Fifth Gear tonight (12/12)

True!

I think my biggest frustration is that too many car "enthusiasts" take these times as gospel. Im sure we've all overheard people comparing the stats in the back of Evo magazine its almost like modern day top trumps. Im too many peoples minds a Citroen C2 will now always be quicker than an old M3 and no amount of convincing will change their minds

I think though its good that these icons get tv coverage nearly 20 years after they were new I cant help feeling they tarnished the image a bit by timing them. I did a trackday at donington in mine a few weeks ago and embarassed a few newer cars. Its now in the back of my mind that every time I go to Mcdonalds all the rude boys in their tin boxes will think they can have me. And the girl next door has a fiesta ST, need to avoid her for a few days now too.

mmm-five wrote: I've been to Anglesey a lot of times and when we've been allowed to time we've seen e30 325's down to 54 seconds so I can't see an e30 M3 being slower than that. Even my barge managed a 55 second lap - albeit on sticky tyres.

it seems a 325 can manage it two seconds quicker!!??

Well done Aaron, your car looked great, and looked much more modern than the Intergrale IMO.

I think it was a fair shoot out, the M3 power sliding everywhere, the Intergrale understeering everywhere. With the Lancias extra traction of 4wd and probably alot more torque than the M3 once on boost, it may not be suprising that the italian was slightly quicker.

Maybe thay should have had a 3dr Sierra cossie there too??? This would have been a better match for the M3 perhaps, especially in standard trim.

"knicker dropping power" - I like that. Does anyone know which chip/airbox combination gives the most?

Seriously, I enjoyed the show, and actually though they were pretty reasonable to both the old cars.  Having seen the joke that is a "Top Gear" test, it was a pleasure to see Tiff actually driving the cars rather than showing off.  He said himself that surprising though the times were, they were from 20 year old cars, that both felt fresh and fun to drive.

I guess the point they were making was that car technology has moved on a lot.  A low mileage Sport Evo and an Integrale Evo2 would no doubt have been a fair bit quicker, but that wouldn't say what they wanted to say.  If you recall Clarkson boiling a DB5 dry as his way of showing that classics are no good, I think 5th Gear shows a lot more grown up treatment of the topic.

By the way, the M3 looked fantastic Aaron.

Just think of the following:

E30 M3 or Fiesta ST?

Monet or Tracy Emin?

911 2.7 RS or new Carrera 4?

Medoc or Jacob's Creek?

Miura or Murcielago?

Saturn V or Space Shuttle?

250GTO or Superamerica?

Progress ain't necessarily forward motion!