Re: pre omega what has been your.....

[Martin_1962]

OK here it is my Sunbeam

1600cc Kent AVFR3, twin 1.5 Strombergs K&Ns rally exhaust and suspension, lots of bits rescued off GLSs, was running at 90bhp at wheels





Pictures are video still frames been through the MPEG encoder than cropped to remove edges then saved as jpeg

[TheBoy]

Thats just brought back memories of the sunbeams. They looked awful, not hugely reliable, rust buckets, but did go OK...

[Martin_1962]

Thats just brought back memories of the sunbeams. They looked awful, not hugely reliable, rust buckets, but did go OK...

I quite liked the styling but then I am older than you, reliability I found was quite good I was covering 15000 miles a year.

They did go well. I had it coming off cam at 7200rpm in top, speedo needle off the clock.

Handling - well mine was the best handling car I have ever driven, I followed a Mundano being driven hard, wheel in the air, (it had passed me in a 30 limit I knew was regularly trapped), I followed quite happily!

Same corners I was only 10mph slower on loose chippings looking out of the side window!

That one drive made me realise why they won rallys with them.

[Paul M]

I've never really had a bad car TBH... first was a '93 2.0 Mondeo saloon, one of the RS'd specials they done (I think it was Hendy Ford who modded them straight from the factory).  It was pushing 150 BHP, had the full factory bodykit and RS lowering springs (Eibach made I think). Not bad for a 17 year old when all my mates were driving 1.1 Fiestas and the like! Ran like a dream, really predictable handling too. I had that until I bought my Impreza at 22 and not once did it let me down. It had a replacement water pump, starter motor and lambda sensor and I think that was it other than routine service items. That car basically became my daily driver while the Impreza was my fun car, starting the 2-car thing that has continued to this day (Omega is my daily driver, BMW is my fun car). I replaced the Mondeo with a 2.0 Audi that was somewhat underpowered in comparison (~125 BHP IIRC) but again ran like clockwork. I only sold that a few months ago with over 200k on the clock still running perfectly!

The Impreza was an absolute hoot to drive, you can imagine going from 150 to 280 BHP in a car that if anything was lighter. AWD too so it could really make use of the power. Had prodrive suspension kit (Eibach springs + Bilstein dampers), remapped to ~300 BHP, and the seats were brilliant, proper sculted ones much more sporty than the ones in the MV6 or indeed my 840:











It's a real close call between that and the 840Ci which is all-round a much better car, much better built, more comfortable, sounds brilliant with the V8 engine, better ratios with the 6 speed gearbox, looks better IMO and gets loads of attention (although the Subaru did too, at least when I first got it before they became really common). But there's no doubt the Subaru was quicker off the line due to it being little more than a tin can on wheels! A bit of a one trick pony but a superbly good fun one at that  8-)

Here's the 840, you be the judge:

[hotel21]

Worst for me was an Avenger Estate I used as a runabout for a few months whilst rebuilding a crash damaged Astra SRi.  Featureless, noisy, wet, gutless pile of poo, but it was cheap and had the space to cart bits around.  

The one with the fondest memories is the Astra SRi.  6 months old with a brand new shell, ran faultlessly for 5 years other than getting romped up the backend less than a week after getting it on the road!  The insurance sorted it again, though.

B

WORST , I think they were brilliant cars, my mum had one and it was great very good chassis, very comfortable seats and one of the best pushrod lumps of its size ever.

Definately a car I would buy to restore, perhaps yours was a little engine or a Hitorq 1600 my mums had the normal 1600 with larger carb.

Martin - no offence intended, but there is generally a bad thing for every dozen or so good things, Avengers specifically included.      Find a good one and its great restore material.    If only for rarity value!  

No doubt someone else will say the Arstra was a pile of poo - to me, it was loads of fun and cheap motoring when I couldn't afford much else at the time ...

B

[Admin]

Worst car is easy.

Rover SD1 2.6  
Useless HG munching overweight lump with truly appalling handling.
So bad I bought 2!  
In the ownership of those 2, over just 1 year they went through 4 HGs!!


Best.
Sentor 24v.  
Fabulous. Good handling. Superb engine, bought the car with 170k on the clock from an ex company director with full history.
Died at 206k when the ex wife wrote it off!!  
Absolutely faultless in between .
So good I have owned 5 in total.

Closely followed by the Saab 9000 2.3 turbo...
Had 3 of these. Last one being the Carlsson.
What an engine! That was amazing in a straight line (best not mention twisties, but it did keep me on my toes!)
On the whole, supremely reliable cars (HG on Carlsson aside).

[omegaV6CD]

Worst car is easy.

Rover SD1 2.6  
Useless HG munching overweight lump with truly appalling handling.
So bad I bought 2!  
In the ownership of those 2, over just 1 year they went through 4 HGs!!


Best.
Sentor 24v.  
Fabulous. Good handling. Superb engine, bought the car with 170k on the clock from an ex company director with full history.
Died at 206k when the ex wife wrote it off!!  
Absolutely faultless in between .
So good I have owned 5 in total.

Closely followed by the Saab 9000 2.3 turbo...
Had 3 of these. Last one being the Carlsson.
What an engine! That was amazing in a straight line (best not mention twisties, but it did keep me on my toes!)
On the whole, supremely reliable cars (HG on Carlsson aside).

Did you sell the Saab??

[Martin_1962]

Worst car is easy.

Rover SD1 2.6  
Useless HG munching overweight lump with truly appalling handling.
So bad I bought 2!  
In the ownership of those 2, over just 1 year they went through 4 HGs!!

No wonder - that is a rubbish engine!!

Should have got the V8

[Admin]

Yes I sold the Saab, for not far short of what I bought it for!  
Buyer wanted a good shell to do a restoration, and this one was immaculate.

Martin. I owned 2 V8 Rover SD1's (I went through a period of tempory insanity and owned 4 of the things in a row!  )

V8 was a better engine with that wonderful sound  8-) but the handling was still woeful and bits broke on a regular basis!

[Martin_1962]

Yes I sold the Saab, for not far short of what I bought it for!  
Buyer wanted a good shell to do a restoration, and this one was immaculate.

Martin. I owned 2 V8 Rover SD1's (I went through a period of tempory insanity and owned 4 of the things in a row!  )

V8 was a better engine with that wonderful sound  8-) but the handling was still woeful and bits broke on a regular basis!

Who cares with that V8 burble

[VXL V6]

V8 SD1! If one car sticks in my mind its the V8 SD1, wish I still had mine.... then again I think the only thing remaining would be the engine, the shell would have dissolved years ago.... infact it nearly had when I got rid of it.

[hotel21]

Part of a training course I was on quite some years ago entailed driving the Cat 1 prisoner van used to transport the bad people between jail/court/jail of that time.  

It was a Sherpa van complete with oxygen masks, ballistic armour, bullet proof glass, puncture proof tyres etc etc with a tuned Rover V8.  Went quite well, considering.  Just didn't stop worth a button from speed 'cos it was still drum brakes all round....  

Literally standing up on the brake pedal and it was still only thinking about the possibility of nearly slowing down eventually.    

[Elite Pete]

Talking about vans stopping. I remember when I was an apprentice we used to have a Commer Van with the front wheels that are quite far back I think it was something like a J 40 anyway the lads used to scream up the yard in it and jump on the brakes to see who could get the rear wheels the furthest off the ground

[MaxV6]

I spent some time trying to work out what the worst one i ever had was...


it MIGHT have been that bloody Corsair...  my first car...   god it was sh1te

But dishonourable mentions must go to...


Fraud Granada Mk2 estate.   ( we used it as a taxi, because there was no Senator Estate, and it was bigger than the Carlton estate ) , it got almost cut in half in a side impact accident in 89, provided me little or no protection , I still suffer from that incident today...

MG Maestro, Pedal offset causes back problem sin anyone over 6ft effectively, the pedals, seat and steering wheel are all slightly offset form each other so that you sit in a weird skewed position that causes a rotational tension in the spine ... leading to severe back ache after longer journeys.
this however appeared to be fixed for the Montego , which actually was a much better car..... still crap... but not nearly as crap as the misnomered Maestro.

Rover SDI 2.6   they weren't called HG munchers chaps  ... they were called head benders..  the reason they went through so many HG's was that the heads warped at the slightest opportunity....   if it overheated even for a minute... it would require machining and a new HG at the very least....  

[TheBoy]

Part of a training course I was on quite some years ago entailed driving the Cat 1 prisoner van used to transport the bad people between jail/court/jail of that time.  

It was a Sherpa van complete with oxygen masks, ballistic armour, bullet proof glass, puncture proof tyres etc etc with a tuned Rover V8.  Went quite well, considering.  Just didn't stop worth a button from speed 'cos it was still drum brakes all round....  

Literally standing up on the brake pedal and it was still only thinking about the possibility of nearly slowing down eventually.    

i had an escort van once with similar troubles stopping. fortunately, a capri coming the other way stopped me...