1980's Autocar and Whatcar? Road Tests scans

[NiceCupOfTea]

Brilliant stuff - just spent an hour reading the 3 Saab 900 tests! Interesting to see some of the contradictions in the reviews - one praised the excellent ventilation and heating, another criticised it!

Interesting looking back 20+ years though - 180bhp was serious power, and 0-60 of 8 secs was epic!

[Marquis_Rex]

Shropshiremike said:

Marquis_Rex said:

Thank you very much.

No E21 BMW though

You after the 323i test? Such as 'Motor' did on 27/5/78?

I have it somewhere in my mess, but cheers

[Shropshiremike]

NiceCupOfTea said:

Brilliant stuff - just spent an hour reading the 3 Saab 900 tests! Interesting to see some of the contradictions in the reviews - one praised the excellent ventilation and heating, another criticised it!

It's also interesting to see how cars that were praised as best in their class 20 years ago are now considered rubbish.....and vice versa!

[Marquis_Rex]

Shropshiremike said:

NiceCupOfTea said:

Brilliant stuff - just spent an hour reading the 3 Saab 900 tests! Interesting to see some of the contradictions in the reviews - one praised the excellent ventilation and heating, another criticised it!

It's also interesting to see how cars that were praised as best in their class 20 years ago are now considered rubbish.....and vice versa!

As far as I recall the E21 323i was slated for being 'rough' would you believe, and the ventilation controls were slagged off and the engine was called non-torquey. Autocar in their infinite wisdom also questioned BMW for developing a straight six when they thought the 4 cylinders were good enough. In retrospect this is complete bks and the UK was the only country where it got this reception. This is why certain arrogant motoring journalists annoy me. To Autocar/Motors credit, when the pansys in Scandinavia who cant drive slatted the E21s tail happy handling- they defended its handling

[dockertrigger]

topless_mx5 said:

Nice ST24

Thanks!, sadly it had to go due to the depressing fuel bills Was a nice car though.

NiceCupOfTea said:

Brilliant stuff - just spent an hour reading the 3 Saab 900 tests! Interesting to see some of the contradictions in the reviews - one praised the excellent ventilation and heating, another criticised it!

Interesting looking back 20+ years though - 180bhp was serious power, and 0-60 of 8 secs was epic!

Check out the BMW 3.0S Scan I've done, that was 37 odd years ago and was doing them times!.

downthepub said:

Cheers for that, you deserve a pint for all that hard work! Nice reading the Autocar test from 1988 of what I have parked outside!

Defo bookmark this one

Cheers, Mines a Beck Vier!

[NiceCupOfTea]

Marquis_Rex said:

pansys in Scandinavia who cant drive

etc.

[monthefish]

NiceCupOfTea said:

Marquis_Rex said:

pansys in Scandinavia who cant drive

etc.

You've just proved his point - out of 5 examples, only one of them driving in a nice, safe manner, with all four wheels in contact with the ground and no reckless 'skidding'.


( )

In their defence, it's not the 'Eastern-European flick' is it?

[NiceCupOfTea]

There's a great old-style TG interview with Eric "on the roof" Carlsson on YouTube - he says the reason he drove so balls out was that it was really obvious from the 2-stroke engine note when you lifted off and people said you weren't trying hard enough!

[dockertrigger]

Just thought I'd bump this thread!

I've updated the road tests a lot lately and now starting to scan in all my Motor magazine tests.

Remember you have to log in to see the pages in full, readable size.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/coll...

[dockertrigger]

Me again, Been a while since I've added to this thread, Thought I'd add that I'm now slowing scanning and uploading all my CAR magazine tests, I have every issue from 1983 to a few months back so i have a lot to go though!.

All the CAR tests so far uploaded are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/coll...

Thank You

[dom180]

dockertrigger said:

Me again, Been a while since I've added to this thread, Thought I'd add that I'm now slowing scanning and uploading all my CAR magazine tests, I have every issue from 1983 to a few months back so i have a lot to go though!.

All the CAR tests so far uploaded are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/coll...

Thank You

Excellent stuff. Thank you.

Car (pre-EMAP) was so good - any magazine publisher should read old copies to see how it should be done imho.

[TheD]

I've just had a look and I must say, you sir have made a tremendous effort and I would take my hat off to you if I had one.

[hairykrishna]

Thanks again. I've wiled away a good chunk of time reading these.

[j123]

"Car (pre-EMAP) was so good - any magazine publisher should read old copies to see how it should be done imho. "

That would take lots of hard work and a true interest in communicating ideas to readers. J

[supertouring]

Found your FlickR account when I was looking for some Group-B stuff recently - excellent stuff.

I see Car mag have brought out an "80s Road tests" book featuring period articles, tests and adverts. Brings back lots of memories.

I was thinking a dedicate website is needed where people can upload their own scans to share. Would be a fantastic resource but not sure of the copyright issues.

THere were those Transport Books at one point, which featured photocopies of various old articles, so suprised if there would be an issue.

Edited by supertouring on Saturday 5th December 22:38

[dockertrigger]

I have the 60's & 70's CAR book, It's a good read, I doubt i bother buying the 80's book though as i have nearly all the issues from the 80's of CAR!.

It would be nice to of made a proper website with all my scans but i haven't clue how to make websites plus i was worried about the copyright thing so just stuck with flickr, Seems to work well.

[davidspooner]

I've just spent an hour browsing - brilliant, thankyou so much. I really appreciate it.

As a gesture of thanks i'll donate £5 to a charity of your choice. Post the charity and I hope others will pop a quid in here and there if they feel equally greatful.

Currently on the "Britain's finest" article. How things have changed!

[davidspooner]

I can't help drawing attention to this nugget (From the Allegro vs Astra vs Orion):

"What driver, when walking away from his Allegro Vanden Plas, could fail to cast a proud glance back at this lean and seductive machine"

Here it is... REVIEW

[dockertrigger]

My word that is a very kind gesture!

It's nice to be given some gratitude for doing the scans due to the amount of time it takes and effort involved, Sometimes i wonder if it's worth it but then I'll get a comment from someone that makes it worth it and yours is one of them.

If you feel the need to make a donation then i would chose the East Anglian Air Ambulance or Essex Air Ambulance, They helped to try and save my grandmothers life a few years ago (Sadly she never made it though) as well as 1000's of other people, A charity close to my heart.

http://www.angliaone.org.uk/make-a-donation.asp

https://www.essexairambulance.uk.com/

Kind Regards

Edited by dockertrigger on Sunday 6th December 01:05

Edited by dockertrigger on Sunday 6th December 01:06

[davidspooner]

It's not kind at all - I'll grab the address tomorrow and stick a fiver in the post.

I've just spent the last couple of hours reading the reviews you scanned so it's the least I can do (autocar takes me about 30 mins).

Thanks for going to the effort of allowing us to enjoy them, I really do appreciate it!

Edited to add: you don't even need post anymore. Good stuff.

Edited by davidspooner on Sunday 6th December 01:14