Wheeler dealers 2016.

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Discussion

rohrl

8,711 posts

144 months

Tuesday 21st June 2016
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Adam B said:
LuS1fer said:
monthefish said:
225bhp from a 5.0 V8.
Par for the time

Sierra Cosworth RS500
224bhp
0-60 6.1 seconds
0-100 16.2
Top Speed 154mph
surely the point is getting 225bhp from a 5.0L V8 is laughably inefficient, as you clearly demonstrate with your example of a European car which achieves the similar outputs and better perfromance from a 2.0L 4 cylinder
This is a pointless argument.

You can get as much or as little power as you want from any engine, it's just a matter of how much air and fuel you pump through it, how high you rev it, cost of components and how long you want it to last reliably.

Ford obviously made the decision that 225bhp was how much power they wanted that car to have, taking reliability and fuel consumption into account. If they had wanted to extract 300bhp from that engine they could easily have done so but the car would have been more expensive, would have used more fuel and wouldn't have been as reliable.

The RS500 Sierra was a totally different animal. It had a severely detuned engine and was a homologation special rather than a mass-production car.

ClockworkCupcake

74,393 posts

271 months

Tuesday 21st June 2016
quotequote all
rohrl said:
This is a pointless argument.

You can get as much or as little power as you want from any engine, it's just a matter of how much air and fuel you pump through it, how high you rev it, cost of components and how long you want it to last reliably.

Ford obviously made the decision that 225bhp was how much power they wanted that car to have, taking reliability and fuel consumption into account. If they had wanted to extract 300bhp from that engine they could easily have done so but the car would have been more expensive, would have used more fuel and wouldn't have been as reliable.

The RS500 Sierra was a totally different animal. It had a severely detuned engine and was a homologation special rather than a mass-production car.
yes Indeed. Good points, well made. thumbup

Smollet

10,465 posts

189 months

Tuesday 21st June 2016
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I was looking forward to the LR rebuild but it looked bloody awful in the end. I'm not surprised that the bloke who bought it didn't want to be identified. Shame as the mechanical work was top notch.

Edited by Smollet on Tuesday 21st June 12:48

Smitters

3,995 posts

156 months

Tuesday 21st June 2016
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I like that Panda... boxedin

Sorry - ETA:

rohrl said:
Edited by Smitters on Tuesday 21st June 16:29

sandman77

2,366 posts

137 months

Tuesday 21st June 2016
quotequote all
Smitters said:
I like that Panda... boxedin
What Panda?

Edit: Ignore me - I assume the photos posted earlier are of the Fiat Panda they did last year (I cant see the pics on my works PC).

rgw2012

598 posts

142 months

Tuesday 21st June 2016
quotequote all
Smollet said:
I was looking forward to the LR rebuild but it looked bloody awful in the end. I'm not surprised that the bloke who bought it didn't want to be identified. Shame as the mechanical work was top notch.
Not surprising to me - apart from the freak who bought the Mustang each car this series has gone to someone who appears to have been lined up before the project started, for example the brewery company buying the Chevy Luv or the Honda going to the museum. I reckon they are just offloading to the production team so they can claim someone bought it and not have it hanging around for ages due it being a complete pile of ste!

Smollet

10,465 posts

189 months

Tuesday 21st June 2016
quotequote all
rgw2012 said:
Not surprising to me - apart from the freak who bought the Mustang each car this series has gone to someone who appears to have been lined up before the project started, for example the brewery company buying the Chevy Luv or the Honda going to the museum. I reckon they are just offloading to the production team so they can claim someone bought it and not have it hanging around for ages due it being a complete pile of ste!
Yes some of the sales do seem very contrived compared to previous series.

CooperD

2,850 posts

176 months

Tuesday 21st June 2016
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Edd has to be a worse wrapper than Kanye West!! Interesting that Mike is still doing a lot more spannering this series. I wonder if Edd has other projects on the go and can't devote as much time as he usually does to the programme. Not really a vehicle that floated my boat and the rat look didn't do anything me.

LuS1fer

41,083 posts

244 months

Tuesday 21st June 2016
quotequote all
Adam B said:
surely the point is getting 225bhp from a 5.0L V8 is laughably inefficient, as you clearly demonstrate with your example of a European car which achieves the similar outputs and better perfromance from a 2.0L 4 cylinder
It's a question of emissions. The Cossie would be unlikley to pass a California emissions test.
This is why foreign cars often could not be sold in the US once they were saddled with unleaded, low compression ratios, EGRs, charcoal canisters and so forth.
Additionally, US cars tend to have vastly higher mileages, a used car with 150k on the clock is not unusual so they go for low stressed engines. Most US cars tend to have bigger engines fitted than the European equivalent, often to compensate for the fact that many Americans like their automatics and a small engine and an automatic are not great partners.
They like towing stuff too. This is the land where a 5.0 is a pretty small engine and a 4.0 tends to be the economy model.

Ford exported the equivalent of the Sierra XR4i (Merkur) and it bombed.

Finally, I once drove a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, 1983 IIRC and it had a mighty 140hp but by god, it felt like it could wrench the surface off the road and sounded like thunder. It's often more about the torque than the ultimate output.

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Wednesday 22nd June 2016
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I can't see a topic for the On The Road series, and I don't want to start one, in case it already exists.

I've just watched a couple of these on Quest, so it may not be new or recent. Mike bought a cheapo thing in India, and later, he took a Camaro to Dubai.

Anyway; throughout the entire thing, he converts pounds, or Euro or Kroner or whatever into USD. So there's obviously a US market in mind for the show.

Why then does he continually talk about a car's top speed in KmH, and never in MpH?

Cupramax

10,469 posts

251 months

Wednesday 22nd June 2016
quotequote all
Doofus said:
I can't see a topic for the On The Road series, and I don't want to start one, in case it already exists.

I've just watched a couple of these on Quest, so it may not be new or recent. Mike bought a cheapo thing in India, and later, he took a Camaro to Dubai.

Anyway; throughout the entire thing, he converts pounds, or Euro or Kroner or whatever into USD. So there's obviously a US market in mind for the show.

Why then does he continually talk about a car's top speed in KmH, and never in MpH?
You may just be several years late on this argument, its quite an old series, it wasnt aimed directly at the UK but Discoveries world channels hence Brewer spending most of the time converting km and dollars to pounds. Etc etc. There were just a few (thousand) posts hehe mentioning how irritating it was.

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Wednesday 22nd June 2016
quotequote all
Cupramax said:
There were just a few (thousand) posts hehe mentioning how irritating it was.
Oh. Sorry smile

vrsmxtb

2,002 posts

155 months

Friday 24th June 2016
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Smitters said:
I like that Panda... boxedin

Sorry - ETA:

rohrl said:
Edited by Smitters on Tuesday 21st June 16:29
Agreed, it looks perfect!

vrsmxtb

2,002 posts

155 months

Friday 24th June 2016
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Also I agree something doesn't quite feel right with this series.

The cars seem to be bought with very specific mods pre-decided, and to cater for the US audience, rather than the desire to restore a classic or much loved model - the Mustang drag car, the hipster Pick-Up, the survivalist/prepper LR. That said the standard of these cars is still very high, although I'm not convinced Edd C is as involved as in the UK series'.


ClockworkCupcake

74,393 posts

271 months

Friday 24th June 2016
quotequote all
vrsmxtb said:
Also I agree something doesn't quite feel right with this series.

The cars seem to be bought with very specific mods pre-decided, and to cater for the US audience, rather than the desire to restore a classic or much loved model - the Mustang drag car, the hipster Pick-Up, the survivalist/prepper LR. That said the standard of these cars is still very high, although I'm not convinced Edd C is as involved as in the UK series'.
How involved was Edd ever though? Don't get me wrong - his credentials are solid and he has done some proper builds. But I see him more as the front man of a team of mechanics and he has said so in the past too.

But I agree that this series has been rather odd and seldom had a credible buyer.

Marty Funkhouser

5,426 posts

180 months

Friday 24th June 2016
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That land rover ep is the first one I've ever binned after ten mins.

RIP Wheeler Dealers

Zippee

13,439 posts

233 months

Saturday 25th June 2016
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I really wanted to like that LR, had they at least painted it I'd have loved to have owned it. Some great ideas and a lot of work gone into it - a huge shame so much work was not shown, to appeal to the American audience it's more acting and less mechanics which is a real shame.

Beati Dogu

8,861 posts

138 months

Saturday 25th June 2016
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Are they going to start wearing wear black t-shirts and cover themselves in tattoos for American audiences too?

rohrl

8,711 posts

144 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
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Beati Dogu said:
Are they going to start wearing wear black t-shirts and cover themselves in tattoos for American audiences too?
At least one of them will need a beard and a facial piercing.

smn159

12,445 posts

216 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
quotequote all
Beati Dogu said:
Are they going to start wearing wear black t-shirts and cover themselves in tattoos for American audiences too?
Plenty of space on Mike if they do take that route