BMW M535i

Wednesday 18 December 2019
The first BMW M5, based on the E28 5 Series, made its debut at Amsterdam Motor Show in February 1984. It was the product of demand for an automobile with the carrying capacity of a saloon (sedan), but the overall performance of a sports car. It utilized the 535i chassis and an evolution of the engine from the BMW M1. At its launch, the E28 M5 was the fastest production sedan in the world.
The first generation M5 was hand-built in Preußenstrasse/Munich prior to the 1986 Motorsport factory summer vacation. Thereafter, M5 production was moved to Daimlerstraße in Garching where the remainder were built by hand. In May 1987, the keys to the 1000th car were presented to Mr. and Mrs. Krampertz from Eichenau near Munich by Wolfgang Peter Flohr, the director of BMW Motorsport GmbH.[citation needed] It is worth noting that production of the M5 continued until November 1988, well after production of the E28 chassis ended in Germany in December 1987.

The M5 was produced in four different versions based on intended export locations. These were the left-hand drive (LHD) Euro spec, the right-hand drive (RHD) UK spec, the LHD North American (NA) spec for the United States and Canada, and the RHD South African (ZA) spec.
The LHD, RHD Euro Spec M5s and the ZA spec M5s had the M88/3 powerplant which delivered 286 bhp (213 kW) DIN (210 kW) whereas the North American 1988 M5 was equipped with a variant of the M88/3 called the S38 B35 which was equipped with a catalytic converter, which, combined with slightly lower compression of 9.8:1 versus 10.5:1 for the M88/3 reduced the power output to 256 PS (188 kW; 252 hp). The S38 also differed from the M88/3 in that it had a dual-row timing chain as compared to the M88/3's single row timing chain. The S38 B35 was used in the NA-Spec E28 M5 and E24 M6. Late production catalyst equipped versions (117 examples) of the European M635CSi were also equipped with the S38 B35. Initially 500 were to be made for the US Market, BMW later increased production to as many as 1,370 units for the US and Canadian markets, although the generally accepted figure is 1,244 units sold.

The North American spec models are unique, in that technically they were all finished in Schwarz (Black) with Natur (Tan) interiors. The otherwise virtually identical Canadian spec M5s were also available with Black interiors as an option, however a limited number of US Models were also equipped with Black interiors
United States Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) range from 2791000-2792000 and 2875000-2875320. Car # 2791000 is not known to have been built, and not all VINs are known to have been used. The first few cars built in November and December 1986 were issued Federal compliance labels showing a 1/87 build date. As has been speculated earlier, physical confirmation of the VIN of the United States M5 kept in BMW North America's Mobile Tradition collection is a 287 series car, a later 1987 build date car.
While every North American spec E28 M5 was a 1988 model year car, production of North American specification M5s commenced in November 1986 and ended in November 1987. Excepting 96 units that were assembled in kit form at BMW's Plant in Rosslyn, South Africa, all E28 M5s were assembled by hand at BMW Motorsport in Garching, Germany.
With a total production of 2,191 units, the E28 M5 remains among the rarest regular production BMW Motorsport cars - after the BMW M1 (456 units), BMW E34 M5 Touring (891 units), and the BMW 850CSi (1510 units).

















Technical data:
- engine: 4 cylinders
- capacity: 3500 cc
- horsepower: 282 HP
- gearbox: 5+1
- top speed: 230 km/h

Nissan Silvia ZSE

Saturday 9 July 2015
The Nissan Silvia is the name given to the company's long-running line of sport coupes based on the Nissan S platform. Although recent models have shared this chassis with other vehicles produced by Nissan (most notably the European 200SX and North American 240SX in the S13 and S14 generations, and 180SX in the Japanese market), the name Silvia is not interchangeable with the chassis codes.
This iteration of the Silvia (sold in United States and Canada as the Datsun 200SX and in Mexico as the Datsun Sakura (Japanese for cherry blossom)), available as a 2-door hardtop coupe and a new bodystyle 3-door hatchback. The Japanese market version of the hatchback was called the Gazelle and was exclusive to Nissan Bluebird Store locations sold alongside the Fairlady Z, while the coupe bodystyle Silvia remained exclusive to Nissan Prince Store locations alongside the Skyline. Its sharp-edged styling was shared with the new Nissan Leopard sedan and coupe, also exclusive to Nissan Bluebird Store.
This generation Silvia was uniquely progressive in that it was originally intended to feature a rotary engine, designed and built by Nissan. The resulting unit was fairly unreliable, and forestalled production. Coincidentally, it shared a chassis code with the Mazda Cosmo, the first Japanese production car to feature a rotary engine. The chassis was no longer shared with the B-series Nissan Sunny, and was upgraded to the larger A-series Nissan Stanza platform.
The car was redesigned shortly after it was released and the stillborn Wankel power plant was replaced by a line of conventional piston engines based on the new Z-series engine. These included the Z20 and the turbocharged and fuel-injected Z18ET, although the latter of the two was only available to the Japanese domestic market. In USA/Canada the 200SX had the Z20E with H165 rear axle from 1979 to 1981. From 1982 to 1983, it had a Z22E engine with H190 rear axle. Vehicles with engines under 2000cc are still considered "compact" vehicles under Japanese regulations regarding exterior dimensions, however, larger engine displacement incurred a higher road tax bill annually.

Technical data:
- engine: 4 cylinders
- capacity: 2000 cc
- horsepower: 120 HP
- gearbox: 5+1
- top speed: 180 km/h

Renault 21 Nevada

Friday 14 June 2013
The Renault 21 is a large family car produced by French automaker Renault between 1986 and 1994. It was also sold in North America initially through American Motors dealers as the Renault Medallion and later through Jeep-Eagle dealers the Eagle Medallion. A total of 2,096,000 units were produced.[citation needed]
The Renault 21 sedan was launched in early 1986 as the successor to the successful Renault 18, and this was followed a few months later by the seven-seater station wagon, the R21 Nevada, marketed as the Savanna in the United Kingdom.
Unusually, the Renault 21 was offered with disparate engine configurations. The 1.7-litre version featured an 'east-west' (transversely) mounted engine, but Renault had no gearbox suitable for a more powerful transverse engine: accordingly, faster versions featured longitudinally mounted (north south) engines. The two versions featured (barely perceptibly) different wheel bases: the engines were all relatively compact four-cylinder units and the engine bay was large enough to accept either configuration without reducing passenger space. However, at a time when production technologies were relatively inflexible, the need to assemble differently configured engine bays on a single production line, along with the supplementary inventory requirements imposed both on Renault and on the dealership network, did compromise the Renault 21's profitability.
In 1986, the R21 was launched. It had a razor-like design, which was different from contemporary cars of the era, e.g. the Ford Sierra (with its "jelly mould" design) and the Opel Ascona (with its J-Car design).
The car was revamped considerably in 1989, both technically and aesthetically - the new sleeker outward appearance was similar to the also recently revamped Renault 25, and a liftback body style was also added to the range (which soon became more popular than the sedan in France) along with a sporty 2.0 L Turbo version. The TXi 2.0l 12v and 2.0l turbo was also available with the four-wheel-drive Quadra transmission, and was capable of 227 km/h (141 mph).
The Renault 21 liftback and sedan petrol-fueled models ceased production in early 1994 on the launch of the all-new Laguna liftback, but the diesels and the Nevada (Savanna in the UK) remained on the market until their replacement Laguna variants were launched (late 1994 for the diesels and late 1995 for the Nevada (Savanna)).


Technical data:
- engine: 4 cylinders
- capacity: 2165 cc
- horsepower: 108 HP
- gearbox: 5+1
- top speed: 192 km/h

Peugeot 405 T16

Thursday 13 June 2013
The Peugeot 405 is a large family car released by the French automaker Peugeot in July 1987 and which continues to be manufactured under licence outside France. It was voted European Car of the Year for 1988 by the largest number of votes in the history of the contest. About 2.5 million vehicles have been sold worldwide in left-hand and right-hand-drive versions, as a berline (saloon) and break (estate).
The 405 has been available in left-hand and right-hand-drive versions, as a saloon and estate, in front-wheel, and four-wheel drive. The 405 range included three petrol engines and two diesel engines, all four-cylinder with no 6-cylinder option, in a variety of states of tune and specification. The range was tailored to suit different export markets. The 1.6-litre saloon featured a low drag co-efficient of Cd=0.29, with other models varying up to Cd=0.33. The 1.4-litre (1,360 cc) engine was fitted with a four-spreed manual gearbox. It produced 70 hp (52 kW) at 5600 rpm. The 1.6-litre (1,580 cc) engine was fitted with a five-speed manual gearbox and produced 92 hp (69 kW) at 6000 rpm. The 1.9-litre (1,905 cc) engine was available with a five speed manual gearbox, with an option of an automatic in the lower powered version. The 8-valve version of the engine was available in two levels of tune; 110 hp (82 kW) or 125 hp (93 kW). A 16-valve version was available with the Mi16 model and this produced 160 hp (120 kW) at 6500 rpm and could reach a top speed of 220 km/h.
In 1993, the T16 homologation special was introduced with a 2.0-litre 16-valve turbocharged XU10J4TE engine with watercooled chargecooler, constant four-wheel drive with 53/47% power distribution and self-regulating hydraulic rear axle. The T16 produced 200 hp (150 kW) at 1.1 bar (16 psi) (normal boost) 220 hp at 1.3 bar (19 psi) (overboost) for 45 seconds. 1061 examples were built, 60 of them for the French Police.
The diesel options included a 1.9-litre (1,905 cc) producing 70 bhp (52 kW) at 4600 rpm or a turbocharged 1.8-litre (1,769 cc) producing 90 bhp (67 kW)



Technical data:
- engine: 4 cylinders
- capacity: 2000 cc
- horsepower: 200 HP
- gearbox: 5+1
- top speed: 235 km/h

Renault 30 TS

Saturday 13 October 2012
The Renault 20 and Renault 30 are two executive cars produced by the French automaker Renault between 1975 and 1984. The most upmarket and expensive Renaults of their time, the two cars were almost identical as regards sheet metal and mechanicals; the 30 was the larger-engined and more expensive of the two. The two cars were easily distinguished between each other from their differing headlight configuration — the Renault 20 had two single rectangular headlights whereas the Renault 30 had quadruple round headlights. The interior specifications differed substantially however with the Renault 30 having a higher specification in all models. Over 622,000 R20s and 145,000 R30s were produced in Sandouville near Le Havre, France.
Launched in March 1975, the Renault 30 TS was the first Renault with an engine larger than four cylinders since before World War II. It was one of the first cars (the other two being the Peugeot 604 and Volvo 264) to use the then newly introduced 2664 cc PRV V6 engine, which was developed jointly between Peugeot, Renault and Volvo; the PRV produced 130 PS (96 kW) and could power the R30 to a top speed of 185 km/h (115 mph). The vehicle's hatchback styling was derivative of the extremely successful Renault 16.
The more affordable Renault 20, which was presented at the Paris Salon in November 1975 (exactly eight months after the Renault 30 TS), used the same hatchback body styling as the 30 but with two rectangular headlights instead of the R30's quadruple round lights. Under the bonnet, the 20 had the smaller four-cylinder 1647 cc engine (from the Renault 16 TX) rated at 90 PS (66 kW). Other technical differences between the 20 and 30 were that 20 used drum brakes at the rear wheels, 13 inch wheel rims, and a smaller 60-litre fuel tank. The 20 came in three different trim variations: L, TL and GTL. The two cars were effectively two 'badge engineered' versions of the same car with separate numeric classification.
Both the 20 & 30 were advanced in terms of safety, featuring front and rear crumple zones as well as side impact protection.
Reliability issues, such as niggling mechanical faults (which sometimes proved expensive to fix) plagued both cars throughout their lifetimes. Shortly after their introduction, it soon became quite clear that the Renault 20 was too underpowered to cope with the overall size and weight of the car and that the Renault 30 was seen as too expensive for what was effectively the same car. In response to this, the R20TS was introduced, and used a new four-cylinder 1995 cc overhead camshaft engine rated at 109 PS (80 kW) (which was shared with the Citroën CX and later the Peugeot 505). The new 2.0-litre engine was universally regarded as a big improvement. The following year saw the introduction of the R30 TX (a more luxurious fuel-injected version of the R30 TS), then the R20 Diesel.
In 1981, the 2.2-litre fuel-injected R20 TX was added to the range, followed by the R30 Turbo Diesel. Production of the 20 and 30 ceased on 16 October 1983 to make way for the Renault 25.

Technical data:
- engine: V6
- capacity: 2664 cc
- horsepower: 144 HP
- gearbox: 4+1
- top speed: 188 km/h

Peugeot 504 Cabrio

Saturday 13 October 2012
The Peugeot 504 is a large family car manufactured by French automaker Peugeot between 1968 and 1983, with licensed production continuing until 2006.
Peugeot's flagship, the 504 made its public debut on 12 September 1968 at the Paris Salon. The press launch which had been scheduled for June 1968 was at the last minute deferred by three months, and production got off to a similarly delayed start because of the political and industrial disruption which exploded across France in May 1968.
The 504 was a sunroof-equipped four-door saloon, introduced with a carbureted 1796 cc four-cylinder petrol engine 97 bhp (72 kW; 98 PS) with optional fuel injection and 82 bhp (61 kW; 83 PS). A column-mounted four-speed manual transmission was standard; a 3-speed ZF 3HP22 automatic available as an upgrade.

Technical data:
- engine: 4 cylinders
- capacity: 1796 cc
- horsepower: 97 HP
- gearbox: 4+1
- top speed: 150 km/h