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Ugliest car ever?

Passion, instruction, buying, care, maintenance and more, any form of vehicle discussion is welcome here
monabri
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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#462742

Postby monabri » December 2nd, 2021, 7:49 pm

Clitheroekid wrote:I'm old enough to recall a time when BMW's were good-looking, well-engineered cars that many people aspired to own.

They lost a lot of their appeal when they started producing dull, everyday cars, and their styling has been on a steady downhill slope for years now.

But this monstrosity really does take the biscuit for possibly the ugliest, most completely pointless waste of raw materials ever to emerge from a motor manufacturer - https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... 963240&i=0


Designed by Kryten?

Smeg!

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#462762

Postby AleisterCrowley » December 2nd, 2021, 9:20 pm

Ugliest?
The Austins ....Maxi, Allegro and Princess
They just look like they are going to rust to bits even when brand new.

The Citroën C4 Cactus is minging
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_C4_Cactus
I also hate the current SUV trend - I have ranted about it elsewhere
("WHY do you need that massive lump of steel to drive to Waitrose??")

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#462798

Postby DrFfybes » December 3rd, 2021, 7:52 am

BullDog wrote:I think there will be more than just my vote for the Fiat Multipla being the most ugly car ever? Or at least of recent times?


I worked with someone with a Mulitpla.

She had a sticker on the back that read "Wait until you see the front".

Paul

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#463347

Postby tsr2 » December 5th, 2021, 9:11 pm

Clitheroekid wrote:One very negative aspect of electric cars is that they weigh far more than ICE cars, which means they shed far more in rubber and brake dust, both of which are serious pollutants.


I would agree that they shed more rubber but they generally shed less brake dust. Regenerative braking means that their kinetic energy mostly goes back into the battery, rather than shredding brake pads and heating up brake discs.

Clitheroekid wrote:I should make it clear that I'm not in any way against high performance cars in principle - there are so few of them that the additional pollution they create is irrelevant. However, the entire concept of an electric high performance car is a contradiction in terms, simply because of the weight factor, which, at least so far, can't be overcome (and, of course, the lack of sound).


OK, the sub 2 second 0-60 Tesla is fiction (there is an asterisk on that figure), but you are trading off better torque and energy efficiency against the weight, so when you say "the weight factor, which, at least so far, can't be overcome", I am not convinced. The Tesla Model S outperforms a lot of exotic ICE cars that cost more than 10 times as much.

Clitheroekid wrote:An electric car is by definition a compromise, and is designed for one purpose only - to reduce carbon emissions. However, a high performance car design shouldn't be constrained by such irrelevancies - the sole objective should be to engineer the best possible car, and at present that means an ICE car. It's why electric Ferraris are an absurdity, and yet another embarrassing confirmation that the company is very sadly transitioning from being one of the finest motor engineers in the world into a designer brand.


All cars are a compromise. You compromise different things depending on whether you are prioritising outright performance, load capacity, off-road ability or something else. I'm not sure that ICE Ferraris can actually outperform a Tesla Model S, even though the Tesla is a large (oversized?) family car, not a stripped back "hypercar". The best possible car needn't be running enormously inefficient, complex and fragile ICE engines and the related transmissions, when they can be running simple, efficient and robust electric powertrains.

I think we can agree that the weak point in electric cars is the batteries, but the technology is improving rapidly and electric cars are superior in all other respects.

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#463903

Postby Leothebear » December 7th, 2021, 4:09 pm

Surprised nobody has mentioned this vile looking heap:

https://www.hotcars.com/everything-know ... gremlin-x/

pje16
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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#463905

Postby pje16 » December 7th, 2021, 4:30 pm

Never seen such putrid colour :roll:

ReformedCharacter
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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#463916

Postby ReformedCharacter » December 7th, 2021, 5:13 pm

I can offer the 'Workers' Playtime', memorable as much for the name as its looks:

https://www.allcarindex.com/production/united-kingdom/eec/workers-playtime/

RC

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#463918

Postby AleisterCrowley » December 7th, 2021, 5:21 pm

pje16 wrote:Never seen such putrid colour :roll:
Oh I dunno, quite fancy a guitar in that colour (I'm sure Charvel do one)

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#463938

Postby Clitheroekid » December 7th, 2021, 6:14 pm

Leothebear wrote:Surprised nobody has mentioned this vile looking heap:

https://www.hotcars.com/everything-know ... gremlin-x/

With the AMC Gremlin, customers had options. They could choose among the 135-hp 232-cubic inch inline six-cylinder or the optional 150-hp 258- cubic inch inline six-cylinder. Rival cars Pinto and Vega only offered thrifty four-cylinder engines in comparison. The Gremlin delivered exceptionally high performance, as its road tests showed a 0-60 MPH time below 12 seconds and a top speed of 100 MPH from the base engine.

This is a good illustration of just how far ICE car design had advanced before its demise in the face of electric cars.

Despite having a 3.8 litre (or liter if you prefer!) 6 cylinder engine it only generated a measly 150 hp, had a 0-60 time of around 12 seconds and a top speed of 100 mph. And that was considered `exceptionally high performance' in 1971.

Oh, and in order to produce this stunning performance it supped petrol at the rate of 22 mpg.

By way of comparison a VW Golf R has a 2 litre engine but develops 315 hp, which is effectively twice the power at half the engine size. It has a 0-60 time of 4.5 seconds and a (limited) top speed of 155 mph.

And it does around 36 mpg.

Now that's what I call real progress. It's just a shame that all that engineering effort has turned out to have been in vain.

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#463961

Postby bungeejumper » December 7th, 2021, 7:19 pm

Clitheroekid wrote:Oh, and in order to produce this stunning performance it supped petrol at the rate of 22 mpg.

Ah yes, but that would have been in US gallons? (0.833 of an imperial gallon.) So that would have been 26.5 miles per proper gallon. Dammit, my Triumph motorcycle only just made it into the thirties. If you drove it fast enough. :lol:
By way of comparison a VW Golf R has a 2 litre engine but develops 315 hp, which is effectively twice the power at half the engine size. It has a 0-60 time of 4.5 seconds and a (limited) top speed of 155 mph.

And it does around 36 mpg.

As I recall it, the dream target for European manufacturers in the early seventies was to build a 50-50 engine. Which was to say, an engine that would do 50 mpg at 50 mph. Everybody knew that achieving this distant goal would require a radical new piston and cylinder design, but the gas flow know-how wasn't available, so a lot of it seemed to be down to blind experimentation. Overhead cams and interference valves helped along the way, but it didn't really become a possibility until fuel injection improved sufficiently.

Meanwhile the yanks carried on building great thundering dinosaurs with four litre engines and rigid axles, and to hell with the fuel efficiency. As they could afford to do, since gasoline was so cheap. :) It took the 1979 oil crisis to change attitudes in the States - and even then, Ronald Reagan introduced a protectionist (and supposedly "voluntary") ban on most Japanese car imports, just so as to give America's own manufacturers a breathing space in which to update their antique designs and their antediluvian thinking. Some of them eventually managed to improve their engines, but even today, none of them can compete with Japan or Europe on quality or finish or handling. Well, I don't think so anyway. :D

BJ

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#468022

Postby Leothebear » December 22nd, 2021, 12:22 pm

bungeejumper wrote:
Clitheroekid wrote:Oh, and in order to produce this stunning performance it supped petrol at the rate of 22 mpg.

Ah yes, but that would have been in US gallons? (0.833 of an imperial gallon.) So that would have been 26.5 miles per proper gallon. Dammit, my Triumph motorcycle only just made it into the thirties. If you drove it fast enough. :lol:
By way of comparison a VW Golf R has a 2 litre engine but develops 315 hp, which is effectively twice the power at half the engine size. It has a 0-60 time of 4.5 seconds and a (limited) top speed of 155 mph.

And it does around 36 mpg.

As I recall it, the dream target for European manufacturers in the early seventies was to build a 50-50 engine. Which was to say, an engine that would do 50 mpg at 50 mph. Everybody knew that achieving this distant goal would require a radical new piston and cylinder design, but the gas flow know-how wasn't available, so a lot of it seemed to be down to blind experimentation. Overhead cams and interference valves helped along the way, but it didn't really become a possibility until fuel injection improved sufficiently.

Meanwhile the yanks carried on building great thundering dinosaurs with four litre engines and rigid axles, and to hell with the fuel efficiency. As they could afford to do, since gasoline was so cheap. :) It took the 1979 oil crisis to change attitudes in the States - and even then, Ronald Reagan introduced a protectionist (and supposedly "voluntary") ban on most Japanese car imports, just so as to give America's own manufacturers a breathing space in which to update their antique designs and their antediluvian thinking. Some of them eventually managed to improve their engines, but even today, none of them can compete with Japan or Europe on quality or finish or handling. Well, I don't think so anyway. :D

BJ


The Yanks failed to adapt and modernize and so did we. You can include the British motor cycle industry as well.

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#468030

Postby bungeejumper » December 22nd, 2021, 12:40 pm

Leothebear wrote:The Yanks failed to adapt and modernize and so did we. You can include the British motor cycle industry as well.
Oh, indeed you can. But none of the Triumphs and Nortons in my disreputable past ever dropped quite so many bits onto the road as they went along as my mate's Harley did. :lol:

Lousy bike construction standards became quite a well-known issue in the States, and they only improved a little bit after Reagan finally reopened the import taps for well-built "rice-burner" Japanese bikes. The next twenty years saw a proper improvement in construction quality. But Harleys still don't go round corners properly. Who'd have thought that roundabouts could be so scary? ;)

BJ

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#468074

Postby Leothebear » December 22nd, 2021, 4:48 pm

bungeejumper wrote:
Leothebear wrote:The Yanks failed to adapt and modernize and so did we. You can include the British motor cycle industry as well.
Oh, indeed you can. But none of the Triumphs and Nortons in my disreputable past ever dropped quite so many bits onto the road as they went along as my mate's Harley did. :lol:

Lousy bike construction standards became quite a well-known issue in the States, and they only improved a little bit after Reagan finally reopened the import taps for well-built "rice-burner" Japanese bikes. The next twenty years saw a proper improvement in construction quality. But Harleys still don't go round corners properly. Who'd have thought that roundabouts could be so scary? ;)

BJ


Harleys have the good fortune to be Americana fashion accessories. They don't go, don't stop and handle appallingly. But they look cool.
Leo

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#468091

Postby redsturgeon » December 22nd, 2021, 5:58 pm

Leothebear wrote:
bungeejumper wrote:
Leothebear wrote:The Yanks failed to adapt and modernize and so did we. You can include the British motor cycle industry as well.
Oh, indeed you can. But none of the Triumphs and Nortons in my disreputable past ever dropped quite so many bits onto the road as they went along as my mate's Harley did. :lol:

Lousy bike construction standards became quite a well-known issue in the States, and they only improved a little bit after Reagan finally reopened the import taps for well-built "rice-burner" Japanese bikes. The next twenty years saw a proper improvement in construction quality. But Harleys still don't go round corners properly. Who'd have thought that roundabouts could be so scary? ;)

BJ


Harleys have the good fortune to be Americana fashion accessories. They don't go, don't stop and handle appallingly. But they look cool.
Leo


After years of riding Hondas, Kawasakis, Yamahas and Suzukis I went for a test ride on a Harley. It was like riding a two wheeled tractor...ugh.

John

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#468117

Postby airbus330 » December 22nd, 2021, 10:10 pm

redsturgeon wrote:
Leothebear wrote:
bungeejumper wrote:Oh, indeed you can. But none of the Triumphs and Nortons in my disreputable past ever dropped quite so many bits onto the road as they went along as my mate's Harley did. :lol:

Lousy bike construction standards became quite a well-known issue in the States, and they only improved a little bit after Reagan finally reopened the import taps for well-built "rice-burner" Japanese bikes. The next twenty years saw a proper improvement in construction quality. But Harleys still don't go round corners properly. Who'd have thought that roundabouts could be so scary? ;)

BJ


Harleys have the good fortune to be Americana fashion accessories. They don't go, don't stop and handle appallingly. But they look cool.
Leo


After years of riding Hondas, Kawasakis, Yamahas and Suzukis I went for a test ride on a Harley. It was like riding a two wheeled tractor...ugh.

John

Have a go on a Pan American. Surprisingly good. And I say that as a Harley Hater up til now.

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#468164

Postby DrFfybes » December 23rd, 2021, 8:46 am

Leothebear wrote:Harleys have the good fortune to be Americana fashion accessories. They don't go, don't stop and handle appallingly. But they look cool.
Leo


There was a myth in the 1990s that HD were a fashion brand with a motorcycle division. I remember you could get a clothing that said "I own a Harley, not just a T-shirt".

Their vehicles were truly terrible, poorly designed and built. Even after Willie G came back in 1980 and started to improve the brand, the stuff being made 10 years later was poor. Same friend bought a new HD, he used it daily and lived in Worthing on the south coast. Chrome fell off, paint flaked, rust everywhere, all within 2 years. He complained so much he ended up with a letter that said something along the lines of "sorry you are having problems, however our products are not intended for continued use in adverse environmental conditions".

I had a 883 sportster briefly one winter, one day I noticed the 1 inch square alloy trim along the side of the rear ''fender' <ptooe> had snapped and half of it was missing. Looks like you can now make your own :)
https://grabcad.com/library/1989-harley ... r-struts-1

Paul

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#468166

Postby bungeejumper » December 23rd, 2021, 9:05 am

DrFfybes wrote:There was a myth in the 1990s that HD were a fashion brand with a motorcycle division. I remember you could get a clothing that said "I own a Harley, not just a T-shirt".

Now you mention it, I remember seeing a T shirt that bore the legend, "You ain't sh1t if you don't ride a Harley". I thought about it for a second or two, then decided that perhaps I didn't want to be identified by that label? ;)

BJ

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#479475

Postby pje16 » February 9th, 2022, 11:59 am

monabri wrote:
Clitheroekid wrote:I'm old enough to recall a time when BMW's were good-looking, well-engineered cars that many people aspired to own.

They lost a lot of their appeal when they started producing dull, everyday cars, and their styling has been on a steady downhill slope for years now.

But this monstrosity really does take the biscuit for possibly the ugliest, most completely pointless waste of raw materials ever to emerge from a motor manufacturer - https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... 963240&i=0


Designed by Kryten?

Smeg!

This forum has a view on the new BMW grill
https://www.babybmw.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1597228
at the bottom of the thread I posted a cynical image :lol:

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#479480

Postby Mike4 » February 9th, 2022, 12:18 pm

pje16 wrote:This forum has a view on the new BMW grill


BMW are diversifying into kitchen appliances??

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Re: Ugliest car ever?

#479482

Postby pje16 » February 9th, 2022, 12:22 pm

Very good Mike :lol:
cheers
Paul


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