Thread: Any auto lovers?

I like anything having to do with cars, but not particuarly with my own. Right now, I am rocking the '89 camry wagon.

I'm absolutely obsessed with cars. Half the time, I can't stop myself from thinking about them. My true love is just about any classic car - 30's roadsters, 40s/50s sedans, muscle cars, you name it. I helped a friend out with some of the body work on his 1972 Chevelle last year, one of my favorite classics. Some day, I wanna build up a old VW bus, slam it... I won't go into the details.

Right now, I've got an 88 Nissan 200 SX. It's a fun little car, and it's got plenty of stuff to work on without being a complete annoyance. I've got some customizations planned for it, but living in the dorm (my car stays home), I haven't had time for much.

I own a '94 Lincoln Mark VIII that I'm completely in love with. It's pretty much stock except
for the suspension. It only has 93,000 miles on it and still snaps my neck back when it shifts into second. Metallic Silver w/ titanium grey leather. Top shelf stereo. 0-70 in
about 6 seconds.

I am not really in love with "my" car, but I do love cars. I work for a very well known newspaper doing advertisements for the car dealerships in the area. Sometimes I am amazed that I know more about cars than the managers at the store...and they are surprised that a girl knows anything about cars. You will all have to put pictures of your cars on here. I would be interested to see.

You're fantasizing, R.

280hp/285ft-lbs stock.

3785lbs dry/curb. Over 4000lbs with driver and fuel.

Double the horsepower/torque, change the gearing, change the rear-end, find a way to shave off almost a third of the weight, put in a manual transmission, increase the width of the drive-tires - and it MIGHT hit 4 seconds to 60. I think maybe you meant 8 seconds ... [edit: Road and Track says 7.8sec to 60. I was "close enough". ]

With a large supercharger and port/polish/bore, Vortec says they can get 6.7sec to 60 out of them.

My 680hp RX7 (TT/R1/CYM Bonzai-TKT) pulls 3.744 to 60 @ 680/520, 2490lbs

[edited out a sentence that came out wrong...]

[quote]You're fantasizing, R.

quote]
That was supposed to be a 6. And I'm not fantasizing; I just need to start proof reading.
Thanks for all the info; though my wallet says OUCH!
You obviously know shitloads more about cars than I do, too bad you live on the other side of the country or I'd have you over and let you drive it yourself. It's faster than any of the 3 my buddy has. No explaination I can find either, but it will do 0-70 in 6sec. from a dead stop with the traction control on, obviously.

i love cars, its too bad im too young too have one (one more year )
its also too bad that most people here live in a country which doesnt know how to make cars properly.

You're not too young to have a car - just too young to drive one. If you wanna have some fun with a car, and you're mechanically inclined, you might look into picking up something cheap now, and fixing it up so that it's good to go when you get your license. Not only does being able to work on your own car save money, but you'll also be more attached to it, having put your own time into it, and therefore you'll take more care of it. That might help sell your parents on the idea.

Whats wrong with British cars? I love all of the old MG's and Triumphs. A friend of mine has a tr8, and that thing is insane. Unfortunately, they also almost always have something that needs to be fixed.

I had a TR7. Spent more time under it than in it.

R. - It might have been a TuesdayCar. There's a theory that cars built early mid-week are better because the people building them are "in the groove"

Six seconds - I'm be closer to inclined to believe it. What other mods do you have? Suspension can shave a few tenths of a second (less time for the car to settle on launch)

Also, are you torque-loading it, or just mashing the pedal? (torque-loading is when you step on the brake with your left and the gas with your right foot and bring the revs up to the optimum launch)

I suspect the bozos at the magazines may not know how to torque-load a car.

(That's for an automatic, obviously. Also - don't do it every day. It tears-up the torque converter.)

Torque loading....

Sounds like something fun to do in my station wagon!

Originally posted by Hotshot
Torque loading....

Sounds like something fun to do in my station wagon!

VROOOM!VROOOOOM!!!BANG!!!!!!!shit.

I've currently got a 1978 Triumph Spitfire 1500 in Pimento Red.

78.6bhp @ 4,500 RPM (rolling road, after Weber Carbs and high voltage coil added). Compression ratio increased, but whoever did it messed up the timing so it could be a lot better.

Favourite car? Original GT40 or '68 Mustang. Or E-Type S1. That said, I love the look of the XJ220. And the F430 sounds lovely. Meh, going to have to stop before I drown my keyboard in drool...

[edit] I assume torque loading has the same effect as revving the engine to the optimum speed before releasing the clutch on a manual car?[/edit]

So much to reply to - so little I'Net connectivity at the moment. . .

Torque-loading is similar to dumping the clutch, but it's closer to a slip-launch then a burn-launch. The torque-convertor is still going to heat-up and slip. Which is why it's harder to lay good rubber in an automatic. You don't have the fine slip control that you do with a manual transmission... I have a program around here somewhere that profiles a vehicles numbers and figures out the optimum RPM for launch vs the amount of wheel spin, and the method that should be used for optimum times to 60mph-200ft-800ft-1/4mi-1mi

Some cars have SO much wheel-spin that it's better to slip the clutch than to try to let the tires hook themselves up. My 3 rotor RX7 for example will just sit and spin until there's no rubber left if you come up on the twin parallel turbos and dump the clutch. It just won't move at all. That's what 680hp gets ya. If you mash it going into fourth it will turn corkscrews in the middle of the freeway.