Small Engine Big Car

[Conan]

Inspired by this thread, of course.

 

Small Car Big Engine is fun and all but so is the Small Engine Big Car.

 

I know that nowadays even the BMW 7-Series are available with 2.0-litre 4-cyl. But that's with electrification to make it not lethally slow. 

 

Oh yes, what I am interested in are those bASe executive car with comically small and more importantly underpowered engine. For example, apparently Ford Granada Mk.2 was available with 1.6-litre engine with some 70hp. That's pretty grim, but even more grim would be the 1.9 Diesel with lethargic 54hp.

 

Another more obscure example is back in 1967, a company call Shinjin went into a joint venture with Toyota to produce then current Crown in South Korea. But for whatever reason they used the obsolete 1453cc engine producing 61hp. The result was a top speed of whopping 72mph. I so much want to experience this leisurely pace but these cars are extremely rare now.

 

What else is there that you could think of? ?

[rusty_vw_man]

*waits with bated breath for pictures of a 3 wheeled estate or delivery van for invalids powered by only a rubber band*
 

For me driving air cooled VW vans was always a bit on the scary side - very few ponies but much weight! 

[Stanky]

Mk4 Mondeo 1.0 ecoboost. (twincharged) 998cc triple to shift nearly 1500kg. unladen.

[Jazoli]

28 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Mk4 Mondeo 1.0 ecoboost. (twincharged) 998cc triple to shift nearly 1500kg. unladen.

Its not underpowered though and drives fine, just like the Octavia 1.0, they still have 115bhp.

I'd go for the Sierra 1.3.

[barefoot]

I once had the pleasure of owning an Audi 100L Avant.

It was powered by a carb fed 1600 four pot and enjoyed the convenience of a four speed manual transmission.  It was much better than it sounds.

[bramz7]

Greek and Italian markets got a 1.2 Ascona.

They also got a 1.1 BX, along with Portugal I believe. 

And Greece got the Sunny badged as Cherry and sold with a 1.0 engine. 

There was also the 315.

Worthy of mention is the 1.1 Tipo sold for a short time in Italy and possibly others. 

The 1.4 405 always struck me as a bit small but it wasn't actually that bad in the BX.

 

[JeeExEll]

Mazda Roadpacer.  1.6 tonnes of Holden powered along by a 1.3 litre rotary. Hmmmmmm.

9 mpg.  (Nine).   A litre of petrol (at whatever your current local cost is) will take you less than 2 miles.  Not allowing for fuel used sitting idling in traffic.

 

 

[Conan]

Just now, JeeExEll said:

 Hmmmmmm.

 

I'd imagine the noise it makes being more like Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[Out Run]

1 hour ago, rusty_vw_man said:

*waits with bated breath for pictures of a 3 wheeled estate or delivery van for invalids powered by only a rubber band*
 

For me driving air cooled VW vans was always a bit on the scary side - very few ponies but much weight! 

Hey, they can just scrape over the National Speed Limit  (sometimes) and are quicker off the line than a Taycan Turbo S. Honest.

[jon.k]

Didn't they do a volvo s80 with a 1.6 peugeot/ford diesel quite a few years ago, which was pretty small before everything started being downsized?

[scdan4]

I had a mk3 grandad with a 1.8 pinto in it. 

Not brisk. Very not brisk. 

[Volksy]

The Mk1 Seat Ibiza was available with the old pushrod 903cc Fiat motor. 

The Astra Mkwhatevar (first recent blobby one) came with a NA 1.6 auto. Not so bad until you realise they weigh the same as a Senator. 

1.1 Peugeot 309 GE was a bit weak. 

 

[Walter White]

Rover 211i 

[LightBulbFun]

surprised no ones mentioned the Steinwinter 250  

a Fiat 126 with a 250cc Goggomobil engine LOL

[Heidel_Kakao]

21 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

surprised no ones mentioned the Steinwinter 250  

a Fiat 126 with a 250cc Goggomobil engine LOL

That's a small car with a small engine.

[wuvvum]

/\ Not sure it qualifies as a "big" car but definitely one for the cars you never knew existed thread.

Looks like they were classified as a moped in Germany, meaning you could drive them at 14 with no licence or registration as long as they were restricted to 25km/h (16mph).  Bet those were popular with other traffic...

[Richard_FM]

The first Citroen 2cv had a 375cc engine with just 9hp.

 

[Six-cylinder]

Back in 1971 our assistant Scout leader got a brand new company car, a Cortina 4 door saloon base with a 1.3 engine. It was white with no vinyl roof and single round headlights. Turns out It was better than you might think and with the encouragement of 5 scouts he maxed it out on the down hill dual carriageway from High Wycombe towards Marlow and it showed 100 mph on the speedo!

Unfortunately I don't have a picture but this is similar except it has a vinyl roof.

[406V6]

I’m sure I remember reading back in my teens an Autocar or Motor road test of the Chrysler Sunbeam with a 1 litre engine (928 cc) and automatic gearbox. It was one of the slowest cars of its time tested by the mags.  While 1 litre isn’t especially small in a little hatchback, most of the power was sucked up by the gearbox. Having said this I can’t find a mention of this model in a google search. Any Talbot experts able to confirm ?

[bramz7]

If you thought the Opel Rekord with the 63hp 2.3 Diesel was too powerful you could get a 300cc smaller one with only* a 4hp sacrifice. 

Top speed was 82mph. 

[wuvvum]

I had a 928cc manual Sunbeam - it was slow as f*ck.  I shudder to think what an auto would have been like.

The Sunbeam was a surprisingly heavy car and that engine was only about 38bhp.  The first car I've owned to be out-accelerated by a DI Transit away from the Thetford roundabout on the A11.

[wuvvum]

Just now, bramz7 said:

If you thought the Opel Rekord with the 63hp 2.3 Diesel was too powerful you could get a 300cc smaller one with only* a 4hp sacrifice. 

Top speed was 82mph. 

The W115 Merc was available with a 2-litre diesel too - that was 55bhp.  Thankfully mine is the 2.2-litre 60bhp sports version, so if I ever get it running again I'll have some hope of getting to 60 in under half a minute.

[Amishtat]

Morris Oxford /Austin A60 diesel. Only for cab operatives or complete skinflints. As if the godawful noise wasn't enough, they're borderline dangerous, it's almost quicker/safer cycling on to a roundabout. 

[anonymous user]

The Shamrock?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamrock_(car)

[Heidel_Kakao]

7 minutes ago, anonymous user said:

The Shamrock?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamrock_(car)

"The combination of the styling and the car’s Austin A55 underpinnings meant changing the rear tyres became such an event. It wasn’t a case of jacking the car up and taking the wheel off. No, you had to drop the whole rear axle to gain access to the wheels. "

Wow that is a pretty serious design flaw!

[Richard_FM]

44 minutes ago, Amishtat said:

Morris Oxford /Austin A60 diesel. Only for cab operatives or complete skinflints. As if the godawful noise wasn't enough, they're borderline dangerous, it's almost quicker/safer cycling on to a roundabout. 

The same engine was used in an export only marina 

[ProgRocker]

I owned a poverty spec Fiat Tempra 1.4. I believe that there was also a 1.1 litre version of it available in other market (I'm guessing the same ones as the BX 11). I guess that there was a 1.1 Tipo.

I always thought that Volkswagen were a bit sadistic in the 1980s offering the mark 2 Golf with the 1043cc engine up to 1985. I'd think it was barely adequate in the lighter Polo, what were they thinking offering it in a Golf?!

[Amishtat]

You're right, I forgot that probably because I've never encountered one. Saw an A60 diesel years ago at Crich museum, turned out it belonged to a chap whose father had run a taxi company in South Wales in the late sixties /early seventies. This one had needed work and wheeled into the workshop and somehow forgotten until the son sold the business after his dad passed away in 2000 or so. Recommissioned in tribute (thrown together, wobbed and aerosoled, oddly appealing) blah blah blah.. I asked him how long he'd taken to get from South Wales to Derbyshire.. Three days 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

If remember some of the Diplomatic W126 S Classes around London in the 80’s being badged as  260S , these invariably had steel rims, mb-tex and keep fit windows. Many had at least one flag pole mount though. With all this downsizing no doubt you can get a smaller engine in a new S.

2.0 FFRRs even with milk float engines are just wrong, maybe those that survive the virus will find with no airlines and half the population gone,the Climate Change thing will be cured and they can go back to proper engines.

Ive driven 1.4 405s, Cavaliers and BXes and they could be made to go well enough when new, that in itself could have been their undoing because they would have been thrashed to death every day for at least the first 3 years, meaning they probably didn’t last that much longe.

Mk2 Carlton 1.8 carb auto or Mk2 Senator 2.5 auto were amongst the few cars I would say were dangerously slow, along with 2.9XJ40s . At one point we had this fine choice of late 80’ S executive splendour as the chauffeurs pool cars, where I worked. One weekend I had to go to Wales on a Saturday night after a job- MRs N went earlier. Faced with this motley collection of pedestrian shit I borrowed the maintenance man’s Bedford Astravan 1.6d- he was made up with the Carlton and I had a faster more entertaining drive.

[angle]

Anyone for a Standard 2000?

Launched in India as a luxury car in the mid-80s, built from knock down SD1 bodyshells. Except they couldn't / didn't license the O-Series as well, so it had the 2.0 engine from a 1940s Standard Vanguard instead. 83bhp. Top speed - 91mph.