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although the look of my previous s85 v10 m6 looked nice to the naked eye, quality of plastics, paint in the engine bay , nuts and bolts, quality was horrible over time. rusty, easy to scratch up, plastic quality was terrible.
Not that important on a daily driver, but then we have the enthusiast cars and older Alfa Romeos has the most beautifrul engines on a standard car by very far, here some V6 arrangements.
Those old Alfa engines could rival anything from Ferrari or Lamborghini just on looks alone. The V6 on the 156 GTA was probably one of the best small engines around in terms of sheer aural delight and power delivery. I test drove one ages ago and it sounded like an amped-up Integra engine that had its VTEC kicking in from 0 rpm. Bloody amazing.
I've also driven the 159 with the GM-derived 3.2 JTS V6. That sounded like a synthetic copy of the old Busso V6 and it didn't have the old engine's scintillating power delivery. It was also an ugly lump covered by gray plastic; the rest of the car looked stunning though.
These days, there aren't very many good engine bays unless you are spending mega bucks. Everything is now covered in black plastic, you can't even see the engine. One of the few "modern" fuel injected era engine bays that I think is just stunning in a reasonably priced car was the old, original Taurus SHO, I think this is a 1989.
Also I know everybody loves to crap on the C4 Corvette, but there is something to be said about the theater of opening that huge forward hinged, clam shell hood. I love how well the engine was detailed, how you could see EVERYTHING, you could see the suspension control arms, the shocks, the top of the tires, it was just a really neat way to display the mechanical bits on the car. I think of opening the hood on a C4 as a similar experience to opening that rear clamshell on something like a Ferrari F40 or a Koenigsegg.
Even that viper appears to have fake black plastic pipes on that plastic cover. If you tell me Ferrari and Lambo do that today, ok, then I give up.....it's tacky imho
I'm an engineer and also wrench on my own cars. When I look at an engine bay, I look for two things:
1. How the engine and its components are laid out and function together.
2. How easy is it to perform maintenance on the car.
Originally Posted by riredale
As a techie kind of guy I love engines. I was surprised to open the hood of our 2010 RX450h and view a sea of black slabs of plastic. Not sure if it was done for noise reduction or some statement about hybrid elegance.
I can't stand that's the direction Lexus is heading. I hate the black plastic in my GS350 too. The under-body has even more black plastic. It just gets in the way anytime you have to service something, and one by one you lose those clips...
I used to clean my engine bay once a week, put all kinds cosmetic stuffs besides handling and performance parts too to make it look nice. But since I done modding, I haven't even opened ny engine bay for my last two cars at all, don't even care to check out my M motor lol.
07-18-17, 04:48 PM
