Most pointless engine.

[dbdb]

eldar said:

dbdb said:

That is the one saving grace of the Stag V8 - it really does sound marvellous.

Unfortunately it was also the killing grace, because it broke. I worked for a BL dealer when they came out. It looked, sounded and went great and grenaded the engine all too often. (plus a lot of poor build quality issues, the warranty costs were huge).

If they had used the Rover V8 it would have been a huge success.

Oh, I agree. They were poor engines, but very few cars sound better than a V8 Stag.

[Tango13]

dbdb said:

I actually disagree with that - they were designed to produce a lot of torque and were very economical for a large engined car of their day. They were significantly faster than the 520i, though of course they were also more expensive than them. I liked the way the 525e drove.

IIRC you could use the long stroke crank from the eta in a different block with a 4 valve head to get about 240bhp, I think i've still got the magazine article somewhere.

[Welshbeef]

Ford Sierra 2.3 D


Good god worst thing I've ever driven

[Otispunkmeyer]

crostonian said:

Passat W8. I know it was a development unit for the W12s that followed but what profligacy. The Fiat TwinAir in the Mito/500 is pretty pointless too as it fails in its main reason for being - to be economical.

The W8 is a curious machine though, so perhaps not totally pointless. But I was reading about it the other day and it sounds like they didn't do much with the car beyond dropping that anvil in the front and calling it a job done.

[Rincewind209]

Welshbeef said:

Ford Sierra 2.3 D


Good god worst thing I've ever driven

This.
I remember back in the eighties one of my colleagues drove one ot these. I took it round the block once, astoundingly bad. No power whatsoever, and incredibly heavy so the Sierra really handled bad. And lots of smoke. He was always late to meetings but got away with it because he drove "that useless bloody heap!".

[dugsud]

Honda's 250cc six from the 1960's.......wonderful engineering but it was a bit pointless as twins were just as fast!

[Otispunkmeyer]

Regiment said:

The V6 in the current model Mustang. Not as economical or powerful as the turbocharged straight 4 and not as amazing as the v8.

Still sounds better than the 4 and isn't that far behind in the power stakes. It'll be dirt cheap to knock out as well, cheaper than the 4 surely. They're not that bad on fuel either really, drove one from San-Fran to Vegas and managed 27 US MPG. Not bad for 3.7 litres and 305 HP.

[Toltec]

Rincewind209 said:

Welshbeef said:

Ford Sierra 2.3 D


Good god worst thing I've ever driven

This.
I remember back in the eighties one of my colleagues drove one ot these. I took it round the block once, astoundingly bad. No power whatsoever, and incredibly heavy so the Sierra really handled bad. And lots of smoke. He was always late to meetings but got away with it because he drove "that useless bloody heap!".

Poor economy too, never got more than 33mpg put of the one I borrowed for a few months.

[Gilhooligan]

dugsud said:

Honda's 250cc six from the 1960's.......wonderful engineering but it was a bit pointless as twins were just as fast!

Its existence is justified purely because of the noise it emits.

[gazza285]

Toltec said:

Rincewind209 said:

Welshbeef said:

Ford Sierra 2.3 D


Good god worst thing I've ever driven

This.
I remember back in the eighties one of my colleagues drove one ot these. I took it round the block once, astoundingly bad. No power whatsoever, and incredibly heavy so the Sierra really handled bad. And lots of smoke. He was always late to meetings but got away with it because he drove "that useless bloody heap!".

Poor economy too, never got more than 33mpg put of the one I borrowed for a few months.

Pug engine, suited the 504 pickup, but not the Sierra.

[Rammy76]

Gilhooligan said:

dugsud said:

Honda's 250cc six from the 1960's.......wonderful engineering but it was a bit pointless as twins were just as fast!

Its existence is justified purely because of the noise it emits.

[TurboHatchback]

The 3.2 FSI V6 in the Audi A6 and A8 always seemed rather pointless to me, almost exactly the same fuel economy as the 4.2 FSI V8 but 90bhp less and obviously considerably slower.

[Mr Tidy]

daytona365 said:

Most pointless engine ? Anything over, say, lets be generous, 2litres ! Unless its for heavy haulage/military etc.

Think you got that the wrong way round - surely anything less than 2 litres, unless of course you regard all Ferraris as pointless???

[Mr Tidy]

Actually it may have been the Ford 2.0 twin-cam 2 litre I had in my 1991 Sapphire GLSi.
It only got introduced in 1989 and discontinued in 1993(?) when the Mondeo came out.

It did nothing the earlier Pinto didn't do and mine was a paragon of unreliability! It frequently wouldn't start or run cleanly however often it had new batteries, HT leads, ECUS, plugs, etc. and the plugs were buried in the inlet(?) manifold - you needed a 12" extension bar to get to them!

Bought a Cavalier SRi with 3 times the mileage on it soon after and that engine just kept going - sadly FWD though!

[TommoAE86]

the 1.6 in the previous gen astra (maybe in the new one but I try to avoid the car)... gutless, inefficient, no nice sound, total write off. Makes the wheezy 1.4 in the punto seem like a fun engine!

[PomBstard]

dugsud said:

Honda's 250cc six from the 1960's.......wonderful engineering but it was a bit pointless as twins were just as fast!

I didn't know that existed - but now I want one.

Didn't Mazda produce a 1.8 V6 a few years ago? Not entirely pointless, as I assume its more tuneful than the equivalent I4, but probably not really necessary.

[fivepointnine]

A.G. said:

The BMW ETA engine. Apparently because eta is Greek for efficiency.

In the 80s BMW sold a 525e. It was powered by probably the most depressing and wheeziest of engines I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. It made about 125 bhp from a 2.8 engine (which normally produced 40BHP more) and was more expensive than the smaller engine models.

I still dont understand

I had an E30 325 coupe with that engine, paired with the manual it was surprisingly quick around town.

[J4CKO]

Welshbeef said:

Ford Sierra 2.3 D


Good god worst thing I've ever driven

Yeah, remember one coming in at the dealers I worked at, I just saw 2.3 on the back and grabbed the keys when I needed to go and drop a lad off at the auctions to pick a car up, I had driven a 2.3 Granada before and whilst no ball of fire it was quite nice and I thought it may be quite perky in the smaller Sierra, I started it up and the whole car shook, I drove out of the yard and onto the road, I accelerated and not much happened, I accelerated a bit more and still, very little happened, foot full to the boards and discernible motion was achieved and I realised that it probably was not a V6 Petrol.

What a hateful heap it was, I am sure they had put a sump truck engine in there, apparently, according to Wikipedia, Peugeot were responsible and it had a heady 66 BHP, must have been for people who worked in construction that had access to limitless supplies of diesel whose bosses hated them, scarily they did 1.3 as well, that had 59 bhp, no wonder they didnt sell so well, and it was a Pinto, never realised there was a 1.3 Pinto, always assumed a Kent engine found its way in but there was a 1.3 Pinto, massive heavy engine for 1.3 litres.

Another candidate was the 2300 Rover SD1, thirsty and slow, 2600 marginally better.

[The_Burg]

Rammy76 said:

Gilhooligan said:

dugsud said:

Honda's 250cc six from the 1960's.......wonderful engineering but it was a bit pointless as twins were just as fast!

Its existence is justified purely because of the noise it emits.

There was a 5 cylinder 125 too. Suzuki did a 6 cylinder 125.
There was apparently a 4 cylinder 50cc but was never raced. 12.5cc per cylinder.

[Truckosaurus]

I once read that Sierra 2.3Ds were especially popular with Members of Parliament at one time as they were the most economical car that was in the highest expenses mileage rate band (which was done on engine size) so they could coin it in on drives back to their constituencies.