Hopefully getting a job, what car to get

[Jonathan]

"Hooray for poor gas mileage. Just get a sports compact and tune it Can be faster then a muscle car and still better on gas!"

Look into the Chevy 6.0L LS2 engine. Capable of 28 highway, makes 400hp and 400lb/ft of torque. The problem with the tuner market is that most people that tune up a rice car tend to compare an engine they've spend tons of money on to a bone stock V8 that rolled off a factory line. If you were to put the same amount of effort into a V8 engine, you'd make more power, nearly proportionally, maybe even more so since V8 performance parts are cheaper. I just don't see the point in spending that much green to get a high revving, torqueless 300hp on a dyno. People get too tied into horsepower figures and don't realize that it is meaningless without torque. There are two ways to increase horsepower, by increasing torque, or increasing RPM. Increasing RPM does nothing for the power of the motor, 500lb ft of torque at 2,000 RPM is the same as 500 lb ft at 5,000 RPM. The main benefit of running higher RPMs is that you can use a lower gear ratio, thus getting a higher torque multiplication ratio while running the same speed. 4 cylinders naturally lack torque due to less displacement, so you're not multiplying as much to begin with. Running higher RPMs decreases both fuel mileage and reliability. That's why the typical Japanese 4 cylinder of today tends to fail religiously at around 200,000 miles, some cases get more than that, but it's more rare. Honda and Toyota weren't the first manufacturers to produce a reliable engine. I've owned Toyotas, and I've turned a few too many wrenches on Hondas of my g/f's to buy into the typical hoopla about them being the most reliable vehicles on earth. They're all made by men, all cars of today lack the quality that you'd get 30-40 years ago, though. Notice you don't see as many cars from the 90s rolling around these days, they're out there, but it's not as prolific as seeing the 60-80s cars you'll see roll by every day, in whatever condition they may be in. My 350 Chevy had over 350,000 when I rebuilt it, and it was still in good working order besides the rings being worn down, as any engine with that many miles will do. As far as power, I wish the standard was to list average torque or average horsepower over a set RPM range instead of letting manufacturers and builders have a field day with meaningless peak HP figures. The main drawback of musclecars is lack of sufficient gearing for acceleration. There wasn't overdrive back then, so you'd typically get a granny gear in the rear axle just so you could run at a decent RPM on the interstate. The other drawback is that they need to be tuned better. Fuels back then were leaded and were a lot more volatile than the fuels of today, plus factory carbs of the day weren't necessarily optimum for the engine. Head work such as hardened valve seats and a port job help a lot as well. Transmissions are easily changed since most newer V8s still had the same size block and bellhousing that the older V8s had. Carbs are easy to tune and change as well. Old 60s fastbacks make excellent vehicles for acoustics. Both could easily be done cheaper than it would cost to beef up a 4 cylinder, and would equal better performance and much improved gas mileage compared to it's stock form. I've had no problems getting plenty of power and 20+mpg highway in my vehicles if I designed the powertrain to do so, it just takes some tuning and matching parts correctly.

[Mithrandir]

I refuse to get a jap car unless its an turbo eclipse lol, I might get a cadillac with a chevy 350 in it, im pretty sure caddys dont come with chevy 350s so i gotta check over the car, its 1500 bucks. I wanna spend the least amount of money possible but still get a decent car that I like. There are a few cadillacs around here. How hard is it to replace the soft part of the roof on some cars, Its like plastic and foam, but its cracked on the one car I was lookin at.

[Mithrandir]

here is the car description for the caddy fleetwood im lookin at


1986 CADILLAC FLEETWOOD, Florida car, 350 Chevy engine, 700R4 trans, 4.10 posi, dual exhaust, new tires, inspection, cold a/c, all power, strongest Caddy in PA, nice car, $1,495, 724-222-1552

[Jonathan]

It's not that hard to replace the top, but the main thing you have to worry about with them is that corrosion tends to take place underneath them, once you take that top off you may see some rust. It could be as simple as surface rust, but if it was close to the beach I'm sure salt in the air has taken it's toll on it since it was a Florida car. I'm pretty sure the Fleetwood came with the 5.0L 307 engine, same block as a 350, so if they changed it over isn't a big deal, the 350 is a better engine IMO. The stock Fleetwood had 18/25 fuel mileage rating, so it's not really a guzzler by any means, but of course that was rated with the 307 engine with it's stock drivetrain, the 350 combined with 4.10 gears will get less depending on how he did it. 350s are a simple and reliable engine, and they're all over the place so parts are cheap.

[Jszar]

actually the bmw model is xi, not ix. just for clarification. they are pretty decent in the snow.

[Mithrandir]

that wasnt the one with the top crackin, the one with the cracked top was kept here, its just the plastic foam shit thats cracked, its not broke it just looks shitty

[ridr4lif]

actually...the e30's were dubbed ix...the new ones are xi. why they changed i dont know.
TEDD

[Jszar]

hmmm didnt know that