Hah, I wouldn’t call an RV8 more reliable than any other British engine at the time. There were definitely some better (although a lot worse!).

I remember reading reviews praising the Trans Am getting 200bhp from 6.6l in a similar time period. Oh, and the Mustang with 140bhp from 5.0l.

The V12 isn’t a bad engine at all, it’s just the wrong engine for the car. They tried to tailor the E-Type for the American market (hence the bigger engine, LWB and automatic).

I’m thinking that by spinning Ferrari off they’re opening headspace for Maserati to expand upwards. That’s my thoughts anyway, but it’ll take a couple of years for that idea to bear fruit so we’ll see.

That argument depends on whether autonomous cars actually decrese the number of vehicles on the road, or whether they would bring personal automotive transport to a whole population of people who would otherwise be restricted.

Yeah I’m already waaay past that ;)

Nice :) glad to hear the 4-speed’s nice as that’s what will be going in my second Spitfire (behind an 1850 Slant 4 from a Dolomite).

Nice list :) What was the Spitfire like?

I think there’s a conflation here of two concepts when it comes to modifying cars.

This is, hands down, the best article I’ve read in bloody ages.

Didn't stop the Japanese in the 60s/70s. Doubt it will stop the Chinese.

Agreed, especially when you compare them to most 60s/early 70s cars modified to meet 5mph crash standards. Most just stuck diving-board-length bumpers on the front and rear and called it a day.

Wahey :) i love this story

Just shows a lack of gumption on the part of the 300 million ;)

From what I’ve read the ‘mechanic’s worst nightmare’ doesn’t really apply so much any more. Or rather, my point is that they’re at the very least no more unreliable than cars that have good reputations.

How much of that is due to familiarity though? Swap the circumstances over here and you might find it difficult to find an indy mechanic that knows what they’re doing with a C4 Corvette...

Yeah true, and I do get that a bad reputation for something tends to stick around for a very long time. What doesn’t make sense to me is judging that a Jaguar XF from 2016 must be unreliable based on the reputation of a car from the 1970s designed by different engineers, built by different factory-workers (who are…

Bugger I thought this hadn’t posted as I knew I’d get a backlash with this :S seeing as we’re here though...

3rd gear: Remind me why the Brits and Italians have a reputation for poor engineering again?

It's the same for my Alfa 156 V6. I connect 3 hose clips together and tighten them around the filter, then push on the adjusters with a socket and extension to turn the filter.