Show us your Cars

[Frank Dernie]

I love Vette's too but OTOH there's a lot to be said about the mid and full sized muscle cars from the 60s and 70s.
Room enough for a family of 4 to 6 with big block 500+ horsepower engines.
Mostly gone now but in the US we've replaced them with muscle trucks as finding anything bigger than a 4dr econobox is next to impossible today.
Closest are probably the Dodge Chargers with hemi engines from 400 - 700+ HP but personally I find anything with 4 doors a no-no.

I understand this.
The reason the US car fans and European ones have such very different preferences are the roads.
Most US roads are modern and straight (and long) with traffic lights.
Most European roads go back centuries as farm tracks following boundaries that moved depending on who had won the last war so except thos based on Roman roads are twisty and narrow and not that many traffic lights.
Also the US has lots of subsidied oil so fuel has always been plentiful and cheap.Fuel is expensive here.
As a result of this I will pretty well never pull up at traffic lights alongside another car - not many lights or roads wide enough for 2 cars side by side until recently. So for me straight line acceleration has never been of any particular interest or importance.
OTOH I am going to try to make good prograess on the small country roads around here so having good brakes and cornering make a big difference and nimble on bumpy roads and ideally, but rare these days, small and light.

US muscle cars are great fun for US roads IME but I wouldn't want one for the roads around here.
Small light nimble cars have zero benefit on long US style road trips so have no advantage in the US, apart from fuel consumption.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Frank, Don't know what you want or expect, but it's still a fact that there are a couple top fuel and funny car events a year at Santa Pod, you can either decide to go, or stay home. The top fuel dragsters and funny cars are virtually identical to the ones run in the US. Your the one that will miss an incredible motor racing event. The second and final event for 2025 Euro FIA Drag Racing Championship runs Sept 4-7. Be there or be square.

I could go and may. I don't go to many events these days.
I have good ear protection!

Back when I started in Formula 1 wearing ear defenders was considered soft, whereas I, as a music lover, always used ear plugs.
Lots of my old mates are now deaf whereas I have better than average hearing for my age, so it worked.

There is a thing here called the Mechanics Trust, started by Jackie Stewart in the 70s iirc to support mechanics who fall on bad times either health or financial particularly since back in the day pay was poor and pension non-existent.
It has been going decades and I am a member so go to all the events for that, mainly just get togethers where I get to see old mates I used to work with and compete against, it is great to see them and find how they are doing. There was one at Silverstone this week so lots of nostalgic chats. We also have an annual event where old timers like me give advice to youngsters who want to be engineers or mechanics in racing. My table is a popular one I am proud to say.
Other than that motor sport is in the past for me.

 

[Frank Dernie]

That's the koolest thing about Drag Racing. In what other pro motorsport can the average spectator walk into the pits, up to the cars, talk to the drivers and crews, etc. Just awesome.

All racing used to be like that here too.
As a teenager I used to go to lots of races in England and a paddock pass, even for the Grand Prix, was available and once in you could see everything and chat with the mechanics - I was always more interested by the cars than drivers.
Nowadays it is probably easier to get into Fort Knox than the Formula 1 paddock so fans today get very second hand information and mainly about driver fandom and marketing propaganda.

 

[Sal1950]

US muscle cars are great fun for US roads IME but I wouldn't want one for the roads around here.
Small light nimble cars have zero benefit on long US style road trips so have no advantage in the US, apart from fuel consumption.

You mostly hit the nail on the head there.

I could go and may. I don't go to many events these days.
I have good ear protection!

Knowing you to be the motorsport enthusiast you are, I highly recommend you go just once.
I promise you'll walk away saying OMG. LOL

There is a thing here called the Mechanics Trust, started by Jackie Stewart in the 70s iirc to support mechanics who fall on bad times either health or financial particularly since back in the day pay was poor and pension non-existent.

Wow, good deal! Never has been any real money for mechanics, and mostly the big unions suck for their lack of any real retirement benefits like is common in the construction trade unions.

Nowadays it is probably easier to get into Fort Knox than the Formula 1 paddock so fans today get very second hand information and mainly about driver fandom and marketing propaganda

Same here, Hell would freeze over before you could get into the pits of a Nascar or Indy car race, even small local stock car dirt track event pits are closed.
The continued tradition of pit access in Drag Racing is a real oddity. Even at the biggest Championship races of the year, pit access is either wide open or may cost a very minor extra amount like $10 or 20 bucks for the "pit pass".
Cheers Buddy.

 

[BR52]

All racing used to be like that here too.
As a teenager I used to go to lots of races in England and a paddock pass, even for the Grand Prix, was available and once in you could see everything and chat with the mechanics - I was always more interested by the cars than drivers.
Nowadays it is probably easier to get into Fort Knox than the Formula 1 paddock so fans today get very second hand information and mainly about driver fandom and marketing propaganda.

Technical excellence is not needed in the car world anymore; they sell emotions. So they keep customers away from the technical details. The cause is technical progress, only related to making cars easier to build (cheaper in production). For example, a tooth belt in oil (high maintenance cost later on), and so on. Non-technical marketing is dominating the car world. The consequence of this you can see it in the motor sport world. The technic part here is for consistence avoided.
No visible technical competition you can follow and enjoy anymore.

 

[Palmer]

I try to tell people about weight transfer, amongst other things - they don't get it unless you show a picture. So, here's one...
@Frank Dernie - stoked about your like, so here's an event at Mugello, where only one car got wrecked - no injuries. It started to rain, so, guess what...

 

[Frank Dernie]

Technical excellence is not needed in the car world anymore; they sell emotions. So they keep customers away from the technical details. The cause is technical progress, only related to making cars easier to build (cheaper in production). For example, a tooth belt in oil (high maintenance cost later on), and so on. Non-technical marketing is dominating the car world. The consequence of this you can see it in the motor sport world. The technic part here is for consistence avoided.
No visible technical competition you can follow and enjoy anymore.

Technical excellence is 90% of what is needed in the car racing world.
In F1 almost always there is a bigger difference between cars than drivers and during the 70 years of the World Championship the champion has mostly been the better of the 2 drivers in the best car.
But if you want to widen the appeal and make more money romanticising driver fandom is the thing to do.

I have only a small interest in road cars and since usually I just want a quiet comfortable car with good overtaking capability when I need it I usually drive an electric car.

 

[ErVikingo]

After trashing a friend's 911S (cookie-cutter) wheel -though only @70mph blow-out- we made a shop-stool out of it?
Lemons are for lemonade!

My wife said, we have we have enough tables. I still have a wheel from the Yellowbird and one for the 936 to make tables.

 

[ErVikingo]

Yes the American engines are very well production engineered and inexpensive to make so ideal for small production specialist cars. They were a practical choice, built in huge quantities and readily available. Designing and building an engine for production quantities like the Jensen, AC and so forth would have been impossible.
When Rover bought the rights to a Buick designed 3.5 litre V8 from Mercury marine - which they re-engineered for sand casting too low volume for die casting - it was cheaper to make than the 2 litre overhead cam 4 cylinder they had been using and had a bit more power so they were able to raise the price and marketing whilst saving money on manufacturing.
Derivatives of that engine have been made in the UK for many years and widely used in cars and Land Rovers and became the go-to solution for small production sports cars and tuned to higher power levels and made up to 5 litres, no idea how much of the original version remains in these.
I had a 4.3 litre big valve version in my TVR Griffith and it gave good cheap fun - a car I wish I had never sold.

Small production runs cars are rare now because regulations for safety and pollution are expensive to pass.
Aston Martin now use AMG engines sourced from Mercedes.
Bentley belongs to VW group so gets the engines from the same base range as Lamborghini, Porsche, Audi and Bugatti.
Rolls-Royce is part of BMW so gets a version of their turbo-V12.
TVR foolishly (IMO) tried to go their own way with their own V8 but it was a poor design and bankrupted the company.

The Tuscan S (Speed Six) built with a 4.2 which was an in-house build and pretty wicked. Have to say that apart from visiting the factory during the build, never saw the engine since the hood was bolted in place with only a very small area which would open to fill the fluids. Never had any issues.

 

[ErVikingo]

I try to tell people about weight transfer, amongst other things - they don't get it unless you show a picture. So, here's one...
@Frank Dernie - stoked about your like, so here's an event at Mugello, where only one car got wrecked - no injuries. It started to rain, so, guess what...

View attachment 467265
View attachment 467263

I wonder if we have met at the track. Last 30 years I’ve done mostly HSR, SVRA, IGT, etc.

 

[Frank Dernie]

The Tuscan S (Speed Six) built with a 4.2 which was an in-house build and pretty wicked. Have to say that apart from visiting the factory during the build, never saw the engine since the hood was bolted in place with only a very small area which would open to fill the fluids. Never had any issues.

Al Melling, the engine designer used to blitz me with requests to work on F1 engines and his ideas were bizarre and made little sense IMO.
I am not familiar with the 6-cylinder but the V8 with flat plane crank and 2 valves per cylinder is just not sensible for a road car and there is a mounting ring badly positioned for the structure.
Compared to the Rover based motor it was very expensive and not very reliable.

 

[Palmer]

I wonder if we have met at the track. Last 30 years I’ve done mostly HSR, SVRA, IGT, etc.

Who knows, probably not - back then I was one of those flaky rich guys, who became used to the Yes word - I call it, now , if you know what I mean...
But, at least - I was young, younger than 90 percent of the owners that made these trips, Mugello and the Green Hell (when it was not as stupid and crowded, as it has turned into) - plus I had a style, one that made me buy a 512 BBi when I could have well gotten one of the F 40 - In my opinion, back in the 80ies the best Gran Tourismo, in the truest sense, one could throw a toothbrush and cologne in - and drive for 5-6 hours - then get out a happy fellow, rested and exited at the same time. Miss it, well - that part...

 

[ErVikingo]

Al Melling, the engine designer used to blitz me with requests to work on F1 engines and his ideas were bizarre and made little sense IMO.
I am not familiar with the 6-cylinder but the V8 with flat plane crank and 2 valves per cylinder is just not sensible for a road car and there is a mounting ring badly positioned for the structure.
Compared to the Rover based motor it was very expensive and not very reliable.

Are you Frank as in active suspension? Very impressive. We are now using tractive on some cars

 

[EJ3]

Yes the American engines are very well production engineered and inexpensive to make so ideal for small production specialist cars. They were a practical choice, built in huge quantities and readily available. Designing and building an engine for production quantities like the Jensen, AC and so forth would have been impossible.
When Rover bought the rights to a Buick designed 3.5 litre V8 from Mercury marine - which they re-engineered for sand casting too low volume for die casting - it was cheaper to make than the 2 litre overhead cam 4 cylinder they had been using and had a bit more power so they were able to raise the price and marketing whilst saving money on manufacturing.
Derivatives of that engine have been made in the UK for many years and widely used in cars and Land Rovers and became the go-to solution for small production sports cars and tuned to higher power levels and made up to 5 litres, no idea how much of the original version remains in these.
I had a 4.3 litre big valve version in my TVR Griffith and it gave good cheap fun - a car I wish I had never sold.

TVR Griffith used to be one of my dream cars. The original Buick was not designed to rev up but Oldsmobile Turbo charged it (even with it's 10+ to 1 compression ratio),
it ran like a scalded dog but not for long, giving that engine a bad reputation that Mercury was unable to overcome. What was done in the UK made it a truly good design.
I liked it when an MG coupe with this engine would outrun a Corvette in a straight line.
I just like vehicles that are what we call "sleepers": stock appearing, perhaps the rims have been cut in 1/2 from top to bottom & an extra section of with added. Just enough to have a slightly wider & better tire that still appears to be stock except under closer examination (as well as suspension enhancements that won't give away the appearance). And engines that appear to be stock, yet have ported heads, headers & just enough extra camshaft to not lope & bring attention to a stock appearing and sounding package. And when someone with a factory high performance car can't shake one stock appearing, stock sounding car off their tail (or better yet, the sleeper exceeds them), the look on the high $ performance car's face is pretty good.
Example:
This Type 2 (2,563cc) 210HP engine made 196 lb/ft of torque & matches the tall gearing in Troutman- Barnes coach built beetle precisely

 

[Somafunk]

Compared to the Rover based motor it was very expensive and not very reliable.

Perfect for the TVR then , a mate bought a non running Griffith 7 years ago as a winter project that he expected to have back on the road by the following summer.

8 summers later it’s still a “work in progress”

He bought a 2014 Audi RS6 V10 this spring for £21k, apparently it all checked out with full Audi service history yet I was still advising against it but his heart was set on it, last month it developed a rattle whilst coming back from holiday so he babied it home, started it up the next day and it sounded hellish, rattling like hell from the rear timing covers

He removed the engine (he used to be a ford mech before retraining as a plumber) and stripped the timing covers off which was a two day job and found two non existent timing chain guides so they’ve obviously disintegrated and ended up in the oil and circulated throughout the oil system.

He’s f***ed, £15k to £20k+ for full rebuild as he also discovered the bores are scored

Lovely cars when they work, but parts, especially engine stuff is so expensive.

 

[EJ3]

I understand this.
The reason the US car fans and European ones have such very different preferences are the roads.
Most US roads are modern and straight (and long) with traffic lights.
Most European roads go back centuries as farm tracks following boundaries that moved depending on who had won the last war so except thos based on Roman roads are twisty and narrow and not that many traffic lights.
Also the US has lots of subsidied oil so fuel has always been plentiful and cheap.Fuel is expensive here.

Small light nimble cars have zero benefit on long US style road trips so have no advantage in the US, apart from fuel consumption.

Each state has a fairly big gas tax that off sets any subsidies on gas. The states are none to happy with electric vehicles because they do NOT pat a gas tax, so the more electric vehicles, the less gas tax the state gets. The gas (and diesel) tax is supposed to pay for road repair, construction & bridge maintenance, etc.
So the more we consume, the more the states get to divert to other things (such as those officials that are corrupt [not saying that they all {or even a lot]} are, but there seems to always be some: pockets, somehow).
Get away from the big cities & don't drive the interstates & there are lot's of roads in the land that we seek out because of the twistiness to them.

 

[Count Arthur]

Perfect for the TVR then , a mate bought a non running Griffith 7 years ago as a winter project that he expected to have back on the road by the following summer.

8 summers later it’s still a “work in progress”

He bought a 2014 Audi RS6 V10 this spring for £21k, apparently it all checked out with full Audi service history yet I was still advising against it but his heart was set on it, last month it developed a rattle whilst coming back from holiday so he babied it home, started it up the next day and it sounded hellish, rattling like hell from the rear timing covers

He removed the engine (he used to be a ford mech before retraining as a plumber) and stripped the timing covers off which was a two day job and found two non existent timing chain guides so they’ve obviously disintegrated and ended up in the oil and circulated throughout the oil system.

He’s f***ed, £15k to £20k+ for full rebuild as he also discovered the bores are scored

Lovely cars when they work, but parts, especially engine stuff is so expensive.

Never forget, a clapped out, but working, Skoda is quicker than your project car.

 

[xanalog]

A giant black metal pig with blue plastic around its nose.

You know? Now, that you mention it..., we thought we saw it too... must be a new UFO model!

 

[xanalog]

My wife said, we have we have enough tables. I still have a wheel from the Yellowbird and one for the 936 to make tables.

Why not turn them into subs?

 

[EJ3]

I could go and may. I don't go to many events these days.
I have good ear protection!

Back when I started in Formula 1 wearing ear defenders was considered soft, whereas I, as a music lover, always used ear plugs.
Lots of my old mates are now deaf whereas I have better than average hearing for my age, so it worked.

There is a thing here called the Mechanics Trust, started by Jackie Stewart in the 70s iirc to support mechanics who fall on bad times either health or financial particularly since back in the day pay was poor and pension non-existent.
It has been going decades and I am a member so go to all the events for that, mainly just get togethers where I get to see old mates I used to work with and compete against, it is great to see them and find how they are doing. There was one at Silverstone this week so lots of nostalgic chats. We also have an annual event where old timers like me give advice to youngsters who want to be engineers or mechanics in racing. My table is a popular one I am proud to say.
Other than that motor sport is in the past for me.

Very wonderful: what you are doing for the future of motorsports, automotive technicians & engineers.
I bet that you have some of the best ear protection.
If you don't already, for the Nitro cars (should yo decide to go): first I would recommend both in ear & over the ear protection. Second, get a place (not precisely but generally) 50-100 feet (15-30 meters) from the starting line to watch the initial acceleration. Then, get yourself somewhere close to the finish line so that you can get a feel for the top speeds reached in those few seconds.
And later, when you get a chance (if they give the 60 Ft. time & speed, calculate the G-Force [if not, calculating the race distance & top speed vs time will give a pretty impresive average G-Force rate.
I hope you go & can see what all the variables are in person to get this done in a winning fashion. Like many things that appear to be simple when done well, there is a lot of complexity here what you do a deep dive into what it takes to be a winner in this (other than the cubic amounts of money to make it happen at all [I guess that part is similar to F1.])
Enjoy!