Small Engine Big Car

[Richard_FM]

The Citroen GS was launched with a1015cc engine which was a little small capacity wise but a decent amount of hp

 

[GeordieInExile]

VW were specialists at this, no? Golf mk3 with 60bhp 1.4 engine, Polo mk3 with 1.0 50bhp engine, etc. etc.

Polo mk1 had a 34bhp 750cc unit elsewhere. Grim.

[Garythesnail]

4 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

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.

Imagine a bright yellow one without the added 'Ghia'.

Happy memories of burning my legs on the black vinyl seats before my grandmother drove us to the seaside, sliding, sans seatbelt, from  one side to the other. I seem to remember it was huge - haven't seen a MK III Cortina for ages.

[rantingYoof]

Octavia Mk1 and Peugeot 405 both came with 1.4s.

1.3 diesel in the Astra.

You can get a ridiculously large French van-turned-MPV thing with a 1.2 turbo.



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[Spiny Norman]

Wasn't the original Granada available with the 1700 V4 in some countries? That must have been a a bit sedate.
BMW E28 and E34 with the 1.8, the old Renault 20 with the 1647cc lump from the 16&17, and staying with old Renaults I always thought the 1289cc pushrod unit in the lesser 15s was a bit on the emaciated side but Ford did 1300 Capris too.

[bunglebus]

4 hours ago, wuvvum said:

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.

Yeah I've been in one - 1st and 2nd gear were OK...

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, GeordieInExile said:

VW were specialists at this, no? Golf mk3 with 60bhp 1.4 engine, Polo mk3 with 1.0 50bhp engine, etc. etc.

Polo mk1 had a 34bhp 750cc unit elsewhere. Grim.

 

Test drove a 1.6 auto MK2 Golf. My god it was scary pulling out of junctions.

[Asimo]

Quote

"Test drove a 1.6 auto MK2 Golf. My god it was scary pulling out of junctions."

 What?  72hp in an 880kg car is almost fast!

 

1.6 litre and four cylinders.  I don't care that it is blown to produce 178 hp, it is not enough engine for all of this.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201912285636756

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Is this the time to mention my other half's Focus again?  1.4 N/A Studio spec with 78BHP and a 0-60 of 13.6 when new in 2006?

[bunglebus]

40 minutes ago, Asimo said:

 What?  72hp in an 880kg car is almost fast!

 

 

Felt like about 35 of them were having a holiday

[rantingYoof]

Ignoring most Yank cars from the 1970s and 1980s, can this thread also include cars that have engines which are seemingly strangled or just bad at producing power? I'm not talking about economy maps or detuned ECUs, just an engine which feels like it should have more power but doesn't?

For example, at the same time Rover were getting 104hp from a 1.4 16v, VW seemed to be stuck at around 75hp from a similar unit. 

The newest Mazda 3 has a n/a 2.0 16v which produces 118hp or thereabouts and has virtually no torque. It's silly economical, but it's difficult finding positive things said about its performance.

The Ford Probe could be specced with a 2.0 16v engine that only had 115hp. At the time it was released the going rate was more like 135-140hp.

I'm sure there are more instances where the engine capacity of a car and its power output seem at odds with each other. 

[Richard_FM]

2 hours ago, Spiny Norman said:

Wasn't the original Granada available with the 1700 V4 in some countries? That must have been a a bit sedate.
BMW E28 and E34 with the 1.8, the old Renault 20 with the 1647cc lump from the 16&17, and staying with old Renaults I always thought the 1289cc pushrod unit in the lesser 15s was a bit on the emaciated side but Ford did 1300 Capris too.

I presume the 1289cc was the twin carb version, which was the most powerful engine we got in the 12.  The never imported Gordini had the 1470cc & there was a rare North American spec 1565cc.

[Cord Fourteener]

As everybody went through the Fords with their 1.3 I might mention the Capri, yes it's a Cortina in a pinny but it was meant to be a sports coupe and had a 20+ 0-60 time when you could buy the 3.0 and then the 2.8i.

Also, May I mention the Koenigsegg Gemera 1700 hp monster with a 2.0 three-cylinder engine (ahem and three electric motors and two turbos)? Not very Autoshite, I know.

[wuvvum]

6 hours ago, ProgRocker said:

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?!

I had a 1043cc Mk2 Golf.  Around town it was actually nippier than a 1.3, due to comically low gearing.  Absolutely hopeless on fast roads though - top speed of mine was 78, and it was pretty much bouncing the valves at that speed.

[Rod/b]

7 hours ago, Asimo said:

 What?  72hp in an 880kg car is almost fast!

 

1.6 litre and four cylinders.  I don't care that it is blown to produce 178 hp, it is not enough engine for all of this.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201912285636756

My C4 Grand Picasso 7 seater has got a 1.2 and it gets around sufficiently.

[PiperCub]

Cortina Mk4 with a 1.3 Kent engine. Good in a Fiasco, OK in a Scrote but a Cretina (or Crapi apparently)? Erm..... no, not even slightly. Probably the slowest of the 100+ cars I've ever owned. Consolation? It only cost me £100 and made twice that back on company mileage claims! But wouldn't do it again. 

Odd fact - it was a rare (in the UK) 2-door car, they were only available over here as 1.3's for some reason. Scrapped it in 1993, probably worth money now!!!!! 

[MorrisItalSLX]

My pick would be the Holden VC & VH Commodore with the 1.9 Starfire 4. Not necessarily small by European standards, but tiny by early 1980s Australian standards, especially considering the other engines on offer were a 2.8, 3.3, 4.1 and 5.0.

[Cord Fourteener]

11 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

VW were specialists at this, no? Golf mk3 with 60bhp 1.4 engine, Polo mk3 with 1.0 50bhp engine, etc. etc.

Polo mk1 had a 34bhp 750cc unit elsewhere. Grim.

I had a reasonable-sounding '88 Polo with the 1043cc petrol. It was ok, but certainly not fast. Not that I had ever experienced fast in comparison at the time. I often overloaded it and drive over the hills. At one point I had 5 people plus me driving in it on the flat. We got overtaken by the service bus.

[Inspiral_Mondays]

I remember many years ago driving a Mercedes 190D with the 2.0litre nonturbo diesel engine and automatic transmission. I'd never driven anything so slow and I owned a 900cc VW Polo at the time so I knew a thing or two about slowness. Fortunately it wasn't the W123 200D with 55bhp and a 0 - 60 time of 31 seconds with manual transmission. The automatic version of that could probably have been measured in geological timescales.

[GeordieInExile]

11 hours ago, rantingYoof said:

Ignoring most Yank cars from the 1970s and 1980s, can this thread also include cars that have engines which are seemingly strangled or just bad at producing power? I'm not talking about economy maps or detuned ECUs, just an engine which feels like it should have more power but doesn't?

For example, at the same time Rover were getting 104hp from a 1.4 16v, VW seemed to be stuck at around 75hp from a similar unit. 

The newest Mazda 3 has a n/a 2.0 16v which produces 118hp or thereabouts and has virtually no torque. It's silly economical, but it's difficult finding positive things said about its performance.

The Ford Probe could be specced with a 2.0 16v engine that only had 115hp. At the time it was released the going rate was more like 135-140hp.

I'm sure there are more instances where the engine capacity of a car and its power output seem at odds with each other. 

VW were doing a 1.4 with 60bhp at that time, but then so were Vauxhall and iirc Ford. 

[Spiny Norman]

5 hours ago, PiperCub said:

Cortina Mk4 with a 1.3 Kent engine. Good in a Fiasco, OK in a Scrote but a Cretina (or Crapi apparently)? Erm..... no, not even slightly. Probably the slowest of the 100+ cars I've ever owned. Consolation? It only cost me £100 and made twice that back on company mileage claims! But wouldn't do it again. 

Odd fact - it was a rare (in the UK) 2-door car, they were only available over here as 1.3's for some reason. Scrapped it in 1993, probably worth money now!!!!! 

 A friend of mine had a 1.3 Cortina Crusader, it was a nice car for its time but it was comedy slow. You drove with your left hand constantly dropping onto the handbrake to see if it was properly off.

[Skut]

Simca introduced a poverty version of their V8 Vedette with a 1290cc 'flash' engine to create the Ariane in 1957.

Mostly done as a tax dodge as the economy must have been pretty dire.

[hairnet]

.1.4 MK3 cavalier

Wouldn't buy that engine in an astra never mind these

 

[Richard_FM]

4 hours ago, Skut said:

Simca introduced a poverty version of their V8 Vedette with a 1290cc 'flash' engine to create the Ariane in 1957.

Mostly done as a tax dodge as the economy must have been pretty dire.

I heard they were popular with taxi drivers presumably the ones who only did around town fares.

[Richard_FM]

The 1100cc mk3 Escort must have been a very cold hatch, ford didn’t bother putting in the Orion.

[Steve79]

On 3/18/2020 at 3:28 PM, JeeExEll said:

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 sitting idling in traffic.

 

 

Mazda 13b, also as found lugging round over 3200kg in the Mazda Parkway Rotary 26 - Speedy!

[willswitchengage]

Citroen allegedly made a Netherlands-only BX 'Dommage' trim level in 1985 with the 954 cc engine, but there's almost no record of its existence.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

18 minutes ago, willswitchengage said:

Citroen allegedly made a Netherlands-only BX 'Dommage' trim level in 1985 with the 954 cc engine, but there's almost no record of its existence.

In 35 years time people will talk of the mythical  1000cc Mondeo in the same way, because let’s face it none of them are going to survive past 5 years.

[Semi-C]

Similarly, it’s believed that Ford threatened it’s Italian customers with a 940cc crossflow engined Mk2 Escort. You would think if any exist they’d be pretty easy to track down due to their inert performance.

[Inspiral_Mondays]

1 hour ago, Richard_FM said:

The 1100cc mk3 Escort must have been a very cold hatch, ford didn’t bother putting in the Orion.

For which I‘m truly grateful as a 1.1 Orion is the sort of woeful and dangerously slow transport my parents probably would have decided is perfect family motoring, had it existed. They were a magnet for underpowered poverty spec cars in the 70s and 80s.