Was anyone else's first thought "can I keep the V6 and still sell off $2,300 worth of bits"? If so, NP...

@vavon205: oops, I did...

@vavon205: I did mention the Arna below, but your post is bigger and better (and hence got featured). The Arna is like the automotive version of the old joke:

Alfa Arna. Combined 80s Japanese econobox (Nissan Pulsar) design and performance with Italian build quality and electrics.

@tintern: The S60R (300 horsepower T-6) and that's about it. Possibly also the C30.

@Plasma X: A fully-electric car should have enough torque for a single-speed...

@tekdemon:

@Elhigh: I've moved cars with rowers a couple of times- although this being in Britain, some of the calls were different (for instance, we say strokeside and bowside instead of port and starboard) and the cars were smaller.

Here in the UK, we already have some of the things a lot of you want- a difficult driving test (taken in a manual car, and requiring knowledge of how it works), mandatory re-testing once you're past the age of 70, bans on cell-phones and texting while driving, it's a lot easier to register interesting/foreign vehicles…

@MaWeiTao: The Germans move their models upmarket too- look at a Golf Mk1 next to a Golf Mk6- or, heck, a modern Polo...

Westfield SEiGHT- a Lotus Seven clone with a fibreglass body and a Rover (or TVR) V-8.

Does this mean that the UK will still have Chryslers? They're sold here and Lancias aren't after the disintegrating-Beta fiasco of the 1980s.

@Ben Wojdyla: Right, so probably a better comparison would be the X-15, which still took only 3 1/2 years from request for proposals to flight.

Some British forces use 530d's or 535d's as pursuit cars. On the other hand, British police cars are less heavy as they're not expected to transport prisoners or shunt wrecked cars off the road.

@BlackIce_GTS: Why the V12? That's just a warmed-over BMW motor. What you want is the Six-and-Three-Quarter SYL V8- power output "sufficient".

Buick/Olds/Rover V8. Has powered everything from Lotus 7 replicas to family sedans to trucks, and anything that won't hustle with one (this includes the TVR version) is too heavy to drive fast. Also, it's lighter than some 4-cylinder engines.

@tekdemon: Have you taken the UK test? It's hard- and clutch control is part of what you're marked on. You can fail by stalling the car, and "jerking like crazy" will rack up loads of minors (demerits in US-speak). Also, parallel-parking in a manual is a lot harder...

@Jagvar: Any museum which has a Stradivarius or the like will have someone come in every so often to take it out of its glass case, tune it up and play it. Violins deteriorate if not played, as they're held together by the tension in the strings. We should do the same with old cars.

@SS-K2913: Not quite true in the UK- you can choose to take your test in an automatic, it's just that if you do so you will only be allowed to drive an automatic until you retake your test in a manual. This is a problem, as the vast majority of cars on the road are manual- so that's what you'll get if you rent a car…

@Kelan Adachi: There's a 4x4 Panda (which the 500 is based on), but there's no sporting version...