You are extremely lucky you didn't end up with an Integrale. Yes they are absolute riot to drive, and you'd be very hard pushed to find more thrill for the buck, but in my ten years of being a car journo, i am yet to see an example that was working properly. Owners tell the car needs huge piles of cash, and even with…

So this is what you mean, a Samurai from 1988

They work very well, yes. They eat up brakes very fast though, and that's what the complaint is about. I once set the previous Mini Cooper JCW brakes on fire, with spirited driving on a switchback road, because i was using the brakes into the turn, and the brake-operated LSD used them out of the turn, so they didn't…

I doubt the veracity of that, not leat because the Samurai was already something like the 3rd generation of the Suzuki kei truck, and they inherited the design from another company, who originally got it out before 1970. So maybe the other way around?

an 1.5 engine making 130 hp??? That's ace.

I'm sorry, but your argument about the tires is invalid. Drivability in the snow has a lot to do with tires. I agree you can make up some of that difference with talent, but there's a huge difference between "getting there, just" at an average 10mph and "pulling glorious oppo on the way there" at an average of, say,…

Oh ok, i get your point, you're saying the MKII was the first of the mid-size sports sedans, that is today epitomized by the BMW 5 Series. As i'm not that well-versed in cars made in or before the 1950s, i don't know if there was anything before the MKII, that can be billed such, so you might have a point there. I…

The MK II has live axle the last time i checked. And the S-Type had 6cyl engines too, was RWD, and with the right setup, was a pretty good drivers car in its own right. No, i think this is one lineage BMW hasn't got much to do with.

I always thought the C30

I just realized the other day, that the S-Type is basically a reinterpretation of this, the MK II. Yeah, i know i'm slow.

Am i the only person in this great wide Earth, who thought to himself when sitting in a model S for the very first time: oh, Mercedes switchgear.

As one of the import crowd - although i have suggested a type that was available as new in the States, just in lesser tune - I am most satisfied with your choice, and looking forward to your reports about this endeavor. I also know very little about Skylines - there aren't that many in continental Europe either,…

I'm not sure, but i have a feeling we already saw this vid on Jalopnik a couple years back. Whatever, righteous snowdrift with banger-status European sedans is my winter special, so i could re-watch it every season without getting bored.

I would nominate both the MR2 and the Miata. I know they are great auto-X weapons after a few mods, and i also know very well, having driven one, that the MR2 can become a track monster after another layer of mods, but as factory, OEM, original & vanilla? Great, lovely on the street, but on a proper track you'll feel…

One thing to note that you didn't mention: print titles proliferated in the last couple of decades. I'm not old enough, and born on the wrong side of the iron curtain to know, but i'm told by wiser types that back in the olden days, when print ruled, you had like three major titles on the newsstand sharing this cake -…

Peugeot 505 2.0 carb from 1986, manual, with stickers - 61-70% Jalop. About right since it hasn't got enough horses.

Not only do I not despise the idea of a Roller SUV, I'm downright excited about the prospect.

When i was a wee lad (in journalistic terms), one of my very first assignments had me as a passenger in a Dakar-prepped, rally-raid Nissan Pick-up. At the wheel? An infamous journalist-turned-racer, who had a very bad crash at a previous Dakar, that most people agreed showed lack of skill.

From a European perspective, two things.

TL:DR - there is history to this idea of journos receiving expensive gifts.