What the hell...

Cheers for that link - that's Paul Burrell's old car which has changed hands 3 times in the past two years. This was the first Venturi I ever saw, by complete accident, at Maidstone Sportscars when I was getting a DeLorean 4-wheel alignment done. £20k is optomistic but not too far out. R300 ATL sold on fleabay for £16k about 2 years ago.

The 210 Transcup is the one Mr Dell narrowly missed out on a few years ago. The owner is very keen to sell and is on our little list.

www.venturi-owners.co.uk

(BTW your numberplate would look raaaaather good ona Venturi!)

£16-20 is about the going price but it makes the A610 seem a bargain in comparison.

Apart from the engine, it's a very different car in just about every way. Handling, power delivery (bespoke ECU), interior finish, rarity, simplicity of construction, looks.... I could go on.

I came very close to buying an A610 but after working on a couple of Venturis, there really was no comparison in simple joy of ownership (for me).

PS thanks for the Chargecooler and injectors, arrived today.

Apart from the engine, it's a very different car in just about every way. Handling, power delivery (bespoke ECU), interior finish, rarity, simplicity of construction, looks.... I could go on.

I came very close to buying an A610 but after working on a couple of Venturis, there really was no comparison in simple joy of ownership (for me).

PS thanks for the Chargecooler and injectors, arrived today.

Is the ECU 'bespoke'?. I was sure it was still a Renault/Renix box with a remapped chip..

I quite like this - looks less like an MR2 with the glass lenses.

Get asked quite a lot if mines an MR2 or kit car

Get asked quite a lot if mines an MR2 or kit car

I wouldnt say the 400 looks like an MR2, but the front and side view of the the Atlantique is mistakable. Women like MR2's though, so its not really a bad thing

Yeah but sitting behind the wheel is a short middle aged guy
going through a mid life crisis

I totally agree, in fact I've always thought the A300 was closest to an MR2... in pictures. Actually standing next to it, it's much larger and wider. Still you can never count on Joe Public and I'm pretty battle-hardened when it comes to dumb-ass questions!

ECU - yes, a re-mapped Renix unit, not completely bespoke. I know the temp sensor and TPS are different from the A610 for eg, and the warm-up behaviour is different, not to mention the different performance figures,

The 260's ECU is very definitely bespoke.

ECU - yes, a re-mapped Renix unit, not completely bespoke. I know the temp sensor and TPS are different from the A610 for eg, and the warm-up behaviour is different, not to mention the different performance figures,

The 260's ECU is very definitely bespoke.

Well, the performance figures arent really different. The 300 runs nigh on a bar of boost, the A610 runs 11. If you run a bar through an A610 engine (as we saw with Tony's) you get around 280bhp and over 300lbft. In fact there is no reason for the map inside to be different but it might be..

Im sure the 260 is a Renix too, I know the 400GT is a Renix (even on a 400 Trophy) and it sits behind the drivers seat and just has a Venturi sticker on it.

No the 260 has some italian aftermarket jobby. It's got the serial connector on the front and the engine behaves quite differently - for example the idle runs open loop all the time, and there's a little hole in it through which you can twiddle a pot to set the idle speed. At a very basic level, the box is black.

No the 260 has some italian aftermarket jobby. It's got the serial connector on the front and the engine behaves quite differently - for example the idle runs open loop all the time, and there's a little hole in it through which you can twiddle a pot to set the idle speed. At a very basic level, the box is black.

That may be like the piggy back unit Renault used to use on the Europa Cup 21's. If you google a search for Venturi 260 and Renix, lots of links come up, even a magazine review against the Esprit where they say its a Renix box. Was it an early car (back when the old ecu's couldnt be reprogrammed)?

No, it's a late one - just before the LM