motor trend compares a ford to bmw! (coupes, best, engines)
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I had a 1992 Taurus Sho. Trust me, that car had no problem outrunning ricers. They never knew what hit them.
I had an '89 that looked clapped-out and beat to hell, but it was actually mechanically flawless; the motor ran like it was brand-new. (Just sold it a few weeks ago ) Plus it had a Superchip, Borla exhaust and K&N filter. I'd estimate conservatively that it was putting at least 250HP to the flywheel. I wiped the smirk off a lot of rice kiddies' faces with that car.
One of my cars is a Ford (well, a Lincoln... 1995).
And one reason I bought it is because I know the Town Cars are fine driving cars (great on the freeway) yet are not high maintenance cars and I don't have to worry about them breaking often and I don't need to be a good mechanic.
Like many others, I would not want to own an out-of-warranty BMW. Or, for that matter, an in-warranty BMW!
The first gen SHO was a completely different beast. It was light, handled well and was the 3rd fastest sedan in the world at the time of its release.
I wouldn't say it "handled well." It handled better than anyone had any reason to expect from a Taurus. But at the end of the day there was no hiding that it was a Taurus chassis, and frankly that Yahama engine was just too much motor for that platform.
I always intuitively knew it wasn't a handling monster, but I finally had it put into perspective for me when I got absolutely murdered on a clover-leaf on-ramp by a Mk2 Volkswagen GTi.
IIRC the SHO is $38K, the BMW is about $54K. Both twin turbo V6, Ford about 350HP, BMW about 305. But as someone else pointed out the Ford is heavier.
golfgod
BMW is a straight 6, not a V. It's also 500cc smaller. And if someone put the BMW turbo 6 on a dyno, I bet it would be putting out more than the advertised 300. I've suspected for a while that BMW underrates its engines.
3) I hate AWD systems that only send torque to the rear wheels if the front wheels start to slip.
All that aside, I have high hopes for Ford's Ecoboost line of engines.
#2 and #3 are very, very good points.
I did not realize this was the case! Those are dealkillers for me, especially those "All wheel drive" cars that are just front-wheel drive with glorified traction control.
BMW is a straight 6, not a V. It's also 500cc smaller. And if someone put the BMW turbo 6 on a dyno, I bet it would be putting out more than the advertised 300. I've suspected for a while that BMW underrates its engines.
I believe its well understood that a lot of the European makes tend to be conservative when advertising engine output.
I believe its well understood that a lot of the European makes tend to be conservative when advertising engine output.
Never really heard that about European makes. I do remember the laughable situation in Japan right up through the end of the 90s where engines putting out 300-plus horsepower were "officially" rated at 280PS (276 HP) because of an unwritten rule there that engines should not exceed that output. That taboo has since been broken.
Never really heard that about European makes. I do remember the laughable situation in Japan right up through the end of the 90s where engines putting out 300-plus horsepower were "officially" rated at 280PS (276 HP) because of an unwritten rule there that engines should not exceed that output. That taboo has since been broken.
It was called the Gentlemens Agreement. The Germans did something similar by setting their speed limiters at the same level.
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