Who says a Six cant inspire passion? My favorite sixes.... Hard to believe they are 40 Years Old.

Excuse the French.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PkZlTdsv4Y

 

I think the Dino 206/246 were among the prettiest cars made and the older, aircooled 911s had such a distinctive engine sound, very mechanical.

Of the various great six bangers, I've owned a couple:

1973 Capri 2.6 - Europe's 3/4 scale Mustang, very sweet pre-cat dual exhaust sounds, though the plastic timing gear wasn't Ford's best idea. Surprisingly quick for its day (that day was 1973 after all) and just a delightful little Mustang wanna be that was probably closer to the original Mustang conception than the bloated boat the actual Mustang had become.

1979 BMW 323i - Gray market car with sweet "Baby Six" - no emissions and a healthy (for the time and 2.3 liter displacement) 143hp. Smooth as silk and a great, brassy, snorty dual exhaust. Very quick for its day and easy to work on (I could adjust a loose valve with a 10mm wrench, feeler gauge, screwdriver, a bit of coat hanger and a flashlight in my teeth in a Metro parking lot at night in about 10 minutes -- every valve in about 20).

1994 Ford Probe GT - Diminutive 2.5 V6 was a gem -- small, light, efficient, smooth and with a Borla sounded like a poor man's Ferrari. Fortunately Ford didn't call it a Mustang but was a fantastic car in its own right. A great combination of sporty and practical with perhaps the best ergonomics of any car I've been in.

2001 E46 M3 -- The S54 motor ought to have a reserved seat in the pantheon of epic motors. A quasi race engine with 333hp out of just 3.2 liters and a decent 262lb/ft of torque topped off by an 8K redline. A few teething problems early on -- a batch of bad rod bearings lead to the "Engine of Damocles" moniker for a bit -- but since sorted out and a motor that can still hang with most performance cars a decade later. That it was packaged in one of the last truly good looking pre-Bangle Bimmers and was backed up by a fantastic chassis was icing on the cake -- a car for the ages, presuming maintenance costs don't put it in the grave and you in the poor house.

V8s are great with their rolling thunder exhaust note, but well done sixes can be awesome too. Four bangers tend to be way too buzzy and strained sounding for my tastes and there are few very good sounding ones.

Of course, V12s are the pinnacle, being smooth a 20 y.o. single malt whiskey, powerful and an exhaust sound -- music -- that just has to be heard live to fully appreciate.

 

Not many people know this, but Ford did also produce a Capri V8 called Capri Perana ... in South Africa.
It was 302cid/280 hp. Ford built only 500-550 of them between 1970 and 1972, but it won every race in 1970 season in SouthAfrican and Australian championship.

 

The inspiration fro the Ford Sierra XR8 perhaps?

 

Where have all the Capris gone? I have not seen a first or second gen Capri on the street in years! My son was playing "Ford Racing" on the PC and he loves the styling of the early Capris....

 

Couple of mine as well as those listed above . . .

 

The GNX

 

My favorite six is listed below.

 

Not a fan ... but ****.