I don't think it could be RWD, as the engine had to sit transversely. The platform underpinned the Jaguar X-Type, and they were originally only available as 4WD because Jaguar didn't want to sell a FWD car (they relented when the X-Type sold like shit).

Agreed. As an automotive design student, it's a fucking mess. Daylight Opening way too small (look at the side view with Gilles in it, he looks like a giant in a clown car), gap between top of the wheel arches to the top of the wings (fenders) too big, and the headlights look lost.

It also needs a proper stylus (ie. non-capacitive) and the ability to create at 300dpi. I know the original Sketchbook on the iPad couldn't do this, I don't know about the new ones.

Don't worry, I visited the Museum of the Moving Image in NY last month and was shocked to find out RCA had single handedly been responsible for bringing television to the masses and all it's subsequent developments. I wonder what the BBC were doing all that time? Starching their bow-ties and fitting plums in their…

And he has bought the live rights to F1 in the UK, meaning that not all the races are free to air on the BBC now.

When I land a job in the design department at GM I am *so* rocking up for my first day at work in one of those.

That is an extremely cool helmet, and I wear an Arai Haga rep. I would so rock that, just to be different from everyone else.

"Before I open this, don't get your hopes up. I was pressed for time."

When I emigrate to the US the first container over is going to be bringing me an early MkIII 2.8 Injection and a MKII Escort RS2000 :)

You'd probably have an easier time finding one over here (the UK), but they are well-deserved classics now and it won't be cheap. They are however reasonably available.

This lovely young lady says hi.

The sooner the machines rise and take care of us, the better. As a species, we're doomed.

Yeah, the standard 2.8/2.9 were not particularly quick, but the 24v could hitch up it's skirts and get a move on. I can attest the early 825/827 Rovers were sub 8 seconds to 60 - my best friend had an '88 and at the time it was the quickest thing any of us had been in - later models grew catalytic converters and…

If it makes any difference, the Scorpio/Granada also could also be ordered with full-time 4WD (it might even have been standard, I honestly can't recall) and later facelifted models could be hade with a boot, and an updated 2.9 Cologne V6 with 24V Cosworth heads.....

Swap passports? I'm in the UK and would gladly trade (in fact I'm currently studying like mad to make myself more emigratable and the US is where I'm headed).

The Sierra was sold in the US as the Merkur XR4Ti, in effect an XR4i with the V6 replaced with a 2.3 turbocharger 'Pinto' OHC - the car you have there is the Ford Scorpio/Granada, introduced sometime after the Sierra in 1985. It was called the Granada in the UK - everywhere else it was the Scorpio (although if memory…

Funny how time changes perceptions. I remember when the NSX came out, the driving experience and build quality were praised (the super car that drives like a Civic, your Gran could drive it etc.) but compared to it's contemporary the Ferrari 348 (which I think is a cruelly forgotten car now) it was criticised as bland…

"Harley Earl....would put fins on a refrigerator or a television" - Raymond Loewy.

That start is from a completely different Grand Prix, possibly even the year before judging by the colours of the Williams Hondas.

IIRC, it was originally a van engine. To be fair though, 95hp for a 2.0 four cylinder in the seventies was about par - a Ford OHC 2.0 Pinto made about the same in the Capri, Cortina and Granada, and about 110bhp in the MkII Escort RS2000.