Lets talk about cars/motorsports

So I missed the entire thing because for some weird reason none of the sports channels have sound on my end. Damndest thing.

How'd it go?

Porsche won in a Down to the Last Play moment.

Aw, how'd the GT place?

The Ford GT won its class on its first ever outing as well. Not quite as spectacular as the McLaren F1 GTR's first time results, but very impressive nevertheless.

G Ts got First and Third in GTE Pro. Nearly got a 1-2-3 after the Ferrari that ultimately came in second was Black-and-Orange'd in the last ten minutes under somewhat suspicious circumstances.

(Cross-posted from "US Politics")

Y'know, with all this flak about the Confederate flag, somebody ought to make an opposite of the General Lee car, just for the helluvit.

Instead of orange, paint it blue. Instead of a Confederate flag on the roof, put Old Glory (aka, the Stars and Stripes) up there. Instead of "01" make its number "10." Name it the "General Grant" or the "Honest Abe," and have the horn play the first bar of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, instead of "Dixie."

Whaddaya think? Should it be a Dodge Challenger instead of a Charger? Or should we go whole hog and build it on a GM or Ford platform instead, just to give the metaphorical finger?

I'd say it would have to be a mid sized muscle car, since the 1969 Charger was based on the Chrysler B platform. So it would have to be a Torino or a Chevelle, preferably of the same model year.

Or we could go with what the muscle cars were trying to compete with back in the day and use a Ford GT.

How about a Mercury Capri?

A Capri is around the same size of a Mustang, so there's that if the pony car route is taken. What, if any European super saloons were available circa 1960 - 1973?

Basing it on a foreign car would sort of defeat the purpose, wouldn't it? The whole idea is that it's a Yankee/USA car, as opposed to a Rebel/CSA car.

On that note, there were some good muscle/pony cars from AMC back then, too...

EDIT: It's been done before.

edited 2nd Oct '16 3:50:32 PM by pwiegle

Was just reading about the new Mazda Miata variant: the 2017 MX-5 RF ("Retractable Fastback.") It's something like a retractable hardtop, but different.

Basically, the rear "fastback" portion of the roofline raises up, the center roof panel retracts and stows itself away, and the fastback resumes its previous position, leaving you with a Targa-style open top.

It looks neat, but seems overly complex to me. Why not just make it a conventional Targa, with a roof panel that you remove and replace manually? It would be a lot simpler, cheaper, and more reliable, with fewer parts to break or mechanisms to malfunction. But I guess people are simply too lazy to do any work beyond pushing a button...

Because installing the targa top manually in the middle of the rain isn't really an option these days, at least in the eyes of marketing.

That said, what the originators of the targa top are up to now is amazing.

That's pretty much how the Mazda's top works, too. But considering that it takes 13 seconds to go up or down, and can only be done at speeds of 6 mph or less, you're still gonna get wet.

Still, it's a lot better than my Jeep. I had a 2000 Jeep Wrangler with a soft top. The top disassembled into about five major sections, and there wasn't enough room to store them inside the vehicle itself. I took it down one day in early June, and it was fun driving with the top down — until a sudden brief rainstorm came out of nowhere and left me and the interior soaked.

I know I'm 2 years late, but I actually did quite a bit of research trying to find a "battle flag" of Sherman's army to create an anti-general lee, largely to irritate a friend of mine from Georgia. Even bought a reprint of a book of flags made by a union quarter master after the war that had most union army's banners down to the regiment.

Seems Sherman just used Old Glory though.

Personally I'd say keep it a Charger for the "Bizzaro" effect, otherwise either a Mustang or a Camaro for the raw America vibe.

edited 17th Mar '18 11:02:30 AM by Joesolo

A Sherman Charger (or Road Runner, Challenger, Mustang, etc.) would have that raw vibe indeed.
Murica! And then some.

That's fair. I've just always been a Camaro guy...in theory. Haven't actually gotten around to owning one yet. Owned Two Hyundais and a Ford so far, and mostly looking at Jeeps and Miatas for this summer, on account of my taste in cars bordering on bipolar.

edited 19th Mar '18 7:19:03 PM by Joesolo

OK, so clutch control no-longer feels like quite the bane of my existence any more.

That's good!

I haven't even been inside a stick shift car

Driving Stick is pretty much the de-facto standard in this country.

It's basically endangered in the US. If I get the miata I'm getting a stick one and learning.

I learned to drive stick on the family's farm truck — a 1972 GMC three-quarter ton pickup. It had a three-on-the-tree that was loose and sloppy, and clutch pedal like a Nautilus leg-press machine.

As a teenager, I worked for a landscaping company on the lawn-mowing crew. They had me drive this old one-ton Ford stake-body, because I was the only one who knew how to drive stick.

Compared to those hulks, a modern stick-shift car is a cinch to drive.

Hey question for you guys, any car forums you guys use/know of? There's a couple Facebook groups i follow but I generally prefer forum communities. Reddit is alright but the way it works leads itself more to jokes and whatever singular things are most popular than general conversation.

Doug De Muro has just released a review of the greatest car ever made, Mc Laren F1

Top Gear got a tour of the Koenigsegg factory before the Jesko was revealed at the Geneva Motor Show. it's quite a car:

i'm curious, what is, in your opinion, the greatest car ever made?