November 2018
Just a few corrections; MSD were not the "driving force behind Vauxhall's Touring Car outfit".
MSD were in fact at the time running the Honda Accords in the BTCC, the BTCC Vauxhalls were run by RML (Ray Mallock).
What MSD did have however, was the contract to build the fleet of cars for the supporting Vauxhall Vectra V6 SRi challenge; a support race category at BTCC race weekends (it is the 'Celebrity/Guest car' you can see in the photo alongside the ST road car above).
The cars in the Vectra Challenge were all identically-built 2.5 V6 Vectras, with 17" Speedline wheels - and it is these Challenge cars that the Super Touring road cars ape; not the BTCC Vectras (which ran much larger 20-spoke wheels). The only slightly different car in the Vectra Challenge was Mark Ticehurst's Calor-sponsored car, which ran on LPG.
The series winner was given a BTCC test run at the end of the year.
Ricky Collard graduated from the Vectra challenge to the BTCC, likewise (briefly), Flavio Figueiredo who stood in for John Cleland in 1998 when he suffered broken ribs. Read more
Used to be a red one near me with big spoke alloys on, Ferrari at first glance Read more
As the forum's self-appointed Land Rover nerd, just thought i'd make a few corrections to HJ's recent article, (classics.honestjohn.co.uk/news/comment/2018-11/fut.../ ) which hopefully he'll appreciate. as we are all here to learn about cars after all. Here goes:
1) "In 2005, the Range Rover had a major facelift, to effectively remove as much of the BMW content as possible. The engines were replaced by Ford-PSA’s 2.7-litre TDV6 diesel" ... Read more
Exactly, the purpose of this thread isn’t to debate whether an L322 is a future classic or even a good buy. Just correcting HJ and hoping he’ll fact check a bit more in future.
A Rover engineer once told me it was the worst car he had ever driven. The later post-receivership black facia models are better but Rover senior management ignored what its engineers were telling them about what could and needed to be done - it might not have cost much since as a relatively new manufacturer Tata wanted to improve its products to a global standard. The body design was by Guigaro and is not dissimilar to the South American Fiat Palio. Rover also screwed up by selling it for too high a price. With a bit of development and a K series engine it could have been a good car and delivered Rover into Tata ownership along with JLR. It's also commonly thought that Rover overstretched the brand and should have badged it as an Austin. It seems even more ironic that the Phoenix team abandoned the CityRover and looked seriously at reintroducing the Metro based 100. Read more
It may have been on Top Gear but there was a 'Top of the range' model which featured a pearlescent paint job and cost a bomb. For nearly the same price you could pick up a nearly new Focus.
I've found two for sale under 1k on Autotrader - anyone feeling lucky?...
Is there a delay for checking before private classifieds appear in the Classics section? I spent a while at the weekend posting an ad with lots of photos, but there's no sign of it when I search for the car here as though I was a buyer. Read more
That's rot free apart from the rear wheelarch and brakes mentioned in 4 MOT failures... Read more
I’ve just sold my Supercharged L322 for the only car that can come close to replacing it. A L405 supercharged!
The new car isn’t as big a leap forward as the L322 was but the aluminium construction makes it a sports car in comparison. But the old car is a design classic and I’d have one again, with fewer miles than the one I sold Read more
The information above concerning the diesel engine is incorrect. The BMW 3 litre engine continued in the L322 until the Ford V8 was introduced in 2006 for the 2007 model year. The V6 2.7 never made it into the L322 and was only fitted to the cut & shut Discovery renamed the Range Rover Sport. I know as I was one of the 10 UK customers driving around in the L322 V8 prototype before the launch as part of L-R's product development. This was a very real process and I know two of my suggestions were incorporated into the production models.
The hand built engine in the prototype was a dream and the car went like a cruise missile, certainly not for inexperienced hands. However, all the production versions fell well short of the prototype experience and it was not until the 4.4 V8 that the production models came close helped by the 8 speed ZF. Having driven them all I agree with your other correspondent that thi is the one to own and keep. And yes I am taking my own advice.
That must have been the slowest car chase in modern history! What were they chasing it with, Police pursuit mopeds? Read more
lol u just couldnt make it up could ya a minor stolen must be going to a collector not for bank jobs
Hi honest JOHN, I WANT TO BUY THIS HAVE YOU CONTACT DETAILS PLEASE....... Read more
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