Probably the best automotive country in the world........

[Tamworthbay]

So which country is the best in terms of automotive excellence and development?

Uk - home of most F1 teams, some big names who were there at the start of car development.

Germany - arguably the originators of the car, home to some ‘premium’ makers and sports car behemoth Porsche

France - weird wonderful and what could be more beautiful than a Panhard?

Italy - Ferrari and Lamborghini homeland as well as the Rally giants Lancia and fix it again Tony’s Fiat makers of some of the worlds finest small cars

Japan - quality, if slightly dull, cars for masses and some crazy shit as well like some Kei cars

Sweden - Saab and its turbos, Volvo and it’s safety and antique dealer friendly

estates

Russia - utilitarian transport for the masses* (possibly, if you could get one)

USA - home of the straight road and enormous V engines of minimal power output but amazing sound.

 

So who is the best of the best?

[Guest Conan]

I think it's New Zealand. Because you can get all of above imported into a country which is made pure of amazing driving roads and scenery.

[Tamworthbay]

I think it's New Zealand. Because you can get all of above imported into a country which is made pure of amazing driving roads and scenery.

Could win the bike best with the utterly stunning Britten.

[Bazfr69]

Us of course.

[Junkman]

A Steyr Puch is certainly the pinnacle of automotivedom.

So you need to take one to New Zealand, because of the inherent lack of amazing driving roads, scenery and import cars in Austria.

The problem with New Zealand, however, is that it doesn't have a village named Fucking.

[Tamworthbay]

Scotland has a village called Twatt. And some great roads......

 

 

But England has Beer and the nearby Beer Head and Beer mines, and snake pass......

[Guest Conan]

A Steyr Puch is certainly the pinnacle of automotivedom.

So you need to take one to New Zealand, because of the inherent lack of amazing driving roads, scenery and import cars in Austria.

The problem with New Zealand, however, is that it doesn't have a village named Fucking.

 

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/mercedesbenz/auction-1955513084.htm?rsqid=d2396a2971b342e98c7989933229367c

 

How fucking much?!

[Junkman]

Does it have a Wank Mountain?

 

Only the Karawanks mountain range, does that count?

[Junkman]

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/mercedesbenz/auction-1955513084.htm?rsqid=d2396a2971b342e98c7989933229367c

 

How fucking much?!

 

What does an overpriced Mercedes wankmobile have to do with anything?

 

I was talking about the pinnacle of automotivedom.

 

[Guest Conan]

G-Wagon takes 6-litre of oil.

[pshome]

The Austrians are clearly ahead of the game.

They go ...

 

while we just 

 

after a bit of...

[Junkman]

G-Wagon takes 6-litre of oil.

 

So does a shitpile 230E.

[Junkman]

The Austrians are clearly ahead of the game.

They go ...

 

while we just 

wank.jpg

 

after a bit of...

petting.jpg

 

 

You also do this in Germany!

 

 

 

I think we just came up with quite a romantic tour:

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Wank,+Garmisch-Partenkirchen,+Germany/Kissing,+Germany/Petting,+Germany/5121+Fucking,+Austria/@47.9018117,11.2995194,9z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m28!4m27!1m5!1m1!1s0x479d07a20dc4203b:0x1b8c3deb7c210341!2m2!1d11.1436111!2d47.5072222!1m5!1m1!1s0x479e997d0b497391:0x41e48add78be870!2m2!1d10.972609!2d48.3027069!1m5!1m1!1s0x47767df707a81f7d:0x41d25a40937aba0!2m2!1d12.8162263!2d47.9127713!1m5!1m1!1s0x4775d4854dbcba19:0x802456ee60b72a17!2m2!1d12.8633177!2d48.0673299!2m1!1b1!3e0

 

Thus we have conclusively proven that the best automotive countries in the world are the State of Bavaria and Austria.

 

Why am I not surprised?

[Guest Conan]

 

Let's have a goal.

[LightBulbFun]

What does an overpriced Mercedes wankmobile have to do with anything?

 

I was talking about the pinnacle of automotivedom.

 

 

how about a vehicle with that engine but a transmission/gearbox you approve of? 

 

[pshome]

 

 

You also do this in Germany!

 

 

 

I think we just came up with quite a romantic tour:

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Wank,+Garmisch-Partenkirchen,+Germany/Kissing,+Germany/Petting,+Germany/5121+Fucking,+Austria/@47.9018117,11.2995194,9z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m28!4m27!1m5!1m1!1s0x479d07a20dc4203b:0x1b8c3deb7c210341!2m2!1d11.1436111!2d47.5072222!1m5!1m1!1s0x479e997d0b497391:0x41e48add78be870!2m2!1d10.972609!2d48.3027069!1m5!1m1!1s0x47767df707a81f7d:0x41d25a40937aba0!2m2!1d12.8162263!2d47.9127713!1m5!1m1!1s0x4775d4854dbcba19:0x802456ee60b72a17!2m2!1d12.8633177!2d48.0673299!2m1!1b1!3e0

 

Thus we have conclusively proven that the best automotive countries in the world are the State of Bavaria and Austria.

 

Why am I not surprised?

 

you forgot the last stop

[Asimo]

Well it isn't England any more.

 

Honda are off.    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47282603.     Damn shame.

[cort1977]

I can't decide on the merits of various countries engineering prowess but for shiters there is no better country than the UK.  Cars are cheaper to buy and own, roads are better for driving and regulations far more sensible than anywhere else.  Even the traffic and creeping big brother state do not outweigh these benefits.

 

Shite cars in America are expensive, the roads are mostly dull and the rules dangerously lax.

 

Mainland Europe has ridiculous restrictions despite some remarkably shitey cars.

 

Australia is regulation hell with a hatred of anything old or modified.

 

Japan doesn't even allow chod, once it gets too expensive to pass the Shaken it's shipped off to NZ, Russia or the UK.

 

The prosecution rests.

[pshome]

Mainland Europe has ridiculous restrictions despite some remarkably shitey cars.

 

Do we? Nobody told me.

[RayMK]

Czechoslovakia or whatever they call the bits now.  They gave us air cooled V8s, flat fours, rear engines, swing axles and rally class winners, and that's just the cars.  They pioneered independent suspension and air cooled V12s for HGVs.  I do, of course, acknowledge Austria's contribution to much of this by Hans Ledwinka.  Although I've not been there, I'm told that there is some stunning scenery in that area as well.

 

I have owned several rear engined Skodas and loved the way they handled.  In the 1980s I and a friend came close to buying a Tatra 603. Our respective wives applied common sense (mine wanted a new kitchen).  About 25 years ago there was a Tatra dealer at Fosters Booth, just a few miles down the road from where I live.  This presented me with more unachievable dreams, but I've got a brochure for the RHD Tim Bishop 613.

[Supernaut]

Scotland, duh!

 

I give you the Argyll Turbo GT.

 

 

It has a Rover 3.5 V8 shoved in it, with a turbo bolted on. It also has the suspension from a Triumph 2500 and the dashboard from a Volvo (SVM approved!).

 

It's also utterly shite. They only made two of them. The one in the photo is just up the road from me, in Alford.

[puddlethumper]

^^ Didn't Scotland build the v8 square sausage ? or am I confusing it with the v6 haggis.

[Tamworthbay]

Any country that deep fries mars bars can’t be all bad..........

[JeeExEll]

[hairnet]

Scotland, duh!

 

I give you the Argyll Turbo GT.

 

 

It has a Rover 3.5 V8 shoved in it, with a turbo bolted on. It also has the suspension from a Triumph 2500 and the dashboard from a Volvo (SVM approved!).

 

It's also utterly shite. They only made two of them. The one in the photo is just up the road from me, in Alford.

alexander dennis anaw (i know its only bodies but meh)

[JeeExEll]

^ I seem to remember a tangled-up connection between Argyll Cars from Lochgilphead and Minnow Fish carburettors. They may have been agents or something like that.

Reminds me of the 1970 Minnow Fish Avenger 'Highlander' Turbo.

(Yes, turbo!).

 

From a couple of years before the Tigers were built by Hillman. Have never seen one so can only assume they made very few of them. A limited amount of info on the net. Why wasn't it a success? I don't know, high cost possibly, or maybe technical issues.

 

Sorry, distraction from the main point of this thread. Out of the whole world we've temporarily landed at Lochgilphead. But someone may be interested.

Carry on

[Alusilber]

Scotland, duh!

 

I give you the Argyll Turbo GT.

 

 

It has a Rover 3.5 V8 shoved in it, with a turbo bolted on. It also has the suspension from a Triumph 2500 and the dashboard from a Volvo (SVM approved!).

 

It's also utterly shite. They only made two of them. The one in the photo is just up the road from me, in Alford.

 

 

Ah yes, the legendary Argyll. Good article here on the subject:

https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/argyll/turbo-gt/inside-story/

[JimH]

Italy. No other country quite got the motor car in the same way that Italy did. Sure you can point to many cars from Ferramboisoaserti but these were built in tiny numbers and made a great deal more noise than they should. No, what you need to marvel at are the Fiats, Lancias and Alfas that were given delicate watch-winder engines, sharp body work and innovative interiors. You may point to the fact that these cars tended to be a little fractious and weren't built for the long haul but that matters not. No other country did it quite like Italy. Why? I believe one of the major factors was that many Italians know how to dress.

 

Look at this picture of an Allard Clipper. Now, while it is hard to imagine a car more tragic than a Clipper try to drag your eyes away from the sorry mess of fibreglass and pity (FFS the front tyre is flat!) and look at the proud design team standing behind it. I know that this was not that long after the war and Britain was still a mess of demob and austerity but even by our low standards of the time these are not the best dressed people in the world.

 

 

Now look at this street scene complete with a Multipla. I think you will agree that there is some pretty sharp suiting going on there.

 

 

 

Now, I am not suggesting that because design teams are well dressed they build nice things. There are many, many examples of Britain making crazy apeshit bonkers stuff being designed by people who looked like they had escaped from the lost property bag in the PE department. We just built dreary cars. Why? Why did someone who worked at English Electric sketching away at a Lightning finish for the day, walk out to the car park and climb into the worst car ever built in the entire world (Standard 8 since you ask)? It is because (i) Britain was about a pride in engineering and (ii) we didn't care about how we dressed.

 

These sound like good things and they are for the most part but they can have unintended consequences. One is that your chap at English Electric would tend to mend his own car. Because of that we needed simple and we needed no surprises. We liked things that didn't change too much and that we could understand. Again, this sounds good but it makes things stodgy and slow to change.

 

Now your Italian was much more about sharp suiting and the national pastimes of eating nice food, drinking nice wine, having very long lunches, enjoying the company of women, having longer second lunches, getting over excited about minor infractions of local traffic law and having dinner. There was little time left to mend your own car and as a result most cars were mended by garages (I've got figures to back this up, by the way. I'm not just talking off the top of my head). As a result there was less concern about the complexity of keeping a tweaked twin can with four Weber chokes in balance because someone would keep that right for you. As long as it sang sweetly then everything is right with the world.

 

The upshot was that they got the Fiat 124 and we got the Avenger. This, I am sure everyone will agree, was not fair at all but it was our fault because we simply refused to dress properly.

 

It's all different now. Tailoring became less important in Italy, the car industry became more globalised and eventually they ended up with the Fiat Regatta so that meant we could laugh at them for once.

 

 

 

 

 

[SierraMikeHotel]

A very interesting theory that sounds nuts but does stand up!

[Uncle Jimmy]

Got to be France, they were the pioneers in turning an invention into a useable product. After that they only added to their legacy with a series of Citroen innovations.