Jeremy Clarkson-The Good The Bad The Ugly

[lazs2]

fastfwd... you never did tell us what cars you drive.

as for adjusting the timing and such while driving..you can do that with any car or....not.   you can do it with a mechanical means or an electronic or a combination... what was your point?

I get the impression that you are disapointed that we don't have $7 a gallon gas.

Oh.. and any decent hot rod shop can make a car that will beat the lotus on any track you choose for less than half what the lotus costs.

Gas is cheap... that doesn't mean we can't squeeze hp out of small motors.. the cobalt 4 of GM is under development by hot rod guys and GM itself... it has made upwards to 2000 hp.

Hot Rod mag worked with GM to put a ls6 427 in a solstice... don't be surprised if you don't see one.  I doubt that many cars can keep up with it on most tracks.

soooo... fastfwd... what do you drive... what really gets your blood pumping in a day to day driver?

lazs

[FastFwd]

Originally posted by lazs2
as for adjusting the timing and such while driving..you can do that with any car or....not.   you can do it with a mechanical means or an electronic or a combination... what was your point?

Well, skuzzy and perhaps yourself were harking back to the days when you could do much more maintainance on a car than you can on modern designs. I agree that this is true, and described it as "progress". Back in the 1920s some cars had manual advance/retard of the ignition, but I don't think you'd want to go back to that. The point is that technology has moved on. How sensitive you are to this depends on how old you are or how long you have been driving. You'd think it screwy to want to manually control the ignition timing, but younger drivers would think that your kind of maintainance was old hat.

[Bronk]

Originally posted by lazs2
[B

soooo... fastfwd... what do you drive... what really gets your blood pumping in a day to day driver?

lazs [/B]

I see FF is another tap dancer.
Its a simple question why don't you answer.


Bronk

[FastFwd]

The thread is about (or at least began as) a discussion of Jeremy Clarkson's video, and a comparison between cars from different parts of the world. What I personally drive is not relevant to that discussion.

[Bronk]

Because it provides insight to your reasoning.

What someone drive can in some cases tell a bit about them.

Last 3 cars. Mercury XR-5 , Taurus SHO,  Buick Regal (with a V6).
Also have a Triumph TT 600 for summer use.


Bronk

[FastFwd]

Originally posted by Bronk
Because it provides insight to your reasoning.

What someone drive can in some cases tell a bit about them.

I think it has more to do with you and Lazs2 fishing for something to try to discredit what I've said.

[lazs2]

fstfwd... I just believe that you have no experiance with any of the types of cars being discussed.   Your remarks about the timing thing are pretty much proof of that.   We have sophisticated distributors for hot rods that retard timing under boost for instance.  

My guess is that you drive a prius.

lazs

[Mini D]

Originally posted by FastFwd
The thread is about (or at least began as) a discussion of Jeremy Clarkson's video, and a comparison between cars from different parts of the world. What I personally drive is not relevant to that discussion.

Sure it is. There's no need to be ashamed of it.

But, it's not only what you drive... it's what you do. Do you work on cars? Do you repair your own cars? Do you try to get more performance out of your car with a wrench? Hell.. do you even have a garage that is actually bigger than your car?

It is normal to build cars into what you want in the U.S. It's been that way for some 60 years. The car itself is just a shell that you can do anything with. If I bought a 60's muscle car, I could do virtually anything I wanted to it with bolt on parts that are readily available. I could buy an 800 hp engine right off the shelf and drop it in and then build a rear end that would glue it to a 1/4 mile strip like nothing you could buy off of a showroom or I could buy a tubular suspension system that would stick it to a track with the best on the market today... all for a fraction of the cost of your average new (non-performance even) car. That's what we're used to over here. If you like windy roads, you build a car for them and go drive them (they're everywhere over here too... except in the deserts). If you want something that would tear across texas at 180, then you go build that. If you don't particularly care about either, then you just buy what you like and stick with it.

There is no glamorous cookie cutter car. There is no spectacular vehicle that is the end-all be-all of automotive engineering. There is only loose justification for overpriced metal.

[lazs2]

yep..  that kinda distills it down..   Let's just say that clarksons lotus would do very badly in a baja or desert race.    Let's just say that we have tons of raw material and a myriad of aftermarket parts that could build a very good baja race car in our garage.   none of em will fit on the lotus tho.

lazs

[Viking]

Most people don't drive the car they want. They drive the car they need, or some compromise of the two. What people drive does not lend credit to their opinion, or detract from it. Not in my opinion anyway.

I've driven many American cars, and my favorite was my father's 1976 Trans-Am Firebird 400 ci, blown and nitroed to 600+ hp. Smoked the cops once in that car when I was 19 and immortal (read: stupid). Well, the cops drove a Volvo 245 so it didn't require much effort. The worst American car I've driven was my father's 1991 Ford Taurus station wagon (my father is an AmCar enthusiast you see). It was horrible, and after a couple of years the clear coat started flaking off so the car looked like it had a bad case of psoriasis. After that he turned to Mercedes for a few years, but his latest car is a Grand Voyager (Chrysler brand in Europe) which is an ok people mover, but again there are quality issues especially with the electrics.

I didn't buy the BMW because it was my dream car, but it was a nice compromise that I could afford at the time. My Isuzu pick-up truck certainly isn't my idea of a great car, but it get's the job done (the ones I don't want to put the Bimmer through).

Does that lend credit to my opinions? No. Nor does it detract from them. IMHO of course.

[Bronk]

But viking you could easily afford a ladda and yet you own the BMW.

You buy what you like that is in your price range.
And it reflects your taste in auto. Not to mention if you do your own work.

I highly doubt you wrench any repairs or maintenance  on that bimmer.

While I have made repairs on ALL of mine. Including the Triumph.
 If I miss judged  you on this my apologies. But I highly doubt it's needed.

Bronk

[Bronk]

Better example buddy of mine is restoring a '78 formula 400.
He has no experience fixing body rot so he is paying to have it done.
But when It comes to suspension/drive train he is doing the work himself.
He could easily afford to have that done also.

Why doesn't he? Because he is a car guy.
Ohh his other 2 rides '68 GTO , and Dodge Dakota for a daily driver.


Why he has the GTO is self explanatory.
The Dakota is uses as a parts hauler/trailer puller.

The man is practical that way.


Bronk

[Viking]

Originally posted by Bronk
But viking you could easily afford a ladda and yet you own the BMW.

You buy what you like that is in your price range.

In my case I had to buy two cars to satisfy my needs. Most people only buy one car. If I had to choose between the Bimmer and the Isuzu, I'd have to choose the Isuzu because of its practicality. I think you will find that in families most peple buy the car the wife wants.

Originally posted by Bronk
I highly doubt you wrench any repairs or maintenance  on that bimmer.

I don't have a garage and the weather here is very unstable, so I cannot embark on major repairs on my own. As for maintenance I do everything myself, with the notable exception of regular service/inspections, which I get done at the local BMW dealer. Having a certified BMW garage do the service is very important for the re-sell value here (although that is becoming less and less relevant now with the age of the car). The only major repair I've had to get done on the Bimmer is the transmission. Even the dealer had to send it to a specialist shop to get it fixed/serviced.

I'd love to do more of the work myself, but with no suitable place to work it is difficult. If I have to rent a place I can just as well use the same money to get someone professional to fix it.

Originally posted by Bronk
If I miss judged  you on this my apologies.

No need to apologize either way. I see no shame in not having to work on my cars. Also whether or not a person works on his own car or not I find irrelevant, unless it is that person's car we are discussing. That you have worked on your Triumph hardly lends you any credit in a discussion about a Lotus vs. a Mustang (for example). IMHO.

[FastFwd]

Originally posted by Viking
I see no shame in not having to work on my cars. Also whether or not a person works on his own car or not I find irrelevant, unless it is that person's car we are discussing. That you have worked on your Triumph hardly lends you any credit in a discussion about a Lotus vs. a Mustang (for example). IMHO.

I agree with you entirely, Viking. This thread is about the Clarkson programme, and his comparison between various cars produced from different places around the world. I fail to see what I (or you, or anyone else) drive to be relevant to that discussion.

[Excel1]

Originally posted by eskimo2
Are they humping their cars?

Definately not. They're phalli.. err cars, not sheep