Motoring News

I am very much a German car lover, as you may have noticed by the amount of German Car of the week posts so far, but i do have a soft spot for a good Japanese car and that is reflected in this weeks COTW.

This week I have spotted a stunning, high spec Nissan Skyline R32 on Pistonheads and just had to have it as car of the week. I have had a thing for R32 Skylines for a while now, i love the look of a subtly styled R32 and can’t help but appreciate the technology underneath what is now an 18 year old car.

the R32 Skyline was created back in 1989 as a road-going race car designed by Nissan to win. The car was created for the Japan Touring Car Championship in group A, because of this Nissan had to make a full production version for the road and so the Nissan Skyline R32 was born.

The R32 features ATTESA E-TS 4wd system which was well before its time. The system works similarly to the new Golf R32 system as when the front end starts to loose grip an electronic multi-plate clutch feeds more power to the wheels from between 0-50% depending on the slip and lateral G-force. so as you start lose the car you get more 4wd so you gain more grip. The R32 also includes a 4 wheel steer system that delivers small counter steer movement to the rear wheels.

The power plant of the R32 is a twin turbo 2.6 litre 24 valve straight 6 pumping out 280bhp @ 6800rpm. With a weight of 1430kg and 4wd a standard R32 Skyline would see 60mph in only 5.6 second, which is still fast by today’s standards.

The R32 Skyline that i have picked out has seen quite a lot of work and has motor-sport inspired styling traits while still keeping a lot of the original style of the car. The car was built by Top Sercret in Japan and remapped by Tweenie Rob from TR Racing. I won’t list the spec of the car just because it would fill up most of the page, but the bottom line is the car has been built to a very high spec and standard and must be pushing out some very impressive figures. Enjoy the pics…

Nissan Skyline R32

Nissan Skyline R32 Side

Nissan Skyline R32 Rear

Nissan Skyline R32 Engine Bay

Another week goes by and no posts go up on the blog, I can only apologise for my laziness i have been on holiday in Spain. There has been plenty of news over the last couple of week about pot holes, new car, concept cars and much more, but that’ll have to wait. First comes Car of the Week.

This week I am righting about a type of car that i almost bought a couple of years ago, but instead I bought a VW Corrado G60 and ended up spending around £5k on it after it blew up, but that’s another story all together.

The Audi S2 was the follow on to the hugely successful Audi Quattro rally car of the 80′s, featuring the same style 2.2 20v 5 cylinder engine that made the road going coupes so very distinctive. The S2 can be found with two different engines, the early cars have the 2.2 20v 220bhp 3B version which came with a 5 speed box and the later cars came with a 2.2 20v 230bhp ABY engine with a 6 speed box. The differences between the two version continues to other pieces of trim and performance with the 220bhp 3B cars seeing 60mph 0.2 seconds faster then the more powerful ABY cars with a time of 0-60 in  5.7 seconds.

The car i have picked out is a coupe version of the car, which is slightly quicker then the Avant versions, but I personally think that the estate Avant S2′s are extremely cool. Once again the car is currently for sale on Pistonheads and is very well priced for such a great car.

This S2 is a ABY 1994 car in Emerald Green metallic paint with full black leather interior. The car has done 128k miles but it comes with full Audi service history and has a huge spec list of work done. The work done to the car is impressive and consists of a new race exhaust, H&R lowering springs, Audi S8 wheels, low compression head gasket, SR2 Turbo, Porsche brake upgrade (common mod on these cars) HID headlights and boost gauge. The car is currently running 309bhp but i would say that with some more tweaks to the spec (RS2 intercooler and inlet) with a remap some big power could be achieved quite easily.

The car is currently advertised for £4750, which considering the spec is pretty good.

There are several S2′s on Pistonheads at the moment with varying prices from £2.5k to upwards of £5k. These are rare, fast, underappreciated cars which are very cheap at the moment. If you are in the market for a car between £3k-5k I would seriously advise looking at an Audi S2.

Audi S2 Coupe

Audi S2 Coupe

Audi S2 Coupe Rear

This week’s Car of the Week is an obvious one, but well worth writing about all the same.

I found this car last week about 5 minutes after i posted about the Mercedes 190E Costworth that I found on Pistonheads and I knew that I just had to feature it as COTW. The car is a stunning example of the legendary first M3 made in the 80 ‘s. The car that has caught my eye is one of the best examples of the E30 M3 i have ever seen, with no expense spared in its up keep over the years and with all of the ‘right’ bits and pieces to make this car truly mint.

The M3 in question is a 1990 Jet black M3 Evolution, with only two UK owners since the import from Germany. As all other E30 M3′s the car is left hand drive, but you can’t let that put you off, as this only adds to the driving experience. The car has only 206333km on the clock (128k miles) with full service history to back it up.

The car is immaculate, the paint has been fully detailed so that you can see your perfect reflection in it, with no dents to spoil those timeless lines.  As i said, there has been no expense spare with this M3, with a new BMW fitted engine entering the car around 25k miles ago (due to an error when BMW fitted a recon head) and a stainless exhaust being fitted to replace the old standard one. Like the rest of the car the engine bay is spotless and looks like you could eat your dinner off it.

The interior of the car too looks like it did when the car left the factory. The black and red high back Recaros feature no wear or tear at all, and look just stunning in the car. The steering wheel is said to have ‘some wear’ but at least this shows that the car has been driven, unlike some other cars of this standard.

Enough of me talking about the car, enjoy these amazing photos.

BMW E30 M3

BMW E30 M3 trees

BMW E30 M3 Engine Bay

BMW E30 M3 Interior

Sorry that the car of the week post has slipped back to Wednesday this week, but I have been very busy in work so far this week so I have not found time to write anything on motoring-news. I am also planning a round up of the new cars planned for 2010 this week, but first.

This week I would like to pay tribue to a Cosworth. No, no, not one of those flared arched, whale tailed rusting heaps that are so very sought after by the baseball cap wearing ‘street racers’ (though I have a feeling that they Escort Cosworth is becoming a much cooler car then it has been in the past). The Cosworth i am talking about is the Mercedes 190E Cosworth. The 190E Cosworth is no where near as well known as its Ford cousin, but it too had the ‘wiz-kids’ at Cosworth to play with its 2.5 litre 4 cylinder 16v engine to a healthy 204bhp with 177 ft·lb of torque (this was the 80′s remember, that was good).

Though the 190E Cosworth enjoyed a what were to considered to be good power figures, the curb weight of 1320kg meant a power to weight ratio of only 155bhp/ton, reducing the 0-60 time a quick but far from amazing 7.7 seconds.

The Mercedes Cosworth may not have been the fastest car when it was built, but it did have excellent balance with very good chassis and suspension set-up, making the 190E handle like a dream.

There were not many 190E Cosworth Evolutions made, making finding a good example difficult and pricey, but i have notice a stunning example of the car on Pistonheads at the moment for £19,950. If you are looking for a retro cool late 80′s car with RWD that gives you loads of fun in the twisty bits then the Mercedes 190E Cosworth maybe perfect for you (certainly better then a used van). Take a look at the one for sale to see what i mean.

Mercedes 190e Cosworth Evolution

Mercedes 190e Cosworth Evolution rear

Mercedes 190e Cosworth Evolution side

Mercedes190e Cosworth Evolution interior

Mercedes 190e Cosworth Evolution engine bay