I liked tail fins on cars.

http://www.google.com/images?rlz=1T4GWY ... CDMQsAQwAQ

Here you go Dave!!!

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punkypink (imported) wrote: Mon Dec 13, 2010 10:38 am The recent design trend has moved towards focusing on the driving feel rather than outright speed...

My Chrysler 300 has the feel of a whale on the road. The steering responds to a jiggle but the transmission responds yesterday or the day before. To translate that into English, It handles well for little old ladies who want a big car on the highway and a smooth acceleration in the city. Don't get me wrong. it handles nicely and I feel comfortable in it at speeds I don't like to think about. But to drive to the supermarket, it's a geezer mobile.

Gee, did I just insult myself saying I bought a little old lady geezer car? Nah!

The car I really liked in recent years was the first generation Intrepid with the big engine and without the idiotic, failure-prone electronic digital dashboard. I could make that car move and on the country roads, it jumped like a jackrabbit on steroids. That was until the frothy transmission fluid screwed up the transmission.

I have only one really serious type question - Where the bloody hell would you drive the Bugatti, here in the USA? You for damn sure wouldn't get too far unless you were on a very long stretch of roadway, something like 4 to 6 miles long with no crossings.

Personally, I much prefer my JEEP DJ5c, both of them. One is all-time four-wheel drive, and the other is just two-wheel drive, but fuel mileage is just short of very, very good. And talk about turning radius, the only thing that turns a tighter circle is one of those handicapped scooters. I can turn a full circle inside even the old VW Bug circle.:kittygray

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PheonixStar (imported) wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2010 8:39 am Where the bloody hell would you drive the Bugatti, here in the USA?

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Well that's the point, isn't it?

We Can Dream!

Dave (imported) wrote: Mon Dec 13, 2010 11:58 am My Chrysler 300 has the feel of a whale on the road. The steering responds to a jiggle but the transmission responds yesterday or the day before. To translate that into English, It handles well for little old ladies who want a big car on the highway and a smooth acceleration in the city. Don't get me wrong. it handles nicely and I feel comfortable in it at speeds I don't like to think about. But to drive to the supermarket, it's a geezer mobile.

Gee, did I just insult myself saying I bought a little old lady geezer car? Nah!

The car I really liked in recent years was the first generation Intrepid with the big engine and without the idiotic, failure-prone electronic digital dashboard. I could make that car move and on the country roads, it jumped like a jackrabbit on steroids. That was until the frothy transmission fluid screwed up the transmission.

Driving feel does include the transmission response. The problem is with increasing legislation both on engine emissions and road laws, higher speed is increasingly irrelevant. What manufacturers want to do now is to provide the same thrill of driving at less than insane speeds. They want you to feel the tyres working, the tail wagging playfully at lower speeds should you wish it, rather than at sublight speeds where failure means death.

Steering feel isn't just about the car jiggling whichever way you turn the wheel. It's about the steering wheel telling you what the front tyres are doing. Driving feel is all about things like a nice snickity mechanical feel of a manual transmission, or the illusion of on in an autobox. so yes, your 300 isn't quite there yet as far as driving feel goes. That is not what I meant by making cars slower. Anyone who's even driven a go-kart for fun would know, you don't go that fast in a go-kart (well, you do if yo

PheonixStar (imported) wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2010 8:39 am u do it professionally), but it's still great fun.

I have only one really serious type question - Where the bloody

hell would you drive the Bugatti, here in the USA?

Seems to be the Veyron was built for american roads. Long endless straights out in the arizona-nevada desert...? I did a 3 state tour of the western seaboard back when i was 17 (cali, ari and nevada) my god, my abiding memory of arizona and nevada was neverending journeys on the tour bus on an endless straight road with the same neverending bland desert scenery for hours and hours. Its the bloody perfect place to drive a Veyron.

I once had a car built by Berkley, a company in england that mostly

built camping trailers. It was built of fiberglass and had a three cylinder two cycle engine (inline mounted crosswise)(excelsior) with side draft carburetors and a motorcycle transmission with a chain drive to the front differential. The whole thing

weighed 800 lbs, with a weight distribution of 700 front and 100 back. The recommended rear tire pressure was 12 psi.

It was a wildly dangerous car but fun to drive. If you took your foot off the

gas it was like applying a front brake and it was likely to swap ends.

I still put up with a back injury sustained while working on it.

punkypink (imported) wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2010 6:03 pm The latest Vette is actually closer to many Euro exotics as far as cornering abilities are concerned.

Personally, I'd take the latest crop of AMG mercs. They've come far since the days of AMG mercs simply being blunt tools. Steering feel is now on par or even better than M sports Beemers, has a hell of an engine, and most of the 4 door variants can still comfortably seat 5.

If I want a 2 door however, it'll most certainly has to be Nissan's GT-R.

I can save you about 50 grand for the same performence buy a 2011 Camaro SS. Pulls more on a skid pad gets 30 mpg and beats the amg's to 100 except for the sls. Top Gear tested both on thier track the AMG won by 3 seconds but with one cavet its traction control was on and it was an auto the SS was a 6 speed and watching closely you will see them turn the traction control off. It's a small lever in front of the shifter. Both put out 420 plus HP. The Camaro is limeted to 152 mph by its chip the amg to out run it by 15 mph required a 2700 dollar optional but not available in the states upgraded chip. You can reprogram the Camaros with a 200 buck notebook pc. So question is is 3 seconds on a biased test worth 75k versus 28k for an SS1 Camaro which by the way is soon to be joined by a 550 hp version under the old z-28 name.

Two door GT-R ??? Please give me the Viper ACR

Free to be ME (imported) wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2010 11:02 pm I can save you about 50 grand for the same performence buy a 2011 Camaro SS. Pulls more on a skid pad gets 30 mpg and beats the amg's to 100 except for the sls. Top Gear tested both on thier track the AMG won by 3 seconds but with one cavet its traction control was on and it was an auto the SS was a 6 speed and watching closely you will see them turn the traction control off. It's a small lever in front of the shifter. Both put out 420 plus HP. The Camaro is limeted to 152 mph by its chip the amg to out run it by 15 mph required a 2700 dollar optional but not available in the states upgraded chip. You can reprogram the Camaros with a 200 buck notebook pc. So question is is 3 seconds on a biased test worth 75k versus 28k for an SS1 Camaro which by the way is soon to be joined by a 550 hp version under the old z-28 name.

No you can't, because I don't live in the states. You guys who keep talking about how yank tanks are cheaper forget its cheaper IN THE STATES. Not quite as much here. Especially not after the hassle of independently importing, sorting the paperwork out, homologating it etc...

And let's assume your camaro SS outguns an amg to 100. Fine if you like going in a straight line. Yea ok, so you can get the same results either by hammering it down a straight, slow down in a corner, or by getting thru corners fast and down the straights slower, but as I said, I like playing with corners more. It's not about which car can pull more Gs, it's about which car tells you more about what it is doing. And at the end of the day, the AMG's going to make a more refined everyday ride. Besides, I've not seen anyone compare a camaro SS's steering feel to a M3's, which is pretty much the industry standard by which everything else is compared to as far as steering feel goes, but hey presto, AMG's latest bunch of products have been said to be as good or even better than M3s in steering feel(UK CAR mag, issue 580 Pg 108). Btw you need to be more specific about which AMG it was, the C63 AMG is listed as putting out almost 460, not 420 bhp.

I love my yank tanks, but come on, sometimes the way you guys defend your cars, it sounds more like ego and pride and almost a hint of xenophobia talking, rather than an unbiased view. What do I base that observation on?

This:

Free to be ME (imported) wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2010 11:02 pm Two door GT-R ??? Please give me the Viper ACR

God knows I've always had a massive soft spot for the Viper, and certainly the ACR, but if I had to choose between the 2, the GT-R is simply the more precise tool, and since you guys keep raising the "oh it saves me money" issue, then I'm not entirely sure the ACR is value for money, especially not next to the GT-R.

Sweetpickle (imported) wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2010 8:37 pm I once had a car built by Berkley, a company in england that mostly

built camping trailers. It was built of fiberglass and had a three cylinder two cycle engine (inline mounted crosswise)(excelsior) with side draft carburetors and a motorcycle transmission with a chain drive to the front differential. The whole thing

weighed 800 lbs, with a weight distribution of 700 front and 100 back. The recommended rear tire pressure was 12 psi.

It was a wildly dangerous car but fun to drive. If you took your foot off the

gas it was like applying a front brake and it was likely to swap ends.

I still put up with a back injury sustained while working on it.

ohh cute lil kit cars

The SS and E63 AMG were run on Uk's Top Gear track not just in a straight line but as you may not beaware of Detroit Iron now is not the mush boxes of even 10 years ago. My point was this they took a right of the assembly line Camaro up against a non stock E63 AMG from MB's in house performence shop AMG. If the MB had been bone stock non special order the results would be far different. To be fair a test of it lets put a Fastlane Turbo Camaro against it while its not from an in house tuning shop its from a tuning shop. By the way a fastlane Camaro with the limeter off went 191 mph faster then the AMG and again far less expensive.