"My dream car is.."

Niallmo

@drjazztap thanks! To me the F40 was the apogee of the purely "mechanical" high end cars and was the first Supercar. The styling, the engine, the stripped out race inspired vibe all comes together perfectly and makes it so much more than just a car.

At the same time Porsche was doing the 959 and that's probably where the "tech" super cars came from.

DrJazzTap

@Niallmo to me it was the last great Ferrari, even thirty years later it still looks sharp. I do like the 458, but the F40 was something else.

chillidoggy

What about the 512BB?

Niallmo

chillidoggy said:

What about the 512BB?

Beautiful design on the 512BB but it was more a GT so the Testarossa is it's progeny. http://autoinjected.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/ferrari-512bb.jpg

holnrew

Some of the cars I loved as a youth:

http://srv2.betterparts.org/images/bugatti-eb-110-gt-03.jpg

http://www.simoncars.co.uk/jaguar/slides/Jaguar XJ220 frontr.jpg

http://images.fantasycars.com/lister/1994_storm/1212.jpg

Monkeybone

Strangely, as a youth, my dream car was the late 80s-mid 90s Lotus Elan. My current car (Honda S2000) is much better in so many ways, but I would still like to own an Elan, very pretty little car. Plus my dad used to own a 70s Elan coupe, so it would be a little bit of history repeating.

Axe_meister

Such a pity TVR went down the tubes.

Real British muscle cars.

If lotus had been independent, a joint Lotus/TVR would have been a force to recon with.

holnrew

Similar maker that went under, Marcos:

http://gomotors.net/pics/Marcos/marcos-mantis-02.jpg

Fretwired

Axe_meister said:

Such a pity TVR went down the tubes.

Real British muscle cars.

If lotus had been independent, a joint Lotus/TVR would have been a force to recon with.

They were rubbish. My neighbour had a Cerbera which had no end of problems - I saw more of it on the back of an AA Relay lorry than him driving it. The car was so unreliable that TVR game him a new car which was no better .. that's why they went bust. I guess the money went into making them look good as opposed to making something that would reliability get you from A to B.

Axe_meister

The problem was them trying to design a new engine.

They should have bought in engines, like they did with the old Rover V8 (upped to 5l).

With Lotus doing the suspension and handling. TVR would have just been the coach building arm. 

chillidoggy

I've driven one of the original TVR Tuscan V6's, my mate had one. 1972 variety, it was an utter piece of crap. Completely unreliable, always failed to start when you wanted it to, and he couldn't give it away.

V8 Phil had an original TVR Griffith, with 289V8 Cobra engine. Topped out at 165, hit 60 in 4 seconds. Frightened the shit out of me, he finally wrapped it around a lamppost and ended up selling it before he killed himself.

thisisguitar

@Monkeybone @octatonic @goldtop

Regarding the NSX mentioned earlier, one of the big reasons it failed is down to the gentleman's agreement on maximum bhp (276) in Japan, so they never really made it quick enough to compete with the big boys.

Gordon Murray used it as a benchmark when developing the McLaren F1 though, so interior aside it must be pretty special. I think the NSX-R looks awesome. Here's hoping the new successor (at last!) succeeds :-)

mudslide73

V8 Phil sounds like a petrol legend.. what else has he had? V8s only?

chillidoggy

Well, from memory- 

Gordon Keeble 327 Chevy

TVR Griffith 1965

Ford Fairlane

Rover SD1 V8 x 2

Rover P5B

MGBGT V8

302 Boss Mustang 1969

Austin Healey 100/6 with a 289 Ford V8

Chevy V8 pickup

Ford Mustang 302 1990-ish

De Tomaso Pantera 1972

Jensen Interceptor

Then I lost touch with him, but I'm reliably informed that despite being 70 years old, he's just bought one of the new 500-odd BHP Shelby Mustangs.

goldtop

thisisguitar said:

@Monkeybone @octatonic @goldtop

Regarding the NSX mentioned earlier, one of the big reasons it

failed is down to the gentleman's agreement on maximum bhp (276) in Japan, so they never really made it quick enough to compete with the big boys.

Gordon Murray used it as a benchmark when developing the McLaren F1 though, so interior aside it must be pretty special. I think the NSX-R looks awesome. Here's hoping the new successor (at last!) succeeds :-)

The NSX was never about power and so it was never going to make more than about 300bhp. Even now, with stroked engines and IBs owners struggle to get big power out of the C30/C32 engine. It's possible to add turbo/supercharging but that wasn't ever on Honda's agenda.

It beat the opposition when it first came out (won Autocar's handling test two years back to back) but then, when the expected sales didn't materialise, Honda failed to develop it. About 400 sold in the UK in the 16 years. Contrast that with what Toyota did with the LS400 which came about at the same time, and also set new benchmarks for its sector, and has continued to develop. And sell well.

The Type R NSX is not for me. It's only a chassis/weight difference, and far too stiff for UK roads says everyone who's tried.

Don't get me wrong, I love the NSX (I even ripped off... er... was inspired by the NSX logo when doing one of my own products - just as a small homage).

thisisguitar

@goldtop - It's on my list of cars to try at some point. I've driven a few vtec cars, they are wonderful when the get up high in the revs :-)

chillidoggy

The only problem with the NSX was that it didn't look like a supercar. That's it, really.

thisisguitar

@chillidoggy - Good job this one does then :-)

http://www.honda.co.uk/cars/comingsoon/_assets/images/nsxconcept-gallery1.jpg

chillidoggy

Yup.

holnrew

https://gaycarboys.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/bmw-i8-2014-2.jpg