Hi Guys,
Well, I've been quietly reading all this discussion. Lively stuff....
I ride a motorcycle just about every day here in Cincy down what is the
busiest part of Highway traffic at Rush hour, both ways.
Round trip is 50 miles.
When I'm riding I operate by 3 principles. They are:
1. I AM INVISIBLE- no one can see me.
2. EVERYONE OUT HERE IS TRYING TO KILL ME- self explanitory
3. IF YOU THINK THEY WILL DO IT, THEY WILL- always assume that if
there is a possibility of someone doing something stupid- they will.
Served me well for the last ten years (knock wood)...
I don't really fear anything- but I'm just healthily Paranoid...
Now- not to change the subject- but you guy were talking about gas milage-
One thing I really notice about old cars vs. new. Yes our FL'er are
BIG- no two ways around that, and new cars are small.
BUT- the new cars are 'denser'. Meaning they are packed full, no dead
air space.
Ever look under the fender of any 50-60-70's car? What do you see- lots
and lots of air!
Hell (no offense) I could rent out the under hood space on my 73 Charger
to a family of 12! Even with a big-block, there is plenty of room for a
couch and TV.
My 03 SRT-4? Packed. Can barely get a wrench in edgewise.
I think this is why milage has not gotten better, accidents are are
worse, etc. You are basically dealing with much denser objects on the
road today.
Now maybe they were the worst-made products ever. So what.
I can tell a 1957 300 from a 1957 Plymouth Fury from a 1957 Buick from
100 yards.
I couldn't tell you the differences between a 2001 Taurus and a 2005
Taurus if I was standing right next to them.
One of the reasons I LOVE the FL cars is that they have individual,
distinct personalities. Modern cars have all the charism of a Washing
Machine.
You can thank the Japanese for that. And no one is ever going to point
at me and smile, or give me a big thumbs up when I'm driving a 1995 Camry.
Someone mentioned cars looking like a bar of soap- today I'm think more
like the box the bar came in! Have you seen the Honda Element! (we are
the Borg- resistance is futile).....
Now- as to SUV's. I had one. 1993 Ramcharger. Commuted with it, took
it off road, had a great time.
SUCKED GAS like I was an arabian prince.
When it hit close to 3 bucks a gallon and I was paying basically all of
my paycheck from Job 2 to fill it, I had to say goodbye.
Loved it, but my insurance bill was huge!, Gas bill was huge! and just
about everything about it was huge!
What scares me about them is that teenagers drive them. Kids can barely
drive an econo box, let alone 4 tons of steel!
I give them a VERY wide berth- see my comments on riding above.
Finally,
Someone meantioned the Mobil Economy Runs.
A few years back one of the Mopar Rags ran a story about them.
I took one thing from that article that I remember.
Look into the ashtray of any 50-60-early 70's mopar. This has to be the
ashtray that is mounted in the armrest on the door.
You will see a groove that was stamped into it on the bottom, and that
is is really more cup-shaped than like a flat metal box.
Wonder why?
Because all you need is a ball bearing and an felt tip pen and you've
got yourself an inclinometer.
MaMopar like to win the Econorun. But they had to be tricky about how
they went about it. You could not have an offical inclinometer in the
car when you were competing (only the factory gauges), so MaMopar had
the ashtray stamped as such across the car lines. This made it look
innocent.
So the navigator could insert said ball bearing, and read the angle of
the hill the car was ascending/descending and calculate precisely the
speed/throttle position the driver needed for optimum efficiency.
Take the ball bearing out, and you have 'just' an ashtray again!
Bet you didn't know all of our cars were equipped with such
'instumentation'?
Just my pennies,
Take Care guys- as my wife says, the roads are filled with nothing but
Potholes and A**holes!
Sorry for the rant guys. It's been building up...
Charles.
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