Being the nosy, curious car enthusiast that I am, I would like to know what kinds of cars the straight dope hot rodders are driving. If you’re really into it, give me all the gory details, down to the flow of you water pump. Here’s the Straight Dope car show and everyone is invited.
Here’s mine. 1973 Ford Maverick “grabber” package. It has a transplanted 351 ('69 Cougar) bored .30 and has a mild cam, headers and dual glasspacks.
Oh yeah, and a 1991 Camry with only 70k miles. There’s a beauty! :rolleyes:
I currently have the following cars:
1986 Pontiac Fiero SE. 150HP V-6 Skateboard.
1991 Ford Explorer. Notable only for it’s mileage: 235,000
1986 Ford Escort GT. Project car, bodywork.
Got rid of about five and four years ago (respectively):
'69 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400
'69 Pontiac Firebird 350
(damn, I miss them)
Currently: (these are not hot rods, but they’re fun. my present babies - had to mention them)
'76 Fiat Spider (completed project car)
'81 Jeep CJ-7 Laredo (& a '00 Wrangler)
'98 Harley-Davidson 1200 Sportster Custom ('you know anyone in the market for one? (this one, in particular) – I’m trying to sell this one, since I’m looking for a Softail Custom)
Well, right now I’m driving an '83 Mustang convertible with a 3.8L (yuck) V6 that has heating issues.
I USED to drive a 360 bored .030 over, 10.5:1 compression, 650cfm Edelbrock 4bbl carb, dual-exhaust, glass-packed '74 Dodge Dart Swinger 2dr. That car was SWEEEEEET. With the stock 2.74:1 rear end gear, I made 12.9 on the 1/4 mile at 5280 ft. elevation. Unfortunately I had some suspension problems that caused me to crash it, & I had to sell it to pay for the caddy that I slid into. I still think about how that thing would drive here at sea level after I put the 3.91 gear that I had planned… sigh
Past:
1978 Pontiac Trans Am with a remanufactured Jasper. 6.6 liter, 400 small block, and would just roast cars all day. Also had a bit of a problem since it was so low of hitting dips in the road and watching sparks fly out the back. Miss it and thinking of getting another one.
Now:
1996 Nissan 300ZX. Still stock, saving up now for new intake, exhaust, chip, underdrive pulley, headers, springs, and rims. I want to do it all at once for some reason.
1999 Suzuki Katana 600. Fun bike, and very comfortable on long trips. Very few cars that can keep up. Only mods are a new front sprocket with one less tooth. After riding my friends YZF600R, I’m now looking to sell it so I can buy a GSX-R 600, YZF600R, or a CBR600F4. Must have more speed!! hehe
The car is in pretty good shape (although note below), recent paint job (BRG, of course) - “hood” (Yanks read that as convertible top) and upholstery have been redone at some point, they are slightly the wrong style for the original car, although they do look fairly good.
Current top speed: 0 mph (until I can finish the carburetor rebuild). Oh well.
You can call me an idiot, but this is indeed my ONLY car.
98 Mustang GT, 17 inch wheels and 3.27 axle option. Gonna get the SVO blower put on IF I can find a place that will do it, tune it, and guarantee it doesn’t run like a piece of shit.
That is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. The Ferrari F-40 has the formula one guys scratching their heads. Maybe, MAYBE, if you tore out every shread of interior and and propped it up with NO2 you might get the F-40 off the line for about a 100 yards.
Past:
'75 Pinto. Nuff said.
'75 Austin Mini, 1 litre
'72 Austin 1275 GT
'74 Austin 1100
'81 Audi 4000 S
'81 Kawasaki KZ1000J (just sold it over the 4th of July. Sniff)
'77 Firebird Esprit, 350 ci with Rochester quadrajet.
'72 FJ40 Landcruiser. Loved it!
'66 MGB GT
'67 MGB GT (Best year for the 'B)
'68 MGB GT
'73 MGB Roadster
Current:
'74 Mercedes 240D, with a 300D engine.
'79 MGB roadster (My latest aquisition)
'81 VW Rabbit (Purchased new, still going strong)
'88 VW Fox
'90 VW Passat (Sweet car, gobs of power)
'91 Dodge Caravan LE. The family mobile.
Yup, you’ve probably seen it a million times
Click here to see what it looks like: it’s the exact same model and colour.
It’s the basic engine, and it will do some 170 km/h (105 MPH). 0-60 MPH takes about 13 seconds. But this car has such superb handling, it makes me sad every time I didn’t save some more money for the 167 BHP GTI 6-speed version! That one will do 220 km/h and 0-100 KM/H in 8 seconds. Alas… but on a curvey stretch, my li’l 75 BHP 306 eats VW Golfs for breakfast! They just can’t keep up, no matter what engine they have. The Peugeots roadholding is THAT much better. I love it
OH, about the Ferrari F40: that one has 478 BHP, and does 0-60 in 3.7 seconds. It can take on an MR2 with a Space Shuttle rocket strapped to it. No way in hell an MR2 will beat an F40, not even for 100 yards.
1987 Buick Grand National 3.8 sequential port fuel injected,Turbo charged,intercooled. Stock 245 horse 300lbsft torque.Did Mid 13’s right outta the box.With a little “tweaking”…performance chip,ram air package,high output fuel pump and regulator…higher flow injectors I was able to turn mid 12’s in the quarter at 110mph.
Car is now sitting on blocks in my garage with 40k original miles.Racing was “put on the shelf” whenn marriage and parenthood came along.I used to LOVE blowing away 'vettes…mustangs and yuppies in their 50 grand porsches!
I’ll look for a cite. I recall that a magazine said that an automatic '89 was the fastest 0-30 production car of 1989, with a time of two seconds.
The F-40’s power and gearing are almost a liability when it comes to this sort of thing. I’m not sure about the auto, but the NA MR2’s shift point into second usually comes at right about 30mph.
I still think it’s impressive that a 25mpg, $5000 sportscar can compete(albeit in a limited sense) with one of the world’s finest exotics. A difference of less than .4 seconds hardly merits calling my contention “absurd”.
I just purchased a 1977 Mercury Comet last week, it’s red and has a purely ornamental hood scoop. Aside from that, I know jack shit about my car. Except I am definitely painting it a lovely, glossy black and having whoever does it use some bondo to make the hood scoop actually look like it’s part of the hood. And I’m going to have it reupholstered and the dash replaced. I have all sorts of people giving me advice about how I should modify it…
My sister: “You should put meats and a cherry bomb muffler on it!”
Me: “Huh?”
My dad: “Terry’s got a 305 boss we could put in it.”
Me: “Huh?”
I stand there why my father and my sister’s boyfriend go on about what they think I should do to my car, and I wonder if they’re actually speaking English.
But then, this is coming from the chick who was immensely proud of herself because she managed to find the carburetor the other day and primed the engine. I am a goddess. No, really.
Lawmill: the F40 was ualtered during its production years, and was produced from 1987 to 1989.
0-30 MPH? What sort of standard is that? The universal acceleration measurement is of course 0-60 MPH (as an approximation of 0-100 KM/H). Never heard the 0-30 one before. Sure, maybe my car will keep up with an F40 in the 0-10 MPH range because of excessive wheel spin on behalf of the Ferrari V8 bi-turbo.
We can’t go about comparing apples and oranges here. An MR2 does NOT beat an F40 off the line. Period.
The site I referenced gave the specs for a 1991 F-40, I clearly stated that. Your citation merely lists the first year of production, I was unable to find a site that listed the year in which production terminated in. http://www.auto-salon-singen.de/Cars/Ferrari_F40.htm is illuminating, although one of the pictures might be considered inappropriate.
I didn’t say that the MR2 was a faster car, period. That’d be ludicrous. Nor did I say that 0-30 was the standar measurement of an automobile’s acceleration performance. I think it’s fair to say that the Toyota could almost keep up “off the line”.
I regret posting a “fact” I hadn’t personally substantiated. I’m very sorry and will factually check, and disclaim every opinion or asserted fact in future posts.
