[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
I put 700 top-down miles on the Audi Yesterday over the passes and back. It makes a shitty business trip so much better. [/quote]
Nice car. Audi are really good value luxury at a more competitive price than BMW and Mercedes of course. I was looking at the turbo charged diesel and supercharged petrol A7 4G the other day. They’re really nice interiors for the money too. Not many around though. But there’s a performance chip that plugs into the OBD2 port that boosts the low end torque to make up for turbo lag. Some great cars from Audi. I’ve never liked them but Volvo do some very nice luxury interiors for the money too. Some of the Volvos come with a beautiful hard wood polished steering wheel and really fine leather and wood dash and panels. Yes, I like some of the Volvo interiors. It’s a shame they’re not up to Audi / BMW /Mercedes performance though.
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
I put 700 top-down miles on the Audi Yesterday over the passes and back. It makes a shitty business trip so much better. [/quote]
Nice car. Audi are really good value luxury at a more competitive price than BMW and Mercedes of course. I was looking at the turbo charged diesel and supercharged petrol A7 4G the other day. They’re really nice interiors for the money too. Not many around though. But there’s a performance chip that plugs into the OBD2 port that boosts the low end torque to make up for turbo lag. Some great cars from Audi. I’ve never liked them but Volvo do some very nice luxury interiors for the money too. Some of the Volvos come with a beautiful hard wood polished steering wheel and really fine leather and wood dash and panels. Yes, I like some of the Volvo interiors. It’s a shame they’re not up to Audi / BMW /Mercedes performance though.[/quote]
Frankly, I just love the quatro drive. Rain? Snow? No problem. Get it trouble: just hit the gas, and you are out of trouble. That’s really the only reason it’s not a rag-top M3.
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
I put 700 top-down miles on the Audi Yesterday over the passes and back. It makes a shitty business trip so much better. [/quote]
Nice car. Audi are really good value luxury at a more competitive price than BMW and Mercedes of course. I was looking at the turbo charged diesel and supercharged petrol A7 4G the other day. They’re really nice interiors for the money too. Not many around though. But there’s a performance chip that plugs into the OBD2 port that boosts the low end torque to make up for turbo lag. Some great cars from Audi. I’ve never liked them but Volvo do some very nice luxury interiors for the money too. Some of the Volvos come with a beautiful hard wood polished steering wheel and really fine leather and wood dash and panels. Yes, I like some of the Volvo interiors. It’s a shame they’re not up to Audi / BMW /Mercedes performance though.[/quote]
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
I put 700 top-down miles on the Audi Yesterday over the passes and back. It makes a shitty business trip so much better. [/quote]
Nice! I was pleasantly surprised at how reasonable the wind is even with the top down (windows up) at highway speeds in a convertible.
I remember you posting about that car when you got it a while back. I can’t remember, though… A4 or S4?
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
I put 700 top-down miles on the Audi Yesterday over the passes and back. It makes a shitty business trip so much better. [/quote]
Nice! I was pleasantly surprised at how reasonable the wind is even with the top down (windows up) at highway speeds in a convertible.
I remember you posting about that car when you got it a while back. I can’t remember, though… A4 or S4?[/quote]
S4.
I’ll add If they make one for it, get the back-seat wind screen. With the windows up It forms a wind bubble that keeps the cabin warm and keeps the noise down. I had the top down going from Reno through Lassen forest when it was in the low teens with the sun just cracking the hill one morning during winter and traveling at speeds I won’t post or admit to and it was perfectly warm in the cabin. Really, really cool.
I mentioned I love the polished hard wood steering wheel on some luxury class Volvos. Ideally for a sports car I like the small circumference steering wheel and I like the flat bottom on the wheel like you see with some sports steering wheels. And I also like a really chunky, thick wheel like on the M Class BMWs for example. I’d love a wheel like that in polished hard wood. Really thick little wooden wheel with flat bottom. And I really dislike a lot of modern steering systems as I’ve said. I don’t know much about it - not a tech head but I think it’s the variable ratio steering that accounts for some of the poor steering in modern cars. The Lotus Elise S I drove had no power steering at all. And at 850kg / 1875 lbs on a sports car you really don’t need it.
They have the nicest, most responsive steering I’ve ever driven and due to that, the lightness of the car and how quickly it can stop, how fast you can go into corners, how grippy it is - you really can push it much further than you could in a bigger car and so you can find yourself beating the M4s and AMGs and even 911s in the twisties with a 1.8 liter Toyota Carolla engine! They’re a crazy car to drive. So hard to get in and out of and as I said, totally stripped of everything - even air conditioning is an extra in the European ones. Very expensive too. But you get a superb lightweight fibreglass and aluminium body and chassis and a sweet gear box. They(Lotus) do a six cylinder variant too that I’d like to try but you’re getting into M4 price territory there and you have to ask yourself if it’s really something you want to spend that much money on in view of the other options.
But I really like the concept of the completely stripped down, super lightweight aerodynamic cars they make at Lotus because really they’re the best sort of cars to drive. They’re drivers’ cars. Beautiful things. Pictured is the interior of a Lotus Exige. These aren’t as stripped down and bare as the Elise which has an aluminium aircraft alloy floor with no carpet to speak of. Everything is about weight saving with the Elise.
Oh, and Lotus use the same sort of ramjet forced induction on their superchargers that Lamborginis. They’re top engineers. A forget the rating but there’s some scale of aerodynamic properties of a vehicle’s drag and the Lotus cars are at the top being amongst the most aerodynamic and creating the least drag. Yes, I’m going to test drive their six cylinder Exige next but it’s doubtful I’d really spend that much money on such an impractical car. At this stage in my life anyhow. Maybe if I live to retire and I’ve got enough noodles in the bank I might get myself one to hurtle around in.
Sorry I ramble on a bit but I really love Lotus cars. They’re just so much fun to drive. Pictured is the Exige. I saw one in the showroom the other day and they look even cooler in person. They’re so low to the ground. That’s what you immediately notice about them when you see one driving around. The driver looks like he’s sitting on the ground and he pretty much is. You’re about 3 inches off the Tarmac. And that’s part of why it handles so well and inspires such confidence in you that you can take a corner at twice the speed you’d take the same corner in a big car.
I posted this in the other thread but it belongs here. This car is great. It beat the Pagani Zonda around the test track on top gear but it only has a 1299cc four cylinder engine. It’s a Huyabusa motorcycle engine in a 420kg car. Extremely fast and great handling. Beats a Pagani Zonda and you can get one new for 20,000 pounds. Westfield XTR2
There’s one for sale near me with only 1000kms on it at a great price. I wouldn’t mind getting one to be honest.
[quote]Dr. Pangloss wrote:
This is the first time they broke away from that naming convention for their mid-engine V8s because the 488 has twin-turbos. The rest were normally aspirated but for the 208 and 308 turbos.
From the beginning:
Dino 246 (2.4L V6)
Dino 308 (3L V8)
Ferrari 308
Ferrari 208
Ferrari 208 turbo
348
355
360 (first of the mid 8’s I really liked)
F430
458
---------------Everything above this line uses the usual naming convention.
488 GTB twin turbo 3.9L V8[/quote]
They are probably following along the lines of the 288 GTO which I just absolutely loved. Has the looks of a 308 only better and goes like a proper Ferrari should
The XTR2 for sale is LHD and couldn’t be registered in my state for that reason anyway. What a shame. There should be more cheap high performance, light weight cars for that price. The Lotuses are way more expensive and they don’t have the extremely high revving(17,000rpms+!!!) Huyabusa sports bike engine. Why don’t they do more cars with sports bike engines? Imagine a really aerodynamic, lightweight, low centre of gravity, well balanced mid engined rear wheel drive with two Huyabusa engines - a two seater with the mid-placed engines where the rear seats would be.
[quote]Dr. Pangloss wrote:
There a quite a few kit cars with motorcycle engines, everything from a Lotus 7 replica to a Smart Car (the Smartuki).
[/quote]
I couldn’t put them together I’m sure. I had enough trouble just taking out the stereo to get to the back. I can’t even do an oil change on a car.
[quote]
Also, check out the Radical SR8 which is powered by 2 Hayabusa engines, grafted together.[/quote]
Now that sounds interesting. That’s the sort of thing I was talking about. Thanks, I’ll check to see if there’s any in the country. I want a RHD though.
^^ Actually just watched the video and its a cool car but not what I’m after. I’m after a low centre of Gravity, aerodynamic sports car along the lines of the lotuses and the Westfield Sports.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
The XTR2 for sale is LHD and couldn’t be registered in my state for that reason anyway. What a shame. There should be more cheap high performance, light weight cars for that price. The Lotuses are way more expensive and they don’t have the extremely high revving(17,000rpms+!!!) Huyabusa sports bike engine. Why don’t they do more cars with sports bike engines? Imagine a really aerodynamic, lightweight, low centre of gravity, well balanced mid engined rear wheel drive with two Huyabusa engines - a two seater with the mid-placed engines where the rear seats would be.[/quote]
I am going to render a guess that cooling may be a factor. But it would be cool to drop a Huyabusa engine in to a Smart car.
To your point, Morgan is doing exactly that. They stuck a V-Twin on the front of their car. It’s not a pretty machine, but it works.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
The XTR2 for sale is LHD and couldn’t be registered in my state for that reason anyway. What a shame. There should be more cheap high performance, light weight cars for that price. The Lotuses are way more expensive and they don’t have the extremely high revving(17,000rpms+!!!) Huyabusa sports bike engine. Why don’t they do more cars with sports bike engines? Imagine a really aerodynamic, lightweight, low centre of gravity, well balanced mid engined rear wheel drive with two Huyabusa engines - a two seater with the mid-placed engines where the rear seats would be.[/quote]
