Classic Top Gear (1977)1989 S23

tonight on Top Gear choosing from three desirable executive saloons the confusion at the pumps over super unleaded petrol and they're not so humble Ford's here with 500 horsepower to play with hello and welcome to this week's top gear back from Frankfurt me now on our motorway bridge on the m1 just a few miles north of London the moment the traffic moving fairly freely but our motorways are some of the most congested in Europe whatever happens in terms of new roads we're always going to have of course those horrendous style acts it can get trapped in seemingly for hours and that's really why we're here look at the latest attempt to build a better motorway jam warning system based on infrared sensors on the bridges more of that later let's start off with the jams and cells with a smooth car that some executives have the fluid modeun when they're trapped in one and with the advent of the European spirit and the less obvious need to buy British this cop has been looking at three European offerings now which niche of the executive market as the Alfa 164 looser automatic drop into when it's for those with a generous budget at their disposal and a fleet manager who isn't too worried by the prospect of steep depreciation perhaps our have attracted more executives to their models but there can't be many middle management transport budgets which will stretch to accommodate this CD version maybe it's moved above the market it was originally aimed at a substantially cheaper choice would be the equivalent model from Lancias theme arranged but not enough user choosers exercised their privilege to keep the Lancia importer independent it's now firmly back under Fiat swing now the thing that unites all these cars is money not what it costs to buy them in the showroom but what it costs to develop them because all three cars plus incidentally Fiat Croma share the same floor pan the manufacturers got together and they pooled their resources to come up with a new executive car that all put different bodies on in different engines that they share the same floor plan and that would save them a lot of money in coming out with a new model now this is the latest product of that cooperation it's the automatic version of the Alfa 164 it's a very important car for the British market because Alfre now have significantly failed in the past to crack the executive feed sector they can't do it with this car they won't do it at all and they hope to avenge with this model some of the disappointments of the past this is a booted version of the familiar Saab 9000 hatchback and in this form it's a very highly specified and extremely expensive vehicle it's 28,000 pounds on the road 1,500 pounds of that is taken up with a very sophisticated sound system that incorporates a CD player incidentally it also occupies the space that would be taken up by the ashtray and cigar lighter there's a little discreet sign saying no smoking that won't you press some executives I know this is very much the flagship of the Lancia range I've always called it the femur but I'm reliably informed I also call it being tamer in SE form it's very well equipped up to the specification of the other two and certainly very good value on the road the only thing you can't get is an automatic gearbox with the turbo but like the other two cars it's got a six year anti-corrosion warranty now while all these cars share the same floor pan and they've all got front-wheel drive the designers have got very different ideas when it comes to power plants the fuel-injected v6 in the Alfa is the most charismatic and the best-looking unit there's a broadband of tremendous power and torque and it mates well with the automatic sarbs 2 liter 16-valve unit goes down the turbo Road but it's a poor match with its automatic seems to smother the power and hunt up and down when cruising at Lancias hart is another 16-valve two-liter but it's got a smaller higher revving turbo which gives a wider spread of power the differences continue when it comes to luggage capacity the Alfa suffers from a high sill and rather a narrow slot for inserting anything more than the standard Italian briefcase the sarbs better with the boot lid lifting well up out of the way but like the others it stores its spare wheel under the floor Saab alone fit a narrow space saver wheel but at least that helps give it a much greater boot capacity the tamer for instance has 18.9 cubic feet one more than the Alfa but five cubic feet less than the Saab the Alfa Romeo betrays the influence of the stylist on the interior much more than the other two all the minor instruments and controls come together beautifully it's also fitted with in the Luso model electric rear passenger seats although I I note on this seven thousand mile example one of them already doesn't work it also means that the seats can't fold down for extra rear luggage space scandinavian designers tended in the past to be rather austere and Spartan but the interior of this saab with its supple Scottish leather and its English walnut reminds you more of a Victorian gentleman smoking Club than anything despite that it's the most comfortable of the three cars inside the Lancia very italian in feel they trim it in Alcantara or a cloth that looks and feels very much like suede it's lots of room for augment storage in this car as well in the door pockets down here and it's also got the only glovebox with space to rest your glove is an executive wine so the cars are very different under the skin but what are they like on the road let's find out I've always loved the Alfa v6 unit it's got a lovely exhaust snarl to it and despite the automatic gearbox it hasn't lost that appeal the handling well that's flattened secure big fat tires very high level of adhesion on the road it's not all sweetness and light though it's got a an over large turning circle this car and I find these uniform switches on the panel rather confusing once you're on the move on the road in the Saab you're immediately aware that there is still some turbo lag the classic situation you come up behind the lorry you pull out to overtake put your foot flat on the floor and there's a heart-stopping instant when it doesn't actually go then the turbo comes in and you accelerate through on its big fat tires it's got extremely high levels of Road holding and a diesel in fact it's the the ultimate gentleman's expressed in the Lancia you're immediately aware of the tremendous power and torque from the turbocharged engine there's less turbo lag than there was in the Saab but because it's got a manual gearbox there isn't the cushioning effect of the automatic it's quite easy to get quite violent wheel speed when pulling away from the t-junction especially on a wet road but apart from that the handling and the tire adhesion is very high order indeed certainly well up to the other two cars it's very very fast I mean it does 140 miles an hour but if you want to go completely over the top you can even double your money and buy a Ferrari engine version so which car to go for well in fact it's quite a difficult choice for the lucky executive because all three cars have such distinct personalities the Alfa is undoubtedly the best-looking and the best style but I resent this loss of an inch of head room that Pininfarina has imposed in order to get those flowing lines the Saab when it's very safe and secure it feels very well built and the Lancia with its immensely powerful engine represents tremendous appeal for the driver which one would I go for well if my company would allow the extra six thousand pounds on the budget I'd have to select this arm right back from those smooth saloons to the motorway jam warning system we've come into a field as you can see to get away from all that motorway noise those infrared sense on the bridge can detect the speed of which the cars are moving they pass that information to a central control room which in turn freshes it to a network of paging stations in the car what you've got is a little graphic receiver in this case it's fixed and I have a a portable version you can take anywhere it's got a map of the relevant motorway network and you drive along with that in standby mode when the sensors detect another traffic is slowing down say 20 or 10 miles now they've come to a dead halt the thing buzzes you to attract your attention then shows you where the problem is occurring so you can press on if you think it'll clear up or begin to take avoiding action that's how it works in theory let's give it a whirl in practise while I'm heading north on the m11 ready to turn West on the m25 to Ward's Heathrow got the system on standby everything seems clear the moment oh no there goes an alarm there is traveling back up ahead on the m11 but it's north of my Junction so I should be ok you can see the traffic slowed down to about 20 miles an hour and one of the real advantages of this system is it does give real-time information you can see what's happening to the traffic as it's happening costs about 30 pounds a month to rent about 270 pounds to buy all in so not expensive for the executive who wants to miss those traffic jams over here goes another alarm over system it's getting worse it's now backed up inside the m25 I'm going to have to leave the m11 before I get to my Junction clearly the system works it's available from next spring for all the m25 area all I would say is it hasn't been through the mill of millions of miles of motorway motoring but certainly a system worth keeping an eye on right here comes my escape route but time to drop a pet for an elated of course now this time last year the sales of unleaded only about 1% of the total although there was a lot of interest we had over 7000 requests for these information leaflets when we didn't item last October since then sales have sorted 25% but there they seem to have leveled off much of the dismay of the old companies who really geared themselves up and the problem seems to be confusion rather than unwillingness because a recent survey by the RSC show that six out of ten most with SIL weren't sure whether their conquered use unleaded or not ironically the situation hasn't been helped by the introduction of high octane unleaded petrol BP was first with interaction of super green as we showed last spring so Tom Basel isn't taking another look at the mysteries of going green once upon a time there used to be two star three star and four star petrol varying octane ratings for varying power apples 3 star dropped out in the last year two star has been largely replaced by unleaded now unleaded is not equivalent to four star so to switch to it some cars need their timing adjusted and that might have meant a loss of power and fuel economy snoot is the difference um no difference in the performance each cell at the start seemed a bit sluggish but since then about mouse's better for the environment I think so it's better for the cars better for the environment that's probably better for everybody after on some cars switching to unleaded petrol is not just a simple matter of one or two adjustments the lead in the fuel also acts as a lubricant for the valves and seats on this MGB head for instance the valve seats have to be machined out and replaced with some specially hardened inserts and unless that is done the wear on the head will be about three times more than normal now one solution could be to every so often put in a tank full of leaded petrol but of course that still pollutes the atmosphere a much better solution would be to use one of these non-toxic lead-free additives this shouldn't really be necessary because the technology of getting valve lubrication without late is well known additives should be added at the refinery as is now being done in Europe and United States if motorists in Britain could buy unleaded petrol with those sort of additives now and a lot of confusion would be saved and maybe a lot of money I for one would have been saved over 200 pounds having the head on this engine and the timing modified but some cars like most Jaguars for instance can't be adjusted to take 95 octane unleaded fuel they need full 98 octane oil companies know how to make high octane unleaded petrol incorporating valve lubricants that will be suitable for all cars now on the road without any adjustment they would run more economically and clean more cleanly for the environment in fact Amoco have been selling a full range of unleaded petrol in the USA for 60 years until recently using the slogan the only one certified lead-free so why haven't the oil companies done it here why didn't they sell the high octane super unleaded to start with anyway with a 10 p tax advantage it still sells for 2 pence less than the four-star leaded the costs of making high octane unleaded petrol have been grossly exaggerated at the most 3p a gallon probably much less than that and the motorist would save at least that amount has shown my studies in the United States because of reduced motoring cough we put some of these points to the oil companies first of all has there been an exaggeration in the production costs of unleaded fuel Mobil told us it's down to market prices really there's no exaggeration in prices of the pumps the price of oil is determined by the international market and not by the individual oil companies so why didn't we go straight to super unleaded BP told us it wasn't our decision the government laid down the standards for the existing unleaded fuel and there isn't even now a standard for super unleaded but what about a substitute for lead as a lubricant SOT us if we could find an additive that would suit all cars then of course we would use it what a market we would do it if it were that simple we would have done it already but amico still hadn't produced a high octane unleaded fuel for Britain why they say the market is already confused and the introduction of another grade of unleaded fuel would confuse it further so where does that leave us the ordinary motorists basically there are just two categories if your car has been modified as has this particular Sierra to take unleaded petrol then you can use super unleaded anytime you like but you won't get the advantage of that extra octane level unless you have the car returned to the original settings if on the other hand like with this particular Cavalier your car has not been adjusted to take unleaded petrol then of course you can still use super unleaded the Cavalier doesn't require any additives but your particular car may require a lead substitute and if it does you'll have to continue adding that substitute until such time as the oil companies put it in the petrol for you look if the oil industry decided to get its act together they could perfectly well manufacture a high octane unleaded petrol with incorporating suitable valve lubricants which would be suitable for all cars now on the road without any adjustment and what's more they would run better more cheaply with reduced maintenance costs and that means that we could then put a padlock on all these leaded pumps they've no longer be necessary quite obviously and if you're still in doubt then you should ask your dealer about your particular car meanwhile we'd like to hear from you about your experiences with or without unloaded petrol why you haven't changed over why you have the effect is had on your motoring I'll give you the address paper on but now to less controversial matters Jeremy Clarkson's been to a sale the National mini Museum at bewdley which turned out to be light years away from a conventional classic car auction in 23 years Bewdley auto junglers grown from something very parochial and afternoon tea ish into something absolutely vast predictably only the Americans do it bigger and they probably wear brighter clothes to over 45,000 people are going to come here this weekend traders enthusiasts junk hunters eccentrics and of course the inevitable Cowboys it's reckoned that over three million pounds is going to change hands an auto jumble is somewhere people come to buy and sell and swap anything to do with motoring that means pretty well everything from a sunbeam track rod end to a fully restored mark to Jaguar this is a Jaguar that is restored in New Zealand they're built to order it's about a six-month delivery period and they're quite a lot cheaper than the English restored equivalent cars but it's not only cars it's amazing sometimes they turn up in a box all in places rusty and they finish up like that beautiful rover there you see that was rebuilt and they also you can't believe it when you share rusty they can be in our beautiful edition people are trying to sell vintage cars and veteran cars and cars that people hope one day will be classics and what on earth is this it's a marina explain its and if they're calves that is Wells like more thousand couple years who knows they may be a sought after as more thousand but you can drive one of these get the same for the phone that's as an MGB have fun but of course most people are here for the bits with over 1500 stalls here it's nearly impossible to find anything specific and particularly when they all look broadly like this I mean what on earth is this and this for instance if you have an Austin 7 you'll probably recognize it as a piece of timing gear if you don't well then it looks a bit like a piece of metal it belongs on a scrap you know what I mean it's just a question of rummaging rain and honoré you know that's the situation really I saw first Mays I bought it for an a-10 combination so it's just a ticket which I want really it's good I couldn't get a you know built for anything like that I'm gonna make yourself well no that is that's it I'm just gonna Bowl that straight into the front of my body today is ideal you can come right come along and just right round the boxes and find what you need and slowly but surely we're getting out a full toolkit I have a progress pride in the mga and there's no way you could buy stuff for them in general yes you can but you'll find these things easier here but do you have auto jumbles in Germany yes we have big as this one not as big as this one and I'm not s and that the atmospheres not as good as here and you're after a sprite seat I know this cuz look it seems to me that some of these prices are a result of dealers selling to each other trader a buy something from trader B even before the show is open and the increased cost is passed on to Joe public my business been very good we took a fair amount before we open the doors this morning and let's hope it continues all day I planned you never yes got 1409 on there well holiday you give me the for dinner know anything of it potential ings he's only got the 14 a night when I quit blood you know obviously like me he's already done - so you know you can't are you can i essentially travel say you never expected this did you 13 + 6 3 3 bags pieces is 40 the night books thank you very much there you are sir I know right that's very nice thank you ah I know what this is it's a tail lamp of a mark 1 Cortina which I suppose were all the rage when this all so jumbled first started I am between the first spectator go through the gate although all that long time ago and I think Lord Montague said come back come back and I said well sorry too late Armand all I wanted is now from a windscreen wiper did I get one no dad I'm not that bothered because I picked this up it's good isn't it and then there's a little something to get us both home over the past two years when Grand Prix racing has seemed rather more like a book Lehren benefit based anything else most of the excitement in televised motorsport is come from grandstands regular coverage of the Esso British Touring Car Championship or the fastest cars are Sierras although a long way away of course from the conventional reps car or indeed this rather more powerful 4x4 version TIFF Needell has been having a go TIFF Needell neck scroll green driver into the Sierra out of the pit lane into the race and there was a really slick pitstop excellent work and this context there's a notch and off goes fancam into the sand row but he's kept the Sierra rolling and there is Tiffany nail through in the lead as Harvey comes out of the pits overtake Jones and is contact between Pinckney and Smith and super every man's dream taking the checkered flag but that win earlier this year that was my only victory so far this season and finish your center or crossed winning doesn't come easily but what is a group a touring car well you start with a model at which these 5,000 cars have been built in one year one such model is this the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth it's a pretty impressive car in its standard trim but for crew Bay you are allowed one or two minor modifications modifications began with this an evolution special the regulations permit a manufacturer to build 500 specials and incorporate those modifications on the racing car hence the rs500 Cosworth now we have this larger rear wing the whaletail to tear in the engine there's a larger turbocharger and larger intercooler which allows the power to be raised from 200 horsepower to 225 the front spoiler now has a lower chin for aerodynamics and also more ducting to increase the airflow into the coolers and so we come to the racing model itself there's now slick racing tires racing brakes and very firm racing suspension in the engine bay well there's a lot of heat shielding there's a lot of this aircraft specification high-pressure piping as a mechanical fuel pump and also there's a very well tuned engine the same engine albeit but now producing 500 horsepower finally and most important in most racing cars the sponsors color schemes and logos here is the car that I won that race back in May with Lawrence Bristow and in this case it's a Canadian Brewer with a very important message inside all the trim stripped out the massive rollover cage for safety the piping laid inside for protection for the driver the gear lever beside it the brake balance adjuster also an anti-roll bar adjustment which helps the handling whilst driving the racing seat holding the driver firmly in place and straight ahead the steering wheel now what else do we need ah that's better now let's see what it's like the main thing about Group A is it it's a compromise formula unlike single seaters or Group C it's not a car that's designed for racing alone it's a compromise it's a road car made into a racing car with these engines race tuned you've got 500 horsepower to hold on the road with the regulations limit the amount of tires you allowed to have the tire width so getting 500 horsepower down onto the road and what's basically a saloon car causes quite a few interesting situations the suspension is it's relatively soft you can't get the torsional rigidity that our racing car provides because the body show is full of holes so you have to make do as best you can suspension of course still very stiff compared with the road car but as an awful lot of real waving and steering will work to be done in a group Baker breaking is much longer braking area as well oh the racing car so all in all you need a lot more Road in a group acre than perhaps you do in a pack a racer Oh tending to understeer into the corners and then snapping to oversteer when the brute power of 500 horsepower is applied and that was applying a little bit too much too soon well that's all for this week now if you'd like to share your reactions to unleaded petrol with us please write to us at Top Gear BBC Pebble Mill burning on b5 7qq and please mark your envelopes lid I really do have a plane to catch and if I can beat these British traffic jams next week I should be reporting from California where they know a thing or two about traffic and about controlling the emissions from vehicles so see you next week at the same time from California good night you you

Channel: Anarchy

Views: 221,779

Keywords: Top Gear (1977 TV Series)

Id: Hbqx3aMky0c

Length: 29min 12sec (1752 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 31 2011