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New Knight Rider?

I love jealousy. It's so sweet on my palette.

Okay dude, whatever you say. :rolleyes:

And while you can pimp a Honda to be a 720hp monster, Ford already had them 40 years ago. Look up the 800hp 1966 Shelby Cobra "King of all Snakes". Honda's just playing catch-up.

Yeah, if you want to use (again, maybe it's a Ford thing?) a fugly production car as a base for a "super"car that virtually no one will ever have - in the case of the "Super Snake," there were exactly two built... :eyebrow:

Not exactly my idea of a production car. I'll take a slower, more reliable, better-handling, and comfortable car any day...

Bonus points if I can fit my rig in it!
 
What do you know about supercars? Hmm? Have you ever even SAT in a Viper, a Corvette, a vintage Mustang, an original Camaro OR one from the late 80's? Do you OWN anything that's naturally aspirated? Do you own anything more than a fuel-efficient daily driver? Have you ever driven anything until the needle was buried? Have you ever even TOUCHED a vehicle that was older than you are, built when real vehicles were made of METAL, not a bunch of molded plastic and fiberglass? Have you ever parallel-parked your car from the other direction by fishtailing it into place?

Son I live in the Motor City. I've seen vehicles you could only touch on a calendar from Border's. I surround myself with extreme vehicles every summer at car shows that have machines that would intimidate you into a back-tracking puppy. I've put a 1970 Mustang on a Nascar track and buried that pedal on 18-degree banks. I've shamed rice-burners and Neon-tuners. I've experienced TRUE horsepower. I've experienced a 600hp Hemi Cuda jumping up to 80mph in my company's DRIVEWAY! You have no idea what performance is. You have no idea what power is. You've never touched the real deal, hell you've never even been within 50 feet of something that COMMANDS respect and fear! You're 20 years old and don't know crap about crap!


You're nothing but a lot of talk over the internet and have never experienced a true supercar. I've got one parked in my garage, restoring it to original condition and pimping that suspension so that Stang can take some serious abuse. You've never unbolted a carseat from a chassis! So I can't expect you to truly respect or appreciate a real vehicle, just the kiddy-talk that you get from your video games and your magazines showing vehicles you'll never touch. I've already lived through more vehicles than you'll experience in your whole lifetime.

"Yeah, I know a guy who can do that too. He's the drummer from Molly Hatchet and one night we had two cases of Southern Comfort, man. We were so wasted off it. I'm serious man."
 
Wouldn't it have been easier to put a pair of dropped spindles in to lower the front?

Totally different intention here. There's new upper and lower arms made of welded tube steel, not stamped steel. New springs with progressive ratios, and the shocks will go from hard and sensitive to feel every nook and cranny of the road, to soft and mushy when turning really hard or when hitting the usual Michigan potholes and not knocking my fillings loose.

But using the different-geometry front arms improves the front-wheel angle when the front end bounces up and down. This mod kills the typical behavior of the front wheels angling sideways when moving up and down, and also gets the body lower. keeps the tread flat against the ground when coming over hills or bumps, instead of rolling closer to the sidewall. But it was NOT a drop-in upgrade. Took some serious drilling. And I wouldn't have been able to go this route if the engine was in there. So it was lucky timing and checking the right parts catalog!

And I did consider the rack and pinion steering, but that was a PRICEY upgrade. I'd rather get the car done and see how it performs, get a couple hundred miles into the engine. Then see if I want better steering. I love the way my brother's Stang handles, so I wanna keep the same feel. I like the loose old-school feel. It's just that I wanna kill the body roll.

And don't even ask about what color this thing is getting painted.... I still wanna do a Robotech-themed paint job, white with black/yellow stripes and a skull n crossbones on the hood scoop... heh heh... but candyapple red metallic is just begging to get on this car.... ARGH I NEED MORE HOT RODS
 
I love how this turned from the new Knight Rider to a Ford vs. Chevy thread.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=X9DUuD-rp1s



Ahh, it looks much better as a convertible! Okay now I'm a bit more interested.

Challenger is still the most anticipated rebirth. Everybody in my car club is just dying to see it released, exactly as the concept car looks. Not a single change is needed!



We still wanna see an Olds Cutlass 442 rebirth.. oh GAWD was that the best looking muscle car ever.... red with black stripes...
 
Speaking of suspension upgrades, I'm dying to drive something with this suspension setup - the Bose suspension system. Talk about gee-whiz gadgetry for the gearhead.

Bryan, I helped a friend of mine install tubular K-member/rack-and-pinion upgrade in a friend of mine's supercharged '71 Dart Swinger, and it made all the difference in the world. He got a kit online from MagnumForce, and once we got the kit installed (and later upgraded the rears to coilovers instead of leaf) the car was absolutely a killer. It cost a bunch, but my buddy swears he likes the suspension more than the blower... Might be worth it to do that before anything else. :bassist:
 
Speaking of suspension upgrades, I'm dying to drive something with this suspension setup - the Bose suspension system. Talk about gee-whiz gadgetry for the gearhead.


What.


The.



INSANO-CRAZY HECK?????? Why did you show me this... why oh why did you show me this... do I need to get addicted to more crazy inventions??? Oh man... as psycho as this is, I tooootally get what they're doing and WAAAAANT.


Bryan, I helped a friend of mine install tubular K-member/rack-and-pinion upgrade in a friend of mine's supercharged '71 Dart Swinger, and it made all the difference in the world. He got a kit online from MagnumForce, and once we got the kit installed (and later upgraded the rears to coilovers instead of leaf) the car was absolutely a killer. It cost a bunch, but my buddy swears he likes the suspension more than the blower... Might be worth it to do that before anything else. :bassist:

Hmm. The rear coil-over isn't something I was considering for this car. I dunno if I can get that for this car. Time for some online research!!! As for the rack and pinion, I'll see if this is gonna be easy enough to do with the car reassembled, or if I should do it now while I've got clearance. I really would prefer to leave that alone for now, until I get the car back out on the road. My cash has to go to the interior, wiring, engine bay details and paintjob. Even though I'm just throwing a basic bottom-end paint job on so I'm not one of the trailer-jockeys too paranoid to actually drive it for fear of stone chips taking points away at the car shows... that's what my brother's car is for! This sucka, I plan to drive it like a beaten dog! Function before form, this time. Next cruiser, might be a looker instead of a driver.
 
Oh, and the old Darts... GREAT small-car sleepers. Those things are so light and jumpy, I'll never EVER underestimate them. The guys around town the the few remaining Darts, they've all invested some serious dime into their tweaks and torques. Serious death-trap speed demons. Heh heh. I CAN'T WAIT TIL WINTER IS OVER GOD ALLMIGHTY I MISS THE HOT ROD SEASON AAAAARGH
 
Yeah, his Swinger's not exactly a sleeper - Dodge orange with the hockey stripe on the tail... Except the stripe reads "340" and the car is a 360 running 12lbs... Dyno'ed at roughly 525hp/500lb-ft...

Of course, my supercharged 96 Z-28 completely out-turned this car (after $3K of suspension upgrades), and was quicker in the 1/4 (his rear end was 4.11 or something like that), but from the line this car is insane... something like a 1.80 60-ft time. The beauty of automatic tranny and a high stall. My Camaro, however, had ignition/timing issues so often I finally sold it for a little less than 3/4 of what I paid for it... Now I've got the 79 to get rid of, and I'm done with the musclecars. :hiding:

I need a Roscoe. ;)
 
AAAAAAAHAHAHAH!!! I just went by a machine shop at lunch, to pick up bearing parts. Talked to Jim the owner, and he brought his old Nova to see if anyone would even want to buy it. 30 minutes into this morning, he had a guy offer him much more than he expected to sell it for! He told me, "Yeah, I know I'm getting rid of it now, but in a year's time, I'll be jonesing for that fix, and end up buying another old machine. It's an addiction." And it's true.

You'll get rid of it now. You'll buy the Roscoe. And then be mad when you miss the smell. You know that smell. It smells of history and horsepower. It sounds like terror and adrenaline. It flows in your veins. Heh heh heh. You'll be buying another hot rod before you know it. Heh heh heh....
 
I've kinda switched addictions - to a great degree because of TalkBass, I've gotten way more into playing and learning more about my voice on the bass than I was a few years ago. The 79 Camaro was a project car for my girlfriend, but I finally got tired of dumping money in it, especially because I'm not that good a shadetree mechanic.

At any rate, I bought her a 91 RS Camaro in really good shape for a song, and we've been trying to get rid of the 79 for a while... I won't miss it. That's not to say that on down the road I won't get another muscle car, but not in the near future.

(Besides, I really don't like the late second-gen Camaros anyway.) ;)
 
69 Camaro SS. Accept no substitutes.



Well... unless you're substituting an El Camino or Plymouth Duster... heh heh... or that 442 from Demolition Man or the Bullitt.... AAARGH WINTER SUCKS

I'm gonna start a company, and sell air fresheners that smell like spinning tires on asphalt, motor oil, grease, welding sparks, high octane fuel.... Hurry up, Winter, I'm sick of you...
 
Hmm. The rear coil-over isn't something I was considering for this car. I dunno if I can get that for this car. Time for some online research!!!

You could coil over almost any car, but you'll probably need to install either a four link or ladderbar rear suspension to take the place of the leafs.

Since it sounds like you're going to be doing more road driving with the car, a four link with a wishbone would be a good choice.
 
Yeah, his Swinger's not exactly a sleeper - Dodge orange with the hockey stripe on the tail... Except the stripe reads "340" and the car is a 360 running 12lbs... Dyno'ed at roughly 525hp/500lb-ft...

Of course, my supercharged 96 Z-28 completely out-turned this car (after $3K of suspension upgrades), and was quicker in the 1/4 (his rear end was 4.11 or something like that), but from the line this car is insane... something like a 1.80 60-ft time. The beauty of automatic tranny and a high stall. My Camaro, however, had ignition/timing issues so often I finally sold it for a little less than 3/4 of what I paid for it... Now I've got the 79 to get rid of, and I'm done with the musclecars. :hiding:

I need a Roscoe. ;)

What sort of et's were you guys running?
 
The Z28 dyno'd 411hp/400lb-ft, best 1/4 was 11.7 @ 125. With that trap speed, I'm sure I could have gotten at least below 11.5, but I'm not the greatest driver, and the 5 speed hadn't really gotten the treatment it needed to handle hard launches. Plus, at Langley Speedway, if you run below 12 you are required to have a cage, and I didn't... :( Got warned once and then ran the best time, and got booted. Never got around to installing the cage, got tired of fixing the **** thing.

My buddy ran his Dart into the low 11s with slicks, but he also could have done better. On the street tires he couldn't get traction to save his life... Last I talked to him he was planning on ladder bars... But he wants to lower the rear end ratio to make it more street-friendly, so I dunno what's gonna happen there.

The 79 isn't exactly a show-stopper, it's got a lot of work left to do. Just for ***** and giggles, here's the CL ad. I'm not really trying to sell it at this point, but you can look if you wanna. I'm going to sit down with a few friends (and a lot of beers) and figure out why it doesn't run, get the minor stuff done, and then sell it for twice what I'm asking now. I just gotta find some time.

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