We laughed at Pinto’s back in 1980.
I was working my way thru junior college and was at an employee softball game and one of my coworkers left and blew his European air horns. The exhaust sounded great. 1979 Rallye package Ford Pinto, headers, exhaust, lowered, with Pirelli tires.
This is the day I bought into the little car performance thing.
This guy also introduced me to the large sized, paper edition of Autoweek and Blatz beer.
I will say my 2003 Chevy “LS” powered van has changed my mind about high mileage American cars.
I took the hotels "shuttle" to the airport after I spent a few nights in Dubai. Shuttle is in quotes because it was a brand new, at the time, 5th gen BMW 7 series.
I never really understood the appeal of luxobarges before but something about being able to ride in quiet comfort really appeals to me now that I'm out of my 20s and have two kids.
My Allroad.
in my mid thirties I'd owned a long series of Japanese or American econoboxes and fairly pedestrian offerings. Driving a German high performance AWD luxury wagon was all new and made me see what I'd been missing.
Of course a few years later I tried my hand at autocross and quickly realized that bringing a howitzer to a knife fight was silly and that Miata Is Always The Answer. (At least so far as handling is concerned)
I had a hand me down minivan in high school. Ive kind of had a thing for vans since then (so much room for activities!). On van #4 now. Didn't even have a kid till this one.
Ive always had a thing for underdog cars, the whole david vs goliath thing. Cars that look slow but can pick on "real sports cars". Stemmed from some books I had as a kid, the early internet days and reading up on turbo dodges, and Gran Turismo games. So its not like the Miata I had changed my mind (you know, that girly hairdressers car), it was a fun first sports car. I guess if anything it made me really appreciate Mazdas.
Haven't owned a sports car since then. I guess my Mazda 5 is pretty fun though.
I guess buying the wifes Outback last summer made me realize why people really like Subaru's. Its pretty functional and capable.
I thought I could find a redeeming feature in even the most hateful of cars. I have a soft spot for at least one thing about any car I can think of. That was until about two years ago. My mother came into possession of a 1995 chrysler concorde. Really clean, one owner, documented, very low miles. None of that matters. It has been the least reliable, most uncomfortable, numb, ugly, and impossible to sell piece of E36 M3 I've ever driven, seen or heard of. If it was mine I would set it on fire and just laugh. Some things are truly horrible.
Two come to mind.
First, I was brought up to believe FWD was the invention of the devil and pointless for any performance. Then circa 88/89 a business associate of my dads got a Peugeot 205. I was tossed the keys to go and run some errands for them. Total revelation, wow, FWD can be awesome fun.
Second I've told many times here. When I moved here in 94 I drive several L98 C4 Corvettes both the Doug NAsh 4+3 and the ZF 6 speed. I didn't drive an auto as auto's are obviously power sucking fun drainers only to be driven if you have a missing limb and can't physically drive a 'real' car. I even passed on a Twin Turbo Calloway for only $22K when I called and found it was an auto. I ended up with my 94 Mustang instead. A couple of years later I met my now wife and got to drive her fathers auto L98 C4. What a revelation, that car I still claim today is better with the auto than any manual. Soon after that I got to drive a new E39 540i auto and that cemented it. Those cars taught me that auto's can not just be great, but in some cases better than manuals. It's vehicle dependent, but I have zero issues with auto's these days.
Adrian_Thompson said:Two come to mind.
First, I was brought up to believe FWD was the invention of the devil and pointless for any performance. Then circa 88/89 a business associate of my dads got a Peugeot 205. I was tossed the keys to go and run some errands for them. Total revelation, wow, FWD can be awesome fun.
You were correct in that they are the work of the devil. Sure they can be fun. And fast. But make no mistake, they are the work of the devil 
The biggest surprise that I had was when I started to do track days and found how fast the Miatas were. No other vehicle routinely punched so far over their weight class.
Datsun310Guy said:
This guy also introduced me to the large sized, paper edition of Autoweek and Blatz beer.
Not to get too far off topic, but I used to have this plaque that was on the wall of my garage of a Blatz ad with a fake plastic fish. I'd never heard of Blatz and suddenly there is was, on shelf of my local Kroger. Of course I had to buy a six pack. Someone should have warned me..that stuff is..um...the opposite of good. I think the only beer I ever had that was worse was the generic cans that just said beer. 
In reply to racerdave600 :
Heard of Hamms?
I was raised on 70's land yachts and 80's domestic crapola. I thought cornering was supposed to be death-defying and 100,000 miles was the absolute limit of a car's life. Then mom got her 1990 Civic Sedan. It was a stripper, the DX, with no radio or even passenger side external mirror. BUT the basics were light years ahead of Cavaliers and Celebrities of the day.
It took one key - ONE KEY! - to open the doors and start the car. If you needed to change a fuse, they were all labeled and Honda gave you a fuse puller right in the box to help out! You could pop the trunk remotely. You didn't need a key to put gas in it. It started 10 out of 10 tries instead of 6 of 10. It had plenty of room for 4 real adults, 5 in a pinch, and still got over 35pmh. The doors didn't squeak or groan when you closed them, and they shut with a solid chunk. Driving it was like stepping out of a rowboat and into a race car.
Best of all, at 95,000 miles I bought it from mom and took it racing. All it needed after years of use and a teenage driver (my younger brother, who took it offroad accidentally once) was new CV joints up front. I swapped in some good shocks, 4 wheel disks from an Integra and a top end from an Si. The car was still rock solid and handled like a...well a modified 4th Gen Civic.
TheRX7Project said:In reply to racerdave600 :
Heard of Hamms?
Hamms, Blatz, Lone Star and Generic beer in the white can have nothing on Lucky Lager. This stuff was cheap cheap, as in more than half the price of the listed beer. Seem to remember something like $1.99 a 12 pack when others were like 2.50 a sixer. Terrible after taste that lingered. Even ruined beer batter.
I spent $400 on this drove it to a couple BMW CCA events took note of the greater number of pretty ladies at BMW events compared to FWD Mopar events and have had at least one BMW in the stable ever since. As it turns out both BMWs and BMW people are fun.
I could never, ever be happy with some big heavy luxobarge. Never ever.
Hahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahaahahah
Dailydriver was an awd mazda protege GTR 320 whp@24psi and current car is a thoroughly ridiculous Brabus E55 K8 and I find I am quite happy with a big heavy luxobarge. I didn't know that any such thing could turn and stop and go. They can.
I'm going to go backwards
LT1 C4 Corvette: I love the way C4s look. The specs are awesome and in theory they are great driving cars. I drove one finally, albeit auto, and I was very disappointed. The seating position was offset and uncomfortable. There was okay power but the gearing was so long and the transmission so stupid that it didn't matter. It was smooth enough at speed but no better than my e36 and it felt about as fast. Soon afterwards the owner was hit by a Prius and the corvette totaled for cosmetic damage. Oh, and his optispark went out like a week after buying it.
chevrolet sprint
I talked my college girlfriend into buying one just like the above, only a 3 door, solely for the gas mileage. Thus started a love affair with these cars that still continues today. This includes trackers, samurais, almost anything Suzuki built. Great cars built to a price point.
Biggest positive impact - 1971 Datsun 1200. Side drafts, cam, lowered, A008Rs, bars. That little car really drove home the point that light means quick, at least at autocross. The highlight was running at a Porsche club autocross and it taking half the day before anything beat it.
Biggest negative impact - rented a Lincoln Towncar for a long car trip. What was supposed to be one of the top cars in America was, frankly, totally embarrassing. Overboosted brakes, overboosted steering, with a chaser of 30 degrees of free play. The seats had about 27 different adjustments of discomfort and though that was 17 years ago I'm still not over it.
Growing up in a Mopar family it was always V8 RWD un till I got a ride I an Omni GLH turbo 
WOW! Since then it's been bown the boost rabbit hole 
I grew up in the 70s and 80s on german cars. Corvettes were poser cars with ridiculous ergonomics. I never saw anyone autocross a Corvette and just knew it was because they couldn't hack it.
Fast forward to 2003 and I audition as an instructor at Bondurant. In a C5. In the rain. Before, I'm a little nervous because I've never driven anything with that much power.
But it was just a big, friendly teddy bear. Fast but easily approachable limits. Fun and easy to extract speed. Ever since, there are C5 and later Corvettes and then all that stuff before.
Eventually I did cook the brakes at 114 into a tight second gear corner. Even that wasn't enough to shade my fondness for them.
I had a brand new 2007 Hyundai Sonata V6 as a rental for a few days. I even took it around Miller Motorsports Park, not fast but fast enough to squeal the tires. That demonstrated that Hyundai had finally matured and could get all the pieces to work together. Five years later I bought a 2009 Sonata for my wife.
1987 Nissan 300zx turbo. Was my first forced induction car. That feeling when the turbo spools up and sits you back is like nothing else. After that it was a cobalt ss/sc, then no boost for a while but always that craving. Currently scratching the itch with the speed6
In reply to TheRX7Project :
I was an American hot rod kid. The coolest car in the world was a channeled 1927 Ford roadster with a Flathead and 4 carburetors!
My dad had borrowed some money from me and paid it back when he brought home a MGTD
I was sold!
One of the great things about being a mechanic in an independent shop is you get to drive a ton of different cars. I always thought that performance came from American v8s in pony cars and corvettes. Most of the small imports i had experienced were auto trans boring buzz boxes, or f&f wannabes that were decked out in autozone garbage. Then one day I got rip up the backroads in b13 sentra ser. My god that thing was fun. Ironically there was c3 vette in the shop that same day. The vette may or may not have been faster out of the hole, but the sentra was much MUCH more enjoyable to drive.
I was also surprised by how much fun I had in a Hyundai accent hatchback. The same guy that owned it also owned the sentra.
Jay_W said:I could never, ever be happy with some big heavy luxobarge. Never ever.
Hahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahaahahah
Dailydriver was an awd mazda protege GTR 320 whp@24psi and current car is a thoroughly ridiculous Brabus E55 K8 and I find I am quite happy with a big heavy luxobarge. I didn't know that any such thing could turn and stop and go. They can.
Keep me in mind if you ever decide to sell the Brabus. Sounds like something I’d be interested in.
You'll need to log in to post.
