Show Us Your Motors!
- Thread starter Lopéz
- Start date
V8 manual!
Drove many R8’s now including gen1 V10 manual, gen1 V10 Plus S Tronic and R Tronic and also a Gen2 V10 S Tronic.
No doubting the V10 cars are properly quick but for me the most fun and engaging is the R8 V8 Manual, it hands down wins easily and mine is an Audi Exclusive spec so super rare with wing back buckets and velvet purple.
I can jump in the V8 Manual and drive it like I stole it and have lots of fun and if I do slip above speed limits it’s like 80-85mph so the punishment would not be too bad.
When I drove the V10 models I felt the steering did not seem quite as good, particular gen2 car that was numb. But to have fun in the V10 the speeds become very anti social and you’d get into a lot of trouble.
V8 delivers the thrills and excitement without worrying about going to jail. If I ever need a speed fix I can jump in McLaren as it’s on another level performance wise even compared to a V10. Rate the R8 V8 far more than I ever thought I would, has to be a manual though as it’s one of the very best and feel I’m fortunate that I’ve driven / owned the best manuals, S2000, F360 manual, GT3, CTR etc.
Alright bring on the abuse 
it's cheap, cheerful and is big enough for me, the wife and the kids, Actually nice to drive, Had it coming on 3 years, Stage 1 Remap and AdBlue Delete, Only thing I've had to change were drop links and a CV joint, Love it!!
it's cheap, cheerful and is big enough for me, the wife and the kids, Actually nice to drive, Had it coming on 3 years, Stage 1 Remap and AdBlue Delete, Only thing I've had to change were drop links and a CV joint, Love it!!What is the cheese grater on the side for?Alright bring on the abuse
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Soldato
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- 19 Oct 2002
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- Shakespeare’s County
I hired one in Italy once. Great simple car in my view.
Always liked these, but it's a shame they never bothered to make a remotely powerful one. What does a stage 1 remap take it to?Alright bring on the abuse
Something a bit different. 1964 Austin FX4 diesel taxi. By far the slowest and most difficult to drive car I've ever owned, it's cool though. I should probably start to thin down the fleet a bit as I'm up to 9 now.
Love that. Fully support a daft purchase.
Does it have the original driveline? Curious what makes it difficult to drive? Slow steering and manual brakes?
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Love that. Fully support a daft purchase.
Does it have the original driveline? Curious what makes it difficult to drive? Slow steering and manual brakes?
When I posted it I immediately thought you'd like it
The brakes and steering feel good to me, I've driven a lot of old cars and it's no worse than a Series III Land Rover for example. The main issues are drivetrain related.
The accelerator is about the size of a 50p coin and is only around 1-2cm from the floor, so there's virtually no travel in the pedal which makes for a very all or nothing experience.
The transmission is a 4 speed manual which supposedly has a synchromesh but if you don't change gear at exactly the right speed it will crunch, and it also crunches if you don't move the gearstick in exactly the right way, it feels like there's only about 1cm of leeway to enter a gear. Not sure if that's normal or not.
The engine I'm sure has an issue, it's a BMC diesel that produced around 50BHP when new but it feels like it has about 10BHP now so 30MPH is about the max speed. To make it go anywhere you really have to use the gears which due to the above issues is easier said than done. It's also very difficult to start, you have to crank it for ages and ignite the glow plugs for about a minute before trying to start it. It smokes A LOT on start up and under acceleration as well.
I'm going to call a diesel mechanic tomorrow to take a look at it. I paid $5k for it which probably sounds like a lot for a car with engine issues but actually is very cheap for an early one, especially as it's virtually rust free with only some very minor bubbling at the bottom of the doors. It also has the original interior with taxi meter, cigarette adverts and fare table from when it was working in London and everything. I'd ideally like to conserve the original engine but I'll have to make a decision based on what the mechanic says, a lot of people put V8s in them which would be fun but another part of me thinks it's been original for all of its life so it would be a bit of a shame to modify it now. Then again, I suppose I could always store the original motor and transmission in case I ever wanted to put them back.
It's going to eventually end up being used for weddings, events, photo sessions etc so one way or another it will be made useable and reliable, I'm just not sure which route I'll go yet.
When I posted it I immediately thought you'd like it
The brakes and steering feel good to me, I've driven a lot of old cars and it's no worse than a Series III Land Rover for example. The main issues are drivetrain related.
The accelerator is about the size of a 50p coin and is only around 1-2cm from the floor, so there's virtually no travel in the pedal which makes for a very all or nothing experience.
The transmission is a 4 speed manual which supposedly has a synchromesh but if you don't change gear at exactly the right speed it will crunch, and it also crunches if you don't move the gearstick in exactly the right way, it feels like there's only about 1cm of leeway to enter a gear. Not sure if that's normal or not.
The engine I'm sure has an issue, it's a BMC diesel that produced around 50BHP when new but it feels like it has about 10BHP now so 30MPH is about the max speed. To make it go anywhere you really have to use the gears which due to the above issues is easier said than done. It's also very difficult to start, you have to crank it for ages and ignite the glow plugs for about a minute before trying to start it. It smokes A LOT on start up and under acceleration as well.
I'm going to call a diesel mechanic tomorrow to take a look at it. I paid $5k for it which probably sounds like a lot for a car with engine issues but actually is very cheap for an early one, especially as it's virtually rust free with only some very minor bubbling at the bottom of the doors. It also has the original interior with taxi meter, cigarette adverts and fare table from when it was working in London and everything. I'd ideally like to conserve the original engine but I'll have to make a decision based on what the mechanic says, a lot of people put V8s in them which would be fun but another part of me thinks it's been original for all of its life so it would be a bit of a shame to modify it now. Then again, I suppose I could always store the original motor and transmission in case I ever wanted to put them back.
It's going to eventually end up being used for weddings, events, photo sessions etc so one way or another it will be made useable and reliable, I'm just not sure which route I'll go yet.
The A35 had the same sort of accelerator pedal, it was very odd! My new one now I've converted to cable throttle is a bit better, but still has a bit of the same effect. That being said, when you are playing with such a small amount of power, all or nothing doesn't mean much does it?
The manual ones are actually pretty unusual, most of them had a borg warner automatic.
BMC diesels do take some cranking to get going and they do smoke a fair bit on startup. Have to think that when in service it would have been started one morning and left running for a day or maybe more at a time.
It will be dog slow cos they weigh a LOT for a car of the period, but it does sound a bit broken, hopefully they can sort it!
The engines are commonly found in narrowboats and stuff funnily enough, they might be more suited to that sedate life...
The A35 had the same sort of accelerator pedal, it was very odd! My new one now I've converted to cable throttle is a bit better, but still has a bit of the same effect. That being said, when you are playing with such a small amount of power, all or nothing doesn't mean much does it?
The manual ones are actually pretty unusual, most of them had a borg warner automatic.
BMC diesels do take some cranking to get going and they do smoke a fair bit on startup. Have to think that when in service it would have been started one morning and left running for a day or maybe more at a time.
It will be dog slow cos they weigh a LOT for a car of the period, but it does sound a bit broken, hopefully they can sort it!
The engines are commonly found in narrowboats and stuff funnily enough, they might be more suited to that sedate life...
I was wondering if your A35 was similar accelerator wise. I find the all of nothing aspect of it doesn't matter when you're driving but when setting off it's hard to balance the accelerator with the clutch in order to accelerate smoothly but it may be a question of just getting used to it. It's far, far harder than a Series III or early non turbo Defender though, that's for sure.
I never considered the fact that they would rarely get turned off when used for their original function, that's a good point and probably partly explains it.
I was expecting it to be dog slow but I thought it would at least be able to get to 40-45MPH with enough of a run up, as it is it struggles to get to 30 and it almost died going up the hill towards my house in first gear at WOT. I really need to drive a fully working one (not likely to be able to here!) and compare but I'm almost certain it's way, way off what it should be.
Yeah the original setup was a pedal with a crossbar that pulled a rod on the carb, and there was about an inch of total travel. I have probably 1.5 inches now I have a modified Mini accelerator setup. Still not much!
The big Leyland diesels in busses and such were a total pig to start as well, there are some great videos of cold starts on Youtube!
Supposedly the 2.2 diesel 4 speed manual should do 0 - 60 in a blistering 36 seconds, and have a top speed of around 80! But it would take a damn long time to get there because the 0 - 100kph time is 44 seconds. A full 8 seconds to get from 60mph to 62mph!
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Yeah the original setup was a pedal with a crossbar that pulled a rod on the carb, and there was about an inch of total travel. I have probably 1.5 inches now I have a modified Mini accelerator setup. Still not much!
The big Leyland diesels in busses and such were a total pig to start as well, there are some great videos of cold starts on Youtube!
Supposedly the 2.2 diesel 4 speed manual should do 0 - 60 in a blistering 36 seconds, and have a top speed of around 80! But it would take a damn long time to get there because the 0 - 100kph time is 44 seconds. A full 8 seconds to get from 60mph to 62mph!
An extra half inch makes all the difference I’m sure
Those figures were about what I imagined it should be like. Mine currently seems to do 0-30 in about 2 minutes.
An extra half inch makes all the difference I’m sure
Those figures were about what I imagined it should be like. Mine currently seems to do 0-30 in about 2 minutes.
Is it showing correct mileage? Is it high as an ex taxi?
Does it crunch if you double declutch when changing gear? The A35 has synchromesh for 2nd through 4th, none in 1st. But I double clutch when changing down through the gears, and I don't try changing down into 1st, just stop in 2nd.