Gas Prices

Post by **GlassWolf** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:59 pm

my car weighs 3600lbs. a 2005 Corvette weighs about 3300lbs.
Mind you, my car is 16.9' long, 6' wide, and 4.5' high @ the roof line.
I can easily seat 4 people in my car and carry a huge load of materials at the same time.
I just don't have:
shoulder belts
air bags
crumple zones
electronic fuel injection
front wheel drive
"traction control" or "stability control"

if I wanted to spend the money, I could build a 340, 360, or 400 small block V8 and turbocharge it and get easily into the 20s for gas mileage at the cost of some low end torque but I'd still be at 500+ horsepower. especially if I added EFI.

this really tells me that for all the advances in the auto industry over the last 40 years, none of it has made that huge of a difference. Between oil companies, automotive manufacturers, and insuracne companies, you have a system that works together to juice people for as much money as they can. If you want to point fingers at the gov't, look at law enforcement and speed limits, which are purely there for revenue now, since they were only introduced in teh 70s due to the "gas crunch" we were supposedly in. (again, oil company farse.)

I guess on the bright side, at least chicks dig my car.. hehe
at least, as long as they aren't left wing extremist tree huggers. Those girls probably hate me. hehe

ridr4lif · Post by **ridr4lif** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 5:24 pm

Well...since i just put my BMW back on the road...im paying $2.49 a gallon for premium.

TEDD

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 7:34 pm

I consider front wheel drive a negative. Any well built RWD car will outlast a front wheel drive in the long run, plus the fact that you don't have to drop the front end of a car to change out some dumbass CV axles, which is a design that is guaranteed to fail. I would like to see how much a car would weigh if it was the size of Kikis Charger, you can bet once they "modernized" the car it would weigh over 5,000 lbs and get miserable fuel mileage even with a small, anemic engine. The only thing I would consider an advancement in the auto industry since the 60s are overdrive transmissions, fuel injection, roller camshafts, and electronic ignition. I don't believe in controlling an entire car off of a PLC, nor do I believe in relying on electronics for diagnostics as the problems that the car PLC will tell you are problems are usually problems that the system or components caused, and could have been avoided if it wasn't there to begin with.

Post by **GlassWolf** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 10:43 am

FWD - At the time production got underway after the Second World War there where six companies making front wheel drive cars. By 1970 there where eighteen.

Fuel Injection? since the 50s.

Overdrive - The Automatic Overdrive (AOD) transmission was introduced in 1980 as Ford's first four-speed automatic overdrive transmission (a.k.a. AOT or FIOD in some literature). Internals are loosely based on the FMX. The AOD was finally replaced by the AOD-E/4R70W in 1994 for all remaining applications.

I did add a Gear Vendors OD unit to my A727 so now I have a manual reverse tranny with low band apply, and 6 forward gears. It's fun. Great combination of old and new tech there. Handles upwards of 1000HP too

first roller timing set came in 1970
first roller cam engine came from GM (Chevy) in 1986

electronic ignition systems - 1970s

everything has it's advantages.. FWD does put the motor weight over the drive wheels which helps traction in snow and such, but I still prefer RWD too, or AWD for winter vehicles.

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 2:32 pm

There was a guy in my town that built a custom mechanical fuel injection system in a Chevy II in the 60s, had a 327 in it, he put 283 emblems all over it and spanked a 427 Vette at the strip :) What I meant was that you really didn't see FWD, fuel injection, etc. utilized until the 70s-80s.

Post by **GlassWolf** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 7:22 pm

oh I know. I just stated a few intro dates in case anyone was curious.
I was.

I wanted 440 emblems for mine, but I can't find any that don't say +6 or sixpack on them.
Mine is a magnum 4bbl so the 6pack emblems would be silly.
ah well. on with the search. I may just stick with the plain jane "V8" emblems the 318cid came with heheh

ridr4lif · Post by **ridr4lif** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 7:27 pm

Goin for that sleeper look w/ the 31x16.50's in the back kiki?

TEDD

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 8:18 pm

That violent rumpity-rump from the cam won't give it away either :)

Post by **GlassWolf** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:10 am

well with the 27" super turbos, it should be moderately quiet at idle.. and going with P275/60R15 street radials in back. may go to DOT slicks later but I don't relish dropping $500 on a new pair of tires every few months from street wear.
I may get a second pair of rims for the back for DOT slicks so I can jsut swap em out.
I did find out I can run 4.11 or even 4.56 gears in the car now with the GV overdrive unit installed and still get really good highway gearing.
It's kind of neat having a six-speed clutchless manual trans. It's like driving an Audi, with five times the horsepower.. haha

71buickfreak · Post by **71buickfreak** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:22 pm

I have been considering one of those gear vendors units. how much was it? is it easy to operate?
Why not run the Mickey thompson ET streets? less wear than a drag radial and better for street driving anyway.