928 on Mythbusters

Did you see the episode about the 928 being more aerodynamic going backwards?

Did you see them lift the 928 with a mobile lift thing? It was blue and looked like the lift that I have for my ATV, only larger.

Where do I get that lift????

I caught the tail end of that episode, but missed the lift. I really want to drive around town in that backwards '28 (probably not exactly legal though). A backwards autocross would also make for some memories.

I thought it was going to suck, seeing the death of another cool car on Mythbusters, but you know, I can't say I wouldn't want an 829.

Didn't look all that comfy to drive. The windshield is where your head goes.

The lift looked like a regular scissor lift.

pinchvalve wrote: Did you see them lift the 928 with a mobile lift thing? It was blue and looked like the lift that I have for my ATV, only larger. Where do I get that lift????

I chuckled when I saw that. That's thesame lift I have. BendPak mid-rise lift. I bought mine from ASEdeals.com

http://www.asedeals.com/mid_rise_lift.html

I just watched it but I wasn't too impressed with the tests they did. Aerodynamics is a lot more important at high speed than in doing accelleration runs like 0-60. I think the "coast off" was probably the only test that said anything useful at all (they admitted their data were flawed themselves.) Fun episode though.

Also, a stock automatic 928 runs a 13.7 quarter mile? Really? I would have liked to see the trap speeds. They should have gone to an actual dragstrip instead of using a stopwatch.

In reply to Jay:

I love the Mythbusters and think they've done an excellent job in the past few years cultivating an appreciation of the scientific method among the general populace. My six year old loves them so much we went to see them give a lecture at UNC-Chapel Hill and he sat there for the whole hour enraptured. It is easy to criticize their methods, because in a lot of cases, it is clear that they may not be doing things in a manner to get the most accurate results. However, they are operating under a few limitations that might curtail their ability to perform really in depth experiments:

1. Since their experiments deal with subject matter that is all over the map, they have to be generalists and not specialists. As such they lack the depth of knowledge an expert would have in any given field is going to have.
2. Even whey they do enlist the aid of experts in things like fluid dynamics, they have to still keep the experiments both entertaining and limited to a technical level that their audience can understand. I do spend a lot of time explaining things they are doing to my son, but for a lot of the experiments he can mostly understand what they are doing and why.
3. They have to fit the entire process into a 1 hour show. This limits the rigor of their experiments and limits their ability to go back and retest when the results don't appear to add up.

Based on the factors above, I'm not surprised they used the tests they did. People who are not terribly interested in cars are very familiar with the metrics they used (0-60, quarter mile, etc), since those metrics are used to sell cars on TV and the ones most tossed about when discussing the performance of cars. Also, it is easy to fit all three experiments with the car configured both ways into a 1 hour show. It would have been a lot more accurate to drive the car at 70 MPH around a track for an hour, but that would have made some really lousy television.

One of my main concerns with the backwards car was that it looked like the back end was a whole lot lighter once the car was flipped. This appeared to give them traction issues off the line. The stability of the car also looked second rate, and it looked like Adam was weaving a bit in some of the experiments once the car was flipped backwards. That couldn't have helped their times, either.

wowzers!!!

I want this lift!!! Item # MR6K-48

One variable that should have been removed from the 928/829 'test' that may have helped would ahve been if they had brought in a professional driver who might have been able to put down more consistent runs.

In reply to Pumpkin Escobar:

I do like it... I will warn a potential buyer: unloading it was a bitch.

Brett:

I couldn't disagree more with your #3. I can't even watch Mythbusters because it's filled with so much fluff compared to how little content they actually have. I've yet to see a single episode that would've lost ANYTHING being edited down to 15 minutes.

In reply to ReverendDexter:

I see your point, but would it still be entertaining.

I also forgot one major item that might address why they have the fluff: Budget. I have no idea what the budget for the show is, but since it is on Discovery, it probably isn't all that huge.

ReverendDexter wrote: Brett: I couldn't disagree more with your #3. I can't even watch Mythbusters because it's filled with so much fluff compared to how little content they actually have. I've yet to see a single episode that would've lost ANYTHING being edited down to 15 minutes.

you sir no longer have valid man-status. Any show that has the cajones to build a water gun that can set you on fire with electricity from 30 feet away or is willing to fire JATO level propulsion pyrotechnics from the top of a Javelin is in no way guilty of pandering fluff. Please see yourself to the door. There will be an official there to collect your documents as you exit.

JK...but only sorta