[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I don’t know a lot about cars. I was more into motorcycles. But still not a lot of mechanical knowledge. I can jet a carburettor and do oil changes and a few things like that. But my opinion of modern performance cars in a few points:
I don’t like electric steering. It doesn’t have the feel through the wheel like rack and pinion and you can find yourself under or over steering more easily.
I’ve mostly driven naturally aspirated engines. Forced induction engines are great but the power band isn’t as smooth.
The car’s weight distribution is really important. A lot of cars lurch forward or fishtail too easily.
I used to like big v8 muscle type cars - I had an old Chrysler Valiant, Holden Commodore, driven a lot of different Australian and American v8s, but for actual everyday driving I tend to prefer an inline six. I’ve driven a lot of Japanese six cylinder cars that I liked a lot too and their reliability in the 90’s was unmatched. We had a Mitsubishi Magna Sports with the cyclone six engine that passed through the family for 15 years; never needed anything other than servicing. Great performance/price. My friend had Mazda MX5 - similar story. Great car to drive and great transmission. Nissan Skyline - top of the competition in the 90’s.
Nothing is nicer to drive than a German car. Mercs, Beamers, Audis - I love them all. These are the cars I can’t afford and hope to own one day in the future when I’ve made some more money. The 12 cylinder AMG engine sounds absolutely crazy. Michael Savage drives one and talks about blowing off liberals in their Eco-mobiles all the time. I love the understated look of some of these Mercs. In the David Lynch film Lost Highway the old mafia don drives a SL550(I think) - just a tasteful, quiet, medium-sized black car - something your dentist would drive. And yet under the hood there’s 400+hp.
So for me it has to be a German car. But as I can’t afford 200k for a car right now I’ll have to settle for a yank car; it may not have the class, quality and feel of a German car but at least I can drive something befitting my status, authority and virility.
But safety is always first with me. This little tailgating prick hopefully learned his lesson.
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Ferrari’s are nicer to drive than their German competitors, even if the competitor is faster technically. Obviously they are out of reach for most people, but they are nicer to drive.
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There is certainly nothing wrong with liking German cars and I have big love for them too, especially the 911. But we live in the best car era in history. There are soooo many cool cars made by all kinds of people from all kinds of countries. I wanted to celebrate the American achievements because I felt a lot of people have been overlooking them for too long and America is doing a lot of cool things now. Gone are the horrible late '70’s and '80’s. America is at the top of it’s game right now and we need to enjoy it. Who knows how long it will last? But we are competing and beating the best in the world now. And we’re doing it with mass production and less money.
I guess my only point is, get what you like, like what you like, but don’t over look America. It has a lot to offer right now.
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I agree with forced induction vs. naturally aspirated. Sure you can get mad HP from forced induction and I respect that as well, but naturally aspirated is nicer driving. And getting big HP out of naturally aspirated engines are a more impressive technical feat.
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Electric power steering is here to stay, unfortunately. The good news is that it’s new technology and it is getting better. It’s just more efficient. It’s stupid not to use it for a multitude of reasons. There is a newer belt driven variant (acts more like a turntable) that is showing promise for restoring a more natural feel to the steering.
Weeeeellll, honestly. Yeah, he was probably a little dumb, but I am sure he got into it a little and it turned out more than he can handle. Thing is, I could see it happening to me too. It would be my luck.
707 HP is no joke. Actually, MT dyno tested a Challenger Hellcat and found it closer to 750 HP at the crank. It’s underrated, imagine that.
I can see getting overpowered by it but at least get a few days of fun. He probably got into it more than just a little. I’m just glad he hit a tree and not a car full of people. It is a lot of power for anyone. Kinda like a guy I met whose parents bought him a Honda CBR1000F Hurricane for his first bike. Wonder if he’ll try to sue because it doesn’t have a warning label?
[quote]silverblood wrote:
I can see getting overpowered by it but at least get a few days of fun. He probably got into it more than just a little. I’m just glad he hit a tree and not a car full of people. It is a lot of power for anyone. Kinda like a guy I met whose parents bought him a Honda CBR1000F Hurricane for his first bike. Wonder if he’ll try to sue because it doesn’t have a warning label?[/quote]
If he does, the car people of the world may publicly lynch him. You can make us where seat belts and put emissions controls on cars, but don’t take our horsepower. It happened once and we are still stinging from it.
The fact that you can get a 707 HP for around $65K is a blessing. Stupid people exist, we can’t adjust our lives to the lowest common denominator all the time.
[quote]silverblood wrote:
I can see getting overpowered by it but at least get a few days of fun. He probably got into it more than just a little. I’m just glad he hit a tree and not a car full of people. It is a lot of power for anyone. Kinda like a guy I met whose parents bought him a Honda CBR1000F Hurricane for his first bike. Wonder if he’ll try to sue because it doesn’t have a warning label?[/quote]
If he does, the car people of the world may publicly lynch him. You can make us where seat belts and put emissions controls on cars, but don’t take our horsepower. It happened once and we are still stinging from it.
The fact that you can get a 707 HP for around $65K is a blessing. Stupid people exist, we can’t adjust our lives to the lowest common denominator all the time.[/quote]
Top speed is already limited by government regulations. It won’t be long before we see power to weight ratio limits for road vehicles in my opinion. Sure, there’ll be resistance but I’m sure they’ll try to do this.
Weeeeellll, honestly. Yeah, he was probably a little dumb, but I am sure he got into it a little and it turned out more than he can handle. Thing is, I could see it happening to me too. It would be my luck.
707 HP is no joke. Actually, MT dyno tested a Challenger Hellcat and found it closer to 750 HP at the crank. It’s underrated, imagine that.
[/quote]
400-500 HP can be a real handful in a street car. It takes some time to get used to all that power and you have to respect it and not show off the 1st day with your friends in the car.
Weeeeellll, honestly. Yeah, he was probably a little dumb, but I am sure he got into it a little and it turned out more than he can handle. Thing is, I could see it happening to me too. It would be my luck.
707 HP is no joke. Actually, MT dyno tested a Challenger Hellcat and found it closer to 750 HP at the crank. It’s underrated, imagine that.
[/quote]
400-500 HP can be a real handful in a street car. It takes some time to get used to all that power and you have to respect it and not show off the 1st day with your friends in the car.
[/quote]
I agree. There’s no way I’d ever need 700+ ponies. 450-550 is plenty.
[quote]silverblood wrote:
I can see getting overpowered by it but at least get a few days of fun. He probably got into it more than just a little. I’m just glad he hit a tree and not a car full of people. It is a lot of power for anyone. Kinda like a guy I met whose parents bought him a Honda CBR1000F Hurricane for his first bike. Wonder if he’ll try to sue because it doesn’t have a warning label?[/quote]
If he does, the car people of the world may publicly lynch him. You can make us where seat belts and put emissions controls on cars, but don’t take our horsepower. It happened once and we are still stinging from it.
The fact that you can get a 707 HP for around $65K is a blessing. Stupid people exist, we can’t adjust our lives to the lowest common denominator all the time.[/quote]
I agree completely but today we’re required to put warning labels on microwave popcorn so stupid people don’t go blind. What would be cool is if they offered a performance driving course at a deep discount for buyers.
Just wanted to point out, if it hasn’t been mentioned, that Motor trend dyno-ed a stock hellcat at 671 HP at the wheels. Which means the motor is really producing something more like 750 and Dodge is actually UNDERRATING it’s power.
Weeeeellll, honestly. Yeah, he was probably a little dumb, but I am sure he got into it a little and it turned out more than he can handle. Thing is, I could see it happening to me too. It would be my luck.
707 HP is no joke. Actually, MT dyno tested a Challenger Hellcat and found it closer to 750 HP at the crank. It’s underrated, imagine that.
[/quote]
400-500 HP can be a real handful in a street car. It takes some time to get used to all that power and you have to respect it and not show off the 1st day with your friends in the car.
[/quote]
I agree. There’s no way I’d ever need 700+ ponies. 450-550 is plenty.[/quote]
I de-tuned my factory '68 Mustang GT from a 390 4-speed to a 351W and an automatic. It was still around 300HP, but with the gearing and the fact it was light, even that could get me in trouble if I wasn’t careful. My current project should top out at around 400HP, plenty enough for me.
Weeeeellll, honestly. Yeah, he was probably a little dumb, but I am sure he got into it a little and it turned out more than he can handle. Thing is, I could see it happening to me too. It would be my luck.
707 HP is no joke. Actually, MT dyno tested a Challenger Hellcat and found it closer to 750 HP at the crank. It’s underrated, imagine that.
[/quote]
400-500 HP can be a real handful in a street car. It takes some time to get used to all that power and you have to respect it and not show off the 1st day with your friends in the car.
[/quote]
I agree. There’s no way I’d ever need 700+ ponies. 450-550 is plenty.[/quote]
I de-tuned my factory '68 Mustang GT from a 390 4-speed to a 351W and an automatic. It was still around 300HP, but with the gearing and the fact it was light, even that could get me in trouble if I wasn’t careful. My current project should top out at around 400HP, plenty enough for me.
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The automatic transition would add a lot of weight too.
It wasn’t too long ago that 400HP was considered a shit ton of HP for a normal car. The new numbers they are regularly pumping out now are redonkulous.
[quote]beachguy498 wrote:
I de-tuned my factory '68 Mustang GT from a 390 4-speed to a 351W and an automatic. It was still around 300HP, but with the gearing and the fact it was light, even that could get me in trouble if I wasn’t careful. My current project should top out at around 400HP, plenty enough for me.
[/quote]
That’s a nice swap, lots of room to grow if you want. That 390 never got a lot of love.
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
It wasn’t too long ago that 400HP was considered a shit ton of HP for a normal car. The new numbers they are regularly pumping out now are redonkulous. [/quote]
Keep in mind the weight and overall size of vehicles has also increased.
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
It wasn’t too long ago that 400HP was considered a shit ton of HP for a normal car. The new numbers they are regularly pumping out now are redonkulous. [/quote]
Keep in mind the weight and overall size of vehicles has also increased. [/quote]
Motorcycles are even more insane than cars today. Anyone who has ridden a modern sports bike like a GSXR-1000 or a Z-1 knows that you simply will never use the higher gears because no one in their right mind is going to travel 200mph+ on public roads.
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
It wasn’t too long ago that 400HP was considered a shit ton of HP for a normal car. The new numbers they are regularly pumping out now are redonkulous. [/quote]
Keep in mind the weight and overall size of vehicles has also increased. [/quote]
Motorcycles are even more insane than cars today. Anyone who has ridden a modern sports bike like a GSXR-1000 or a Z-1 knows that you simply will never use the higher gears because no one in their right mind is going to travel 200mph+ on public roads.[/quote]
The same thing can be said for these cars. Unless you live somewhere with little population, and have some elevation changes there is nowhere to drive them.
I recently sold my S4 because there was no point in paying the insurance premium on a performance car that was never allowed to perform. It wasnt the fastest car, it would keep up just fine with C5 Z06’s, but i felt like i was using a thoroughbred to pull a cart. Looking for a 4runner now.
Also, Turbo > NA. My S4 was a 2.7 liter 30valve twin turbo V6. It had a very smooth powerband, got 30mpg on the highway, and i got around just fine staying out of boost. I think a lot of the complaints about boosted cars is because most are 4bangers, which needs the boost just to move. Having a boosted V6 is just like any other car, but you get that nice kick in the ass when you want.
[quote]Aggv wrote:
Also, Turbo > NA. My S4 was a 2.7 liter 30valve twin turbo V6. It had a very smooth powerband, got 30mpg on the highway, and i got around just fine staying out of boost. I think a lot of the complaints about boosted cars is because most are 4bangers, which needs the boost just to move. Having a boosted V6 is just like any other car, but you get that nice kick in the ass when you want.
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My last S4 (2001 sedan) was much quicker than my current (2005 cab) with the nat. asp. v-8. I suspect some of that is weight and torque numbers (the 01 had a chip and intake mod). The HP numbers are supposedly very close between the two.
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
It wasn’t too long ago that 400HP was considered a shit ton of HP for a normal car. The new numbers they are regularly pumping out now are redonkulous. [/quote]
Keep in mind the weight and overall size of vehicles has also increased. [/quote]
Motorcycles are even more insane than cars today. Anyone who has ridden a modern sports bike like a GSXR-1000 or a Z-1 knows that you simply will never use the higher gears because no one in their right mind is going to travel 200mph+ on public roads.[/quote]
The same thing can be said for these cars. Unless you live somewhere with little population, and have some elevation changes there is nowhere to drive them.
I recently sold my S4 because there was no point in paying the insurance premium on a performance car that was never allowed to perform. It wasnt the fastest car, it would keep up just fine with C5 Z06’s, but i felt like i was using a thoroughbred to pull a cart. Looking for a 4runner now.
Also, Turbo > NA. My S4 was a 2.7 liter 30valve twin turbo V6. It had a very smooth powerband, got 30mpg on the highway, and i got around just fine staying out of boost. I think a lot of the complaints about boosted cars is because most are 4bangers, which needs the boost just to move. Having a boosted V6 is just like any other car, but you get that nice kick in the ass when you want.
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Yep, I’m probably going to grab a 2015 Mustang GT at the end of the year when it’s released here and those 436 horsies are more than enough for me. Roush does a supercharger kit that boosts it over 700 but I don’t see the point. I’d rather spend on mods to improve the handling.