Done something stupid on eBay

nice, but think that could be to much of a money pit

im seriously tempted to save for another good few months and look at a 2000 plate M5! its realistically affordable in about 6months or so. hmmm
 
Is anyone else astounded at how americans have insane sized engines but generate little bhp? I know it's not all about the horses but its a common trait with yankie cars, why is that? granted 300bhp from the above example is hardly little but it's 4.5l!
 
ins0mn1ac said:
Is anyone else astounded at how americans have insane sized engines but generate little bhp? I know it's not all about the horses but its a common trait with yankie cars, why is that? granted 300bhp from the above example is hardly little but it's 4.5l!
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Because they have a completely different usage pattern to our cars.

Its not uncommon for a US car to be hitting 250,000+ miles over its life, they sit a low RPM doing large distances.
 
ins0mn1ac said:
Is anyone else astounded at how americans have insane sized engines but generate little bhp? I know it's not all about the horses but its a common trait with yankie cars, why is that? granted 300bhp from the above example is hardly little but it's 4.5l!
Click to expand...

That is hardly bad for an engine from that era? Infact if it really is 300bhp then its on par with Germanys efforts in competing cars....
 
jigger said:
I spotted this while back looking for another toy.

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3240138.htm
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I like the idea of the Ferrari V8 but have you ever driven a Thema? I have and to be honest I never had any idea why they chose this car to put that engine in.

For next to nothing you can get the 2.0 litre turbo which had the intergrale lump. Needless to say it is rubbish compared to the Intergrale.
 
atpbx said:
Its not uncommon for a US car to be hitting 250,000+ miles over its life, they sit a low RPM doing large distances.
Click to expand...

They actually don't on the whole - according to Kellys Blue Book, the US equivilent of Glass's, the average mileage for an American car is roughly similar to our average annual mileage. The Americans also have the same aversion to high mileage cars, in general, as we do - that is to say that there will be people who realise that mileage is nothing and keep cars for ages, bu there are just as many people thinking a car is shot at 60k miles. You only need to look at some of the mileage hysteria from Americans on E90post for more of that.

Most Americans faced with a long distance drive will simply fly.

The reason for the engines developing as 'little' power is a combination of the style of driving the low speeds and grid-like road layouts encouraging more 'wafty' driving which the high torque output really suits, and low fuel prices meaning that the inefficiency associated with such engines isn't a big deal.

As gas prices have risen you will notice a huge increase in the number of 4 and 6 cylinder cars in place of the traditional V8's in American cars.

The DTS I hired had a Northstar V8 and developed only about 260bhp. But the way it drove was quite unlike anything else I've driven. Just instant pickup from tickover (No, not like the diesel boys pretend they have). It was just sublime and perfect from wafting from strip mall to strip mall :D
 
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