The Best ///M/Barge/General Rant/Look at this/O/T(Vol XVIII)

[tenfour]

Speaking of Alpinas:



Driving environments don't come much finer.

[Leins]

E24man said:

I'm with you on that - despite having the E38 uber-barge I'd still risk significant domestic wrath to obtain a 'pina 32 in either B11 or B12 flavour.

Funny to think that 4 Star car took quite a while to shift only a few years ago

tenfour said:

Speaking of Alpinas:



Driving environments don't come much finer.

They do come with more wood though

[Diesel Meister]

Si - Awesome

Still remember sitting in the E31 B12 at the brum motorshow, must have been about 1991 or thereabouts. Top blag by the Chief to get me on the stand - it helps to have a powerfully built director in your concern at such moments (i.e. before you have a driving license or even a bank account!)

Still have a soft spot for the E31. Not especially barge-able on my budget but I'd take an 840 or an 850, Alpina or otherwise. 850CSi would be nice too.

Anyone remember the "M8" prototype?



Naughty. Slightly prefer th emore subtle styling of the other models but a full fat V12 would be tidy, especially side a judicious bit chassis tweaking.

ETA:

This!



Eminently Schnellable.

Edited by Diesel Meister on Thursday 15th September 14:15

[Leins]

Diesel Meister said:

Anyone remember the "M8" prototype?



Naughty. Slightly prefer th emore subtle styling of the other models but a full fat V12 would be tidy, especially side a judicious bit chassis tweaking.

[i]Eminently Schnellable.[/]

M8 would have been a monster had they gone with it. And then there's the Italian take on the E31:



Not sure on numbers they produced, but they were based on the 850Ci's 5.4. As was the motor they put in the K55 Compact!

[Diesel Meister]

[ferrisbueller]

olly22n said:

tenfour said:

Speaking of Alpinas:



Driving environments don't come much finer.

Just read that too.

Why no clutch? How does that work?

Is this a trick question?

[Leins]

olly22n said:

ferrisbueller said:

olly22n said:

tenfour said:

Speaking of Alpinas:



Driving environments don't come much finer.

Just read that too.

Why no clutch? How does that work?

Is this a trick question?

I don't think so?

Manual box - no third pedal?

I think it's a Shift-tronic car. Saab used to have a similar gearbox, but can't remember what that was called

Edited by Leins on Thursday 15th September 16:41

[Leins]

olly22n said:

Do you know how it works?

Afraid I don't know too much about it other than it was co-developed by Luk, and based on a manual box. Switch-tronic was the one based on an automatic, with push buttons on the wheel, as fitted to E36 B3s

This was the Saab version. I was in one years ago and it was a bit "clunky", and not in a nice SMGII way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_900#Sensonic

[E24man]

Sensors around the gear-lever operate the clutch as soon as the lever is moved; fantastic when it works - when it doesn't your B12 5.7 Coupe (Shift-Tronic was never fitted to any other car) becomes a very expensive ornament. It's sort of an early SMG, but with only Alpina having the knowledge to fix it some owners of the few Shift-Tronic cars have converted their cars to three pedal manual cars.

All the B12 5.7 Coupes were six speed manuals; all the B12 5.0 Coupes started life as Automatics... not even Switch-Tronic as they pre-dated it.

[L100NYY]

Fiat offered the same type of system on the Seicento Citymatic. No clutch but manual gearbox, quite clever really.

[L100NYY]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Our family accountant had one and did a trackday in it at Snetterton. I took my yellow S1 Elise and Trackdemon came along with his NSX.....was a pretty cool convoy that morning

[L100NYY]

Porsche Sportmatic too nein?

[L100NYY]

olly22n said:

Oh, and KGF have this for sale.



what do we think?

1,
2,
300k...?

Assuming it's one of the three (and one had arches, so one of two)

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C789100

£23k

[Diesel Meister]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I watched some coverage yesterday.

Proper. Cars.

Good to see Dario smiling as well, if not racing.

If only a modern touring / sports car grid sounded as varied, musical (and occasionally down-right sexy). Sigh.

[anonymous-user]

Not sure if posted before.. but on topic of bmw..

http://www.ebay.de/itm/BMW-Z4-8-3-SRT-10-Viper-Cou...


0-60 : 5 sets of tyres.

[L100NYY]

Diesel Meister said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I watched some coverage yesterday.

Proper. Cars.

Good to see Dario smiling as well, if not racing.

If only a modern touring / sports car grid sounded as varied, musical (and occasionally down-right sexy). Sigh.

Was a great spectacle, as the sun set the atmosphere was truly magical......heaven.

[E24man]

Leins said:

Funny to think that 4 Star car took quite a while to shift only a few years ago

Sold in 2010 with a years MoT after almost four years on sale and the MoT ran out in October 2011 - never MoT'd since.

[tenfour]

olly22n said:

tenfour said:

Speaking of Alpinas:



Driving environments don't come much finer.

Just read that too.

Why no clutch? How does that work?

Glad it wasn't just me! Manual box but auto brake and no (visible) clutch

ETA: just read Liens' post. Witchcraft!

[jeremyc]

L100NYY said:

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C789100

£23k

Oh. Meh, as the kids say.

I made up for it today by drooling over an X-Pack RS2000 that lives next door to the office.

[Pulse]

AVV EM said:

Not sure if posted before.. but on topic of bmw..

http://www.ebay.de/itm/BMW-Z4-8-3-SRT-10-Viper-Cou...


0-60 : 5 sets of tyres.

Z4MC body, but ambers. Got to appeal to some in here!

Whilst the Viper engine is interesting, I'd far rather the original 3.2. But the overall look is quality!