Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

This forum software is crap.

Audi A4 1.8 turbo, but I put it in a tired 205 GTi and got noticeable speed and smoothness improvements

Did my first decent run in the M135 yesterday. Bristol to Crystal Palace and back, with around 2.5 hours of that in stop start going through london. Mostly cruising between 80-90. Returned an average mpg of 39, just over half a tank. Pretty happy with that for a 3ltr 320hp car!

First opportunity to have a good play around with the iDrive sytsem and all the other interior stuff. Everything just works so well. The driving positions is just endlessly adjustable.

Properly happy with it.

What do you think of premium diesel v regular diesel. For my petrol powered cars its always V-Power but with my new car coming soon which has a V8 Diesel im not sure?

Good stuff, must be good to purchase a car that lives up to expectations. Out of interest, is the BMW is a better and more enjoyable drive than your recent VW? Only ask cause BMW have always marketed as drivers cars where as VW seem to be trying to manufacture that. Excluding the Mk1 GTi they never really had "feel".

The 'magic' ingredient is 2-EHN,

http://eurenco-na.com/2-ehn.html

http://www.veryone.com/veryone-2-ehn/presentation/

frequently used by those running on uco or home-brewed biodiesel.

Google 'veggi-boost' to find a reliable supplier in consumer sized units.

Why is there such a thing as "premium diesel"?
There's nothing premium about a tractor engine.

It's the 'reassuringly expensive' syndrome.

I thought people chose truck motors because they were tightarses?

my best mate has just bought an ah 3000. i am insanely jealous, but i need to be excited. balls.

It's a generational thing,
if your first experiences of diesels were choking clouds of smoke from (proper)
London Taxis and dawdling Transits,
you'll take a lot of convincing.

So much better, in every way. VW was nice, and very well made. Drove ok. Was nippy for a diesel. It was nicer to drive than the comparable golf GTD that i test drove, but still not a sports car. I think the GTI's and R's are a different kettle of fish though.

I much prefer my BMW to the R i test drove. It actually feels like a proper drivers car, in Sports + mode it is bat out of hell fast, actually a little bit scary (it's more than fast enough for regular driving in comfort mode!). I'd love to get it on a track sometime with the traction control turned off!

Had a good tussle with a Cayman GTS on the M4 yesterday, accelerating out of a long 50mph average speed check section of roadworks and kept up all the way to 125 where he backed off. then had a good little game of cat and mouse with him. It's very fast. I didn't expect to be able to keep up with him.

I'm sure things will change when winter comes along with wet dirty roads though. It may become somewhat of a chore to drive in the winter months. We shall see.

Brilliant! Think BMW is really getting things right after a small spell of ambivalent efforts.
I'm sure the car will be fine in winter. Get some smaller rims and some winter tyres on there for some rally style fun.

Anyone done PalmerSport?

Have a provisional booking for end of July, much excitement at the prospect. Bit spendy, but justified by annual motoring budget otherwise amounting to a zipcar membership which doesn't even get used much.

reg diesel goes in the cls350, no problems at all. i think prem diesel a bit of a waste as no appreciable return on either performance or efficiency

Can't believe a discussion on fuel has lasted 2 pages...

Here have a pic of 195s on 9Js to even out the smart talk

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I've had a great evening.

A pal of mine here is an architect and occasionally rents his office space out for events. This evening was a presentation for Singer Vehicle Design. Rob Dickinson was in attendance and gave a brief speech on the company ethos etc.

I found him to be a fascinating bloke whose mind-boggling attention to detail borders on the worryingly insane.

Whilst the car itself wasn't necessarily to my taste (Jewish racing gold chosen by a Saudi customer!) he and his ever-growing team (8 people in 2013 - 40 people in 2014) create utter masterpieces.

There's currently a two year waiting list, but his biggest concern is finding donor 964's - five years ago you could get your hands on one for £15/16k for one still with plenty of life, but now they're fetching £30k for a dog.

Shouldn't really matter when the finished build can come to £5-600k.

If you haven't seen anything yet on youtube, there's a shitload of stuff to see about them. The Chris Harris video is quite good, but the one on their website where Jay Leno drives the car is quite good too. There's also plenty of shorter clips where Rob himself is interviewed too.

Apologies for the bag'o'shite iPhone pictures.

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More cack pics...

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I also met a couple of fellas who drive Caterhams here.

Today it hit 47°c...

singer - wow

Singer is the antithesis of everything that is good about Porsches. All form over function, bling over engineering, style over substance.

They're Porsches for people who miss the point of Porsches and should really be buying Continental GTs or Veyrons or Range Rover Overfinchs.

They stick lots of shiny bits on, but if you look carefully the level of detail is weak. Look at the rear slam panel where they've smoothed over the welds either side of the engine bay - they're not even close to symmetrical. And the stitching on the fucking hideous quilted engine bay sound deadening. That wouldn't get past dhb quality control, never mind Rapha.

A total waste of a 964. I can feel Ferdinand turning in his grave from here.

Go back tomorrow and shit on the bonnet on my behalf, please.

So you don't like it then?

All modern Porsches are for the customers you describe too.
And all 911s were about the triumph of good development over flawed engineering.

Basically it's all about the 986 Boxster S. :-)