what other things are you guys into?

as i've been kicking around the idea of some next stuff, it is yet another vintage thing i seem to like. along with that go some 60's and 70's ford broncos and more spare parts than i care to think about right now. (actually i sold a complete truck not too long ago and i swear the garage looked less crowded after it left.) i do like the 4x4 and outdoor aspects though which has also led me vintage mountain bikes. used to ride alot when younger, but a recent accident/injury might put an end to that.

either way, one thing they all seem to have in common is innovative and efficeint design for their period.

so far, i've learned a lot here and have several posts out there and i do appreciate. thanks.   :)

Well, I am into classic cars, specifically Ford Mustangs.  I have had a 65, 66, 89 (not vintage, daily driver).  My daily driver now is a 2005 Mustang GT, and I have a '66 in the garage that is waiting for the "restomod" treatment, when funds allow.  

Car parts, or computer parts .. next cube or set of high flow injectors .. it can be quite a problem at times to decide where the budget goes (computer stuff been winning lately).

Chef

I was into restoring cars but as I get older, the thought of lying on my back in a pool of gear lube or wrestling a transmission into a clutch plate that doesn't want to line up properly seems less and less inviting.

Now days my automotive adventures are limited to oil changes, routine maint, and recently replacing cats on my two Mercedes.  I have been kicking around the idea of buying two new toys.  I've been lloking at Catalina sailboats of 27 ft or so and either a Triumph or BMW motorcycle.  I sold my last scoot in 1990, a Triumph Bonneville and I do miss two wheeling.  In the 80's I had up to 15 or 20 bikes at one time in my garage.

Big into cars, it's my job and my hobby as well, as I work on new cars Jaguar, Bentley and soon Bugatti I tend to enjoy working with older cars as an hobby, I've had a few classics in my time which I've restored myself except for paint and trim, though I do the body, panel beating and welding.  Last car I restored was a Triumph Stag.  I'm buying a house atm so when and if I will get chance and money to do another project I have no idea, though I'd love a Ferrari 308qv/328 GTS as the shape of the car is just pure sexy.

I adore American muscle cars I'd love a real Shelby Mustang GT350 66 or 67 model year, I'd also like a 440 Challenger R/T or 426 R/T Hemi, or if I was ever loaded enough, a Plymouth 'Cuda, one of my dream cars is a 1970 Plymouth HemiCuda

Other than that I love to read biographies and like to read about science and Sci-Fi.  I'm crazy about 3 TV shows Star Trek and Star Gate SG1 & Atlantis.

But most of my time I seem to muck about with computers as it's all I can afford right now.

I like to muck about with Hi-Fi gear and am considering building a tube amp at the moment.

I like to partying and going to music festivals and getting drunk as well :-)

Currently... mathematics.

In the past...

From 1981 to 1991, and again for about a year in 1996/97, I was very interested in Track and Field. I was lucky enough to have some of the best coaches, and (back then) had raced 6 of the 10 fastest 110 meter hurdlers ever (I thing the list is down to 3 of the 10 fastest these days). I got back into it for a short time in 1996 when I was asked to be an assistant coach for a college team (I coached the sprints and jumps).

From 1986 to 1997 I was very much into Porsches. I got my first in 1986 when I was 18, and owned four of them between 86 and 97 (two 914s, one 911 and one 911 Targa). I loved 914s most of all, specially seeing as they were very close to Ferry Porsche's heart. The 914 was a design he had wanted to put forward many years earlier but couldn't because until the late 1960s Porsche got much of their parts from VW. The original Bug was Porsche's design that he sold to VW to pay for the release of his cousin from a French prison for war crimes... those crimes being the building of vehicles for Germany during WWII. Part of what I liked about the 914 was that (like Rhapsody) it was under appreciated by so many people.

From 1977 to 1986, and again from 1989 to 1991 (and still as a hobby today) I was into physics. I was mainly interested in theoretical physics and enjoyed General Relativity, Quantum Field Theory and Gauge Theories. When I started college in 1989 I was a physics major, but by 1991 I had change majors to mathematics.

From 1990 to today I've been obsessed with mathematics. I currently specialize in aspects of Differential Topology and Differential Geometry. I've done research in tight immersions of surfaces, homotopy theory and a historical look at vector displacement on manifolds (recreating Levi-Civita's original concepts and showing how they are analogous to connections on tangent bundles). Currently (when I'm not doing my homework) I have been working on a technique for deforming immersed (differentiable) 2-manifolds in Euclidean three space. The technique is based in part on Whitney's excellent mappings of surfaces onto the plane.

From 1997 to today, well, computers. And while I had used many different types before 1997 (Apple, SGI, Sun and NeXT), I wasn't

that interested in them as there wasn't a lot you could do with them in my area of mathematics (and that is pretty much still true today). When I came to Minnesota (taking an unplanned break from my graduate course work) I found that I seemed to pick up the basics pretty easily. To keep things challenging I stuck mainly with minority platforms. As the platform gets smaller, problem solving becomes more difficult. Macs were nice, Silicon Graphics was even better, and NeXT was even better than that. And Rhapsody became the best of all as (currently) it is about the smallest platform I know of. Which is great as it means that when something goes wrong with my systems, I pretty much have only me to turn to... sort of computing without a net, I can't just fall back on anyone else. [/list]I think that pretty much covers my major interests. There are other smaller ones, like Star Trek... I paid for a year of school with blueprints I had made of the USS Excelsior back in 1991, and I did the plans for the shuttlecraft interior set for Starship Exeter (these plans match the original interior set, which didn't actually fit within the original exterior shuttlecraft... pretty much all other references attempt to reconcile the two, but we wanted the interior set to look identical to the original series).

Oh, and I used to get paid for building models back between 1983 and 1993 (the plans for the Excelsior weren't originally meant to be sold as plans, they were for me to build a scratch built version... seeing as there were no model kits at that time and no blue prints of it either).

Well, I grew up in the 80's when cars pretty much sucked and I never cared much for older models...  To some the 57 Chevy is a work of art.  To me, it's pretty much butt ugly.  I realize that I may be in the minority there, but each to his own...

And, since I grew up in the age of Atari 2600 and Apple ][e's, I've pretty much been a computer geek since birth.  So, instead of fixing up old junkers better left by the side of the road, I've lately been acquiring and fixing up older computers that I drooled over when I was younger (some of which might have been better left to the dumpster in some cases...)

I've just gotten my NeXTStation up and running.  Along with that I've recently acquired a bunch of SGI machines.  (An Indy, Indigo2, and Octane 2.  The Octane has 3 32Gig hard drives and 3 video cards so I can run a 3 monitor setup with it, but I took one of the video cards out because the lights were dimming when I plugged it in.  :) )  So I've been working on getting all of those up and running as well...

Outside of that, I'm engaged and my fiance has twin 11 year old girls, so keeping up with the 3 women in my life takes a lot of my free time.  :D

I'm a freelance journalist and that is why many of my private interests mix up with my job in man different ways.

Riding my motorbike and exploring Switzerland is my major "pleasure" when time allows me to do so. I'm making QuickTime VR panoramas of the places I've been to, in between I'm quite fond of watching birds and making photographs of them.

As mentioned before I'm a journalist writing several articles about (who wonders) Apple related topics such as hard- and software reviews. Therefor I'm always having a look on new products in my spare and work time which once led me to my private hobby: collecting some computer stuff documentated on my domain.

To compensate the "unhealthy" work behind the displays I'm also giving lots of my time to the firefighters here in Switzerland.

J

I mostly live and breathe computers... except when I'm messing with electronics...

I like to try to work on my Audi, although some projects seem a bit too daunting without a garage.  I also like to cook some great meals.

Quote from: "Ashman"Outside of that, I'm engaged and my fiance has twin 11 year old girls, so keeping up with the 3 women in my life takes a lot of my free time.  :D

I can relate.  I have three daughters 13, 8 and 7.  Factor in my wife and I live in an estrogen buble.  Even the freaking cats are female.

Quote from: "blackcube"I can relate.  I have three daughters 13, 8 and 7.  Factor in my wife and I live in an estrogen buble.  Even the freaking cats are female.

Ouch!, no wonder you have so many computers..... ;-)

Thank god I'm married and have no kids, but a male cat.

And still quite a bunch of computers.

Shall I worry?  :shock:  :o  :lol:

J

Yeah, they've got a female cat too... But so do I...

All in all, I'm the sole testosterone counterpoint in the whole group.  :D

Quote from: "brams"

Quote from: "blackcube"I can relate.  I have three daughters 13, 8 and 7.  Factor in my wife and I live in an estrogen buble.  Even the freaking cats are female.

Ouch!, no wonder you have so many computers..... ;-)

He could always build a wall of all the systems and hide behind them.  Should make an effective fort, considering all the stuff he has.

You could try to convert them, at least the two yonger ones.  I just picked up a Newton emate 300 from a local school auction, and my 6 year old loves it.  She thinks it is the greatest thing in the world, well at least for right now.  She loves to draw with the stylus, put animation bubbles over peoples heads and insert text-boxes inside them for words.  And when she found the stencils it has of dogs, cats, horses .. she was hooked.  It does not even bother her that it is not in color like my tablet is, it is fun and she enjoys it.

Chef

Quote from: "blackcube"I can relate.  I have three daughters 13, 8 and 7.  Factor in my wife and I live in an estrogen buble.  Even the freaking cats are female.

Don't worry - statisticly you're fine 'cause guys like me with neither wife/fiance/girlfriend/&c :( nor female cat  :P  even you out.

What i'm into? 'course i love my car too - BMW 318i (E30 1987), yes there was a time when they built great machines. (got only one, but she eats most of my money so affording two of them would be out of question)

I love cooking, drinkin' beer or watching tv series (in moment Battlestar Galactica 's the best i think)  
Oh 'nd brams 's right - HIFI is important (try to build one of those http://www.taelektroakustik.de/eng/ta2/x_system/v_10_-_amp.htm )

Quote from: "PowerPC"What i'm into? 'course i love my car too - BMW 318i (E30 1987), yes there was a time when they built great machines. (got only one, but she eats most of my money so affording two of them would be out of question)

Love BMW's E30, one of the nicest looking cars of the 80's, esp the 325i M Technik, of course the M3 Evo is awsome as well.

Gotta say in my opinion, BMW probably make the sweetest petrol engines in the world, esp the Motorsport powerplants (6 banger in the E46 M3 is simply brilliant), Honda (V-Tec)make the best 4 cylinder units though.

Quote from: "PowerPC"I love cooking, drinkin' beer or watching tv series (in moment Battlestar Galactica 's the best i think)  Oh 'nd brams 's right - HIFI is important (try to build one of those http://www.taelektroakustik.de/eng/ta2/x_system/v_10_-_amp.htm )

That amp looks very interesting, looks very very powerful as well for a tube amp.  I'm thinking of making something a little less powerful than that, probably with KT88's, something with about 45 watts RMS as I intend to use with a couple of small bookshelf monitors for listening to more vocal stuff and acoustic.  I was thinking of getting one of these kits as they get really good reviews and I like to tinker, they are easy to sell as well as they are made out of decent stuff, there are a few hacks for them and you don't have to buy the complete kit, thus if you want better quality caps etc you can without paying for the ones you don't want to use.

http://www.world-designs.co.uk/acatalog/AmpKits.html

For going silly and playing rock and house and electronic/dance I have a couple of classic Marantz PM94's which are these monsterous MOS-FET 150 watt RMS class A/A-B transistor amps which are bi-amped into a couple of Linn Keilidhs, the amps are wonderful beasts from the late 1980's (I paid 4000 US in 1989 for them) and are at least as good as anything made by Krell or Mark Levinson.  Not one IC in sight inside them, they are made totally out of discreet components.

http://www.quarter-a.netfirms.com/pm-94_digital.htm

I've got the matching CD player which is a Marantz CD-94 that I've modded with a 16 bit 4 times oversampling double crown DAC and a few fancy Rubycon Blackgate caps, it really is the business, the CD player weighs in at about 20 kilos! most of which is the transport.

I was thinking of maybe getting some Linn Aktiv crossovers as well for the speakers just for the hell of it, but people have warned me it's not what it's supposed to be, and the set up is quite rare and somthing I've never actually heard, but the idea turns me on  and Linn TuneBoxes with Aktiv cards cost a bit even on eBay so I decided I'd make a tube amp as watching the glow of the electrons hitting the glass wall of the tube is cool with the lights off, esp when your drunk listening to decent music.

I'd also love a reel to reel a Tascam or ReVox B77 just 'cos they look so damn cool.

Nice - my equipment is somewhat less exclusive but performes just fine; most's Sony (QS Series though, except Dat-Cassette - that's an ES) - Speakers are T&A Criterion TAL 130   :)  (think the best affordable speakers are T&A or B&W) and 'course a Thorens Vinyl Disk Player.

I actually went eMate wild a while back.  I think I have 5 of them.  3 or 4 in working order (repaired hinges and all) and one or two of them for parts.  I can't keep track.  :)

Quote from: "PowerPC"Nice - my equipment is somewhat less exclusive but performes just fine; most's Sony (QS Series though, except Dat-Cassette - that's an ES) - Speakers are T&A Criterion TAL 130   :)  (think the best affordable speakers are T&A or B&W) and 'course a Thorens Vinyl Disk Player.

Wow you like vinyl then, the only stuff I left on 12" is house/disco/electronic so I use a Technics SL1210mk2, in fact I have 2 of them as I used to DJ before I moved abroad, well back in the early 90's anyway, that kind of music does not really warrant a delicate turntable.  Back in the 80's I used to have a Linn Sondek LP12 which was a truly awsome turntable (mine was middle of the road spec of 1970's vintage as I got it 2nd hand) but with a moving coil in it it was wonderfully involving with decent music like Yes, Pink Floyd & The Who.  They still make them today and a decent modern LP12 will knock the spots of CD players but you will pay dearly for it.

DAT never really took off over here in the UK, a lot of studios used it but domestically we had too many competeing formats DAT, DCC & Mini Disk.

I once had a Sony DAT Walkman TCD-D3 which was wonderful and the first portable, I unfortunatley lost it at a rave/warehouse party back in 1991 whilst it was plugged  into the mixer, place got raided in the early hours of the morning and we had to run like hell to avoid the cops & dogs.

Vinyl's great. Fortunately, mostly in UK they press new Discs - exspecially Rough Trade does a magnificent job here but others as well.  :D

Quote from: "nextchef"Well, I am into classic cars, specifically Ford Mustangs.  I have had a 65, 66, 89 (not vintage, daily driver).  My daily driver now is a 2005 Mustang GT, and I have a '66 in the garage that is waiting for the "restomod" treatment, when funds allow.  

Car parts, or computer parts .. next cube or set of high flow injectors .. it can be quite a problem at times to decide where the budget goes (computer stuff been winning lately).

Chef

Don't be hating big brother (GT) but I have a '07 V6 pony package soft top. What kind of mods have you done to your '05?

Old(er) European Autos:

(http://juddy.org/cars/300D-side.jpg)

Just picked up a 1976 BMW 2002; Weber 32/36, factory air car (no air now)..  Originally Sienna Braun, buried under several different paint schemes (all non-BMW)

Have had numerous VWs (Bug, Bus, Ghia, Rabbit (diesel), Jetta (diesel), Cabby) and Volvos (142, 164)

Nothing compares to the smell of gasoline and horsehair..

Thats pretty cool, itomato.

Lately, I've been getting into cars more. i bought a '79 Triumph Spitfire awhile back. haven't had the cash to work on it much...

http://flickr.com/photos/helfer

Quote from: "helf"Thats pretty cool, itomato.

Lately, I've been getting into cars more. i bought a '79 Triumph Spitfire awhile back. haven't had the cash to work on it much...

http://flickr.com/photos/helfer

Triumph's, used to love them, one of my favorite British marques, I've had a Stag and a Dolomite Sprint.  Never had a Spit but one of my friends had a Mk III 1300 back in the early 80's.  Have you seen the GT 6?, like a coupe Spit but with a 6 pot engine and better rear suspension.  Not sure if you are aware but the Spit suffers the same ill handling as the Chevrolet Corvair with the outside rear wheel tucking under during highspeed cornering, resulting in very positive camber and loss of grip.  Spit used 1 transverse leaf spring at the rear.  GT 6 had a better design and I think it can be retro fitted, if you plan on driving quick that is.

Yours looks nice, not sure if I like the bumpers, those Americanised bumpers look to big when your used to the UK spec cars.

Thanks, I love the car :)

I knew it had handling issues at higher speeds, But I didn't know the cause.
The guy I bought the spitfire off of had a '69 (I believe) GT6, those things are gorgeous. I'll look into that bit about retrofitting a gt6 suspension to a spit.

I've only had it about 2 months now. I had an '83 RX-7... let's just say the poor thing is a bit flatter than it was initially...

And no, I don't like the bumpers at all. That stupid law that came up in ~76-78 mandating 5mph (I think) bumpers really screwed the looks on several cars... I plan on removing those and getting some nice, older style metalic ones fitted or just nice rubber + metal ones that are MUCH smaller.

I've only been into cars since July... :) Got my license on June ~25th, RX-7 on July 7th, then the spitfire mid August... I'm having to learn everything about cars...

Quote from: "helf"And no, I don't like the bumpers at all. That stupid law that came up in ~76-78 mandating 5mph (I think) bumpers really screwed the looks on several cars... I plan on removing those and getting some nice, older style metalic ones fitted or just nice rubber + metal ones that are MUCH smaller.

I've only been into cars since July... :) Got my license on June ~25th, RX-7 on July 7th, then the spitfire mid August... I'm having to learn everything about cars...

Yeah that stupid law wrecked the look of a lot of cars, it made the MGB look horrible and spolied the look of the Jaguar XJ-S, look what they did to the Series 2 & 3 Jaguar E-Type (XKE) compared to the S1.

British motors from that time are very easy to  fix and very reliable, I'd not think you'll have many problems that can't be fixed with a basic tool kit and an afternoon.  The electrics can be dodgy on a lot of British cars, due to poor design (the Dolomite I had had both dipped beam headlamps running of one fuse, which I modified) and crappy quality of Lucas electrical parts.  But the engine and transmission in the Spit is a durable piece of kit.  Is yours a 1500 or Mk IV?, does it have overdrive?.  Spits can wander a bit if I recall, I bet it's 20 years ago since me and my friend drove to watch The Cult play in Paris, we where doing about 100mph in France and I recall having the willies a bit as the car seemed to wander.

Yours will probably have crappy Stromberg carbs on which are a pile of shit compared to SU's, you'd pick up a good few HP by throwing them out, putting euro spec SU's on (if you can by law) and a pair of K&N filters.  I'd also junk the contact breakers and stick an electronic system on, timing scatter with a worn distributor (Lucas distributor bearings wear like hell and send the ignition dwell all over the place) will loose you a good few HP and cost money in wasted fuel.

A wonderful Triumph if you can find one is the Triumph TR5 PI (I think USA called them TR 250).

It's a 1500. The car is really almost perfect. Few minor issues, like the parking brake line is broken. It's just a 4 speed transmission, no overdrive. I'm going to get a new transmission put in sometime next year. First gear in it grinds a lot, the rest shift in/out smoothly.

about the carb, I can pretty much do whatever the heck I want to to this car. Alabama has no real car laws, we don't even have emission checking ;)

The carb on it actually *looks* pretty bad. I need to go over it and see what all it has. You won't believe how little free time I've actually had to mess with it since I bought it.

I also gotta overhaul the braking system. It pulls to the right badly when you hit the brakes :) Could just be bad pads.

I'm going to be changing out a ton of parts on it. Replacing a lot of the stuff with new electronics. It already has some timing issues that I'll have to sort out. I definitely bought a Hobby :P

as far as wandering goes, I didn't notice any with the little bit I drove it. I haven't been over 50mph in it yet. The tires are badly dry-rotted, so I didn't want to push them.

I'll be working on it this afternoon, I gotta replace the starter. It went out about 2 weeks after I bought the car. heh...

We need to start a car talk thread...


p.s.

Just a side note... When I got my spit off the truck (I had it shipped), the front right tire looked "a bit low"... I didn't think much about it till the next day... Turns out, that tire had 9PSI in it! I drove that car ~3 miles home on that pressure too! I'm surprised the tire didn't break its bead. The tires on it are rated for 31PSI too...

I would make it a point to devote some time to the brake system - before you do much else..

It sounds like that car may have been sitting a while. That Alabama humidity isn't nice to brake fluid, which absorbs H20.  
Bleed the system throroughly - run through a full bottle of fluid if you have to, and definately invest in a pressure bleeder..

If the fluid is at all rusty, look into rebuilding wheel cylinders and/or calipers.  You don't want a cylinder to stick when you're taking a curve at speed! (dry-rotted tires aside!)

:shock:

I second the Stromberg > SU swap..  It might even be easier to have Webers in Alabama due to parts availability, though SUs are widely adaptable and braindead easy to rebuild.  People even swapped them onto Harleys!  You might be able to source some (cheap) through a Harley shop..

I also second the electronic ignition motion..  Although, without fighting your way through points and condensor issues, timing, and weak distributor metal casting, you'd be missing out on some of the sadistic "joy" :twisted: of having an old car.

Lucas electronics are the main reason I fear English autos.  Though it could be that I've grown up on Swedish/German methodology.  I'd love to have an XJ with a 350 conversion...  But it seems so fragile with the delicate British instruments and vaneer, not to mention the befuddling electronics system..

Thanks for the pointers. i'll do that.

FYI, the car game out of Virginia Beach, Virginia. I dunno what the weather is like up there...

anyways, I've heard a lot of bad things about Lucas parts... Why do they have such a bad rep? high failure rate?

Since you two seem to know a bit about cars, I'll definitely be asking questions periodically :)

I need to find a british car group, if one exists near me, and join it.


btw, itomato, I have a 1985 MK11 (I believe) wolfsburg edition VW Golf sitting in my yard. Needs new coils and clutch hangar. Otherwise, its mostly perfect. Pretty sweet car :)

oh, my dad has a ghia. He LOVED the thing. He used to race with it. got all of ~90-100 horses :)

The spit 1500 gets ~70hp stock. Be nice to get that up once I get the more basic things fixed. (like rag top)

Quote from: "itomato"Lucas electronics are the main reason I fear English autos.  Though it could be that I've grown up on Swedish/German methodology.  I'd love to have an XJ with a 350 conversion...  But it seems so fragile with the delicate British instruments and vaneer, not to mention the befuddling electronics system..

Helf, the point about the brake rebuild is a good point, on a car fast approaching 30 years old it would not be a bad idea to replace all the hoses and seals as if they are original they'll be perished and hard as hell.  It also give you chance to fit braided hoses which are great for pedal feel.

I'm a Jaguar Master Tech, well I was now I seem to look at graphs in Excel all day, anyway, one of my customers has a 350 Chevy SB in a SIII XJ, I think they call them half breeds, it's not bad it's just not as nice as the V12, it's propably more reliable just not as nice.  Is the Ford Windsor not a better choice than the Chevy, as they have thinwall cast blocks and I heard they are quite light for an iron V8, well maybe it's the Cleveland but I know it's a SB Ford.

Quote from: "helf"I've heard a lot of bad things about Lucas parts... Why do they have such a bad rep? high failure rate?

Near non existent QC, lack of investment and a motor industry in much the same state.  Look at British bikes for an idea of how woefully bad things where, compare a Norton Commando against a Kawasaki Z1/900 or Z1000 and it's a complete under developed pile of junk.

British cars are a love/hate relationship, the only thing worse (and I love them) are Italian and French cars, now they are crap (Citroen DS/SM excepted).

ah, gotcha. there are very few newer cars of any nationality that I like. I've always loved older cars. I guess its from my dad, thats all he has owned.

Citroen Ds are really cool! I watched one on ebay a few months ago when I was looking for a new car. It just barely went out of my price range ;(

Quote from: "helf"ah, gotcha. there are very few newer cars of any nationality that I like. I've always loved older cars. I guess its from my dad, thats all he has owned.

Citroen Ds are really cool! I watched one on ebay a few months ago when I was looking for a new car. It just barely went out of my price range ;(

I tend not to like modern cars, there is no passion in them, and everything about them is dictated by maths and physics with very little human emotion mixed into the brew.  Porsche are a very good example here very good at what they do, but the 997 is not as an emotive a car as the 993 was and it's only been out of production about 8 years.

Compare the looks of a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing Coupe or a Jaguar S1 E-Type Roadster to anything new today.  There are no more beautiful cars like that anymore, what is beautiful about a Ferarri 599 or Aston-Martin Vanquish?, sure the Vanquish is cool (very) but not beautiful, I have about 100 cars in my dream garage and there are not many modern cars.

Look how cool the original Beetle is and how crap the new one is.

I'm glad other people think that way... I have to explain why I bought my spitfire and not something new all the time.

New cars just don't have 'character'.

The 300sl mercedes are gorgeous. Too bad good examples can hit 250k usd :(

I'll be chugging along in a car from the 50-70's when everyone is using electric cars 50 years from now ;)

There are some really nice cars from say brazil that you never heard about. I'll have to dig a site up I found that had a bunch of old foreign cars listed. some are positively breathtaking.

Quote from: "brams"...everything about them is dictated by maths and physics...

You think? Actually i think it's just the opposite. Reason why i love my '87 BMW so much is 'cause she has absolutly no vital electronics or servomechanisms. The engineers had to built a car that's fun to drive via good engineering. But nowadays it seems more like a "hm - this design doesn't work out - but instead of making a better one let's just ad a servomechanism here and a electronic control device there, that'll compensate for the worst". At least that's what i got from the more recent cars i drove - how're you supposed to enjoy driving these things?

What I actually meant by that was that, rather than designing a car that looks good or from the heart, they are modeled in 3d and using CFD, wind tunnels etc etc to have better crash performance, coeff of drag, rolling resistance, noise, NVH, etc etc.  Whilst I appriciate that these things make a better machine in it's absolute sense, modern cars are not the reason why I wanted to be a Tech when I was a kid.

EFI is better than Carbs in every way except looks and maybe noise.  However can you imagine a 427 AC Shelby Cobra with EFI or a 289 Shelby Mustang?, for me at least it would not have the same auora as a 4 barrel Holly.

What I'm trying to say is that, except for the smallest handful of modern cars, they are all dull, a Bentley Continental GT is massively quick as you'd expect with 650Nm torque and it being flat from 1400rpm up to the redline.  I drive them everyday, and a wonderful car it is too, but it's dull IMHO in that it does not set your balls alight like a 550HP car should.  Each seat in a Continental GT weighs about 150lbs.  Which kind of defeats the purpose of having 550HP in the first place, performance being roughly equal to power vs weight vs aerodynamic and rolling resistance.

The new Jaguar XK has got a resonator that passes from the intake manifold through the plenum chamber and into the area behind the instrument pack, it's purpose is to combat the NVH engineered into the car, the engine character is out of tune with the cars and is too quiet without the resonator, thus it's there to make induction noise more inline with that of a sports car, so basically they are trying to emulate the noise of Carbs.

You know things have gone stupid when they want to put Diesel engines in cars like the Jaguar XK, they are talking about it, God forbid the day.

The modern process of automotive design rarely gives "life" to vehicles.  They begin and end as static design exercises.
Too many focus groups and cookie-cutter design students, not enough sculptors and visionaries.

I went to the recent Auto Show at our State Fair and paid special attention to things like knob quality, accessory control placement, seating position, etc.

95% of the vehicles I sat in (cars and trucks alike) had the window controls in the same place with the same layout..  The GPS display in the same general vicinity, similar placement of ventilation and radio controls, same ignition position, same multi-purpose stick on the left and right sides of the steering column, same cheap leather, same cheap sound to the closing of the door, same, same, same..

What made a Saab a Saab?  What set a BMW apart from a Honda, and a Honda or Toyota apart from a Ford, Olds or Buick?

Feel..

The "Feel" is gone in this era of GM/Ford operating under such names as Opel, Jaguar, Saab, et cetera, and so many sourcing parts from TRW and Delco..  It's the same thing over and over.  

Less human involvement - more robot, and it shows.

--
It was the same thing with personal computers during the 70's and 80's.  People were innovating all over the place, and what was borne from that were multiple platforms with different ways of doing things.  

Power buttons in different places, *NO* power buttons..  Clicking a picture to execute a command vs typing a command this way or that way to execute.  C: prompt vs. READY vs. ?..  5 1/4" floppies, 3 1/2 ", tape, cartridges, internal/external, included/add on...

It all made people think.  Some of them didn't like it very much, but it was for the best.

Quote from: "itomato"What made a Saab a Saab?  What set a BMW apart from a Honda, and a Honda or Toyota apart from a Ford, Olds or Buick?

You've cited Saab as an example, I happen to like old Saabs, probably as they are viewed as a bit quirky here in the UK, my point is that along with BMW and Porsche they brought Turbocharging to the masses, beyond that they are/where an innovative company (you read about Saab SVC?), they where the first iirc to use on plug coils which has obvious benefits.  They played they're own drum in that they where very distinct and different than anything else at the time.  Saab also have pedigree with great success in rallying with the likes of Eric Carlson and I think IIRC maybe Stig Blomqvist.  They where one of the proponents for LP Turbocharging, I think it was called APC or something.

BMW, another one of the greats in my book, 4 of there cars feature in my dream garage. BMW M1, BMW 3.0 CSL, BMW 2002 Turbo, BMW E30 M3 Evolution and the best V12 Engine in the world the BMW Motorsport S70/2 as fitted to the McLaren F1.  New BMW M5 is a technical marvel, I've yet to drive one, but I'm not holding my breath as I fear it probably technology gone mad and the thing is pig ugly to behold.

Exactly.

They did their own thing.  They all did their own thing.

This is what's missing today.  The only carmakers to do their own thing in the recent past have been from South Korea (Daewoo, Kia, Hyundai) and their "own thing" happens to be "improve" and "beat you at your own game".

I made an example of Saab because the only remaining Saab traits (disclaimer:  I haven't driven one in almost 15 years) seem to be the center-console-mounted ignition key, and maybe the overall dash layout.  Today, a Saab is a Subaru, is an Opel, is a Chevy, is a Saturn...

It's a sham, and a shame..

BMW's built in South Carolina:  Heresy!
"Japanese" cars "Proudly Made in the USA":  Blasphemous!

Show me a German automobile that is actually "German", or a Japanese one that is truly "Japanese" and I'll show you a car that will remain an icon for a generation.

Quote from: "itomato"Show me a German automobile that is actually "German", or a Japanese one that is truly "Japanese" and I'll show you a car that will remain an icon for a generation.

At least my BMW motorcycle is built in Germany, in Berlin, to be more exact. A true friend indeed ;-)

J

I have followed the thread and agree wholeheartedly on today's modern cars great looks but lack of "soul". I drive a restored 1976 Bricklin SV-1 Gullwing and love it dearly (as I have two, one of which I modernized the engine and transmission with an AOD.) It is truly worth a smile to see people almost break their necks to do a doubletake as I drive by, and even more so when I pull into a parking space, hit the button, and the gullwing doors open by themselves. I have had people run across a parking lot to get a better look at that point beforejavascript:emoticon(':D'). And besides old computers, I spend at least one day a week in the garage working on the other cars in the stable (73 Mustang Mach I and a 71 Dodge Super Bee.)

What can I say, everyone needs a hobby.

Entraptor

:D  :D  :D

You have a Mach 1 AND a Bricklin?! I hate you. :P

Can you post some pics of flickr or something? I have wanted a Bricklin SV-1 for a long time. Theres only ~1200 left, at least in the USA, right?

Quote from: "entraptor"I have followed the thread and agree wholeheartedly on today's modern cars great looks but lack of "soul". I drive a restored 1976 Bricklin SV-1 Gullwing and love it dearly (as I have two, one of which I modernized the engine and transmission with an AOD.) It is truly worth a smile to see people almost break their necks to do a doubletake as I drive by, and even more so when I pull into a parking space, hit the button, and the gullwing doors open by themselves. I have had people run across a parking lot to get a better look at that point beforejavascript:emoticon(':D'). And besides old computers, I spend at least one day a week in the garage working on the other cars in the stable (73 Mustang Mach I and a 71 Dodge Super Bee.)

What can I say, everyone needs a hobby.

Entraptor

:D  :D  :D

Bricklin SV-1, I took a look at that, interesting, I'm surprised I'd never heard of it before, there is a Wiki on it which I will read later today.

Dodge Super Bee, now that's what I like!, there are so may cool American cars, and I have a lot in my dream garage, I just adore the boat tail Buick Riviera

I don't think modern cars look all that great, for me the finest styles where from the 40, 50, 60 & 70's.  Everything started to go very wrong in the 80's, everything that came out of the USA during that time was utter shit for me, but I guess it was hard work trying to style a car on the old muscle lines when it was strangled to death and a VW Beetle was nearly as quick.

I'm rather surprised you haven't heard of it before, too. Its looks are similiar to a Delorean. I know two people with those...

There's a Bricklin 'homepage' of sorts, brams.

http://bricklin.org/

Has a lot of information. Very cool car.

Anyways, very nice collection, entraptor!

Quote from: "helf"I'm rather surprised you haven't heard of it before, too. Its looks are similiar to a Delorean. I know two people with those...

There's a Bricklin 'homepage' of sorts, brams.

http://bricklin.org/

Has a lot of information. Very cool car.

Anyways, very nice collection, entraptor!

Wow, I was going to say that before it looked a wee bit like a DeLorean DMC, I think it also reminds me of one of the Vectors.

Now that you mentioned it, it does...

Wow, I had forgotten about Vectors!

I had seen one of those on a car show years ago, first time I've heard one mentioned since then, actually. :)

i wonder how much they sell for :|

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_Supercars

Quote from: "helf"Now that you mentioned it, it does...

Wow, I had forgotten about Vectors!

I had seen one of those on a car show years ago, first time I've heard one mentioned since then, actually. :)

i wonder how much they sell for :|

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_Supercars

I think the dude that owned Vector it was a wee bit mad, Gerry Weigert or somthing he was called, he sold the company then got fired and then changed all the locks and security codes at the company and held a sit in.

I know one of the cars was tested here in the 80 back in the late 80's and it was hellish quick, I think it had variable boost from 850 HP to about 1500HP (nutter mode), it had an ally small block or big block based on a Chevy with OHC heads, I think it was designed by Reeves Callaway and Donovon Engineering.  Madness, he really hated Italian supercars with a passion.

it used a biturbo'd v8 of sorts... The top speed is apparently unknown...

The british show 'top gear' or whatever its called got ot test them out. They were not allowed to do a topspeed test :)

Also, when you got near ~200 the cars would lift off the ground due to poor aerodynamics apparently.


1500hp? 'nutter mode', thats awesome ;)