Thought it was a decent article in a few spots:
http://autos.sympa...-should-bring-back

agree with some
most of it is hating on new stuff

The Chrysler turbine car is what got me interested into the R&D and manufacturing side of automobiles. Imagine a car where you pull up to the pump and you actually have to think for a minute if you want to put in plus, regular, premium, diesel or that tequila from the liquor store across the street AND get awesome mileage AND not produce any emissions except nitrous oxide.

Posted by bandi Thought it was a decent article in a few spots: http://autos.sympa...-should-bring-back

1.) whitewalls look stupid on anything other than a 1950's vintage car.
2.) the Chrysler Turbine car was great on paper, crappy in execution. If you were in a traffic situation that demanded IMMEDIATE power, you were screwed as the turbine built power slowly... just like a turbine!
3.) the procon-ten sounds great on paper and probably worked like a charm new, but what happened when those Audi's got a few miles under their belts and were subjected to corrosion?
4.) that Audi disc brake arrangement seems overly complicated. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Alfa Romeo have a disc brake arrangement that mounted disc and caliper on the halfshaft?
5.) this I will agree with... a good old fashioned American station wagon should make a reappearance and make these awful SUV's go away.
6.) hidden tailgates were awesome... rear-facing jump seats? Automotive safety nazis would never allow them today.
7.) this I'll agree with... trucks today are too fucking big. Even a 'compact' pickup is almost the size of what was considered full-size 10-15 years ago!
8.) bubble canopies? it's a car, not an F-16.
9.) they're not called 'coachbuilders' anymore... they're custom shops and they can do anything in fiberglass.
10.) i hated bench seats then. i hate bench seats now.
11.) the rotary engine, despite its massive potential for power in a small package, is an unreliable boat anchor. there is a reason only one manufacturer stuck with developing it.
12.) why are there no more beautiful machines? depends on what you mean by beautiful.
13.) electric/hybrid anything... there is a concept i hope you remember from your mom and dad... there is no such thing as a free lunch.
14.) AGREE. All this passive safety horseshit is making drivers lazy and less attentive
15.) Agree with this too... tach, speedo, fuel gage, temp gage, oil pressure gage and an 8-track player... that's all you need in the dash of a car.
16.) electric windows aren't that much of a drag and anyone from the northern frozen arctic wastes of the northeast knows that life with manual crank windows isn't all sweetness and light.
17.) let's see Annie the secretary out there trying to crank start her 2008 11.5:1 compression Civic on a -15F morning. Good luck. DUMB idea.
18.) I agree with this and i'll go one further... remember back in the 80's (i know for some of you, you weren't even an itch in your fathers nutbag) when cars like Ford Escorts, Honda Civics, Chevy Cavaliers and Toyota Corollas got over 40mpg with fucking CARBURETORS? Yeah, one and two-barrel carbs... What the fuck happened? Now 35mpg out of a 2.0L four-cylinder is supposed to be great? It's because these cars got bigger and heavier.


****little tangent then back to the list... My Beretta is listed as a Compact car. My Cobalt SS is listed as a SubCompact car. You park the 96 Beretta next to the 2007 Cobalt SS and the fucking Beretta is DWARFED by Cobalt. Lesson illustrated. Back to the list******

19.) I disgree... Electric power steering has come a far distance since the 90's. I experience it every day and have no bitch.
20.) Just what we need...a generation of cars sitting on the modern equivalent of Daytons. Bah.

this list was good for a laugh, i guess.

Posted by Samurai 1.) whitewalls look stupid on anything other than a 1950's vintage car.

Yep.

3.) the procon-ten sounds great on paper and probably worked like a charm new, but what happened when those Audi's got a few miles under their belts and were subjected to corrosion?

It was German, so it wouldn't have needed to corrode to have some weird, irreparable problem.

4.) that Audi disc brake arrangement seems overly complicated. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Alfa Romeo have a disc brake arrangement that mounted disc and caliper on the halfshaft?

I've worked on thousands of Audis, and honestly, that article was the first time I'd seen that. Not sure about Alfa, but Jaguar had inboard mounted disc brakes on the rear axle.

7.) this I'll agree with... trucks today are too fucking big. Even a 'compact' pickup is almost the size of what was considered full-size 10-15 years ago!

A new Subaru Brat would be cool. Not a Baja.

9.) they're not called 'coachbuilders' anymore... they're custom shops and they can do anything in fiberglass.

Pininfarina/Bertone/Karmann... they still exist to some point. Most VW convertibles are still coachbuilt by Karmann.

11.) the rotary engine, despite its massive potential for power in a small package, is an unreliable boat anchor. there is a reason only one manufacturer stuck with developing it.

They're either great or terrible. My '85 Rx-7 had well over 300,000 km on it when I sold it, and still ran great. In the 8 years I had it, it never left me stranded once, and never had a mechanical issue.

Ok, my break is over.

...but didn't Alfa Romeo have a disc brake arrangement that mounted disc and caliper on the halfshaft?

Yep, a friends son just picked up a Milano in pretty decent shape. Discs on the half shafts. Looks like fun to change. He said some folks cut ports in the trunk and replace from above.

my father had whitewalls on his cars all through the 80s, on pontiac sunbirds, the korean tires i put on the womans car are whitewalls too, hate em hehe


i would like to see small trucks like the old ford courrier (mazda b series) come back, oh and nissan should market a datsun!

number 14 gets me, its so true, i have such an issue with those park yourself cars. at one time you had to know how to park your car


i miss the old speedos that seemed about 8 feet wide across the dash, i think my uncles parisienne had one

bring back rwd

/thread

I have the whitewalls out on my XJ tires just to annoy people :p

And actually, the acceleration on the Turbine car was fine....

Posted by Agent Skelly And actually, the acceleration on the Turbine car was fine....

says who?

skelly has driven one! his buddy Ted has keys to the automotive museum!

Posted by TheVicariousVadder bring back rwd /thread

Uhhh... it IS back...

Posted by bandi Uhhh... it IS back...

oh yes... oh yes yes yes...

but you can't afford it cuz you're on the welfare...

Posted by Samurai says who?

When the Turbine car debuted back in '56, it had an acceleration lag of......7 seconds. That was reduced by '63 to one second.

http://www.allpar.com/mopar/turbine.html

Posted by Nismo skelly has driven one! his buddy Ted has keys to the automotive museum!

If I am going to do go joyride a museum car, its going to be the Willys Jeep from WWII and its going to drive over you like a Tojo

Posted by Samurai oh yes... oh yes yes yes... but you can't afford it cuz you're on the welfare...

Actually the working class poor and upper middle class or better are the only ones who have RWD cars.

$1000 beaters from the 80's are daily drivers for working class poor.

And the only newly manufactured cars that have RWD are sports cars.

So the Charger is considered a sports car? By that logic, a VW Jetta is considered a station wagon!

Posted by Agent Skelly When the Turbine car debuted back in '56, it had an acceleration lag of......7 seconds. That was reduced by '63 to one second. http://www.allpar.com/mopar/turbine.html

much can happen in that one second of lag... no burden the car with passengers and cargo... one second stretches out.

still, neat concept... not so great real world.

and let's not forget Ford's Nucleon concept model... a nuclear powered car? Chernobyl on wheels, portable meltdown with fins. Oh yes!
that's what was so great about the Fifties. It didn't matter about the practical problems of a concept... it was all about the concept itself.

Yeah, one second though in the last wave of testing was acceptable to drivers at the time in the 60s; werid eh?

I think if Chrysler or anyone would do it now, you would see that turbine not be coupled directly to the transmission but instead into a motor-generator set so you can set the turbine to run at a constant speed.

Posted by Agent Skelly So the Charger is considered a sports car? By that logic, a VW Jetta is considered a station wagon!

They call it a "Sports Sedan."


How about a RWD car from a major* automaker with a large 4 cylinder engine for under $18,000 new?

_{*Kia, Hyundai, etc excluded.}