Euro Beat

There's always a void that can't be filled for the Japanese car owner. No matter how hard you push it, nor whatever mods you've thrown in, there's always a gap.. Something amiss.
I'm not sure if its age catching up to me or if I'm just going a bit soft. But I can't seem to rid myself of the feel and solid fluid lines of these classics I grew to love watching BTCC and DTM races. It could be the solid build quality, the entirety or the exotic feel... But no, I eventually concluded that these European marques did things a little different from our econobox pocket rockets. These cars were built with PASSION and SOUL~!

I keep recollecting my thoughts and emotions (from time to time) of whence I was test driving an Alfa Romeo 147 GTA with a pal of mine and today, I just thought I'd share some of my fav "blasts from the past" with you, my dear readers.

This is the Alfa Romeo 155 which is the initial car I fell in love with when I had my first peek at into the DTM series.

It ran on the (now) legendary Alfa Romeo 2.5 litre 90deg. V6 which has sustained production 'till this day.
The 1996 version had a 2.5 L 90° V6 engine delivering 483 hp at 11,900 rpm, had a top speed of around 300 km/h and weighed only a scant 1,060 kilograms.

Next on my list is the Mercedes-Benz 190E Evolution II - Hah! I bet you thought the Evo moniker refers only to the rally champion from the Land of the Rising Sun!

Back in the day, this Merc was like no other. Built solid as a brick and even Merc agrees that its over-engineered for its time.

The Sonax sponsored 190E was my initial look at this monster from Stuttgart, and I was awed. I mean, jaw-droppingly awed!Notice the bulging hips and haunches along with the massive rear spoiler that came STOCK!
This "Baby Merc" ran on the 224 bhp at 7,200 rpm and 245 N·m of torque at 5,000 rpm 2.5 litre 4-banger from Stuttgart, whilst pushing the top speed up to 155 mph. In their final incarnations, these engines produced up to 350 bhp (260 kW) in racing tune.

The Peugeot 205 GTI is considered as one of the best hot hatches of all time with journalists singing praise from every corner in the world this car had shown up. It was only running measly 1.6L (115hp) and 1.9L (128hp) engines, but with its inherent habit of sudden lift off oversteer and extremely light kerb weight of only 762kg! It was an amazing little number!

And finally, there were the racing versions based heavily on the T16 variants running transverse mid-engine, four-wheel drive layout of the rally car, but had much less power, at around 197 hp from a 16-valve turbo engine.