The Motor Forum

BeN · Last edited by BeN on Tue Dec 09, 2008 12:01 pm; edited 1 time in total

I shall start off with my first issue. Around this period the magazine had a bit of a European vibe, so many articles are skewed accordingly.

On the cover is a bright yellow Porsche 911 Carrera. The 993 was newly launched then.

News
Several short articles of a few cars from Europe, which included:
Rover 220 Turbo Coupe. It mentions the new Rover family grille.

Opel/Vauxhall Omega.

Scimitar Sabre. Can't think that was popular.

Proton Persona. It talks about Proton comparing it with the Mondeo, where it was nowhere near as good, with special mention about the ride being not suited for British roads.

VW Golf Variant (Estate).

Aston Martin Lagonda. This was pre-DB7, and AM was still referred to as a 'specialist car maker'. Also mentions a Shooting Brake version of the Lagonda

Renault Laguna, which replaced the Renault 21.

Previews
Features the facelifted Mercedes W124, and the new model designation of 'E-Class'.

Reviews
The cover story of the Porsche 993 Carrera, with the drive in Nice, France. It talks about the new shape, and the sleek spoiler, but concludes that it is still typical 911.

Rover 216i Cabriolet. The roof can be folded in 8 seconds, believe it or not. But the boot space was shallow and can only hold soft bags. The folded roof also obstructed rear view vision. Still, it was very popular here back in the day.

BMW M3. First drive of the E36 M3 in Munich. It looked very subtle but could really blow away the best in the business, beating the NSX, RX-7, 300ZX, Porsche 968, Audi S2 and Ferrari 348tb to 100km/h.

Lexus ES300. Lexus was the new kid on the block then, and struggling to prove itself. Big massive car, but it seemed like just a glorified Toyota Camry.

Features
Talks about automatic gearboxes, and how they might make manuals obsolete. Well, that didn't materialise, but to a certain extent it did here. As a reference, back then BMWs can be had as manuals, but now almost all BMWs (except the sporting versions) are autos only. Our busy stop-start traffic probably had a lot to do with that.

A look at a few ads in the mag:
Mitsubishi Galant with 'fuzzy logic' technology. I have no idea what that is even reading the ad now, so the logic certainly does leave me fuzzy.

Dunlop SP Sport 8000 tyres. Shows a BMW 8-series clad with said tyres, with the tagline 'Singapore Roads Aren't Designed For 250KPH. We Are'
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On the other side of the world - Hurlecot de Millou

Not the same since 2008

Matt · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 1:25 pm Post subject:

Interesting stuff, BeN. Thanks for posting.

Are you likely to add new ones into their own threads? If so, Mod status could mean you'd be able to sticky them.
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Small car, big heart.

BeN · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 1:38 pm Post subject:

I suppose so, with a new thread for each issue. I was thinking more like a sub-forum for these, but being Mod to sticky them works fine too.
_________________
On the other side of the world - Hurlecot de Millou

Not the same since 2008

Matt · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 1:40 pm Post subject:

I'm glad you mentioned a sub forum, as that was one idea I had.
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Small car, big heart.

BeN · Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 12:02 pm Post subject:

I've decided to take pictures of the covers, and perhaps some pictures of interesting bits in the mag itself.

Next issue coming up shortly.
_________________
On the other side of the world - Hurlecot de Millou

Not the same since 2008