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Having a bad day Lud?
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Not at all. I am just sucking my teeth at the thought of the sort of car it might be after months in the hands of a TV crew.
Naturally I would love it if the car turned out to be a minter sold for a song to a truly appreciative enthusiast. I'm as much of a Pollyanna as you at heart Nsar.
:o}
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I'd pay that if Keeley Hawes came with it!
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I've seen an old car after it had been used for filming.
I thought what the film company paid for its hire was extortionate, but not when I saw the scratches and dings it received while in their hands!
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This brings back wonderful memories of the best car I ever owned, or ever will own. At the time me and my ex were working our hazlenuts off as a two van family, and G646 JNV, one of the last 20V turbos, was bought as an early mid life crisis car. I bought it third hand with 15k miles on in May 1991 for £22,700. Its first 'owner' in Oct 89 was the Audi UK MD. A beautiful deep metallic blue, it featured in Top Gear, driven by JC in the snow around Bainbridge in Wensleydale. My ex got me a copy of the show on video from Pebble Mill studios, and I sold it in Feb '94 for £22,000, having put on only a few thousand miles.
Please do not think I am bragging, but that car was a peach, even with the digital dash. I now drive a 10 year old Mazdz 626 which cost me £995. The only similarity is the colour which I still like.
Ah, bliss.....
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Would I be wrong in saying the original Quattro had twin (round???) headlights and that the car used is a later post-facelift model due to the black rear panel and darkened rear lights?
I really need to get out more . . . . . . . . . . .
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But what if the problems in recalling detail of cars etc. is down to the central character of this show. She lived through this period and therefore is remembering things incorrectly ;-) A thought and certainly not a crime. This is a TV show.
This thread isn't really motoring is it :-)
I do not like how the Audi is being thrown about though. It's a bit of a classic for me and they are abusing it.
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It's a bit of a classic for me and they are abusing it.
That's nothing to how it got treated on the rally stages.
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You are right scott1s. This is a 1983 model apparently, although the series is set in 1981. There was an interview in the Sunday Times InGear section a week or two ago where he confesses to the inaccuracy!
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Would I be wrong in saying the original Quattro had twin (round???) headlights and that the car used is a later post-facelift model
The pics here show how the headlights changed over the years (pics of 1980, 1984, 1986/87 models):
www.t85q.com/gallery.html
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A beautiful deep metallic blue it featured in Top Gear driven by JC in the snow around Bainbridge in Wensleydale. My ex got me a copy of the show on video from Pebble Mill studios
I had that episode on video until recently. Quite amusing as I think it was Clarksons first or second series on TG, and he does his best William Woolard impression, very polite and sober delivery, nothing like he is today..
I've always had a thing about quattros. I had the poor mans version - original 80 quattro in metallic black with the same engine and drivetrain but unfortunately no turbo. Still a brilliant car though and I've got very fond memories.
;o)
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I have many indelible memories of the Group B monsters on the RAC in Dalby Forest in the early 80s ...
The Quattro was an awesome beast, you always knew it was coming with its double-edged warbling snarl, so different from the four-pot 205T16 and Lancia Betas.
Although the thing that made the biggest impression on me was the Stratos on a night stage in the forest.
Pitch black, cold, people with torches, waiting for the first car to come through and then you hear this unearthly ripping wail as lights pierce the trees.
The noise builds like a scene from a horror movie until a tiny wedge of white red & green, brake discs glowing bright orange, bursts into view, spits gravel and mud and shrieks away into the dark.
Once heard, never EVER forgotten.
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I'm disappointed with Ashes to Ashes, every time the quattro is shown flying down the road you can't hear the engine, there's always some 80s music playing loudly over the top!
I have many indelible memories of the Group B monsters
Same here, used to always go to Chatsworth and/or Clumber to watch the RAC.
I went to Race Retro at Stoneleigh last year and it was worth it just to see and hear the Group B cars again. They had a Stratos there last year as well as 4 quattros. I bumped into Stig (the real one, Blomqvist) in the toilets and was stood a few feet away from Michele Mouton after she'd done a lap in a quattro S1.
This years event is in two weeks time, 14th to 16th March..
www.historicmotorsportshow.com/
;o)
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"I bumped into Stig (the real one, Blomqvist) in the toilets and was stood a few feet away from Michele Mouton"
Wot - she was in the toilets with you too?
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:-D
I always say my wife drives like Michele Mouton with PMT .... she has the fastest Punto 1.2 Active in Britain!
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:oP
Can't confirm whether or not Michele was using the gents loos, but no she wasn't in there when I was!
My mind was playing tricks on me, there was no Stratos it was an 037 instead; I was too busy drooling over the Audis. ISTR seeing a Stratos so there may have been one on display indoors..
Some pics here:
snipurl.com/20nkv
Edited by Rich 9-3 on 29/02/2008 at 11:33
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Once heard never EVER forgotten.
I can only agree about the sound effects of a heavily tweaked Audi Quattro. Saw a SWB one doing Shelsley Walsh a couple of times. The exhaust note was a loudish, but turbo-muffled, vroooom!, punctuated at each gearchange with a shattering BLAT! from the wastegate.
I've heard turbo wastegates in London a couple of times. If I were traffic plod I would have been on their cases every time.
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The blat is probably an anti-lag system -- injecting extra fuel into the exhaust manifold to ignite gases and keep the turbo spinning when the driver lifts off the throttle. It's a bit naughty off the rally courses :-)
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Might help explain the sheets of flame from the exhaust... :o)
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The Quattro isn't the only continuity error in the program. Watching last night spotted a Maestro van parked up. Hatch wasn't introduced till '83 and pretty sure the van came later than that. Was a Police van outside the station.
Additionally, the S Class Merc in last nights program didn't look quite right. Has got clear indicators. Pretty sure they were orange throughout the lifespan of the W126, and didn't come in on any car till later in the decade. The bottom line of the car isn't right either. When introduced there was a grooved edge along the bottom of the car, which was smooth after the mid 80s facelift. The wheels also look like BBS alloys, or the ones often seen on the AMGs- cross spoke alloys which am pretty sure weren't about in '81. But as was only 9 in 1981, I could be wrong on that bit.
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Sorry for double post, but there was also a dodgy Transit in there. Was the facelifted one with the sloping black plastic grill with lights incorporated. Can't remember when came out, think was 83 or 84 IIRC.
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I'll say again. Ignore mistakes and enjoy because its all in her head and she is remembering some things with some mistakes :-)
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A mate of mine has an 87D ur-Quattro, which is known as a "WR" in Quattro circles, or so I'm told. It's completely standard, save for a full leather retrim and an aftermarket stainless exhaust system to the original pattern. It's in Tornado Red and it is a thing of absolute beauty.
It's done 120,000 miles, but everything is still pin sharp and the quality of the build and engineering is first class. I have had the privilege of driving it, and while I expected it to be exciting (it was), I was not expecting it to feel so modern. The steering is sharp and has bags of feel, the ride is comfortable, and you can really sling it around without ever feeling like you're overdoing things. And the 5 pot turbo engine pulls like a train once you get it on boost.
Apart from the drive, my favourite aspects are the lurid green digi-dash and the boxy flared arches. This car looks incredible from behind and slightly to one side.
Oh and the way the rear screen heater elements spell QUATTRO is quite cool as well ;-)
Cheers
DP
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that totter's three-wheeler van etc...?
I'll have you know the Trotter's weren't totters! They were respectable (?) market traders. You're thinking of the Steptoes, they were totters (scrap metal, rag and bone men).
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I was under the impression that during the 1980s our patriotic police always bought British, even the CID.
Should Gene Hunt be driving an Audi - or is this just another 'deliberate' mistake?
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Good point, he should probably have an SD1 Vitesse.
Presumably they rejected a Capri 2.8 (which would have been the logical progression from his Cortina) because hot Capris were used in The Professionals.
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When I first came to Manchester as a student in 89 I rememember there being a MARKED police Capri 2.8 patrol car ;-)
I still think we're reading too much into this TV programme. Yes the Audi is the wrong age and would not be a cop car.... but this is TV and meant to be the memory of someone who is recalling the past etc. after just being shot. It's entertainment.
If it was Morse or similar it would be different. But Lewis is slow isn't it and he drives a Vectra C!
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> I'm disappointed with Ashes to Ashes...
I'm disappointed with Ashes to Ashes full stop. None of the fizz or the genuine sense of dislocation that made Life on Mars such a delight. And while Ms Hawes is pleasantly decorative, her character is just plain annoying - and superfluous. Now we know him, it would have been perfectly possible to make a new series centred entirely on Hunt, without reprising the whole time travel gimmick. After all, it's improbable enough that he's had one officer from the future parachute into his world; for him to have moved to London, taken most of his squad (including the desk sergeant) with him, for none of them to have been moved or promoted in eight years, and then for the same thing to happen again...
Ahem not much motoring so far. I was, erm, thinking this as I drove home from work last Friday. In my Audi quattro. (Wasn't the capital Q reserved for the lesser 4WD Audis that came later?)
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Glad someone else has said it, Ashes to Ashes isn't a patch on Life on Mars. I wasn't really a fan of John Simm, but the first show is far superior.
Just haven't engaged with the characters this time around.
And yes, it's a TV show, not a historical document.
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In my Audi quattro. (Wasn't the capital Q reserved for the lesser 4WD Audis that came later?)
I thought it was the other way around, but I could be wrong...
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Is that car really a pukka Quattro???
The Quattro had a sound all of its own - just like the Subaru has.
And frankly I haven't heard that awesome sound yet.
The car has supposedly had a hydraulic handbrake fitted and we have seen a few rear wheel lock ups. BUT hydraulic handbrakes on a 4x4 are a no no. The WRC cars have them but they have systems that disengage the diffs when the hanbrake is applied - as far as I know.
Anyone else have any doubts re the authenticity?
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Yes. I must admit tonight I thought it looked more like the 2wd Audi Coupe of the same vintage. A fine car in it's own right, and much easier to 'handbrake' given it's fwd design.
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The easiest way to tell the Quattro apart from the Coupe visually is to look at the front wings and rear quarter panels. On the Quattro there's a prominent horizontal line that runs along the front wing and the rear quarter panel, about 4" above the top of the arch, with a marked outward flaring of the arch below this line.
If you stand at front or rear quarter view and look along the side of the car, there's a marked "hourglass" effect where the arches bulge out in front and behind the door, with the door itself being standard body width. These are not bolt on arch extensions, but are the shape of the panels themselves.
It gives the car one of the finest rear quarter views ever in my opinion.
And while looking for examples on Google, I came across this. Heartbreaking.
www.infinicar.com/parts/cars/djf944y/index.htm
Cheers
DP
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Do we really care? It could be a Metro underneath the TV car and it matters little to me. Not as good as two series of Life of Mars so far.
It's an entertainment programme with characters appearing in someone's mind just after being shot that are common to characters in a another person's mind who was in a coma after being run over (and then the John Simms character jumped off the council building in Stockport before appearing as the Master in Doctor Who)....
.... and BBC Wales do Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes/Doctor Who/Torchwood so can you trust us Welsh anyway.
As for "Anyone else have any doubts re the authenticity?"
You're right I'm not sure a person shot would have this sort of imagination that stretches for a TV series. Nor am I sure this could share so much with someone in a similar situation after being run down ;-) Maybe it's entertainment.
Now the Mighty Boosh is very believable. But that's not BBC Wales.
My comments are not motoring related... but neither is Ashes to Ashes.
Edited by rtj70 on 06/03/2008 at 23:14
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Yawn.
I hope it is a rough old 2wd coupe.
All in favour of damage limitation.
Don't intend even to look at the thing anyway.
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