Think I saw this in Goldfinger

Looks like they disappear into the bulkhead. I suspect they might be piping exhaust sound to the cabin, though I don’t know why you’d need two of them.

You’re talking about a Seebeck generator. The problem is that they’re very inefficient, and only start to generate useful power with high temperature gradients. The temps in an automotive application could only generate a few watts.

Apparently used car prices are low in the UK compared to other countries. Which is weird because new cars are way more expensive here than in the US. Those were low-to-mid prices I saw looking at Pistonheads classifieds briefly - I’m sure you could pay more if you wanted pristine examples.

Presumably you could snap one up and remap it to give similar performance to the 320d.

Weird, all the VAG platforms are so modular you would think they could just slap the Golf R’s drivetrain in there.

That much on the used market? Looks like you could get an E36 in the UK for £5-7k, an E46 for £10-15, and a E90/92 for £25-30. I’m not saying it would be cheap but that’s still less than a new Cayman, say.

That’s a beautiful car.

Google.

In Europe people get things like that as company cars, and the reasons for the pathetic engines are usually to do with tax.

Really useful having those rear doors!

That’s actually not crazy money, if you were to buy them all used today. Main problem with E36s is finding one in decent condition, I imagine the few that are left intact will begin to appreciate soon.

My neighbour has one, caged for trackdays. Sounds good on a cold start.

Modern BMWs look really weird without Euro-style front plates.

This is the later version, the first ones looked even crazier:

Do you know how the MJ/lap hybrid energy allowance is measured on a purely mechanical flywheel system like this?

The R isn’t AWD like the Golf R?

A thousand times yes. I remember asking Justin who used to run the StreetSafari banger rallies about it, but this was in about 2009 and it was very hard to get people to spend money frivolously back then.

Pretty sure that’s a tricycle.

Yeah, it’s a late phase 2 V6, basically identical to this one: