The Car thread


Kavinsky

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I Just watched this

 

 

and its kind of funny about what he says about the Dampeners, namely that on the limit with this new system they soften up as to give the car more traction. and that heavily reminds me of the story I read about the Dodge Viper TA where literally to make the car handle and drive better, as to be more on par with the C6 ZR1, they softened up the suspension

 

 

and given that the C5 - onwards have dampeners that can change on the fly, I guess given the vipers no frills approach that is something that they didnt think to add.

 

 

as if you think about it on something that undergos hard cornering, it makes sense that you would want it soft to better hold the line to an extent, as on really rough and stiff race cars, such as the Aero 8 something and the Porsche 911 GT1, well it bumps around on any bump it comes across

 

 

where nowadays with this kind of tech I would imagine if this kind of tech keeps going, and is allowed on the race track it could fix that, and the failures of the Mercedes CLK GTR

 

 

Mr. Flippy as I used to call it back then.

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and if you think about it, with a bigger and wider ferrari like the testarossa, vs a small nippy car like the elan,

 

 

this does explain why they opted for a softer ride, something that the people back in the day complained about when compairing the TR to the Countach, as they thought it was a softer, less interesting supercar.

 

such as this guy

 

 

vs stock

 

 

and I think this one has an exhaust leak, either that or he has the windows open

 

as it turns out well, the countach, she has no rubber in her suspension.

 

 

plus the louder and harder the ride, the quicker the fatigue sets in, and they didnt opt for power steering because of how long the pump hoses would have been ontop of that, going from the front of the car to the rear.

 

and now we have the option to change that on the fly, for the best inbetween, also with how fast that 488 spooled up, I cant imagine a stick shift being able to keep up and cope, nor a subquental gearbox really, as that means that you dont have both hands on the wheel.

 

and that's the thing, if you buck tradition, it'd better be for a good reason, and with how fast that one is, maybe its got it

 

as beforehand with cars like the Vanquish, the pre bubble butt one that didnt have that stupid ugly handle on it, and the cars with the sallyspeed transmisions they would have trouble going into gear at stop lights, and between shiting from N, P, and Drive while parking the thing, now if that's all sorted out, and they can move that quickly

 

maybe its for the best the manual is gone on cars like that, not on all cars, but on cars like that where it can literally do Hyperspeed Mach 10

 

also how good is it that we have that 488 and this right now?

 

 

and ferrari just kicked their teeth in again, I guess Enzo trained his successor well then, as I dont care how straight the door jams are (on the F40) as when they step on the gas, I want them to shit their pants.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hmm I think Chris Harris just found his Ferrari Daytona

 

 

https://twitter.com/harrismonkey/status/614341088283881473

 

CIaT7fVWwAAusyO.jpg

 

https://twitter.com/harrismonkey/status/616139356768731136

https://twitter.com/harrismonkey/status/615910158242291712

 

and I gotta admit while I'm not a fan of the Nike Swoosh P1

 

CI-h-JqWcAA7Z4P.jpg

 

save for when its in a dark color, namely purple like here

 

 

of which this video is what inspired jay leno to buy his I think

 

I really like this 650 in white, and I'm gonna have to start looking for a 1/43 scale model of it one of these days.

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  • 4 weeks later...

as an aside to the statement I made about playing midnight club 2 the last time, I just played through Midnight Club 3 Remix, and I threw it out afterwards

 

Negatives - Unbalanced Rubberband AI, Car Classes, Maps and Races that Repeat, uninspired map design, overdetailed cities, terrible forced menu music that cuts out the song that was playing ingame beforehand, the biggest sin in my book as it kills the feeling the song is giving out, and a blatent attempt to cash in on the NFS series's success at that point, pre Most Wanted.

 

and the game just plays like an inferior version of need for speed underground 2, with none of the charm or fun of that game.

 

and I cant tell you how many times I put the TV on mute as soon as these themes started playing at the car customization screen, or when a race was starting

 

 

which is heavily and unnecessarily cluttered compared to its contemporaries, namely in car switching, in the original it was instantaneous, in this one ever car switch takes 5 seconds, regardless if its an owned car, or one your going to buy.

 

 

 

which makes menu navigation and car customization a chore, on par with the clothing system of San Andreas, but worse, much worse, if that is even possible.

 

and you can break the game by using the class below the one unlocked, with level 2 upgrades unlocked, as it literally puts the game on easy mode then.

 

and its the worst racing game I have ever played in my life, bar none, the NFS series has never been this bad, even with some of the worst and most annoying rubberband AI in the world, that snap shots to you and beeps at you to pass in need for speed hot pursuit 2 and to go from a streamlined, well designed, difficult, fun game like midnight club 2, that had exceptionally unique music and themes for everyone of the bosses in the game without cutting it out everytime you entered a race, it is a downgrade on all fronts

 

and the car abilities/super abilities that you unlock are basically crutches and useless 90% of the time, the only two that are worth a damn are zone and aggro, that allows you to slow down time to save your ass, and another to smash through things, but the recharge rate, and deductables do not make sense, and it is impossible to use saved charges up in quick succession, making them useless in tight races.

 

and this game is an example that proves the rule, that the third in the series is either alright, or bloody terrible, but not fantastic, like the second in its series, much like the star trek series has proven really.

 

and this, along with san andreas is the arkham knight of its day, and I would have said the other way around, but arkham knight has the sting that saying its like san andreas should have, although san andreas can be fun, alot of fun as long as you stay clear of certain things with it.

 

but this is so bad it makes me think it should be used as a clay pigeon at a shotgun range rather than be resold for consumption, as mine had one of the worst max headroom stutters I have ever seen in my life

 

like literally it would sit there and stutter during the cutscenes for a good 30 seconds, but even without this I would have still thrown it out with how much this game tries to rob you of fun, but atleast I got a good laugh from Cesar going full max headroom on me, along with Wuzi

 

the positives? maybe 6 good songs, Detroit in the wintertime and a few cool but overplayed cars, 4 of which were purely recycled from Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2

 

or they went for a model they didnt use that was of the same make, like the 98 diablo, instead of the SV, or the VT roadster, one of the coolest cars yet not to be used in a video game strangely.

 

so do yourselves a favor, pick up midnight club 2, and for the love of god steer clear of midnight club 3. Full Disclosure in the PS2 era I've only played up to Need for speed carbon, none of the others beyond that.

 

hell it'd be interesting to see if theres any good action race games I've missed really outside of the mainstream ones if you guys know of any, as I love the PS2 2001 spyhunter game.

Edited by Kavinsky
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Just thought I'd do a James Bond themed post here as I found an odd connection to the Bond Books with the DB5, the car everyone thinks of when it comes to James Bond, Despite Bond driving around in a 1930's bentley for half the books before being switched into a modern one.

 

800px-Bentley_4%C2%BD_Litre_-_20090924.j

 

As WO Bentley may have been responsible for the bedwork of the DB5, with the DB2 engine

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._O._Bentley

 

under david brown, feltham and such and so

 

and the design of the engine seems to support this, as it looks like a straight six bentley motor in design

 

800px-Bentley_4_12_Litre_Spa_6-hours_200

 

800px-1929_Bentley_4%C2%BD-litre_engine.

 

 

Vs the DB2 and 5's motor

 

800px-Aston_Martin_DB2_in_Morges_2013_-_

 

800px-Aston_Martin_DB5_engine.jpg

 

just with twin overhead cams instead of singles So in an odd way when Bond Asks wheres my Bentley

 

 

its actually just a modern version of it, a troublesome one given the financial difficulties of the company back then, as fouling of the spark plugs was abit of an issue, as the story goes some of the clyinders werent firing during filming of the chase scene, and I wadger it was the bloody 25 pound generators that dont produce enough electricity to run the car that did it but still its technically a bentley

 

 

 

just with a redesigned much more modern body that is much more thunderbirdish in its design, which fits given Ian Flemming was a fan of the thunderbird, the 1955 one namely, and put bond in a car based on a t bird in the books to replace the 1930's bentley, a heavily modified Bentley Continental Type R convertible, that had been wrecked and redone by bond to be much more T bird like with a supercharger built in

 

which was based off an actual one off car that was created with almost exactly the same history, in elephant's breath grey apparently, just like the 4 1/2, and I dont know why Ian Flemming always specified that color, as it shows up in a google search as a house painting color more than a car one.

 

 

and this might explain why no matter how many more advanced and technical designs they come up with and use in the bond movies, they keep coming back to this, along with the PPK, troublesome as they maybe if there not taken care of and serviced correctly.

 

as the famous princess anne incident happened because the guy was using hollowpoint ammo in a gun designed for ball (fully round ammo) after all the people who take the worst care of their guns are actually the people who would need to use them the most, the police, as they treat it as a tool, not something to be taken care of typically. hence why revolvers were the chosen sidearm of police forces for many years. plus those are not fincky when it comes to ammo choices and fouling.

 

as to what brought this on, well Chris Harris had a photo of WO bentley show up in his photo stream so I decided to look up his history, plus this at 5:10

 

 

so despite pimping that modern one, the old one is back, even though I would have prefered them to modernize it yet again, just with the proper aston martin V8 vantage, a very rare and unknown version of it, the Virage

 

4407224618_0c84488ca9_b.jpg

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamie_mck/4407224618/

 

600 HP, and no one knows about this one or the original one dalton used in 88

 

but this explains why the DB5 inherently feels right, its a stepchild of the original british icon, the bentley racers and the bentley boys

 

also as a funny little note, I bet not alot of people know about these apperances of the DB5, pre goldfinger, red with a dark blue interior on the saint

 

 

as it was a pre production prototype, the test mule that they gave the production, which they painted silver, probably to match that elephant grey thing

 

and this with peter sellers, with a DB4 and DB4 GT used in it 3:20 onwards, basically its the sport version, 200 pounds lighter and a 2 inch shorter wheelbase with more power and a 30 liter tank.

 

 

and theres video of one with Lazenby behind the wheel

 

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Thought this was kinda crazy, a TR goes all the way to the sahara and back, and the most wear it got was on its stearing rack!

 

 

https://twitter.com/harrym_evo/status/629699118932361216

 

also take a look at that motor

 

CL0j-m4WwAA5QUs.jpg

 

 

 

CL0j-mSWgAA05WC.jpg

 

jesus!

 

no wonder they opted to just drop it out rather than try and work on it over the fenders like they do on the countach

 

CL0j-l0WIAEJUyb.jpg

 

and it looks like the only thing it really needs is a lift kit for ferry launches.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just thought I'd post some positive news, on logging out from my email, MSN had a list of the most reliable cars on it from consumer reports, and their the same people who were quite open about how bad the oldsmobile intrgiue was, of which I can confirm whole heartedly given my father owned one, along with investors buisness daily also being open about it.

 

where in 2005 they openly said oldsmobile was designing their cars to fall apart by 80K miles, only for it to happen as soon as you hit 30 over a 6 month period, when it was 3 years old in 2001.

 

while the old 96 ciera I was using at the time, well the only thing that killed it despite it getting beat on by a rented muel was a bad weather seal on the trunk lid, and a lack of use once I switched to my then new car, a red volkswaggen sportwagen, in 2010, however if the fuse box and trunk lid had been fixed it still would have been fine, while the rust killed the intrigue, and it was the younger and less beat on car.

 

far less as a matter of fact really, also if you have a 5 banger VW, and it seems like your getting lag, switch to 89 octane from 87, the 2 second lag goes away entirely, and I think its being caused by the ethanol in the fuel, although for the past 4 years I just put my foot down much more often and used the sport mode for regular driving, although that's ment as a passing gear.

 

not something for regular use, but my god did that make a difference, I just wish I had known ahead of time as I probably put too much pressure on the brake pads doing that so they lost some of their far down feel, but those will probably be replaced soon honestly.

 

 

and their saying that the new C7, which was made under this new female head who used to run AT and T is one of their best with a 92% rating, and the old durand dealership has certainly improved since I saw it last

 

however the cost of their cars and the depreciation is still too much of a factor in my mind to recommend going for it new, 70 Grand for a GMC at GMC Westborough where I had some work done on my cars paintwork, I honestly thought it was a 40 to 50 K truck lol

 

I was like, wait, 70 Grand, REALLY? 70 GRAND FOR THAT?!

 

mine was 20, and is still holding atleast 75% of its value 5 years latter, so they gotta figure out a way to balance that out, and the only way to do it is to keep the reputation up.

 

and in the meantime their trying to make it up by putting the cost up it seems, and the amount of service and appreciation I get at the VW dealership is far better than what I used to get at durand, granted its been 5+ years, but the oil changes, washes and regular service intervals for the first like 5 years were free, I never got that at durand

 

and free shuttle and they covered the cost of a recall with an air sensor unit, for free entirely, while I just get the feeling they would have charged labor at Durand.

 

110 for brake lines, the lines were 10 bucks plus labor on the 96 at one point, should have put it in myself.

 

and with the C7, its stock design, well in watching this

 

 

and seeing it as the pace car of that F1 race last week

 

the interior is a C4, the front is trying to be a 1953 C1, the sides and hood are trying to be a ferrari 308, the rear end is trying to be a camaro, and in trying to honor the corvette's 50th they've made abit of a mess of it, so wait a few years, as so the bodykits can come out and the price can come down and then buy it and fix it.

 

as the turbo boys have atleast somewhat fixed the tail pipes, the ones who used to make the factory custom's back in the 1980's around the time of the ZR1, the callaways

 

and the Z06 looks much better than the stock one.

 

but the thing needs more headroom and interior room on the Coupe, and they need to get rid of the E tab for the emergency brake, so its got a long way to go before I would ever say, yes you should go for the C7, hell the C4 seems to be the smart way to go and I dont even really like the body style.

 

C5 though I do like but its 1990's GM plastic, so you'd have to get the interior overhauled and redone in leather for it to be nice, and to remove that god awful green pop up display.

 

how anyone though green looked good on insturments I'll never know

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  • 3 weeks later...

thought this would make a good post, how it is to Import a classic ford to Australia

 

 

and from Japan To America

 

 

 

plus Japan's New Godzilla!

 

 

and the weirdest little car you ever done seen

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hmm quite abit of news in this front with the Volkswaggen thing, and I cant help but make a few observations, 1. What are the standards for Diesel Trucks Vs Passenger Cars

 

as the Diesel VW's must be cleaner than those with how much black smoke those put out, along with the smell coming from that landscaping truck that was infront of me in traffic a few days ago, as I could barely breath with that damn thing infront of me.

 

2. what a stupid thing to risk the brand over, Diesel here is more or less more expensive than the highest grade of gas you can get, and adds a 10 thousand dollar premium ontop of any volkswaggen car

 

and with gas at 2.50 for 89 octane, and far far more avaliable

 

http://www.mass.gov/eea/energy-utilities-clean-tech/home-auto-fuel-price-info/gasoline-and-diesel-fuel-prices.html

 

why would anyone pay that much extra to get inconveinenced by having to find proper low sulfur Diesel Gas, unless they needed to do some serious hauling in a pick up truck

 

of which we HAVE none, the Volkswaggen amarok is a Germany only Vehicle

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Amarok

 

800px-2011_Volkswagen_Amarok_%282H%29_TD

 

 

 

and I know it needs Low Sulfur as in 2010, in the room next to me when I was signing the papers I overheard a conversation about a Diesel car getting its entire engine replaced under waranty after having truck station Diesel gas put in it that wasnt. and that actually ruined the motor.

 

and the very next year when I went over there to take a look at some of their cars during a service it said very plainly on the dash, Low Sulfur Diesel only.

 

 

 

I mean it just raises too many questions, why not just make a top of the line gas car and leave it at that? why risk it all for a Nitche car that has no chance of gaining popularity or acceptance in america?

 

and thank bloody christ it doesnt effect the gas cars as I just got mine to perform much better with 89 octane recently!

 

also gas mileage wise, in filling up my car tonight for 30 bucks, the thing took 12 gallons of gas, for 307 miles on the tank, averaging out to 25 MPG with mostly city driving, I had to go into Worcester MA to drop off something to get worked on, so that was about 30 miles each way probably

 

with about a gallon or so left left, as it was just above the red line on it

 

and this was with a 2011 inline 5 natural aspirated motor too, not the one in the latest version that's a turbocharged 4.

 

but is the gas mileage really worth that kind of premium in europe? I mean what can a Diesel car do with 12 gallons of fuel that a normal gas car cant?

 

as I understand in england its a 50 percent tax apparently, and your octane levels start out at like 95, and above, while here in the US its 87

 

but here, Diesel outside of a 0 to 60 time of 5.3 seconds on the Diesel Sportwagon and an extra 100 foot pounds of torque, just doesnt seem like its worth it with a car. with the added cost, difficulty in finding the Diesel, and safe Diesel as well.

 

and conicidentally Tesla just launched a new car around the same time this story broke, and with one of their primary beneficiaries being the state of California, well draw your own conclusions from that.

 

at the very least I expect there to be a mention of a small tip off of some sort.
 

 

as to how they got clipped, well the answer lies in this I believe

 

 

where he mentions an illegal smog checkpoint the LAPD was doing to catch people who modified their engines, which is none of their business and a breach of the 4th really. but when has that ever stopped them?

 

sorry my Contempt is palpable given a mention of them destroying R34's in the same episode, as its like them crushing that fleet of P51's back in the 1950's instead of selling them to the public or keep them for historical reasons.

 

5 perfectly good P51's and they crushed them for scrap, never trust them to do the right thing.

 

but I believe what happened was that a Volkswaggen Diesel must have gone through one of those checkpoints, got picked up and possibly confisciated and that's how the ball got rolling in California.

Edited by Kavinsky
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Meet Mr Cobra, the keeper of the flame it seems, I gotta see these guys things with my own eyes one of these days.

 

As 3 cars from my childhood have always stuck with me, the Countach, Cobra and the Cuda, and while you see replicas, you seldome see real ones

 

and I'd be curious about why some seem to have such variations of the fans in the front. like some seem completely blacked out in the front, others didnt.

 

but I am glad to see someone close to Mr Shelby keeping up the flame with all of the old knowledge and stories that were lost with him in 2012, the year of hell it seemed.

 

outside of them actually finding the Gumball Rally Cobra, as that was literally the only good thing that happened that year it seemed.

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  • 1 month later...

You know that feeling that your missing something, well I had that with the corvette, for awhile I have been reading through the tom falconer books on the corvette's

 

the C2's - C4's, the most pertintent to the daytona, and I kept feeling I'm missing something, so i decided to to buy his book on the C1, and it filled in the blanks

 

 

 

why is it that C3's have that frame problem, where there have been 4 cases of wields coming undone on the engine crossframe section, Camera's 68, a car he's had since 72 had it that had to be rewielded, a car undergoing restoration at the corvette forums had it, a 1978, that had its front wheel colapse in on itself from it, that caused everyone to look for this.

 

and the final one, a most recently one, a local guy I bumped into said oh yeah I had to have some of the wields redone, same exact MO

 

 

and it all comes back to GM, theres an X brace missing from the C2 to C4 that was NEVER compensated for when they removed it to make more leg room in the damn thing, like I couldnt bloody believe it, and it even had a loop to go over the drive shaft to keep it from going up in the event of a crash, the kind of thing that is required by modern NHRA racing rules!

 

and this also explains why all these muscle cars are reacting so positively to simple bracing, they never compensated for the lack of integrity in the chasis, it was all on the body. and it wasnt until the C4 corvette that it was even adressed

 

where they mounted a leaf spring horizontally to act as an anti roll bar in the front of the car, to help give the front wheels more traction, and this is what's been causing all of these issues over the years.

 

and probably caused this whole corvette vs the porsche thing where the corvette just couldnt keep up, while a C1, a 1960 did damn well in the 24 hours of lemans.

 

8th place in a very rainy race, stock, with the factory racing brakes, who the hell would think a corvette could do that?!

 

 

turns out some dumbass took 200 pounds of bracing off of the damn thing and thought, eh it'll be fine, granted even porsches reacted better to enhanced stiffness and the like but still.

 

its like hello, stupid, knock knock, compensate for this lack of integrity in the body! its a 2,000 pound piece of fiberglass, and your just going to take the bracing off like that and not put a few cross braces in the front and the rear to hold it together better?!

 

and the thing that really sets it off is that this might have been caused by Bill Mitchel taking over from Harley Earl in 1958, as it seemed like the corvette got stale with him at the wheel.

 

while it constantly improved and advanced in so many ways between 1953 to 1962, they even had custom duct work built in as an option for the drum brakes for racing, ductwork, on a car from 1958 for cooling the brakes, the kind of stuff you'd see on a ferrari.

 

I know of a guy who had to build that into his C3 for god sakes!, its like what the hell happened, there was even an alumiumn radiator option for the fulies, meaning technically an alumiumn radiator is not a restomod thing, its a factory thing with a corvette, granted a very unknown one but nonetheless its technically a factory option.

 

granted it said that it needs anti freeze to work right apparently while most people just filled them with normal water but still.

 

its like what the hell man, hell with the C3, buy a 1960 C1 with the racing package, its ready to go as is lol

 

 

its like it matches what Clarkson said about the Corvette in general, as soon as Bill Mitchel took over, what clarkson said became reality.

 

 

yeah abit flimsy is right like christ what the hell. note theres not a C1 in that pack either! all in the name of profit the corvette lost its edge, is it any wonder I never took the thing seriously for a number of years and was primarily a cobra man.

 

as the cobras pure, its for one thing and one thing only, to go fast. and forget driver comfort if it cause me to go slower, get rid of it.

 

and all this because of GM's little thing about not racing the thing, hell it was the daytona that got me into it, and its interior matches the cues of the C1, not the C3, hell its kinda like a wedge version of a C1 really, the one I really liked the 1953 to 55 cars

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/splattergraphics/3093938299/

 

but its just all abit startling, like really, so it took them that long to fit rack and pinion steering, compensate for this lack of integrity, update the brakes, update the rear suspension and put some money into chasis development. jesus what a bunch of cheap bastards.

 

and props to the guy who took over and started putting money into it for the C4, I mean no wonder the C3 was kind of the black sheep for so long,

 

 

it badly needed updating just 5 years into its production and they just let it sit till 1978 and it took them 6 years to get it where it should have been back then.

Edited by Kavinsky
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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been hearing some disconcerning rumors recently that the viper might be on the chopping block again, and to end production in 2017.

 

as they've had a backlog of them, and had to drop the price about a full 20K, while the Charger Hellcat and Challenger Hellcat have been selling quite well and stealing its fire. atleast from what I can see

 

now with the viper itself, i think its biggest problem is that it doesnt look like it used to, not that the corvette is this or that for a lower cost, truth of the matter is a Viper's a Viper, a V10 monster

 

any model is a icon, from the first, second, third or fourth generation, and you can not say that about the corvette. as corvettes are built to a price, which was true of the first gen viper, but that cost cutting was in the name of making it faster.

 

and I think its biggest failing is its styling. one of the nicest novelties of the original was that it was actually a targa top

 

 

although you had to reinstal the windows and open the window to open the doors, which was changed on the second gen, when the viper GTS came out.

 

and I think if the viper is going to stand any chance of suriving, three things are going to need to happen

 

its going to need to become smaller, thinner, and its going to need a new body, targa topped like the old RT/10 was, and maybe work in some of the classic touches of the concepts, such as the color matched accents of the prototype to really set it off

 

 

 

 

and maybe opt for a one up manship of the 5 liter 289 cobra, not the 7 liter 427, which is what the viper was intended to be.

 

a factory production super cobra 8 liters, 10 Cylinders, 500 horsepower, vs 7, 8 and about 400 HP in a light frame and chasis

 

as it might just be too much for regular use. and I miss those old first gen and second gen viper wheels, hell I remember seeing a chrome version of them at one point too.

 

so I would say, maybe dodge should make something completely unexpected, a 4 liter V10 engine, supercharged in the smallest chasis avaliable to them, the mazda MX 5 chasis.

 

especially given that the newly revealed Fiat 124 is just an MX 5 chasis with an alfa romeo engine and fiat body. and they are technically owned by the fiat group.

 

 

 

I mean I love the viper, its a hero car, it's the Clint Eastwood .44 magnum of the car world, you see that show up and you know the guy driving it has to have real talent to keep it on the road.

 

and that is why the viper has persevered through 20 years of politcal and electronical nonsense, especially when it comes to those illegal speed cameras they use in england, as a man has a right to be charged by a man, not a computer damn it.

 

its just that the cost and the horsepower game have drawn people to the corvette C7 Pontiac Firebird and the hellcat series instead.

 

and maybe the viper just needs to go back to its routes and jetison everything it can to make it as cheap as possible, as power seats, heated this and that, are not manditory by the modern safety standards.

 

and thus maybe they need to simplify the production, two models, the old RT/10, stripped out and ready for action, and the GTS.

 

 

and also for a few years you could only buy a viper at an SRT dealership, which hurt sales, so now you can get it at any dealership, so theres some missmanagement going on there too before the hellcats came out

 

 

plus I miss the old RT/10, making the GTS only seems sacrilegious, and its loss since the third gen has always seemed wrong. and maybe that's whats needed to bring the viper back from the brink

 

go back to the RT/10 rip out the windows and everything not needed under law and sell it, along with the GTS.

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after all that has been one of the biggest detractors of GM performance cars as of late, they dont seem like muscle cars as they have too many features, gizmos and gadgets on them

 

 

and thus they feel european and not american, and  then people want to go back to the old ones, or the viper, so there is a market for stripping out all the crap and going commando.

 

its just been untapped and the vipers out of it because it costs too much money in its current form, especially when some hopped up sedans with superchargers have been stealing its fire as of late.

 

at the very least it could make for an interesting rebirth of the old Copperhead concept.

 

 

although to be fair, the viper turned into the copperhead for the third gen

 

 

 

so I think stripping it out, simplifyling it, making it more like a 289 cobra, and maybe as sacrelegious as this sounds giving the option of something unheard of in a viper, an automatic for the european countries and to pull people alway from the corvettes.

 

it could save the viper, as as sad as this sounds, VW Lamborghini stopped producing the manual because it only made up 5% of sales, so you've already got a hard to handle Viper with a manual that most people are not going to buy.

 

so it could pull a great deal of people in by just doing that, plus I contacted Tremic to see if they made any autos awhile ago

 

and they said quote on quote, not at this time, which means it they could be working on one.

 

although someone said rather intereting, if we dont hear anything at the next detroit autoshow, january 11-26 2016 with the viper, she's done, so I guess the proof will be in the pudding then.

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  • 1 month later...

I had this weird inkling to look up the skyline out of nowhere and it turned trumps, with these two videos, all you could wanna know on this legendary car

 

 

 

and also so I can get Dragnov's AND skylines in new Zealand? maybe I should make that my plan b......

 

as for my personal affinity to it, it turns out it was just a regular sedan that got turned into this monster, much like the Capri, the Falcon, the Mustang and the like, and I've always had far more affinity for those than the exotics.

 

as with an exotic it really has to be something above and beyond engineering wise to pull my attention, like say the LFA

 

 

or something that's so batshit bonkers like this

 

 

that's just driving pleasure in its purest form, much like a motorcycle of which I have heard of a 427 Corvette C2 convertible being called by more than once.

 

 

and honestly I feel guilty for even liking them if there not like that, while a super sedan like this doesnt carry any of that negativity from a basic standpoint because of its humble beginnings, you know you just dont feel like a stuck up prick for driving it.

 

its kind of like a tudor black bay compared to a cermaic rolex submariner, the older ones and the tudor are cooler just because their isnt any of that snob appeal to them like their is now with them.

 

while with the tudor its just something cool that's probably just as good as the old ones were back in the day, and 1/3rd the price. and honestly I'm thinking of trading the omega in on one. as I keep coming back to stare at them.

 

 

plus its far less ugly and much more bond like

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24728725@N02/20445051230/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36619391@N05/6853722642/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/virgile-fontaine/22731073148/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/virgile-fontaine/23254541985/

 

hell the only bond to wear the modern one was really Timothy Dalton and a one shot with Roger moore.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Some news on the replacement for the aging Koeneisegg design, the one that I've always called the tire catcher given its penchant for doing so on the top gear tv show

 

 

and I must admit the back end, I'm not too sold on it, and I dislike mirrors like that, as it just makes me wanna push them in or take them off all together and start over with them to fix the design, and the Viper had the same issue, too far out and too far away to fluidly fit into the design, as everytime I see it I want to take a basebat to it and retrofit the older gen 2 mirrors to it

Draginline_waiting.jpg

800px-2013_SRT_Viper_--_2012_NYIAS.JPG

 

just like on the pagani huyrara design.
 

800px-2015_Pagani_Huayra_%2819244929734%

although to be fair this isnt as bad, as this looks like a pair of bug ears from the movie a bugs life on the zonda and viper here

A_Bug's_Life.jpg

and I dont want to take a baseball bat to it, just fix it, like it has potential

 

 

 

ironically the kind of mirrors this car needs are from one that was featured in some crappy movie last year and featured an ugly face

 

like the problem with the mirrors is the mounting position, not the idea of the design, and also well everyone saw me go fully the spoony one on that one that this thing was featured ln lol

 

and its abit of a strange combo all around really with the koenesigg, as the back end reminds me of a Jaguar XJ220 in shape but not function

1280px-Jaguar_XJ220_hr_silver_TCE.jpg

also full disclosure I love the XJ220 I think its one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

 

but on the koenesegg I dont think it works, and interior wise I hope they make it an option to black out those internal vents or make them interior colored, and more centered and out of the way, as that would drive me personally nuts trying to drive something like that with bright silver against a mocha colored interior like that, sticking up and reflecting against the windshield

like I'd go to the model kit shop and black each and everyone out if I had to live with that thing. or atleast make it one single solid vent across the dash so it doesnt look like someone sprayed silver dots all over the thing and so it doesnt pull your eye everytime you try and look out of the thing and see it reflecting against the windshield, hell you know I am seriously surprised that the automotive industry isnt using this by now at 2:33

 

as that would fix that problem in a hurry and probably make things abit safer for everyone if it was economical enough to do on a mass production basis, not to mention probably help everyones eyes abit I would imagine. along with alot of other things the more I think of it, like why dont model cases have something like this?

 

and ironically the Testarossa had this same design with its interior vents, but was blacked out and didnt have that many strewn infront of the driver

which can be seen at 0:13 here

 

also that hydraulic system and the placement of the gas cap, if this is all production stuff well what happens when it fails and that stuff doesnt open like it should, does the owner need to do this then at the 2:00 Minute mark?

 

although granted we're talking about a bunch of swedes who arent constricted by rules or GM's Penny Pinching, so chances are saying it will fail is like saying tomorrow their will be no moon.

 

 

still though that color is awesome, actually weirdly the best design for a new style mirror like that that I've seen would be on the Volkswaggen Hurican

 

if they wanted to mount it further on the door and its not like Volkswaggen is using it for anything interesting anyways.

 

also its kind of a shame really that the design was never really refreshed until now, nor do I remember it getting a second chance on top gear either, as personally back when that episode had come out I was hoping the design would get refreshed into this

 

 

 

and sadly its taken them 15 bloody years to change the nose again, I understand dont change it if it works but one of the reasons why Muscle cars always appealed for me was that they were ALWAYS changing the design details, as from 67' till 77' no design really stayed consistent. it was always different. and I loved that honestly.

 

but regardless if theirs one song that epitomizes that car, it would be this

 

 

and its kind of funny, We've got the P1, the P18, the LA, and Volkswaggen is working on a new French Knock off supercar with the name buggati on it to compete (as those cars are about as french as I am, which is none) and now this and yet no direct competition from Volkswaggens Lamborghini Branch. Hmph I wonder if the old man was still alive would I hear about Ferrucio knocking on Winklemans Door and kicking his ass for this lol

 

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you ever have one of those moments where you call something as you see it, and then it turns out to be true, well turns out I was dead right on something I was aghast at, the Corvette C7, for about 3 years since seeing this thing and its preview shots I've always tore it apart saying it looks like it was designed by 3 different people on three different places on the planet and that nothing worked on it. and its one of the ugliest things I've ever seen in my life

800px-2014_Chevy_Corvette_Stingray_in_ye

800px-2014_Chevy_Corvette_Stingray_rear_

I mean even the people who owned it made modifications to it

 

and the aftermarket has tried to fix it, with this SV7

2cd7df4d1207b23bf6689e87f22c18d0.jpg

 

and GM redid the front for the Z06, trying to undo that chesire cat suckerfish grin

 

 

 

as it looks as ugly as they come in stock base form, to the point where I openly started calling the C5 the last of the good looking corvettes and I was just so taken aback by its uglyness and popularity, like even giving the thing a chance in person it was an utter failure, the ugliest thing I'd ever seen in my life, the cabin was cramped, theres no manual cable operated emergency brake that can be actuated in an emergency, only some stupid parking tab. and it just looks as ugly as it does in the photos as it does in person

and it just didnt work to the point where I started calling it an aztek C7, and here's the kicker, as a joke to openly jive some guy I dont like who who fawns over the C7 like its the next coming of christ I decided to open up the wikipedia entry and look at who designed the corvette C7, and theres three different people on C7

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette_%28C7%29

   

Ed Welburn

Kirk Bennion

Tom Peters

 

so I was right on that front as the back end looks like the left hand wasnt talking to the right, hell the best way to describe is if you've ever seen that episode of top gear where clarkson was talking about the Fiat X19

and he mentions that Marcello Ghandini came up to it, looked it over and stood back and said, my god they did the same thing on this side too! and everyone laughed their ass off at it, well that's how I was with the C7, like its hideous and everytime I tired to like it I was like no no no I cant lol its hideous!

 

 

now Ed I've seen promoting that thing and poping up on Jay Leno From time to time, Kirk seems to show up in the photos, but the third one, the third one is the same ONE who designed the aztek, like really, REALLY REALLY, they hired that guy to do the C7?!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Aztek

800px-2002-05_Pontiac_Aztek.jpg

800px-2014_Chevy_Corvette_Stingray_in_ye

I knew I had seen that face before

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well this is curious, I just found out that apparently elenor, the mustang from the original gone in 60 seconds was painted School Bus Yellow, as for its significance, the Nash Bridges Cuda was also painted in that same color

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_%28automobile%29

 

800px-Original_1973_Ford_Mustang_Mach_1_

 

 

Hell i wonder if that was intentional

 

Also this one is for stinger, as apparently you can put anything in a charger it seems!

 

 

I mean I've always thought about how cool it would be to put a viper motor in one of those, but that takes it to a whole new level, and Dom EAT YOUR HEART OUT!

 

also I just relized something, why does Nashes Cuda have a painted/plastic front bumper on the front and a chrome one on the rear?!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Anyways Figured I'd might do some updates here, since I was last here Chris Harris was announced as one of six, SIX new hosts of top gear, along with Matt Leblanc and the guy who owns Cobern's Ferrari 250, for what reason they have SIX I do not know

 

he's the one that I gave a ribbing for taking off the chrome bumpers on it

 

and I do have something good to say about GM for once, I read that the guy who owned the Hammer Corvette at the Corvette Museumn actually got a free replacement for his donated and wrecked 2001 Corvette Z06 that pretty much got killed when that sinkhole collapse happened.

and jesus that is painful to watch really, but one 600 HP car for another, as GM gave him a brand new Z06 apparently,

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

by the way, this might explain a few things with GM cars of this time period lol

 

at 26:50 here, which probably explains that vats key thing they had on the C4

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  • 2 weeks later...
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A new engine swap for you folks with fake Daytona's perhaps? Get some V12 in ya. :p
 

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 6/12/2016 at 2:36 AM, James said:

A new engine swap for you folks with fake Daytona's perhaps? Get some V12 in ya. 
 

 

with the way that sounds that has got to be using a flat plane crank in it. and it sounds remarkably quiet, thing is though it says 600 some CI, that's about the size of a dodge viper motor, while the daytona was only about 260 CI

so I wonder if a smaller version is in the cards, regardless that is impressive, and what a novel concept, bring a V12 to the masses like that. 

 

hmm makes what I'm about to post sound absolutely benign really

or perhaps it runs under the same heading, an affordable ethical V12, given this

 

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  • 6 years later...

Thought this was abit of fun to ressurect this old thread, I've been watching the knight rider historians as of late, and well it turns out theirs more than a few connections between vice, and of all things the dukes of hazzard, and it turns out the guy who did the Sking from Knight Rider AND the dukes of hazzard was actually from up in here in MA of all places, guy by the name of buzz bundy

and they actually just showed off all the cool stuff that they found on an original General Lee

which i gotta be honest I'm gonna be writing down and taking note of, like ah so that's how they made these old things handle lol

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