CARS...what ya got what you like??

[elmomuzz]

I finally got my new bike so a little show and tell.

 

[Carbon]

I finally got my new bike so a little show and tell.

Nice ride. So the bike was purchased so that you'd have something comfortable to pair with the harder edged S2000?

 

[elmomuzz]

That's the plan.

It's a R1200GS Adventure in case anyone was wondering.

 

[charliedontsurf]

Maybe he wanted something with more torque than the S2000?

ZING!

Nah, S2000 is a totally admirable product and a great deal. I understand Honda is stopping production and it's a shame.

I was recently surprised when some Car & Driver article listed the RX8 as the second best handling car in American under 100,000 dollars, at far far less money than the competition. Too bad the rotary engine doesn't excel in any way, whatsoever, from what I understand. But I wouldn't buy anything produced after the Clinton administration, so it's moot!

 

[Carbon]

Nah, S2000 is a totally admirable product and a great deal. I understand Honda is stopping production and it's a shame.

It is a pity. With the NSX and the S2000 dead they'll need to come up with something sporty sooner rather than later.

 

[charliedontsurf]

Honda seems to be in a weird place right now.

Now most of my interest lies in older cars, and most of current car industry knowledge comes from a gifted subscription of Car and Driver, and what I pick up with friends and what have you, but it seems while companies like Ford, BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai, Nissan and Porsche have been dumping money into massive technological advancements such as twin turbo charging and direct injection, Honda is staying very traditional, and is quickly falling behind.

Twin turbo'd, direct injected, small-to-mid size engines are going to be the wave of the future. The production vehicles which carry them now are impressive, and they're almost always massively neutered so that your mother can drive her 335i to the grocery store without frizzing her hair. As the technology improves, I think we're going to see amazing increases in power at the cost of little to no efficiency.

Electric vehicles will of course challenge them, with the best solution being a combination of the two, ala the Chevy Cruze but with a superior engine, layout, RWD, etc..

And who's going to make the poor man's mid-engine car? It's a shame the MR2 and Fiero had to die out. If you ever read about the Fiero, the new generation was going to be a Corvette killer at a far less generous profit margin, and so was terminated. Insane short sightedness and greediness on GMs part, just like their decision to stop B-body production (the Impala cop cars, Buick roadmasters, etc) and replace them with gas guzzling, worthless SUVs.

I love me some cars, I wish I had more fun money for them.

 

[elmomuzz]

I love Honda and have owned many of them. But what you say is true.

 

[Elluzion]

Dream car

Acura NSX

 

[Bandelero]

1990 Honda CRX my baby

 

[Frickr]

since all the honda love on here, heres an older picture of my 00 SI. back to the stock wheels and dropped about 3 inches since this picture has been taken. all in all, i htink hondas are fun cars, easy to work on and cheap to make perform.

 

[charliedontsurf]

I would totally rock a old CRX Si or a 83-91 Prelude 4ws. The toss up between a boxy old prelude or a boxy Toyota MR2 would be a tough one, though.

The 88-91 prelude si 4ws was supposed to have bested a bevy of supercars on the slalom during a magazine's performance tests years ago, but I've never seen the article, just heard about it.

 

[chucku]

some pics of my 2010 Wolfie...



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As soon as I saw this Audi I was in love...



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[StickyShisha2]

i need a small car that doesn't use too much gas. And a Fiat dealer just opened up here.

looks like i may get it.

 

[Carbon]

You're better off with a Mini or something that will be a better car and less lame. Putting the overly cutesy styling aside, I sat in one of those 500s at the auto show and was very disappointed by it. The inside of it has the cheapest feel with a bunch of awful plastic everywhere. Go check one out, but don't be surprised if you're turned off.

 

[charliedontsurf]

The Mini isn't a horrible purchase in its base models but the "performance" oriented and convertible models are incredibly overpriced for what they deliver. While that Fiat isn't exactly the most awesome vehicle to ever exist, I welcome the reentry of the French and European auto industry into the American market. We've long missed out on great European models from makers like Citroen, Fiat, Alfa, etc..

Ponder a 1994 Miata 5 speed. Whee!

 

[chucku]

A friend of mine has a Mini. The wheel base is way too short to gracefully handle pavement imperfections. The Fiat 500 and Smart would be even worse. VW also is making a big mistake, as of 2011, cheapening the Jetta and Passat. They are not nearly as good as the previous generation.

 

[mattybass]

Just got myself a 98 VW GTI VR6... finished a Mk3 Jetta front end swap with smoked ecode lights, still trying to fix some wiring on one light however. i will try to get pics later.

 

[VWFringe]

this'll explain my nic...tho it's old info, the car's got a crunched front corner and is sitting now...copied this from my car's website:

[h]VWFringe's 1992 Volkswagen A2 VR Swap[/h]

This is NOT a normal Jetta GL - skip to the list of engine upgrades below. It's not even a normal A2 VR6 project. My entire purpose in doing this project was and remains to get back to the power-to-weight ratio I enjoyed for a six month period with my old Scirocco that had a 13:1 CR 2.0L (yeah,baby, 13:1 compression - that's stupid high, and mixing race fuel every time I gassed up). We work with what we have, but I can also thank Alan Weiland, my old room mate to getting me stuck on veedubs when he made the comment that the Scirocco was the poor man's Porsche.
This is my 2nd engine swap into the same type of tub using the same engine and parts
The project was supposed to include forced induction to support the target of 285 horsepower to the wheels. So, the engine, suspension and transmission have all been uprated to support what, so far, I have not been able to afford - a turbocharger....

1991 VW Jetta GL (stock seats and carpet - lol)
fuel tank and frame mount pump were retained

Engine swap from 1992 Corrado SLC
all wiring harnesses, ABS, suspension and sub-chassis were included in the swap

Engine (3.0L VR6):
8.5:1 forged Matrix/JE Pistons,
Mk4 steel head gasket,
heavy duty ARP valve springs,
ARP fasteners throughout,
Balanced crank & stock rods,
Shot peened rods,
Knife-edged crank,
low temp fan switch and thermostat
heavy-duty valve springs

Transmission (02A):
Taller ring & pinion,
Taller gears,
Quaife limited slip differential,
Competition Clutches 2100 carbon/kevlar disk, 2100# pressure plate,
Matrix lightened flywheel

Suspension (Corrado A3 5-bolt):
Bilstein Sport shocks
H&R Race springs
Autotech's biggest hollow bars front & rear
VF motor mounts all around
poly & VW Motorsport bushings in lower control arms

wish list: Kinetics/C2 Stage III

so, you see, when you google VWFringe, you won't find anyone else trying to use the nic-name, because no one else would be crazy enough to spend so much on a (stupid) jetta mark 2, or that's my reasoning.

OH, and I guess it goes without saying that I'm the mechanic...even built the stupid engine (jobbed out the machine work)

 

[StickyShisha2]

You're better off with a Mini or something that will be a better car and less lame. Putting the overly cutesy styling aside, I sat in one of those 500s at the auto show and was very disappointed by it. The inside of it has the cheapest feel with a bunch of awful plastic everywhere. Go check one out, but don't be surprised if you're turned off.

i took a test drive the 500 and it feels like a piece of junk. I also drove a mini and didn't like it, my legs are too long to sit comfortably.

i did like the feel of the mazda 2. but my friends say its too girlie.
the mercades SmartCar has enough leg and head room for me, but i worry about rolling it over. it seems too topheavy on a short wheel base.

 

[charliedontsurf]

You're better off with a Mini or something that will be a better car and less lame. Putting the overly cutesy styling aside, I sat in one of those 500s at the auto show and was very disappointed by it. The inside of it has the cheapest feel with a bunch of awful plastic everywhere. Go check one out, but don't be surprised if you're turned off.

i took a test drive the 500 and it feels like a piece of junk. I also drove a mini and didn't like it, my legs are too long to sit comfortably.

i did like the feel of the mazda 2. but my friends say its too girlie.
the mercades SmartCar has enough leg and head room for me, but i worry about rolling it over. it seems too topheavy on a short wheel base.

The Smart cars are novel, but their gasoline engines get lousy gas mileage for how minute and impractical the car is. A hybrid or modern diesel drivetrain (TD engines are the only ones avilable for Smarts in Europe, BTW, and make the Euro smart car a much better vehicle) are what it needs. The US version just got whatever petrol 4 banger they had sitting around, and it sinks the whole ship.

On an interesting note, the Smart is Rear wheel drive, rear engine, just like a VW bug. This potentially gives it amazing performance potential with an engine swap; many people drop high powered motorcycle engines in and end up with something like this: http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/vi...36755e701-535483973707?q=smart car motorcycle Ignore the horrible music.

Does your car have to be brand spanking new? How "small" does it need to be? I'll admit that the brand new, tiny car market is pretty sad and almost always overpriced, but look at some used vehicles and thing get alot brighter. 2000 dollars Miatas abound, as do old 3 series BMW 318s, old Infiniti G20s. Look for a lower mileage, low owner gem for a song - they're all over any given city's Craigslist.

I'm always amazed that people drop 30,000 on a new, soulless car when a 2,000 dollar car can be purchased with more character and higher performance. I understand issues of reliability, but guess what? Most of the cars which can make it to 180,000 are engineered well enough and maintained well enough to make it 100,000 more.

 

[StickyShisha2]

The US version (SmartCar) just got whatever petrol 4 banger they had sitting around, and it sinks the whole ship.

the US Smart is actually a 3 cyl, 1.0 L with 71 HP (Japanese engine)

i'm looking at the Canadian versions.

 

[elmomuzz]

I own a mini. You could be 7 feet tall and have enough leg room. Of course there isn't much of a back seat.

 

[charliedontsurf]

The US version (SmartCar) just got whatever petrol 4 banger they had sitting around, and it sinks the whole ship.

the US Smart is actually a 3 cyl, 1.0 L with 71 HP (Japanese engine)

i'm looking at the Canadian versions.

Ah, pardon me, then that MPG figures are even that much more disappointing. Is there a good diesel available in the Canadian market?

I again urge you to consider the "old and busted" category. My first personally owned car was a 1988 BMW 325i convertible 5speed which lasted me for 8 years with nothing more than a replaced starter and routine maintenance. It was a good performer, had completely reasonable economy, had ample room for 4 people which is rare in a compact convertible, had a trunk you could actually use to take luggage to the airport, weighed well less than 3000 pounds... I regret selling that car virtually every goddamn day I get into my other cars.

 

[Deadhead101]

Anyone have experience with Hyundais? Specifically, I'm looking at a 2009 Hyundai Accent SE. It's a 5- speed. I'm hoping it'll have at least some kick with its small engine. At least itll be good on gas. Also, are there any cheap ways that I could upgrade performance?

 

[VWFringe]

mass airflow sensors read the velocity of the air, while as a map sensor reads the pressure (PSI) of the manifold. in a turboed application a maf sensor is nearly worthless as the velocity of the air doesnt really change a whole lot, but the pressure in the manifold does by alot. so from a tuning standpoint, the map sensor will be alot more accurate in sensing how much air is going into the cylinders to adjust fuel mixtures accordingly.

one problem with MAP tuning used to be you had to abandon the knock sensors, but I see they have options for using them now with aftermarket tuning systems

manufacturers spend a lot of time getting the knock sensors dialed in, no way to replace that knowledge (I don't think, unless things have changed a lot in the past three years).

for my VR6, when I can afford a turbo, I will have to replace the stock MAF with a custom 4" MAF housing I'll have to build myself (disty VR)