Rambling diatribe on cars
I drive a lot. I drive more than most people do- well, just about anything. I know a very small handful of people who drive more than I do. So my opinions about cars and driving come from years of personal experience- but they are still my opinions, and I am not a professional driver, and this is not a closed course.
During my life, I have known a lot of people with really, really cool cars. I will say with no hesitation whatsoever that I will shamelessly suck up to anyone with a nice car and try to get them to let me drive it.
I also spend a lot of time on the road, and I get to rent a lot of cars. So I get to see what a lot of different cars are like. National’s “Emerald Club” does a good job of providing a variety, if you travel around enough. So I have driven a lot of cars.
I have also driven quite a few nice cars just by virtue of not drinking. My colleagues and superiors have been known to hunt me out at a business function and give me their keys. Recently, that put me behind the wheel of an Audi A-6.
I like driving. I like driving small cars fast.
I have liked several cars most of all. The first Porsche I ever drove was a 914-6, owned by a friend. Slow and wierd-handling by todays standards, this bastard would pick up an inside front wheel whenever you threw it hard into a turn. Scared the bejesus out of you- but that was the POINT.
A colleague has the Subaru WRX sti. All I can say about that, is “Wow.”
He also has a neighbor with a Boxter S, which is a way cool car, but having been under it, I’d hate to have to work on it on a regular basis.
a Lotus Seven is a balls-out blast, but under “Impractical car” in the dictionary, there’s a picture of a Lotus Sevin, right next to a picture of an Ariel Atom.
A BMW 2002 is a great car. In it’s day, it was an awesome car, but now a production honda will kick it’s ass. What they are, though, is moderately comfortable for someone with long legs, tall, so you can sit upright, and you feel everything the car does. To some, this is not a good thing; Chicago roads tend to have potholes the size of small cars, and if you can feel them as well as see them, you’re going to be uncomfortable.
I love to push a car just a little past its performance edge, and watch how it reacts, and use that knowledge in my driving. I used to drive the same little strip of twisty road in Indiana over and over again, to see how hard I could get into a turn, to see how far I could push loose gravel, to see how much of the road I could actually use before I lost control. You don’t have to have a high performance car to do this. You can do it with an Escort. I know someone right now with a little Beetle with a FAT crate motor that will scare you to death, as he drives, and you won’t ever get over 50 mph. The piece of padded pipe sticking out where the glovebox used to be is called a “jesus bar” There’s a very good reason it’s there.
Because I drive a lot, I know my car intimately. I can feel a brake rotor wearing. I can hear the sound a wheel bearing makes thousands of miles before they fail. I can tell when the tires have worn enough to need replacing without getting out of the car. I pay attention to every little noise, smell, sensation. Other than one part problem (which turned out to be self inflicted) the Exploder has never stranded me, and the maintenance costs (since I buy lifetime parts) are so minimal as to be practically nonexistent. The same was true of my Probe. The same was true of the wife’s Honda. (well, until the Destroyer of Cars began to drive it)
I never got into competition much, i took some driving courses but it was more about developing skills than competing, all I care about is knowing what I can do. To me, driving hard is about a couple things:
Not being an ass. Anyone who drives fast in a neighborhood full of children is an ass. Anyone who blows past an Amish horse and buggy is an ass. You know the drill. Nuff said.
Twisty mountain roads are better than flat expressways.
If I don’t scare myself, I wasn’t doing it right.
I had a Ford Probe GT some ages ago, first car I ever bought brand spanking new. I pushed it hard, wearing out tires at about twice the usual rate. It was a great car, and I enjoyed it. It wasn’t a particularly fast car but it handled reasonably well, had the tunable suspension, and I… did things to it. I broke the law in it everytime I turned the key, and there wasn’t so much as a trip to the grocery store for milk that I didn’t run it sideways.
Ford of Europe makes a lot of really fast little cars. I’ve always been very annoyed that they don’t make them here; I’m not sure if it’s CAFE standards or what. I do know that I’d love to drive one of those little Focus RS suckers. Saleen of Canada makes a Nitrous-ready Focus that cranks out 250 horsepower, and it costs less than my explorer did new in 1998. I’ve seriously considered that.
I have heard the argument that BMW or Mercedes make cars that are better built than Ford, or the quality is somehow better.
Having been under all of those vehicles, I can assure you this is the merest bullshit. People spend more on a BMW, and they take better care of it. A properly cared for vehicle will last longer. I know of a Yugo GT with a quarter million miles, that looks showroom new. My Probe had more than a quarter million miles on it when I sold it, and it’s still going strong in the hands of it’s new owner. And of course my truck will have a half million miles on it before I let it go.
The parts in Euro cars tend to be pricier, the repairs more expensive, and the quality has frankly dropped I haven’t looked at the JD Powers stuff in a couple years, but you regularly saw Porsche, Mercedes, Lexus, and Infinity in the very top, followed closely by… ford. Then Mercury. Some other mfrs come in and out based on a specific car that does particularly well, but the best “normal” cars are made by domestic mfrs. (The Initial quality reports, specifically, are what I’m referring to)
Yes, part of this is due to the bigger service network for US made cars, but frankly even Chrysler is making a better car- well, truck, anyway- than ever before.
One of the things I plan on doing once the Oglet gets her license is to ship her off to Skip Barber and have her run a Miata around the track for a couple days. It’ll probably be Road Atlanta, because I know an official down there who can help her out a great deal. Anyone who wants to be able to drive like a pro, or at least get a feel for how the pros drive, should go to Skip Barber. The open wheel course is well worth the cash. Assuming you can get into the car.
If I had a (does quick calculation. Hmm. Carry the three.. Subtract 10% from MSRP…) hundred dollar bill for every time I used my aging Exploder to pass a
BMW
Corvette
Ferrari, for christ’s sakes
Lotus elise
Lexus ISC
Mercedes SLK
Mustang
all the while screaming “YOU HAVE A SPORTS CAR. DRIVE LIKE IT!!!”
I could go out and buy a new Subaru WRX STI, and then I’d show people how to DRIVE.
For about a week, and then I’d lose my license.
19 comments Og | Uncategorized
“Twisty mountain roads are better than flat expressways.”
Heh. Not according to my wife. The trip we took from York, PA to Fort Littleton, PA, on US 30 just about made her pee her pants. I was going to take 30 all the way to Breezewood but she insisted in no uncertain terms that we get the hell off 30 and get back on the Turnpike :)
I have an example of the differences in engineering between American, Japanese, and German cars:
Let’s say we have two parts that move against one another. The Americans will make one part of very, very good steel and the other of cheaper steel, and will make the cheaper steel part easy (meaning cheap) to replace. So every 20K miles the cheap part wears out and you have a $200 repair bill on it, the expensive part basically never wears out. The Japanese make both parts out of very good steel, so at 100K miles they both wear out and it costs you $1,000 to repair it. The Germans use seventeen parts to do what the Americans and Japanese did with two parts, and those seventeen parts are only sold as a unit, so it costs you $2,000 to repair them when one part goes.
Boy, did I piss off a Porche owner when I told him that!
Totally agree on the twisty roads being better for driving. When I was living in the mountains and had to drive down every day, I’d turn the road into my personal Formula 1 track. Imagine a 17 year old Toyota Corolla sedan screaming down a mountain road at 75 mph. It was a LOT of fun and made the drive totally worth it.
Great post…er…diatribe!
I hear you loud and clear! I do love to drive hard. I don’t spend so much time behind the wheel anymore, since I no longer have a daily commute. I once had an 82 Civic hatchback with a 79 Accord motor stuffed into it. The interior was stripped down to front seats and dash. There was a duct made of brown paper bag and aluminum tape that connected the heater box to the blower motor, as I had yanked every part of the AC. You and I could have picked the car up and walked around with it. A cowl induction scoop fed a Weber carburetor on top of the little 1.8-liter. The exhaust was a single tube that dumped right behind the driver’s side front tire. No cat. No muffler. It literally breathed fire. I relocated the battery to the cargo area just to attempt to correct the balance a little. I was running the motor up to about 7,500 rpm. That little car was nimble, quirky, and pissed off. It would squeal the tires from a 60 mph start, and had a reputation around town. I was running it so hard that the car was broken more often that not. It spent more time on three wheels than four when it was in motion, and the rears would break loose and slide and then reconnect to pavement at the will of a skilled driver. It was ugly as all hell and I called it ‘Medusa.’ I miss that little car.
Drive it like you stole it.
If you can’t drive it, park it.
I ride an ’82 CB900F, which, in an era of 200-hp literbikes, is a brick. Still, I’ve surprised a lot of people on more modern bikes. Skill often trumps machinery.
I’m not tailgating, I’m drafting.
Well said.
It’s not what you have, it’s how you drive it.
I’ve passed plenty of Really Fast Cars in my 77 horsepower Mercedes that’s nearly as old as I am – because they were just toodling along not using (never, ever using in most cases) more than a tiny fraction of their capabilities.
(The secret? The pedal goes all the way down. Even then, 0-60 in 18 seconds – but I ain’t drag racing.
As a friend of mine said about his beloved Subaru Justy, it’s nice to have a car you can drive at 100% all the time, without being on a race track or getting a felony reckless driving charge…)
Nate: I’ve been on that road, it’s a hoot.
mark: Been there. Amazing how they do that, huh?
Michael: sounds like a hoot. I LOVE cars like that.
I’d actually rather have an older Subie 2.5RS coupe with an STi motor and all the suspension parts swapped in. Lighter than the new STi and far, far sexier.
Ever driven the old 93.5 – 98 TT Supra’s?
I knew a guy who had a ~300 horsepower SW20 MR-2 and damnit, it not for practicality and snow I’d have sold my Mazda and bought it on the spot. Damn thing was a beauty. He sold it to buy a sportbike.
I have heard about the supras. I never drove a tt one but even “normal” ones were nice.
1. Hills around Thompson Station Tennessee in an MG Midget with a souped up motor. With a Deputy Sheriff in pursuit.
2. Departmental driving requal in a Caprice equipped with an LT1. Instructor screaming like a school girl and both guys in the back puking.
Most fun I ever had in a car with my clothes on.
Roger
Tooling around in Des Plaines Illinois in Partner’s Alfa Graduate, hanging out the window, singing “We gotta get out of Des Plaines, if it’s the last thing we ever do” and being escorted out of town by the gendermerie.
I want an older model pickup. 50 or there about, with the cool look of the old style rounded fenders, with all new and modern underneath. If it could say, pickup the front tires just a bit at 40 mph, when you stepped on it, all the better! Bright red. One of the reason’s I am driving a Dodge Ram with the Cummins in it, is the look. I don’t know any neighbors who like the newer models of trucks. My 02 was about the last that was somewhat simple to work on they tell me. But then, horses and cows are my real deal, not automotives.
RD, the ones I liked the most were the old Dodge Power Wagons- you know, like the one they used to chase rhinos in “Hatari”
Og, that was the best automotive rant I’ve had the pleasure to have read. Online, or anywhere else for that matter.
Very well said, indeed!
I keep my Crown Vic in the same state of tune as your Exploder. It ain’t pretty, but it’s smooth, sneaky and very, very reliable.
And if you’ll ‘bemember back in time to the last blogshoot that KdT put together there south of D/FW, my Vic was one of the few vehicles, (including 4×4 trucks) to NOT get stuck in the mud on the way to or from the firing line.
I’m a proponent of Jackie Stewart’s axiom: “Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is Fast.” In other words, I slide through traffic on the freeway like an oiled shark through schools of oblivious minnows. (smooth in the twisties too, no drama, just move over n’ let me pass!)
No swerving, stomping of gas or brake. Just good situational awareness, and a very well practiced eye as to lane flow and prediction.
Plus, I look way the hell out there, a half mile ahead or more. I’m planning moves for nearly a full minute before the dolts are even aware that a lane ends or a cop has someone pulled over on shoulder.
And yes, Rubberneckers Dela Est!
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
“my Vic was one of the few vehicles, (including 4×4 trucks) to NOT get stuck in the mud on the way to or from the firing line.”
I DO remember that. I remember people in Suburbans and Expeditions having to be pulled out.
Lord, I remember the mud caked on my shoes was so thick they totally filled a kitchen garbage bag. And I remember standing on the shinglechip and changing into clean clothes so I could go visit with Dick & Kelly.
I agree, Jim. The great majority of people on the road don’t look beyond the edge of their hood and have no idea of traffic being a dynamic environment.