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[Ever Ready]

Sitting here enjoying a few well earned snifters and thinking about days gone by with regard to car maintenance

As much as I like the innovations of modern motoring ie ABS, traction control, air con etc I often wish it was like the 'good old days' when you were changing points and plugs every 6000 miles, diagnosing an intermittent misfire by either watching your ht leads in the dark looking for tracking or if you were a snob using a Gunsons strobe light and of course the luxury of actually being able to work in an engine bay without feeling you were a gynaecologist  working on the Enterprise

I have many happy memories of rear wheel drive cars trying to put you in a ditch if you drove a little too spiritedly

On the whole I like modern cars, I just don't like the fact that they can be so bloody expensive/awkward and downright difficult to pin point a fault especially an intermittent one

[TheBoy]

I've you drove an oldie now, you'd understand the progress.

Even in their day, things like Cortinas were poor handling, and horrendously slow.

[Ever Ready]

They sure were TB 

On the positive side you could snap a cam belt and fit a new one without a worry that you had munched the valves etc  biggest problem in the early days of the Pinto was getting hold of the 12 point spline tool for the head bolts The CVH engine on the other hand was a right P O S

No doubt they were slow compared to modern beasts but they did not overly flatter an average driver

Drive a mk3 Cortina quickish in the wet and you spent a lot of time looking out of the side windows   boiled the brake fluid in a few of them during a  'test' drive

I remember driving an XR4i Sierra when they came out   2.8rwd with no grip at all.  If I remember correctly the police down south somewhere stopping using them as they kept ending up in hedges backwards, must have had delusions of being a 911

[TheBoy]

I remember driving an XR4i Sierra when they came out   2.8rwd with no grip at all.

I'm not quite sure how Ford managed to get so little power from a large engine. Maybe it was because the chassis was absolute pants.

I recall a day when I was a passenger in one, we were out accelerated by a (much newer) Orion 1.6 that we were racing around Silverstone (much to the annoyance of security there), and ended up in a gravel trap trying to catch back up.  I recall the driver being miffed as I was screaming to keep the power down to get out of the gravel trap (as security were bearing down on us), and the driver almost crying as he'd only got it back from a respray about 2 weeks earlier.

Youth, irresponsibility, freedom. I miss them, but not the shit cars!

[chrisgixer]

Eee when I where a lad


The old stuff holds no emotion for me. It's all shite to drive.

Where's the cut off point though not sure. (Y2k? ) fuel injection was a turning point IMO.

From both points of view probably

[Ever Ready]

The Cologne v6 was always a bit weedy, I personally blame the siamesed exhaust ports, Essex 3.0 all the way although it only made 134bhp if memory serves, if I remembered the Cologne engine was favoured due to weight or politics, who knows with Ford management

The worst thing about the poxy Cologne was its nylon (read shitty plastic timing gears)

I am quite sure you remember the Sierra Cosworth was praised for getting 200bhp from a two litre four pot, nothing now but it was thought of as fabby back in the dark ages,  although in original two wheel drive form it would 'ave you as soon as look at you

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

I remember driving an XR4i Sierra when they came out   2.8rwd with no grip at all.

I'm not quite sure how Ford managed to get so little power from a large engine. Maybe it was because the chassis was absolute pants.

I recall a day when I was a passenger in one, we were out accelerated by a (much newer) Orion 1.6 that we were racing around Silverstone (much to the annoyance of security there), and ended up in a gravel trap trying to catch back up.  I recall the driver being miffed as I was screaming to keep the power down to get out of the gravel trap (as security were bearing down on us), and the driver almost crying as he'd only got it back from a respray about 2 weeks earlier.

Youth, irresponsibility, freedom. I miss them, but not the shit cars!

Same lump as the Capri 2.8 injection (160 BHP) A friend of mine had the version with the 5 speed box and such was the lack of torque compared to the old 3 litre 'Essex lump' that fifth gear was all but useless.

[Ever Ready]

Eee when I where a lad


The old stuff holds no emotion for me. It's all shite to drive.

Where's the cut off point though not sure. (Y2k? ) fuel injection was a turning point IMO.

From both points of view probably

Aye, fuel injection and turbos was more than likely the watershed moment

[TheBoy]

Eee when I where a lad


The old stuff holds no emotion for me. It's all shite to drive.

Where's the cut off point though not sure. (Y2k? ) fuel injection was a turning point IMO.

From both points of view probably

Apart from my first car and the Nova I famously "found" in my garage, all my own cars have been injection. I detest carbs with a passion, mainly because they are a sod to set up if you have more than 1.  I think the same with bikes, although every bike I've owned has had poxy carbs on

[Ever Ready]

I remember driving an XR4i Sierra when they came out   2.8rwd with no grip at all.

I'm not quite sure how Ford managed to get so little power from a large engine. Maybe it was because the chassis was absolute pants.

I recall a day when I was a passenger in one, we were out accelerated by a (much newer) Orion 1.6 that we were racing around Silverstone (much to the annoyance of security there), and ended up in a gravel trap trying to catch back up.  I recall the driver being miffed as I was screaming to keep the power down to get out of the gravel trap (as security were bearing down on us), and the driver almost crying as he'd only got it back from a respray about 2 weeks earlier.

Youth, irresponsibility, freedom. I miss them, but not the shit cars!

Same lump as the Capri 2.8 injection (160 BHP) A friend of mine had the version with the 5 speed box and such was the lack of torque compared to the old 3 litre 'Essex lump' that fifth gear was all but useless.

I remember the original advert for the 2.8i showing lightning bolts etc

[TheBoy]

I am quite sure you remember the Sierra Cosworth was praised for getting 200bhp from a two litre four pot, nothing now but it was thought of as fabby back in the dark ages,  although in original two wheel drive form it would 'ave you as soon as look at you

Fancied a Sierra Cossie at the time (in Saphire form) until I drove one (hatchback, admittedly). Bloody quick if you had it in the right gear, but if you were caught out in the wrong gear, anything would eat your for breakfast. The insurance for an 19yr old without a garage also added to the decision to get something more modest...

...glad I didn't get one, given my subsequent issue with Fords.

[Ever Ready]

Eee when I where a lad


The old stuff holds no emotion for me. It's all shite to drive.

Where's the cut off point though not sure. (Y2k? ) fuel injection was a turning point IMO.

From both points of view probably

Apart from my first car and the Nova I famously "found" in my garage, all my own cars have been injection. I detest carbs with a passion, mainly because they are a sod to set up if you have more than 1.  I think the same with bikes, although every bike I've owned has had poxy carbs on

Eeee when I were a lad you would have sold yer granny for a pair of Weber 40's  or Dellorto's if you were a flash git

they were bloody awful to set up, twin choke were not to bad but Weber 40's

Now if you want to really grind your gears then Triple webers on a Swaymar manifold for a 3.0 Essex v6 was the way to go

[TheBoy]

My (limited) knowledge of Fords is from my 2nd oldest bro, and the mods he made to his (proper) Escort.

He worked at Tickfords for a while, and often got to "borrow" cars. Even then, how some of these tuned up Fords were so slow was amazing.

Now that Metro turbo he borrowed from the boss's missus, that was mental...   ...until it saw a corner or needed to stop. What a little rocket.

[05omegav6]

Bosch mechanical injection, even on a '73 Merc 450 SE, was exponentially superior to the shitty Solex Carbs with automatic choke as fitted to the non injection Cologne V6

It would have been criminal for Ford not to fit it to the 2.8i

[chrisgixer]

Eee when I where a lad


The old stuff holds no emotion for me. It's all shite to drive.

Where's the cut off point though not sure. (Y2k? ) fuel injection was a turning point IMO.

From both points of view probably

Apart from my first car and the Nova I famously "found" in my garage, all my own cars have been injection. I detest carbs with a passion, mainly because they are a sod to set up if you have more than 1.  I think the same with bikes, although every bike I've owned has had poxy carbs on

Eeee when I were a lad you would have sold yer granny for a pair of Weber 40's  or Dellorto's if you were a flash git

they were bloody awful to set up, twin choke were not to bad but Weber 40's

Now if you want to really grind your gears then Triple webers on a Swaymar manifold for a 3.0 Essex v6 was the way to go

Ooh now on bikes its tother way IMO, carbs where at the end of their development, and EFI was the new kid on the block. And the early efforts with EFI where shocking. Trying to feed in fuel injection smoothly on the power in the rain while cranked over was a very tentative affair, due to a very snatchy delivery. So much so that the apex had long since sailed by.