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[Nick W]

In that era, i worked for a company that was “tied” to Ford products so we all had Fords.  The MD hated his fully loaded Ultima.

Now wouldnt it be funny if there is a parallel universe with a Scorpioowners.com run by ABoy but with only five members .

I think if ABoy was driving one of them he,s Forum name would be TheDad.

On the Cossie Ultima,s Ive always thought they would have sold a lot more if there was a Manual option, just doesnt seem right having a Cosworth Lump with an Auto slush box.

they were hardly rare cars. And just how many manual 3.0l Elite Omegas did Vauxhall sell?
Cosworth developed Hart's 24v heads into a torquey street engine just like Ford wanted.

[BazaJT]

Other than the 3.2 Omega traded in at local Ford stealers under the scrappage scheme there has also been an E reg Granada[albeit in 2Lguise]traded under the same scheme.It looked to be in very good nick bodily too.As for the Scorpio it was said they handled better and were comfier than the Granada,but I don't know how true that was.

[ronnyd]

Why does everyone only ever remember the fugliest car in the world .. the frog eyed scorpio .. when its predecessor was an excellent, practical, and driveable piece of kit .. and quite nice to look at ....

I always thought it was the best towcar I would ever have ..... until I towed with the Omega ...   

Mine of that shape was just the humble 2l Ghia with the old Pinto engine. Looked good in diamond white and the RS tailgate spoiler. Damn good tow car too, as Entwood said.

[ronnyd]

Also to add that a few days after i got my first Omega that i saw an Ultima for sale. Was very tempted to get it, but so glad i didn,t. . Must be about 12yrs ago now. How time flies.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Other than the 3.2 Omega traded in at local Ford stealers under the scrappage scheme there has also been an E reg Granada[albeit in 2Lguise]traded under the same scheme.It looked to be in very good nick bodily too.As for the Scorpio it was said they handled better and were comfier than the Granada,but I don't know how true that was.

From my experience the were comfier but, I found handling pretty poor, not as bad as the 8 series Rovers, but certainly not great

[hotel21]

The Scorpio before the fugly bug eye was a very comfy and entirely chuckable car from a Trafpol point of view. Preferred the hatch to the saloon but both had very comfortable seats, especially the compilots one on motorway night Shift! 

[TheBoy]

A mate had a hatchback pre frog eyed one, and it was a nice enough place to be a passenger.  His was underpowered, though I forget which engine it had, and we've long since lost touch  . The low power and heavy car made it a less satisfying car to drive.

Bro had a proper Grandad for a while, Mk2 2.8i Ghia, which was a very nice car to driven around in in its day, and went well (by the then standards). It was just too unreliable, so he replaced it with a Chavalier SRi 130, which as we know was bombproof.

[zirk]

A mate had a hatchback pre frog eyed one, and it was a nice enough place to be a passenger.  His was underpowered, though I forget which engine it had, and we've long since lost touch  . The low power and heavy car made it a less satisfying car to drive.

Bro had a proper Grandad for a while, Mk2 2.8i Ghia, which was a very nice car to driven around in in its day, and went well (by the then standards). It was just too unreliable, so he replaced it with a Chavalier SRi 130, which as we know was bombproof.

Ive had a few them as well, plus the younger 1.8, 8 Valve jobbies, really used to love my ones, you use to have to rag the revs and get them in the right gear to shift properly, but once you mastered that they were really nippy, even by today's standard, not bad for a little 115/130 Bhp lumps. 

The one I really would have liked was the Cav 2.0 GSi, think they were 150Bhp from memory, but after a time used to see most of them parked up on the Hard Shoulders    

[TheBoy]

think they were 150Bhp from memory, but after a time used to see most of them parked up on the Hard Shoulders    

SOunds like the redtops. A powerful motor, with occasional niggles, but still well regarded in the reliability stakes

[zirk]

think they were 150Bhp from memory, but after a time used to see most of them parked up on the Hard Shoulders    

SOunds like the redtops. A powerful motor, with occasional niggles, but still well regarded in the reliability stakes

I was in the process of buying one back around 2003, Metallic Grey, I suppose it was a case of Ive all ways fancied one, when a Black RWD Cossie Sapphire come up for not much more money, so it was a bit of a no brainier which one to buy in the end. 

[VXL V6]

think they were 150Bhp from memory, but after a time used to see most of them parked up on the Hard Shoulders    

SOunds like the redtops. A powerful motor, with occasional niggles, but still well regarded in the reliability stakes

Aye, porous heads on some of them, can't remember if it was the Coscast ones or the GM ones now.

[Marks DTM Calib]

GM ones, you fixed it by inserting a short length of tubing into one of the water galleries. 

[Kevin Wood]

Plenty of XEs still running round in kit cars, if not in their original applications.

180 BHP just for swapping to Weber carbs, and more with throttle bodies, without even a change of cams, so it's not hard to see why.

They do seem prone to the odd "catastrophic failure" but then most are putting out a bit more power than GM intended. I've seen a slightly more breathed-on example make over 300 BHP on Emerald's rolling road.

[Mr Gav]

A mate had a hatchback pre frog eyed one, and it was a nice enough place to be a passenger.  His was underpowered, though I forget which engine it had, and we've long since lost touch  . The low power and heavy car made it a less satisfying car to drive.

Bro had a proper Grandad for a while, Mk2 2.8i Ghia, which was a very nice car to driven around in in its day, and went well (by the then standards). It was just too unreliable, so he replaced it with a Chavalier SRi 130, which as we know was bombproof.

Ive had a few them as well, plus the younger 1.8, 8 Valve jobbies, really used to love my ones, you use to have to rag the revs and get them in the right gear to shift properly, but once you mastered that they were really nippy, even by today's standard, not bad for a little 115/130 Bhp lumps. 

The one I really would have liked was the Cav 2.0 GSi, think they were 150Bhp from memory, but after a time used to see most of them parked up on the Hard Shoulders    

I had two 1.8l and a 2.0l Cavalier SRi`s and I loved them, reliable and quite quick but were just so easy to work on, I did a clutch change in an hour on one of them. I still have the slide hammer and input shaft adapter and the three clips for the friction disc and clutch plate.

[Lincs Robert]

A mate had a hatchback pre frog eyed one, and it was a nice enough place to be a passenger.  His was underpowered, though I forget which engine it had, and we've long since lost touch  . The low power and heavy car made it a less satisfying car to drive.

Bro had a proper Grandad for a while, Mk2 2.8i Ghia, which was a very nice car to driven around in in its day, and went well (by the then standards). It was just too unreliable, so he replaced it with a Chavalier SRi 130, which as we know was bombproof.

Ive had a few them as well, plus the younger 1.8, 8 Valve jobbies, really used to love my ones, you use to have to rag the revs and get them in the right gear to shift properly, but once you mastered that they were really nippy, even by today's standard, not bad for a little 115/130 Bhp lumps. 

The one I really would have liked was the Cav 2.0 GSi, think they were 150Bhp from memory, but after a time used to see most of them parked up on the Hard Shoulders    

I have several GSi Cavs, all courtesy of Vx as worked for a GM group company. We were supposed to hand them back with less than 9k - so they could go out via Network Q. I “accidentally” forgot with one of mine and got a phone call from the fleet manager demanding I took mine back - it had 25k on when it went  unfortunately the replacement was a Cav Turbo, which was basically a GSi 4x4 with the turbocharged red top engine. Went like stink, but was what’s called in the trade a “misbuild”, and had to be brought upto the correct spec by a dealer. They had fitted LHD headlights and seats in the factory! It wasn’t that reliable either, the 4WD system kept failing and would default to FWD - which was fun