the car.

Curse that bloody badge.

The 306 had a PSA V6. So, 80 more FRENCH horses. And we know what the French do with horses (it's why the headgaskets fail so often; they even want to cook the horses in the car!).

And 80 bhp more than a Sprite. There was definitely a Sprintex then. Or an engine swap.

FWIW, I wanted a V6 306 Cabriolet. However, not being a pathetic chav, I wanted the torque and smoothness, not to delude myself that chucking a heavy, slow-revving (but multivalve, so relatively gutless until thrashed) boat anchor in my perfectly well sorted 306 was going to make it into some sort of supercar (or indeed, that sticking PS2s, bodykits and silly doors was going to make it fast, good, or attractive to anyone other than other chavs)... Personally I felt the Stig put in a pretty good time given the tools he had to work with - I'd have liked to have seen the Boy Racers vs. The Old Farts - I reckon the gap would have been MUCH greater.

I'd expect a 306 Cabrio with a V6 would be very pleasant for cruising, and would handle a lot worse than the rather tidy handling 1.8S I had.

Richard

Think they said it had 130 bhp - about three times standard. And more than you'd get out of a normally aspirated A Series?

The Beetle is a Mk4 golf totaly diferent beast.

Me Sir... Me Sir... Me!

Not a frogeye, but I was privvy to an MG ZS 2.5 that had had the Sprintex treatment, a few months ago.

Sounded like Knightrider! :-)

-- JackH

Nope, it was still N/A breathing through a Weber DCOE carb. The supercharger sounding whine would have been from a straight cut gearbox.

It was a normally aspirated A series, just quite a highly tuned one with a straight cut gearbox.

Cos it's a BMW, ugly, and nowhere near as amusing to drive as a 3.0 V6, RWD Capri!

Nah, I'd say it's a hairy 1275 lump, probably taken out to around 1380 with a Weber the size of Berkshire.

BBR Turbo one.. that's the answer..

Jim Clark.... Lotus Cortina.. Nuff said :-)

The one true Crapi is a 280 Special.

(Unless you want to get really exotic and get an RS3200)

Which is slower than a 3.0, and *nowhere* near as much fun to drive due to being A: Heavier, B: less torquey, C: having better suspension, D: having longer gearing E: having bigger tyres F: being slower than a 3.0S in every respect bar 0-60 and top whack (a 3.0 will murder most 2.8is due to the torque alone, and the fact an Essex motor is much more likely to stay in tune than the Cologne ever was)

Then again, I've owned both and out of every car I've ever owned the only one I really want back is my old 3.0S. The 2.8 is nicer in some ways, but I'd kill for an immaculate 3.0S.

That's incredibly exotic as Ford never actually made one.

RS3100, yes, but if I was going to get an exotic Capri I'd want an RS2600.

Couldn't remember what the capacity was, to be honest.

Heh.

I'd love a last of the line 280, 'Brooklands', wasn't it?

You mean the car that is nothing more than a 2.8i Special, painted green and given a black leather interior instead of a grey one but costs 3 times as much despite being no better or faster?

Clue: The "280" in the name doesn't mean it has 280BHP....