For those interested in "Modern Classic" Cars

[MJI]

16 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

It was quite fast for a saloon back in 1984/5........but as we always used to say about bikes, just fast cars with all the safe bits taken off 

 

A lot of our engineers rode bikes but would never ride them as fast as they drove the Cossies on the Essex country Lanes......

 

My commute at the time was a fast and twisty A road.

 

I had one of the new super sports 600s, not very heavy, 16" wheels, quite a lot of power. Really tight and twisty a 250 would lose it, any straighter and a superbike would disappear into the distance.

 

It was around 3 seconds to 60, under 4 anyway.

[boxbrownie]

51 minutes ago, Chris M said:

The original ordinary Sierra had a problem with aerodynamics. They would become unstable at 70mph due to their shape. They had to put little extra bits of trim on the upper rear quarter panel to break up the air flow and stop the lifting effect. It could well be that the Cossie really did need the two wings. Maybe it’s more about breaking down the upforce rather than creating a downforce.

The little deflectors were fitted to reduce the crosswind instability, we found that because of the slippery shape as you say there was less downforce at the rear, we didn't want to increase downforce on the "cooking" Sierra as it would decrease efficiency and increase  fuel consumption, the deflectors did a good job.

 

The Cosworth only had one rear wing.........it was the XR4i which had the two smaller wings.

[Kickstart]

11 hours ago, MJI said:

 

My commute at the time was a fast and twisty A road.

 

I had one of the new super sports 600s, not very heavy, 16" wheels, quite a lot of power. Really tight and twisty a 250 would lose it, any straighter and a superbike would disappear into the distance.

 

It was around 3 seconds to 60, under 4 anyway.

GPZ600R? GPX600R?

 

Remember around 1992/3 the Cossie was dirt cheap 2nd hand as so many were stolen that insurance was a nightmare.

 

All the best

 

Katy

[monkeysarefun]

49 minutes ago, Kickstart said:

GPZ600R? GPX600R?

 

Remember around 1992/3 the Cossie was dirt cheap 2nd hand as so many were stolen that insurance was a nightmare.

 

All the best

 

Katy

 

 

That was the situation with the first model  (1994)  WRX out here.

 

The "Stolen Generation" is a term that refers to a dark chapter in our past when Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their parents to be raised in church-run institutions or fostered out to white families but was cleverly borrowed for  the first Gen Subies. 

[MJI]

56 minutes ago, Kickstart said:

GPZ600R? GPX600R?

 

Remember around 1992/3 the Cossie was dirt cheap 2nd hand as so many were stolen that insurance was a nightmare.

 

All the best

 

Katy

 

 

Older than mid that 1980s, first GSX600

Edited March 18, 2021 by MJI

[Quarryscapes]

Mitsubishi Motors UK is auctioning off (some of?) It's heritage fleet...some very nice interesting cars up for grabs!

 

https://autoauction.co.uk/

 

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-japanesecars/mitsubishi-uk-heritage-fleet-goes-under-hammer/43901

 

I'll find a good home for this... https://autoauction.co.uk/auction/1992-mitsubishi-3000gt-18656 

Edited March 19, 2021 by Quarryscapes

[B1uejay]

Wouldn't mind that Starion! 

 

Fond memories of watching Pentti Airikkala in the early '80s in the British Rally Championship and Lombard RAC (and you could watch it without having to subscribe to anything! ). 

 

RIP Pentti. 

 

[monkeysarefun]

A Galant GSR was my first Japanese car in the early 90's..

 

Snapped the timing belt at 31k, 6 week wait for parts. 

The 'active suspension' compressor  failed. Six week wait for parts.

 

Went back to Aussie V8's, I can pretty much get their  bits at the supermarket.

[Quarryscapes]

I used to have a Mitsubishi FTO GP Version R Aero Series. A car so rare it's entire production run would fit into a supermarket car park with room to spare. It was almost immaculate, and I had planned on retiring it from daily use to be cherished and kept as an investment - until an accident with a lorry wiped out the rear quarter panel and I simply couldn't afford to repair it. (The Panel itself was about £1200, plus £600 shipping to Felixstowe where I would then need to sort out the duty and VAT, get it up here then pay for it to be fitted and the whole car resprayed to keep it a perfect match.) 

 

Really miss the V6 purr turning into a raging snarl once the cam profile swapped at 5500 rpm ! 

 

It did also start the trend where I haven't had a fully waterproof car since! (spoiler gasket in this  case leaked into the boot!)

 

 

 

 

Edited March 25, 2021 by Quarryscapes

[big jim]

Remember my old blue mini that I sold on eBay, well here it is 4 months down the line 

 

 

sad to see it broken but it was obviously more than it was worth to repair it! 
 

 

Edited March 25, 2021 by big jim

[boxbrownie]

45 minutes ago, big jim said:

Remember my old blue mini that I sold on eBay, well here it is 4 months down the line 

 

 

sad to see it broken but it was obviously more than it was worth to repair it! 
 

 

Well you wore that one out, be more careful with the new one 

[big jim]

I’ll try!

[B1uejay]

On 25/03/2021 at 09:33, big jim said:

Remember my old blue mini that I sold on eBay, well here it is 4 months down the line 

 

 

 

 

Is it now listed under 'Kit' Cars?

 

[big jim]

Wheel swap today, took the black standard alloys off and gone for a set of Bola B1s in gunmetal 

 

 

[steve1]

These are becoming quite common around here.

 

steve

 

 

[teaky]

50 minutes ago, steve1 said:

These are becoming quite common around here.

 

steve

 

 

Ghastly!  I had a 5.0 V8 on loan a while ago.  On a cross country 'let's have a bit of fun' run it did 15mpg.  It lived down to all my expectations of an American muscle car.  (Sounded great though.)

 

Suffice to say, the text for this review is very generous (I wasn't the author): https://www.ferrousmag.com/first-drives/mustang-gt-review

 

The one had was bright orange which did nothing to help.  Not that the blue in your photo helps either, Steve.  I used to work for Jaguar and all the crash test cars were painted that colour so I'm always reminded of that when I see cars in that particular shade.

[MJI]

2 hours ago, steve1 said:

These are becoming quite common around here.

 

steve

 

 

 

A bit too big to hustle around Britains roads, my bosses had one between them for a year, and the older boss prefered his oldish Porsche Boxster, and after being in both and driving the Boxster I understand.

 

BTW the Boxster he has had for years and now worth slightly more than he paid.

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, MJI said:

 

A bit too big to hustle around Britains roads, my bosses had one between them for a year, and the older boss prefered his oldish Porsche Boxster, and after being in both and driving the Boxster I understand.

 

BTW the Boxster he has had for years and now worth slightly more than he paid.

We had a Boxster a few years ago.......so under rated by the Porker community but I do believe they grudgingly know it’s a great handling (probably better than most porkers) Porsche, ours was the S with light tan leather and bright blue paint, looked lovely, sounded better and went like buttered toast off your breakfast plate......bought from a specialist dealer and sold back to them two years later at exactly the same price as we paid for it.......a hidden gem.

[great central]

6 hours ago, steve1 said:

These are becoming quite common around here.

 

steve

 

 

 

I rather like these but I've been a fan of big V8s for a long time, probably the influence of the unashamed noise from BRISCA F1 stock cars. I've no problem with whatever colour they are because it's not a car for hiding away in to my mind. 

But why would someone buy a grey one??

Edited April 2, 2021 by great central
Missing word

[monkeysarefun]

 

 

They are every second car here now you can't get any other V8 (ignoring the rip-off Germans).

Not a patch on the later Commodores or the Falcons when it comes to handling,  takeoff or fun.

And 5 litres seems a bit  lame after the last generation Commodores with their 6 and 6.2.s

 

I'd still love a convertible one though if I ever sell the ute..

Edited April 2, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[peanuts]

15 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

They are every second car here now you can't get any other V8 (ignoring the rip-off Germans).

Not a patch on the later Commodores or the Falcons when it comes to handling,  takeoff or fun.

And 5 litres seems a bit  lame after the last generation Commodores with their 6 and 6.2.s

 

I'd still love a convertible one though if I ever sell the ute..

do you not get the v8 jag XJs ?

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, peanuts said:

do you not get the v8 jag XJs ?

I do not know if we currently do, though I can't imagine Jaguar deciding not to try to sell a V8 in Australia. 

Prices for "prestige"  cars  and so on invoke a 'luxury tax' here which added to the mark up that Euro dealers add to make the things they sell seem  'posh' makes the price of them just silly. 

 

Probably wrongly these days, Jaguar and Rangerover  still have the issue of perceived reliability, a hang over of the '80's and '90's  when every day above 40 degrees would see roadsides littered with dead ones, and theres the fear of being stuck back of Bourke needing parts for a Jag and the bill for them when they turn up.

 

You do often see  older xjs convertibles with a chev motor in them, you get the looks of a Jag without the reliability of a Jag.

Edited April 3, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[big jim]

 

29 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

And 5 litres seems a bit  lame after the last generation Commodores with their 6 and 6.2.s

 

 

best not go for the 2.7 ecotec version then! 

[MJI]

Trip out yesterday taking son for second jab.

 

I had some 4x4 hate yesterday, not had it before but the standard of driving was not good. Was a bit north of my usual haunts, was tempered by waves from another couple of D2s.

 

Usual accelerate while being overtaken mainly.

 

But one did get ratty he was not in a hurry until traffic lights, so pulled along side, my son noticed they were revving hard and full throttled off the line. Then of all things my Diesel 4x4 actually out accelerated their 16v Astra, I could hear their engine over my tractor juice lump. BTW 60 limit.

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, big jim said:

 

best not go for the 2.7 ecotec version then! 

 

That has  killed the V8 supercar race series here pretty much. Public interest  first  dropped when Falcons were replaced by Mustangs and Holden can't get away with running V8  Commodores after this year.

 

It'll be replaced with fantasy cars like the Chev Comaro that  no one can afford and Audis and BMW's that no one wants to  watch. Australians just want to see Ford beat Holden or vice versa..

 

Even Kia are talking about giving it a go, so we'll have the indignity of watching Korean V8's racing in the Australian Supercar series, then drive home in our "Australian" 2.7 ecotecs.

 

Mad Max would be spinning in his grave if he wasn't out there on the highway somewhere...

 

I'm still flying the flag!

 

Edited April 3, 2021 by monkeysarefun