Does Anyone actually thrash the knockers off their cars once in a while?

Never really taken mine above 3000rpm, sometimes tempted to whack it in sport and put the hammer down...

Any element of truth to the "Italian tune up" do you think?

I live in a fairly mountainous area and I quite routinely have mine to the floor, or close to it for several minutes at a time. I suspect the Italian Tune-up was more of a thing with carburetors though. The fuel injected engines run pretty clean, probably no need to for the "tune-up" on our vehicles.

Whether there is any truth in it I've no idea (although it could adjust the adaptive values for WOT) but you've got a Sport button, so use it. Always entertaining to poke the button, floor the throttle and watch the tacho run up to 5.5k before the gearbox changes up. Makes you wonder how something with the aerodynamics of a small bungalow can accelerate that fast......

I've known of it to be referred to more commonly with diesel engined cars than with petrol vehicles, particually those with more sophisticated variable turbos (which is most of them now). Its probabbly more relevent to cars that rarely get used at a decent speed though as well. But its always a bit of fun to see how well it goes too.

The aerodynamics of my P38 are considerably better than my D2. Also my D2 only has a 4.0 and my P38 a 4.6, which goes a lot better. I quite like both vehicles though.

defiantly a thing , after towing a friend to Hobart after a brake down (FJ cruiser and trailer near 4 ton), slow trip down from top of state 400km , defiantly had more spirit on the way home . as for giving it a rev try 4000 +rpm low range top gear along the cape beach 13km through soft sand , speed needed to keep on top of sand , fuel usage was 36L to 100km.
with older cars if you drove the legs of them occasionally it would get the carbon of the valves an pistons and if you used a fuel conditioner it would clean out the varnish and crap from the carby as well , of cause with the rover its a computer tune ,self adjusting to conditions, also a fuel cleaner will help clean injectors the same as a carby
PS if you are going to use a fuel conditioner use a good one that is designed to remove the varnish and rubbish will cost a dollar , the cheap ones are basically diesel in a bottle so a litre of diesel will do the same .

Well, I am Italian so ... driving spiritedly (observing the norms, almost always) it is part of my driving style :-)
Every motor, new or old, needs a good whacking once in a while. Keeps carbon deposits to a minimum, removes condensation from engine and exhaust, and remember it is not only the skinny pedal that needs exercise, but that fat one as well to make sure brake pads are fully forced against the disc and do not crystallize over time, diminishing braking capability.
Important is to make sure all components are fully warmed up, and it is a progressive "sprint".
A couple of WOT at the traffic lights followed by long period of "granny driving" won't cut it :-)

This is the only vehicle I’ve ever owned that I’ve not done ‘the ton’ in. If I even get close this image pops into my head of an Abrams running over a goat. There’s nothing left of the goat of course, it’s too late, you can’t fix that so I generally keep it under 80.

However, after a long day of 4wheeling in low range that engine will run noticeably smoother for weeks afterwards. Makes me feel better too.

I got to 100 in mine. Didn't feel anything special, but I haven't seen any need to do it again.
I do take my vehicles to the redline/WoT every couple of weeks or so and get a full bore gear shift from the autobox. It does seem to cheer them up a bit, and me as well.
I find the biggest difference is going on a long trip after my usual diet of short trips, any vehicle seems noticeably smoother and more eager after a few hours of running.

Agree totally. Mine seems to get smoother and more powerful after the first 30-40 miles so they do need a good thrashing every so often. Seen 105 on the sat nav on mine (showing 106 on the calibrated speedo) once on a long gentle downhill in Germany. Decided it probably wasn't such a good idea and backed off as I had a trailer on the back loaded with two keyboards and a 12 piece drumkit......

Never taken it above 70 to be fair, not really sure i'd want to to over a ton in it, top speed is 125 apparently!

I did punch it in S this morning on the way to work, up to 70 on a dual carriageway I was am pleasantly surprised it seems to have a fair bit of get up and go still

Sounded good too, stainless exhaust might of helped that though!

But I cruise at 75-80, even with a trailer!! Did you wind it up to the red line?

Yep right up to the redline which is around 5500rpm..

Sounded quite nice.

One of the big problems with plodding around and doing short journeys, around 20 km or less, is that diesels will foul up the DPF system. I had a Merc E220D for a few years and decided to sell it because of the DPF issue. It kept going into "limp-home" mode due to the DPF and the only way of cleaning it out was to whack a big dollop of dipetane fuel additive in the tank with a fill of diesel, and then take it for a 50 km trip down the motorway.

I did check before buying the P38 that there wasn't a DPF system on the 2.5D and it makes a big difference. No sudden drop in performance at some unexpected moment, and no big black clouds of smake when you give the motor a good hard dose of throttle.

The Merc could be running fine, doodling along at 80 kph on the motorway, and suddenly you could loose all power, no throttle or anything. All you could do was to stay in the inside lane with your foot flat to the floor and hope that there were no hills coming up.

To permanently sort the issue was to either be illegal and remove the DPF system, or replace it, costing around €1500. A real pain if your car is worth only around €5000. But if you remove the DPF system you will get prosecuted for fundamentally altering the design of the vehicle, so not worth the hassle.

I give my P38 a good blast along the country roads where I live, and I keep an eye on the mirror to see if there is any black smoke. There will be a bit sometimes, but only if I have done a few short trips down to the shops, and a good blast soon clears it.

So I do agree with the regime of a good, hard run for a few miles, to clear the cobwebs. Give it socks occasionally, it doesn't hurt [unless something falls off].

Pierre3.

I do have fundamental disagreement with diesels for these reasons. They're great for slow revving torquey industrial applications (especially for static engines at constant revs) but once you try and make them drive like a petrol engine it all gets a bit too much. Running them hot and high revving just doesn't suit them - they're better off with a 2500rpm redline and a ton of gears.

The 12 valve BMW M51 diesel doesn't do much below turbo rpm. It does however like to rev compared to most diesels (I used to have an E34 525 TDS Tourer). The DSE does have a surprising turn of speed all things considered but in the real world it is not fast by any stretch. Which means that when I finally get my Scimitar on the road it should feel like a rocket ship!

Smiler wrote:

Which means that when I finally get my Scimitar on the road it should feel like a rocket ship!

My mate dropped a Rover V8 in a Reliant car years ago, not a Scimitar but a Robin lol.