You might be right there.

'American press likes the new Mustang'

You're right, it wasn't all down to Rover, but BMW did little other than provide and engine and a set of design briefs (like the use of strut suspension rather than the double wishbones the Rover engineers were thinking of).

If it's engine issues then BMW's to blame.

While I love the idea of a rear engined K-Series pocket-rocket, I don't think it would have been as great of a success as the R50 either.

This is my absolute favourite. Not only is it a cool shirt on its own, it's got a really cool story to it. The word 'Garagisti' was a derogatory term, meaning 'shed-men', used by the old Italian brass of F1 to describe the upstart British teams coming into the sport. Upstarts that started winning.

Regarding holden, this quote comes to mind:

I have no issue whatsoever with FWD on smaller cars, and if it means more Alfas then I'm wholly behind it. Economies of scale are wonderful things, and they'd be foolish to throw away the very recently developed aluminium platform used in the Giulietta after using it for 2 cars.

Nah, it's just that some snotty prat on twitter said that the presenters had no idea when it was coming out, so Clarkson put him down.

I vote they do people-carrier Baja/Dakar-style races.

Me too :) I absolutely love the low-level cheap car challenges.

They should test a Baja Bug.

Volvo's done reasonably well under some shit Chinese no-name company...

Mine's treated me well. The only thing apart from planned maintenance to go wrong engine-wise is the MAF sensor (shared with BMWs of the era). If you get oil or grease in the airbox, it can gum up the little hot wire on the sensor and make it hunt around idle and hesitate up and down the rev range.

Just a plain Jane 2.5l V6. The GTA should sound even better :)

The Alfa V6 is known for being particularly sonorous. Moreso than the GM-based V6 in the 159 (I think that's different to the one used in Saabs too).

200kg might be a bit optimistic, but you've got to aim high. The factory had a go at lightening things in 2008, and revised the interior, dash and some alloy components which shed 45kg.

I really really want one. As far as road tests go, they seem to be a little on the heavy side for the usual Alfa sprightly handling. If I got one, it'd go on a severe diet. Hopefully I'd get a 3.2 V6 AWD one down from ~1600kg to ~1400kg. That'd make for a hell of a difference.

Agreed. A windsock would have been helpful, but it's still a good recording by youtube standards. Sounds great :)

Likewise here in the UK :) I can't wait until they finally release the new Giulia (if they do). Chances are it's not quite as pretty as these two, but it should still be a looker.