Euro Breeding....its real

[jphanna]

Today was a special day for me.

i got my first taste of what a Euro made car can do around high speed flowing corners. There are lots of Euro INSPIRED cars. Our every day Falcons and commodores are euro inspired. this was the real thing though, not just inspired.......

was it a high performance tyre shredding beast? no actually its just a 1.8 fuel injected 1983 E21 coupe.

the road i picked was near williamstown in Barossa region in Adelaide. the same road i use on my boulevard, for kicks. it would take a lot to rival a mbike for thrills in the hills, but today it happened.

first thing is NO power steering....remember the last time you drove a car without power steering?

the way it sits on the road, something different, something that you cant understand....but you know you like it. when was the last time you were negotiating sweepers and pictured yourself as a german development driver?

when was the last time you were 'blown away' by a car on a cruise?

[Polyal]

I dont know about blown away, but the first drive of my GTV was an eye opener into light RWD fun.

[sgt_doofey]

That's why I love our Peugeot 307. It's a family wagon, but gee, does it ever stick to the road and give me some fun when the better half isn't in the car to nag me.
The Falcon is fun to go around corners sideways. The Peugeot is fun to just go around corners!

[Simple6]

My brother has an E21. Nice little car. Shame his just sits in the yard now.

[JimStone]

Originally Posted by jphanna

when was the last time you were 'blown away' by a car on a cruise?

Evertime I take the RS2000 out........ 22 years on and still get just as big a buzz out of driving her.

When I test drove a MC Powershift Ecoboost Mondeo on a whim, so good I bought it. Absolutely sensational bit of kit for a daily.

[Franco Cozzo]

I like taking my WS Fiesta up the mountain passes, because its like driving a go-kart, it just sticks to the road, you can pretty much throw it into a corner and it just goes around without any sign of a fuss.

I took my Focus up there, heavy diesel engine up front, crap OEM tyres and floaty suspension, didn't take well to the corners, was pushing the nose really wide, but on the steep inclines it was pulling itself up the mountain with very little effort with that much torque on tap.

[mike_nofx]

Of all the cars I have owned it was a (sorry!!!) Holden Torana, 1977 LX, Turbo charged 202.

Just so much fun to drive, and not in a sence that it sticks to the road around corners and at any speed etc.... more for the exact opposite reasons.

Second to that it was a 1972 TA22 Celica. No power, no handling, just so much fun every time I got into the drivers seat, driving was never a chore.

[Danny]

Every time I take the Megane RS around so much as a roundabout, it takes my breath away. I'm really very very lucky to be able to own such a well sorted piece of kit, and for what Renault charge for them, the performance is unrivalled by anything else under $150k.

What a shame most people's predjudices and misconceptions mean that they will never even look twice at one.

[Buntz]

For about three minutes I considered a 2001 BMW 325ci. Till I realised it was almost double what I had decided to spend on a car.

[mik]

I dunno about the yurapeein breeding, although a couple of days ago i heard a car wizzing down the road with a diff that was howling it`s posterior off, i looked up and it was a beemer......must have been some of that yurapeein breeding . on a serious note probably the only euro i liked driving not that i`ve driven many would be the Z3.

[I reckon]

you need to de beaver the beast jphanna.

------->>>>>>> http://ozboulevards.com/

[2011G6E]

)The first time I drove an old Series One Jaguar XJ6 and realised it handled better and felt more planted on the road than my four year old Commodore, which was allagedly more or less European under the skin.

It's probably born from the fact that all makers over there, from small to large, have to remember that a large proportion of their buyers, even ordinary mum and dads, will drive their product on twisting mountain roads in sometimes ordinary conditions, and also do (to us) sustained extremely high speeds on motorways and various highways.I've seen European car magazines (similar to our Wheels and Motor) which have virtually laughed at and derided new cars they test that can't sustain 160 kph-plus on a motorway.

What do they have to concentrate on here? 100 to 110kph, hot weather capability, and load carrying.
Yes, our G6E, once we reached the well-funded four and six lane highway down towards Brisbane (we're at Cooly Rocks this weekend), it was a smooth, planted ride, feeing very "European",but venture off that onto less than perfect roads, and it's still a nice ride...just not equally as quiet and planted on the road. I have no doubt that something like a Jaguar or BMW or Mercedes would feel good on all those roads. I've driven an older E320 with quite a few kilometers on it on shocking roads and it still felt "Euro", soaking it all up nicely. Could this be because Euro makers, as well as their "usual" testing, used to bring their cars out here to ensure they also met our requirements?

I think the complaint about purchase price and maintainance of them is based in one simple fact: protectionism of our fragile car industries. In Germany, cars that here in Australia are sold as prestige luxury models are just family cars, seen as nothing more special than a Commodore or Falcon, models which the chairman of the board would be driving here are taxis in Germany and other countries over there and in a lot of other countries. Being just about the only country where you can't drive a brand new LHD car (no other country seems to have an issue with which side the steering wheel of your car is on) also causes a few pricing problems, as special models have to be built for us, artifically keeping production costs for our imports up.

[Motorbreath310]

What peeves me in regard to the Euro car pricing in AUS and NZ is you can buy a brand new C63 there for the price of a 3 year-old one here. With the Aussie dollar where it is at the moment, US and UK car prices nearly make you cry.

[Mechan1k]

Originally Posted by mik

I dunno about the yurapeein breeding, although a couple of days ago i heard a car wizzing down the road with a diff that was howling it`s posterior off, i looked up and it was a beemer......must have been some of that yurapeein breeding . on a serious note probably the only euro i liked driving not that i`ve driven many would be the Z3.

I know the old Z3 were bagged.

But I got the opportunity to have one for a weekend ... was the 2L 6-cylinder ... not the crappy 4-cyl.

I put near on 1500km that weekend in it ... I enjoyed every kay in it.
I never got out of the vehicle tired at all. The manual was sweet shifting ... and the stock exhaust had a nice back-off burble ... very tractible ... could entire a roundabout and exit it in top gear at slow speed ... and no shuddering either.

Would love to get in one again and have another go.

Sheer driving pleasure .... that weekend definitely was.

[DJM83]

The day i drove my XR5T from the showroom i was astounded. Every time i jump in it the slightest hint of a bend excites me. I love it. Yeah its not the fastest car around but hell its a lot of fun.

[CFOUR]

my uncle had a first generation m3, I couldnt believe how nice it felt under load. constantly broke though