What was your Fun Car?

[rabu 9]

Jrich: That is a beauty, really nicely restored!

I had a little '68 MG midget many years ago and loved driving it, but I had constant electrical problems with it and had to keep tuneing it up all the time.. lots of fun though and worth it.

[Guest British_eh]

OK............. UK W what about the VOLVO? Well Rabu has it right in some ways, but my favorite car was a ........ 1981 VOLVO 242 non turbo, but this edition had a higher compression engine than the following years model, with a tubo. It handled better than any other car I can think of, and when I sold it with 280,000 km, it was still like brand new. My 1975 TR 6 is pretty good, but my 65 red Corvette convertible, was lots of fun.

 

Cheers,

 

British _eh

[Duce Lewis 3]

I had a little '68 MG midget many years ago and loved driving it

My oldest brother had a Midget ...68ish

He used to take me for drives and demo'ed it's handling

I remember the feeling that my butt was only a hair's breadth off the pavement

Years later, when he got outta the service, we did the same in my Miata, abeit a little higher up

Edited March 30, 2010 by Duce Lewis

[ConradB 0]

1968 Torino GT Fastback

429 CID Cobra Jet V-8 Forged Pistons

Holley 850 Double Pumper Carb

Blue Streak Dual Points

6 Speed Racing Tranny

4:11 Posi rearend

Creager SS Rims 5 Spoke Chrome 14x7 up front, and 15x8 in the back

BF Goodrich Tires 60s up front, 305s on the back

3/4 inch square stock ladder bars (traction bars)

Dual exhaust 4 inch pipes, with glass pack mufflers

 

0 to 60 in 4.75 seconds

 

Best time in the quarter mile for street rods, was 10.91 seconds.

 

She really loved 110 octane gas.

 

It looked like this except in high gloss black with 3 color lames

 

http://www.dragtimes.com/images/18232-1969-Ford-Torino.jpg

[Duce Lewis 3]

Took a while but I finally found a decent pic of a similar Capri

They called her "the sexy European" in the ads

Mine was White with a 6in Black band round the bottom and a 1in Red Band right above that

[catch 81]

That's not an automobile. Now this is an automobile ! Innovative and stylish yes. Like riding on a cushion of air. Even makes the grafitti look good ....

 

[Duce Lewis 3]

Yes, but can she climb snowbanks for $2k?

[rabu 9]

That's not an automobile. Now this is an automobile ! Innovative and stylish yes. Like riding on a cushion of air. Even makes the grafitti look good ....

 

 

 

My brother had a Citroen when he was in college, looked very similar to your photo. He loved to show off the adjustable air suspension that he could adjust in height for the type of driveing.

[catch 81]

Yes, but can she climb snowbanks for $2k?

 

Well I had this for that. My first car ... a 1966 MKII Ford Cortina sporty 2 door 4 speed manual coupe with light metallic blue finish. Memorable for its 2 foot long curved gearstick, whitewall tyres, sleek lines and passion for hill starts. If one didn't have a convenient hill one just didn't go anywhere that day old chap. But geez once all 4 cylinders fired watch out .... Not only was I, all of a sudden and unsurprisingly, a chick magnet but I was also as happy as the paid to be happy people in the photograph ..... and then the engine seized again ! With the chick in the car. Memories.

 

 

[Duce Lewis 3]

...and passion for hill starts. If one didn't have a convenient hill one just didn't go anywhere that day old chap. But geez once all 4 cylinders fired watch out ....

We called em 'kick starts'

Seemed like such a common practice back then

When you're young & poor and can't affors the starter, battery, whatever yet

Never seemed like much of an incovenience

Just find a hill before you park her

[catch 81]

 

Just find a hill before you park her

 

It was second nature. Fortuitously, Sydney is a particularly hilly city. We actually called them clutch starts not hill starts so I'm glad you picked up what I really meant.

 

I remember asking people if they'd like a lift home after a long night at the pub which was always gleefully accepted only to find there was a catch once inside the car ..... {"damn why won't this car start ? ... sorry folks"} they'd need to get out and push in order for me to clutch start it. Worked for a while until word got around and they wised up. Of course this was in the 70's when it wasn't illegal to drink drive in Australia. I think it was 1983 when the law was brought in. At that point life changed forever for anyone with an active social life, a fondness for beer and wheels.

[Olham 164]

Not a car - never had one.

 

When I did my apprenticeship in the early 70s, I had very little money.

So I made the decision, not to waste any money on a driving license for cars.

The one for motorbikes cost me about 700,- Deutsche Mark (sigh! good times!),

and the addition for cars would have been another 500,- DM.

 

As I was certain, I would never want to drive a car anyway, but be a biker forever,

I only made that license, and saved for my first motorbike:

 

a YAMAHA RD 125

 

Couldn't afford a bigger one, but hey, it looked not much different than a 250!

Here is a (rather bad) picture from the web. I never took a pic of mine.

And here is also my YAMAHA SRX 600, which is also big fun to ride, I still have it.

(Again not my picture but from the web).

 

 

Edited March 31, 2010 by Olham

[Duce Lewis 3]

...... {"damn why won't this car start ? ... sorry folks"} they'd need to get out and push in order for me to clutch start it. Worked for a while until word got around and they wised up.

Somehow I have no trouble imagining you doing this Catch

Good un!

[Flyby PC 23]

I had loads of fun in my Fiat 128. Looked like a Lada, but it was a great little car & quite nippy. Sit at 90 all day, and could sqeeze the ton if the hill was long and steep enough. I'll never forget driving 'the lads' back to Dundee at about 3am after a night out in Edinburgh. The heater was broken, and it was so cold my mate was spraying anti freeze on the inside of the windscreen so I could see where I was going. (Not kidding). We passed a cop car doing about 85, and just kept the foot down. If he didn't stop us for speeding, we'd be home that much quicker, and if he did stop us for speeding, then a night in the cells couldn't possibly be any colder and more miserable than the remainder of the journey.

 

Have to admit I've had loads of laughs in my various Landrovers over the years. Drove one for about a month with only 1st and 4th gear and no clutch. That was a real laugh in heavy traffic. Absolutely hilarious. Landrover used to advertise 'every journey was an adventure'. Yup, certainly was for that month.

Edited March 31, 2010 by Flyby PC

[UnknownPilot 33]

I found this thread doing a search for Cobra Maneuver. heh (trying to find out why neither the TMF MiG-29s nor MarcFighters Su-27 seem able to do it - if it's something I'm doing wrong or not).

 

ANYway.... Figured I'd contribute. :)

 

I see the title is past tense, for me it's present tense.

 

2002 Pontiac Trans Am WS6.

 

5.7L LS1 (came stock with LS6 intake and may possibly be an LS6 block, some 25% of them were, but I can't read the block # to know for sure)

 

WS6 hood de-baffled (by me) and painted with aircraft matte black paint inside (by a friend who's a painter - done because the fibre glass inside the hood is bright white and on a black car it just didn't look right)

 

6 speed T-56

 

275/40ZR17 on all 4 corners (again, stock size, the Goodyears have been replaced by BFGoodrich CompT/As though)

 

Bosch 5.3 ABS/TCS system with Electronic Brake Force Distribution (stock) (this ensures maximum rear brake force allowing for improved performance under all conditions)

 

Koni Single Adjustable shocks placed on all 4 corners (self installed) [this install also dropped the car about 5/8" up front and 1/2" in back, not only imparting a rake, but lowering the CG, which helps reduce body roll in corners and reduces nose dive and tail lift under braking, which with the EBFD improves the braking performance of the car)

 

Double-adjustable rod-ended Panhard bar (self installed)

 

SLP Sub-Frame Connectors bolted and welded in place (done when only 4,000 babied miles were on it)

 

SLP Shock Tower Bar (self installed)

 

Black with black leather interior

 

Polk 10" sub and Kenwood 600w amp to drive it, mounted inside a "Stealth box" specially designed to hide away in the t-top holding area of the hatch

 

 

Dyno'd at 300rwhp and 330rwtq (stock), running a 12.9 1/4 on the dyno. I would never abuse it on a real track in such a way, but it has been recorded more than a few times that these cars CAN reach those numbers on a real track, bone stock - Average is in the 13.2s however, with 0-60 coming in at 4.9 under ideal circumstances, and about 5.1 to 5.2 on average.

 

Future plans include new wheels and tires (going with an 18/19 combo), dynamatting, interior re-build (to cinch it down), home made CarPC install, new exhaust (or maybe just electric cutouts), lid ((ram)airbox lid), PCM tune, either a watts linkage or a C4 IRS, if a watts linkage - then a Torsen T2R diff (hopefully in a lighter, stronger housing to reduce unsprung weight), upgraded T-56 (replacing some synchro keys and the weak (IIRC 3-4) shift fork), a set of matched stiffer sway bars, and some dress-ups - light an overlay on the front plate cover Phoenix, my Last of the Breed badges, etc.

 

Down the road I might even look into trying to replace the ABS/TCS system with the one from the Corvette. Which is the same Bosch unit, just with all of it's features functional (whereas mine has some deleted).

 

 

This picture is before the Koni install, so it's at stock ride height. I lifted the G6 ad-phrase because I felt it more appropriate for my car, and titled this pic "Beauty has a dark side".

 

Taken in April a few years (06 I think?) ago just after washing and waxing it then taking it for a ride.

 

Bought new in June of 2002, it had 9 miles on it when I took delivery (had to wait for it to arrive at the dealer, was bought before it ever even got there), it now has around 16,300 miles on it. (and much of those are from brief periods where I had to drive it every day due to my daily driver being out of commision for various reasons)

 

 

 

[JimAttrill 24]

Here's my current everyday transport, bought in 1996, now with 280 000 kms and not a computer in sight

 

[Duce Lewis 3]

2002 Pontiac Trans Am WS6.

 

Nice ride UK Pilot!

Back shortly before your car was built, I traveled (business) to the Camaro/Firebird Assembly Plant in St Therese Canada

GM Detroit asked us to come prepared to troubleshoot a quality issue there

Turned out to be a SNAFU as the plant personnel solved the problem 2 weeks before we arrived ...w/o telling Detroit or us

We ended up getting a free meal, sampling every Canadian brew we could get our hands on

...and taking an untethered tour of the assembly plant

We wandered around for 2 1/2 hours seeing every welding and assembly operation ...except painting

One of the things that really amazed me was the extent to which a performnce vehicle differed from a stock one

At every assembly step, the Trans Am/Z28's got heavy duty performance hardware

Big Brakes, Big Wheels, Big Transmission/Rear End/Engine/Radiator etc. etc. etc.

Interior Packages and external Cosmetics too

I came away quite impressed

[UnknownPilot 33]

Nice ride UK Pilot!

Back shortly before your car was built, I traveled (business) to the Camaro/Firebird Assembly Plant in St Therese Canada

GM Detroit asked us to come prepared to troubleshoot a quality issue there

Turned out to be a SNAFU as the plant personnel solved the problem 2 weeks before we arrived ...w/o telling Detroit or us

We ended up getting a free meal, sampling every Canadian brew we could get our hands on

...and taking an untethered tour of the assembly plant

We wandered around for 2 1/2 hours seeing every welding and assembly operation ...except painting

One of the things that really amazed me was the extent to which a performnce vehicle differed from a stock one

At every assembly step, the Trans Am/Z28's got heavy duty performance hardware

Big Brakes, Big Wheels, Big Transmission/Rear End/Engine/Radiator etc. etc. etc.

Interior Packages and external Cosmetics too

I came away quite impressed

 

 

Thanks!

 

I just washed it yesterday and planned to go out for a drive on the backroads today with the camera. I wanted to get some shots among nature, preferably the blooming of Spring. But everywhere I went there was either no place to pull over and park, or nothing worthy as a backdrop. grrrr.

 

There's a red covered bridge around here, thought that would be perfect, but it was freakin' Grand Central Station today.

 

Ah well...

 

 

Interesting story too. Wish I could have taken a tour of that place.

 

Most people seriously underestimate these cars because of the brand, they are far more sophisticated, strong, and all around amazing than (most) people realize. This is my 3rd. My first was an '84 T-Top WS6 equipped Trans Am, off-white with gold accents and wheels (didn't like the color scheme at all). That got wrecked unfortunately, but I was already starting to feel my interest in it wane as a friend had planted the GTA seed. So after that happened, I went and got a black '88 hardtop GTA with the gold lace wheels and a tan cloth interior. Didn't care for the interior color, but LOVED that car to death. Unfortunately, it too got wrecked. Several years of pennance in boring ass FWD 6-bangers passed before I was finally able to take delivery of this beast. And this time, it's exactly what I wanted - color, options, everything. (except that I wanted a hardtop, but since 1998 they didn't make any hardtop T/As, the bastards - however, for the 4th gens, there's really nothing more than just a skin of sheet metal, meaning hardtop or t-top, it's just cosmetic. I love t-tops, but as I want it to last forever and love the twisties, I'm concerned with structural integrity. My '84 had all the structural rigidity of a warm pile of taffy. But the 4th Gens are different. Even I didn't know it at first and I'm a Trans Am guy. lol That's what I mean about them being surprising. 4th Gens are tanks, not just in weight, but strength. I've seen pics of 1 rolled at >100mph and it looked fine. The pics were posted by the person who was driving it when it rolled. And... I could ramble on for ages, but I'll spare you all. lol )

 

 

As soon as I get some spare cash to blow, I'm going to pick up a 3rd vehicle for a daily driver, so that I can park my current daily driver and make it a fun toy as well -

 

 

2003 Dodge Dakota R/T extended cab

 

R/Ts are an inch lower than the "Sports", per the factory. They are RWD only, have 4.11s in the back, and a fairly stiff suspension. Rolling on 255/55R17s on all 4 corners. A nice thick steering wheel with quick ratio steering, 4-wheel disc brakes, but front-only ABS and no Traction Control of any kind (other than your right foot).

 

It's packing a 360ci (5.9L) Magnum under the hood, but that isn't as impressive as it sounds, it's very lazy (because of hyper restrictive exhaust, low C/R, and a mechanical fan, and it's built for low revs, but it's got plenty of torque, and with those rear gears, it gets up and goes - surprises a lot of cars).

 

Black/Grey interior (from the bottom of the door windows, down, is black, above that is grey. Sounds weird but it looks nice), leather seats (driver's is full power adjustable), 6-disc CD changer (stock), and a "trip computer" in the headliner.

 

4-speed auto.

 

It came with a roll up tonneau cover and a tough plastic bed liner, so even though it's a street truck it can still haul stuff. I carry loads of wood in it all the time.

 

It was actually my Grandfathers truck. 70-something years old (when he bought it (new)) Korea vet, always been a truck guy, traded in his 4x4 quad cab Dakota for this after I bought my Trans Am. It's a sweet ride and most people can not beleive that my Grandfather bought it. When he was still alive he would frequently get people asking "what's an old guy like you doing in a truck like this?" lol So aside from just being a nice truck, it's special to me. The way it is in that pic is exactly the way he left it. I have since taken the cowboy hat off the rearview, because I can't stand anything hanging from my rearview, it's too obstuctive.

 

I don't plan to overly modify it. But once I can park it and put some money into it, I'll be getting the 20" R/T rims (just like whats on there, but 20" rather than 17" - to fill in the gap), higher performance tires, new shocks with increased re-bound damping (it needs that desperately), possibly a set of sway bars, a new exhaust, electric cooling fans, computer tune, and possibly even a home designed intake manifold (have some sick ideas in that dept.). A friend of mine wants me to twin turbo it, junk yard style (ie, on the cheap). He's a forced induction junky though, I doubt I'll go that route, personally.

 

Beyond that.... who knows. Maybe I'll do more, but probably not. Only time will tell. But I do need to get a true beater so that I can better keep the R/T in good shape.

 

I've blown off cars driven by dudes who think they are mr cool in their riced out civic or mustang gt and the like. Both at the light, and on the backroads (it'll grip like a mutha through the twisties, R/T doesn't stand for Road and Track for nothing. )

[Duce Lewis 3]

And this time, it's exactly what I wanted - color, options, everything. (except that I wanted a hardtop, but since 1998 they didn't make any hardtop T/As, the bastards -

Sadly, I'm not surprised that they were cutting back options then

We arrived a few years before Camaro/Firebird production was stopped due to foreign competition ...everyone made a ponycar

Pulling up to the plant showed an ocean of empty parking lots all around

To give you an idea of the scale they're on

...Once while inspecting vehicles (different plant) we had to break for lunch 20 minutes early just to walk across the parking lot ...and we weren't even at the end

The St Therese lots were about 3/4 empty, formerly 3 shifts running was only down to 1 ...they were hurting

Cutting back on avilable options was probably just a cost cutting manuever

 

It was actually my Grandfathers truck. 70-something years old (when he bought it (new)) Korea vet, always been a truck guy, traded in his 4x4 quad cab Dakota for this after I bought my Trans Am. It's a sweet ride and most people can not beleive that my Grandfather bought it. When he was still alive he would frequently get people asking "what's an old guy like you doing in a truck like this?" lol So aside from just being a nice truck, it's special to me.

Boy can I relate to your Grandfather!

My Uncle John was a Hot Rodder from the 30's

Larger than life, he had a personality that could fill a room with laughter

In his 60's he bought a 70 Torino GT w/ a 351 Cleveland, White w/ Laser Yellow Stripes down the sides ...looked fast

He'd take us up to the races on Fridays and the racing started on the way there

Many a youngster fell victim to his Hotrod Torino

I still miss him but feel good that I spent time with him in his latter years

May Uncle John and your Grandad rest in peace!

[UnknownPilot 33]

Sounds like your Uncle was a cool guy. To them both.

 

 

Regarding the F-Body..... all evidence I have seen shows that the truth is much different than the statements. I am not one for conspiracy theories at all, but certain things are just obvious. There are only 2 options, managment to utterly inept it wrapped right around from fail into eventual win, or.... it was planned.

 

In short, what I'm getting at is, GM wanted to kill the F-Body. And apparently it was solely to get out of their contract with St Therese. As long as those cars were in production, GM was obligated to stay at that factory. The only way to get out was to kill the car.

 

From 1999 to 2002 they did NOTHING to it. 4 production years of identical cars. The only change from 98 was some very minor engine stuff to sort out the teeth troubles of dropping the LS1 into that chassis. They also cut back on options, and continued to raise the price. So the 2002 cost more than the 1999, for no reason at all.

 

There were precious few changes during the LT1 era (from 1993 to 1997). And while the 4th Gen chassis is MUCH stiffer, and came equipped with more power and more options, it was still just a minimally revised 3rd Gen (change out the front suspention from MacPheresons to SLA, and stiffen the chassis, that's it).

 

There is at least 2 Cat's Eye (what I've always heard the 91-92 styling revision of the Pontiac's referred to as) T/As running around with C4 IRS's stuffed in them as test mules. It didn't interfere with anything in any way and wasn't that hard to do. The goal was to put it into production, but the mothership nixed it.

 

The GTA ('87-'92) was originally intended to have the GNX Turbo 6 in it from the outset. The mothersihp again nixed this idea as well. The intent of the GTA was to chase down the more affluent import buyers. The people who wanted tech move than V8s, and chose the RX7s or 300z's over F-Bodies or Corvettes. In my opinion, had that occured, IRS would have soon followed, inevitably and necessarily. However, all they managed to do was a limited production run for the Anniversary edition in 1989.

 

There was talk of either killing the cars after the 3rd Gen wind down, or making them go V6 FWD (ala Ford Probe).

 

Ever since the slow down of the early 3rd Gen, GM has basically had it out for those cars (sort of how there have been many attempts to kill the Corvette over the years as well).

 

So what's that got to do with anything? Well.... I've read many things about clashes between Detroit and the CAW. GM also wanted to build SUVs instead of camaros and Firebirds. And they wanted to scale back dramatically long before Putz (err.... "Lutz") ever came on board.

 

The only way to do this was to cause sales to drop sufficiently to allow them to pull out of their contract with St Therese.

 

When the people who made Knight Rider 2000 went to GM asking to use the Banshee concept, GM refused. Outright stating that it might lead to popularity and demand for production. (potential sales, I mean what buisness would ever want such a thing? This wasn't speculation either, Smokey and the Bandit proved the concept beyond any doubt)

 

Though I have seen a few commericals for the 4th Gens (and have them favorited on YouTube), I have NEVER seen them on the air. And I watch a lot of TV. lol In fact, other than Knight Rider, I never saw any 3rd Gen commericals either. They did 1 dealer video, and I think 2 other commericals total (1 in 82 and 1 in 85 or 86). There were a few magazine ads, but precious few, and only on Pontiac magazines.

 

Even for the despicable camaro, the same is true. I've seen 1 ad on YouTube, but never any on TV.

 

It takes effort to be that dense about a product. Especially one popular enough to prevent you from shutting it's production down legally. It would be cheaper (assuming they had no desire to pull out of St Therese) to support the products and reap the profit from the sales. But they didn't do that.

 

Now... once they achieved this, we all listed to Bob Putz tell us how the F-Body belonged in the 70s and nobody wanted it anymore, and that the GTO was what the people wanted. The GTO sales in 2004 - 2 years after the shut down of the F-Body. Coming online with 2 years of hype, and a clean slate from an historical/marketing/public mind-set standpoint... only managed to come close to V8 Firebird sales. Not beat, not match.... just come close. And not all Firebirds, and certainly not all F-Bodies. Chevy during this time period had no answer/counterpart to the GTO, and the camaro was historically the higher volume brand. So that's a lot of sales flushed. In addition to the marketing money spent (I actually DID see several GTO ads, not a huge amount, but the fact that any got aired at all is a huge difference).

 

As early as 2006 inside information was being leaked that the camaro was coming back. The GTO was a flop and didn't make it any futher. The Solstice was a hit, but the much ballyhooed GTO was not recieved. The simple fact of the matter is, despite what that schizo bastard (lutz) wanted to tell us, people wanted the Firebird. Not a glorified RWD V8 cavalier (aesthetically) with a GTO badge slapped on it. (I DO like that GTO btw, and would love to have one, I'm just making a point) Even the G8 was better recieved.

 

But beyond the failure to supposedly understand market desires from the Pontiac end, if the camaro was such a poor seller that it had to be killed, why was it being planned to be brought back, even before the Challenger hit the show circuit?

 

No, it sold. And it sold enough to be profitable. It was KILLED, with intent from iniside. (along with Pontiac, but nevermind that now, that's a diatribe for a later date lol)

 

 

Sorry, not ranting AT you, just TO you. It's a sore spot with me and just thinking about it can trigger it. hehe

[Duce Lewis 3]

Sounds like your Uncle was a cool guy. To them both.

Cheers,

 

Sorry, not ranting AT you, just TO you. It's a sore spot with me and just thinking about it can trigger it. hehe

No offense taken, I was only relaying to you what was told to me by the GM guys at the plant, I appreciate the history

One thing I can add is, the problem had nothing to do with old technology or out of date assembly methods

St Therese was one modern assembly plant

The sheet metal body assembly was completely automated

From the 1st few small components to the flinal body shell, hardly a human could be spotted

It was a sea of robotics ...very impressive ...almost hypnotic to watch

I came away with the feeling that the shell was more akin to an aircraft fusalage not a car

Even the frame beneath the body is really only heavy gage sheet metal formed into a rectangular tube

I had always had the feeling, there should be an I-Beam under there somewhere

 

Now this may bring a tear to your eye

We all love our new cars, pristine out of the factory, nary a blemish

The 1st scratch brings an emotional response akin to a cancer notification

Well, off to the side, at the end of the line, was an internal body shop

With all that automation, a stray electron is bound to occur and minor crack-ups happen on line

They simply finish building the car and do the body work in-house later

There were just a few vehicles there, so I'm sure it's rare, but it might be good to bring a magnet next time you go to the dealership