Car Comparison

[wspohn]

I had the unusual opportunity to compare some of my cars recently, as I was licensing them for summer and wanted to drive them to check out whether everything was working well after a winter's sleep.

The three were:

My 09 GXP coupe with manual trans and around 375 bhp (big wheel turbo), a Jensen Interceptor, old school, with a big block Chrysler V8 and auto trans, with around 300 bhp and a lot of torque, and my BMW Z4M coupe with a six speed manual and 330 bhp.

The big Jensen handles well for a larger heavier car and corners quite reasonably well, but acceleration, is smooth but not violent I once took it to an MG meet in California and the group of MGs I drove down with were amazed to see me drifting the corners. Having said that, it is not a crisp handling car, it is a grand tourer.

The Solstice has been optimized by me with increased power (c. 375 bhp) and improved handling. It is a very tight handling machine and manages corners at speeds that surprise me when I happen to look at the speedo - I once was driving a highway with big sweeping corners and looked down and was 100 mph on the dial but my wife, who reacts to aggressive driving like a canary in a coal mine when it sniffs gas was happily sitting there not objecting.

The BMW is the best over all car in stock form. The handling is tight and the somewhat long stroke engine revs to 7900 without effort, It is smoother than the Solstice in acceleration as there is no turbo so no slight lag from lower rpm when you floor it. The 'feel' of the car is 'heavier' than the Solstice, a combination of weight and the way the engines climb through the rpm range.

They are all a lot of fun to drive. The Solstice is a good balance between gas mileage and power as when you are not under boost it is pretty easy on gas. The Jensen uses the most (and is the heaviest).

The Jensen comes in at 3990 lbs., the Solstice at c. 3000 lbs. and the BMW at around 3200 lbs.

And yes, I do like 2 seater coupe touring cars!

 

[sars]

The Solstice looks diminutive against the Z4M and the Jenson is one of my favourite cars of the 1970, great post, now please tell us about the MGA's

 

[wspohn]

I've owned quite few MGAs. I drove them on the street, then I turned one into a race car and eventually went a bit crazy and grafted an MGA Twin Cam head onto a 5 main bearing MGB block to create a 1950 cc race engine.

I still own the race car plus a 1962 coupe with 4 wheel disc brakes and a 3 main MGB engine, plus a Fiberfab Jamaican bodied MGA that I re-engined with a GM 3.4 V6 putting out c, 190 bhp.









In fact this is what the port cochere at my revious house used to look like.

 

[sars]

Blimey, that's some collection

 

[wspohn]

Sold the Lamborghini, Jensen CV8, and MGC when we moved but didn't want to part with the others. And then once we'd moved I bought the Z4MC.

 

[Mr Tidy]

Wow you've had some fantastic cars, and still do!

I really like the look of your Solstice, shame they were never sold in the UK. And I've always loved Jensen Interceptors, but they've always been way our of my budget. Still at least I've got an MC.

 

[wspohn]

The Solstice/Kappa platform was sold in Europe as an Opel but I can attest to the fact that driving a wrong handed car like a LHD in the UK can be a mixed blessing. I drove the Jensen CV8 which was RHD for many years here on LHD roads. It had a big block Chrysler engine in it that I had 'improved' This is what was under the bonnet:



It was a sixpack carb set up that had vacuum operation so the engine didn't want to stall when you booted it. I've owned several Jensens and the daft designers made a couple of mistakes in design.

They tack welded all of the inner sheet metal to the frame - the same way they did it when Jensen built the Austin Healey bodies. It tripled the cost of accident or rust repair. The other thing they did on the CV8 that I always thought was idiotic, is use the Torqflite Chrysler automatic without providing a Park detent - insanity on a car with four wheel Dunlop disc brakes where it was known that the hand brake calipers were uncertain at the best of times.

 

[SKG]

Like silly cars, I should have never have sold this one.

I know where its located and would happily buy back.

Yes the Z4M ragtop is nice, I have the red one from KGM classics, but its still modern.

Z4M has brakes, power steering for some reason, runs normal fuel, and doesn't overheat.

Espada, requires warm up prior to moving, coaxing to life and full fluid warm prior to pushing, and every journey involved a visit to a petrol station, but it was fun.

 

[wspohn]

The Espada had outlandish styling and was a fun tourer. I almost bought one once but it turned out to be an automatic - they used the Chrysler Torqueflite. Just wasn't my thing in that configuration.

My Islero S was a lot of fun. It had sat for several years so I had to resurface the cam followers (all 24 of them) and did it while watching evening TV using a sheet of plate glass and garnet paper, slowly smoothing the surfaces out.

 

[SKG]

Very nice, patient as well. The jobs on these do take time, but they are worth it.

I agree, the auto Espada was poorly matched, the engine wanted to rev, but the box wasn't so keen.

Still Gandini designed, I would settle for a Khamsin.