[quote]morgul: How right you were in everything you stated in describing the landscape of the Europe we are all familiar with. The question is, why is it that almost everything European has to operate on such a high rev range and be capable of 150mph?[/quote] yes mike72 and morgul it was all about throwing it into a corner and the revs and punch out of the corner. and also autobahn capability. . all of which is totally wasted on a californian famiily of six on dead straight flat freeways at 55 mph, ' those kind of people' are better off with the family truckster