Cars

[firestorm]

I consider myself a car nut, but have nothing in the stable that reflects that.   Our daily driver (wife and I commute together, along with kiddo transport) is a 2006 Chevrolet Impala 3LT.  We probably should have got a minivan, or maybe an SUV, but couldn't shake the associated stereotypes.  The funny thing is, we figured we wouldn't need that much space 95% of the time (turned out to actually be more like 75% of the time) and thought we'd enjoy the gas savings of another sedan.

I've always had good luck with GM cars, and I know them very well.  We had a '97 Olds Cutlass previously that we clocked 198,000 miles on, and it still looked great too.  We had only about $2000 in repairs into it, over the 8 years we owned it.  It really just needed a new A/C compressor.

We ended up with an Impala 3LT simply because I really wanted: remote start, the 3.9L (240HP / 240ft.lbs. torque), axle-back dual exhaust, and the 17" wheels.  It's not the best handling car in the world, but it's fair for a family sedan.  It's fast though... much faster than anything else I've owned.  It's 100% stock and likely always will be; might toss some aftermarket mufflers on it, but it always sounds pretty raunchy for a V6.

My vehicle is a 2001 Silverado Z71 4x4 Extended cab.  5.3L V8 (285HP / 325ft.lbs. torque), 3.73 gears and otherwise plain jane stock.  I'd really like to do a 3" lift, some bigger tires, and put an exhaust system on it.  GM trucks are much too quiet from the factory; too low as well, for that matter.

Right now, I'm longing for an early 70's Camaro RS (aka. split bumper).  That's recently trumped my life long desire to own a '69 Camaro, but that doesn't seem as practical as it once was (availability and cost.)  I'd take a '68 GTO or Chevelle in a heartbeat though.  I've been waiting so long that I may aim for an '86-'88 Monte Carlo SS; they're cheap and they're a good platform to build on.  They've been going up in value recently too.  At the same time, I wouldn't mind building a trail rig either.  We have some pretty good trails around here, not to mention some dunes open to ORVs.

[cchan]

I drive a 1996 Mercedes-Benz E320. I'm hoping to get a 1989-1993 Volvo 240 when I graduate though...

[kishy]

240! That's my secret geeky dream car!

[D-EJ915]

ugh man, 240s are terrible, get a 740 instead they are so much better

[kishy]

Purely based on looks, the 240 stomps just about every other Volvo.

(yes, that's exactly what I just said)

In particular, quad sealed beam headlamp ones like this:

[msiegel]

Purely based on looks, the 240 stomps just about every other Volvo.

good old ibm industrial design

[kishy]

good old ibm industrial design

Lol, come to think of it...there is some resemblance to a 5150/5160 in the 240...

[itlnstln]

good old ibm industrial design

Does it have buckling springs?  I hope not.

[kishy]

Does it have buckling springs?  I hope not.

That would have destroyed Volvo's reputation for safety...

[itlnstln]

That would have destroyed Volvo's reputation for safety...

Yeah, like Ford didn't...
 
 
 
(Just kidding)

[D-EJ915]

with how hard it is to avoid a simple accident in a lolvo I'm surprised they have any sort of good reputation.  Volvo takes the position of you will be in the crash, we will make it safe in the crash.  Whereas most other companies first try to get you able to avoid the crash and then safe in the crash haha.

[ironcoder]

Just drive a big truck. Weight always wins over tech.

[bhtooefr]

I've got a rusty 92 Miata with engine problems.

Lightweight, ridiculously precise, fun to kick the tail out in winter, and slow.

But a rocketship compared to the 86 Golf diesel it replaced.

[1839cc]

Purely based on looks, the 240 stomps just about every other Volvo.

(yes, that's exactly what I just said)

In particular, quad sealed beam headlamp ones like this:

Show Image

I agree with you on this except for the 120/Amason series and P1800E. And I prefer the wagons.

I've got a rusty 92 Miata with engine problems.

Lightweight, ridiculously precise, fun to kick the tail out in winter, and slow.

But a rocketship compared to the 86 Golf diesel it replaced.

What kind of engine problems?

[bhtooefr]

Oh, it just runs on about 3.25 cylinders out of four, due to very low compression in one cylinder. Nothing major.

[kishy]

I agree with you on this except for the 120/Amason series and P1800E. And I prefer the wagons.

The 120...not sure I agree.

The P1800E...that's a very elegant car. There's one in my city that I know of in what appears to be pristine condition.

240 wagon...they've got the same "smoothed box" appeal, but I think it's harder to find them with sealed beam headlights (nothing some work with basic hand tools won't fix though).

It seems 240s could be had with single round sealed beams, double round sealed beams, double rectangular ones, and then the later separate bulb style headlamps. Might seem like I'm obsessing over a small feature but if you compare the cars between each other you see what a huge difference the headlamps make the the overall appearance.

Edit:


The "aspect ratio" of the car itself seems to be a bit off...but that'd be because it's a screencap from a TV show.

[kishy]

Annnnd just for completeness and because I'm waiting for defrag to finish...

Single round sealed beams:


Double round sealed beams:


Double rectangular sealed beams (yet another):


Separate bulb+lens:

[1839cc]

No love for the 120s?

But yeah 240s with quad headlights are also quite nice.

Oh, it just runs on about 3.25 cylinders out of four, due to very low compression in one cylinder. Nothing major.

Haha as long as it keeps going, right? They're fairly easy to work on when the time comes.

[D-EJ915]

the wider grille on the singles looks MUCH better than those other ones

[kishy]

No love for the 120s?

But yeah 240s with quad headlights are also quite nice.

120...I dunno. Not my style.

the wider grille on the singles looks MUCH better than those other ones

Grille...sure. Overall front end appearance though, I dunno, it doesn't seem to match the overall styling of the car.

[chuckading]

I saw somebody posted a pic of a car crushed from a fallen tree. It reminded me of my car in college one morning before a Human Anatomy test.

...

[Mr.6502]

The Volvo pics reminded me of some of my fondest moments in Gran Turismo 4





(My real car looks like trash so I'll stick to virtual ones)

[D-EJ915]

my friend has a 240 and showed me a vid of some guy who has blown his to like 500HP and does drifting. it was nuts lol.  If you even hit the throttle at all in the rain you would fishtail hahaha

[ricercar]

Mid- and rear-engine cars like the MR2 and 911 or tend not to have intact rear ends in junkyards due to people who fail to hit the throttle when fishtailing in the rain.

I can never remember whether it's called oversteer or understeer when the rear-end of your own vehicle decides to pass you on the outside during a turn, but it's scary as hell to have the rational part of your mind fighting to accelerate while the {fight|****|flight} hindbrain wants to stomp the brake.

[bhtooefr]

Understeer: When you hit the wall with the front of the car.
Oversteer: When you hit the wall with the back of the car.

Oversteer is when the passenger is scared, understeer is when the driver is scared. In oversteer, there's usually a way to gain control - either less or more throttle, depending on the conditions that caused the oversteer and the car's drivetrain layout. In my Miata, it's usually healthy application of opposite lock and backing out of the throttle partway - backing out all the way causes a rearward weight shift that causes lift-off oversteer, which is more dangerous than power oversteer. (At least it's not as bad as a Porsche 911 in that respect.)

With (terminal) understeer, most of the ways of stopping it are either counterproductive (get off the brakes - which, if you need to scrub speed quickly to avoid a crash, and can't steer out of it, doesn't work) or don't help you (transitioning it to oversteer with some handbrake application.) Sometimes you have enough space to get out of an understeer condition, but understeer is a much less controlled state than oversteer.

[vyshane]

Mid- and rear-engine cars like the MR2 and 911 or tend not to have intact rear ends in junkyards due to people who fail to hit the throttle when fishtailing in the rain.

I can never remember whether it's called oversteer or understeer when the rear-end of your own vehicle decides to pass you on the outside during a turn, but it's scary as hell to have the rational part of your mind fighting to accelerate while the {fight|****|flight} hindbrain wants to stomp the brake.

Oversteer :-)

One of the first times I drove a RWD car in the wet, I ended up spinning. I felt the rear end go, didn't hit the brakes, but didn't react quickly enough with opposite lock either. I ended up facing the opposite direction in which I came. I was lucky to get the learning experience without any consequences (no crash) other than nearly ****ting myself. Up to then I'd been used to driving FWD . These tend to understeer.

[bhtooefr]

However, you can have RWD cars that tend towards understeer (hello, land barges,) and FWD cars that have a surprising tendency to oversteer (I've seen a CRX at a local autocross that was on the verge of spinning at every corner.)

[itlnstln]

I saw somebody posted a pic of a car crushed from a fallen tree. It reminded me of my car in college one morning before a Human Anatomy test.
 
...

Did you do the exam on the driver?

[Mr.6502]

However, you can have RWD cars that tend towards understeer (hello, land barges,) and FWD cars that have a surprising tendency to oversteer (I've seen a CRX at a local autocross that was on the verge of spinning at every corner.)

As an owner of a land barge I would go so far as to say land barges tend to do anything they damn well please.

[1839cc]

I had a little oversteer experience on pavement with light ice recently. Just enough to be fun.

It was a right hand turn up a hill changing to a left at the top. When I turned left the back of the car kept going clockwise until the front got traction. By then it was too much opposite turn, so I let go of the wheel and squeezed the throttle about half way and it straightened out.

This was on the road where I live, in my car with full-time-4wd, 43F/57R torque split, center VLSD, open front and rear diffs.

[zwmalone]

what's left of my '95 Century Special...

[zwmalone]

Nope, that's my mother. I'm in the ambulance behind the car.

[trievalot]

Mitsubishi 380 VRX

Looks spiffy, but nothing special in the way of a sporty engine.....

[Half-Saint]

Does the wooden roof come as an option?

[trievalot]

Does the wooden roof come as an option?

since fuel prices are so high here it pays to be eco.

[itlnstln]

what's left of my '95 Century Special...

Are you OK?  What happened?

[Half-Saint]

I'm driving a 1998 Renault Megane hatchback.. bought it 2nd hand 5 years ago. It's alright to drive and it has a decent size trunk. The only thing I don't like about it is that averages 8 liters per 100 km and it is a little bit underpowered for its size (90bhp@1050kg).

Cheers

[zwmalone]

Spiffy.

Gonna take it out tomorrow for the first time...

[iMav]

1973 Ford Maverick

Repaint and some striping done.

[ricercar]

She missed a spot.

I think I've spotted my panties.

[sethstorm]

What I drive.

Not much to speak about in terms of being a "performance" car.  However, it's something I want to drive, when I drive it.






It does get mistaken for being government-issue(due to its formal appearance, not for current ownership of General Motors), though.

[itlnstln]

Oldsmobile Alero?  I have never driven one, but they were supposed to be pretty decent in the performance department in their time.

[sethstorm]

Oldsmobile Alero?  I have never driven one, but they were supposed to be pretty decent in the performance department in their time.

It's the Oldsmobile Aurora, the 3.5L "Short North" v6 version(yes, it has the well-known Camel Mode on it).  Added pics to clarify.

The car looks like it wants to be armored, though.

[itlnstln]

The Aurora was pretty nice, too.  I remember when that car was released, they were going to make a separate brand out of the Aurora series.  In retrospect, GM probably made the right decision; they only had to kill Oldsmobuick.

[sethstorm]

The Aurora was pretty nice, too.  I remember when that car was released, they were going to make a separate brand out of the Aurora series.  In retrospect, GM probably made the right decision; they only had to kill Oldsmobuick.

At the very least, it makes for a good long-distance car that just happens to look like a Cadillac(based off the same platform as the Seville), but isn't.

[kishy]

To me, nothing really says "US Government Agency" much more than a black or navy blue Crown Vic with far-darker-than-legal window tint, matte black plastic grille and black steelies with the small silver hubcaps.

Aurora's a sharp looking car, of course, and probably better than a Vic in a lot of ways.

[InSanCen]

WANT! You may have my soul in return.

You know, that's just begging for some big old MT's at the back, and a Blower on top???

In a semi-related (V8) vein, a friend pulled the trigger on an NRE motor to go in his trike, projected output is ~1400BHP... SHould be... interesting... Short on details at the moment, but I suspect a Big Block, and Bus-sized twin turbo's are the order of the day. At least he's put the Meteor engined trike (27L V12!) on hold while this on eis done.

[sethstorm]

To me, nothing really says "US Government Agency" much more than a black or navy blue Crown Vic with far-darker-than-legal window tint, matte black plastic grille and black steelies with the small silver hubcaps.

Aurora's a sharp looking car, of course, and probably better than a Vic in a lot of ways.

...which is why I was surprised to hear what I did.

[kishy]

[sethstorm]

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Definitely would agree w/ you on that one.  

Was looking at older Police Interceptors to be honest around the time that I bought that.