What do you drive?

[mjs1973]

Congrats, Mike! Definitely a step up!

Thanks buddy. It's kind of hard to drive. The stearing is pretty tight. I'm use to having 4 or 5 inches of play in the stearing wheel!

[JSPhoto]

Holy cow....

Your clutch asplode!

Yeah, I was doing a burnout, dumped the clutch and it blew apart and shot through the roof. People have been killed by them. I had to look to see if I still had an arm as I could feel it go past my arm and wasn't sure if actually got me or not. I thought about filing an insurance cliam but wasn't sure how I explain it to them I saw one that went the other direction and 3/4's of it was stuck in the road. I have also seen driveshafts come through the floor into the car. One racer I know lost a couple fingers when that happened and he had a driveshaft loop. I won't own a stick anymore that doesn't have a blow proof bell housing, or a truck or 4x4 that doesn't have heavy duty drive shaft hoops.

JS

[walterick]

omg, I just saw a commercial for a new Smart Car store in Phoenix. Those things are really getting out!

[Ronnoco]

That doesn't scare me as much though as the day the the clutch and pressure plate exploded and shot through the roof. It just missed my arm and would have taken it off.

JS

I was driving a Volkswagen, when the driver's seat tilted. I looked down and saw a dip in the floormat. Sure enough, there was a lot of fresh air underneath where there should have been the floor.

Ronnoco

[mjs1973]

Back before I I had my own vehicle, I drove my dad's Ford Ranger. It was red, and we nick-named it the "Red Ranger". I put a ton of mile on it, and eventually the floor behind the seat rotted away. As the truck got older, it started bruning oil. The exhaust system was shot and full of holes, right below the hole in the floor of the cab. You had to ride with the windows down, because whenever you would slow down, the cab would fill with blue smoke! We renamed the truck the "Gas Chamber".

[Dylan8i]

I have a '95 honda del sol. ITs a great little car, just about my favorite car all time.

I bought it in 03 with 52k on it, now it is almost at 98k. Ive driven it across country, off roading (pretty rough dirt roads), etc. It has the most comfortable seats i have ever sit in. Oh and even though its a small car it has a ton of room in it- i'm 6'6" and i fit much better than most other cars.









oh yeah and as far as the whole smart crashing thing watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s


and it is pretty scary sometimes even in my car, jsut today a soccer mom in a minivan on the phone almost merged into me, going about 70. luckly my car is pretty maneuverable and i'm a good driver.

[JSPhoto]

I was driving a Volkswagen, when the driver's seat tilted. I looked down and saw a dip in the floormat. Sure enough, there was a lot of fresh air underneath where there should have been the floor.

Ronnoco

When I got out of the Navy I drove from Ohio to the far side of PA on a VW bug. The plates expired at midnight and it was a 7 hour drive. I left at around noon. This thing had no heat, there were holes all over the floor. When I hit I80 in PA the seat broke through the floor in one corner. When I hit the Scranton area the left headlight died. The bumps on I80 were so bad that by the time I got where I was going I could have done a Barney Flinstone with stopping by putting my frozen feet through the floor to stop.
The next morning I noticed the battery fell through the floor and the license plate was missing. The thing ran fine though, although the battery had a bit of road rash.

Heres a couple shots of my "off road toy".:thumbsup:

http://www.insapnet.net/JS067503.JPG
http://www.insapnet.net/JS067504.JPG

JS

[Marc2B4]

2002 Silverado 1500HD. Gotta love Detroit pig iron!

[Greg McCary]

Dodge Durango 12.8mpg uphill, downhill, upwind , downwind, 45mph or 145mph. 12.8mpg

[Canuck935]

My precious (the car not the dinosaur!):

[JSPhoto]

Dodge Durango 12.8mpg uphill, downhill, upwind , downwind, 45mph or 145mph. 12.8mpg

UH??? My 97 Ram 2500HD 4x4 gets 19mpg on the highway. It sucks in city driving but does very well on the highway considering it weighs 6500lbs empty. It has the 360 in it with an automatic trans.

JS

[Mig]

2005 Jeep Wrangler - my baby. Shown here in its winter outfit. Summer outfit (aka soft top) will be on this week.

Danielle

[swmdrayfan]

1997 Olds LSS.
I can't unlock the driver's side front door with a key, so I have to do it from the passenger side. The gas gauge doesn't work, so I have to use the trip odometer to figure out when to buy gas. The upholstery on the driver's side door is splitting, I've got duct tape there. It leaks oil, but not to the point where it needs a major overhaul. I'm hoping to make this last until we pay off the wife's SUV. Then it's my turn. I'm the only one in the family with a 20th Century vehicle.

[walterick]

You never struck me as the Jeep type!

[walterick]

My truck just got a wash and vacuum yesterday for the first time in 6 months

[mjs1973]

1997 Olds LSS.
I can't unlock the driver's side front door with a key, so I have to do it from the passenger side. The gas gauge doesn't work, so I have to use the trip odometer to figure out when to buy gas. The upholstery on the driver's side door is splitting, I've got duct tape there. It leaks oil, but not to the point where it needs a major overhaul. I'm hoping to make this last until we pay off the wife's SUV. Then it's my turn. I'm the only one in the family with a 20th Century vehicle.

This sounds a lot like my pickup truck!

[Mig]

You never struck me as the Jeep type!

Heh - only took me a month to reply.

I have been obsessed with Wranglers since I was 15 and I saw a bunch of kids driving in one with the top down in Ocean City, Maryland. So obsessed that I can tell you the Jeep was white and they were on the east side, headed north, right in front of one of the bigger surf shops.

I finally caved two summers ago and I can't imagine ever driving anything else.

Danielle

[gordonjohnson]

I have a rear mounted radiator in my '31 roadster and have had mixed results cooling my engine. In fact, I've ended up having to mount a small second radiator (from a Mazda truck) in the normal front position in order to keep the system in the 190 degree range where I like to see it. For what they are worth, here are a couple of my observations.

1) The rear mount will GREATLY reduce air flow through the core no matter how you try to tuck it up into the chassis. Also, depending on it's position, you can pick up a LOT of very hot air coming off your engine, trans and exhaust system which will reduce cooling efficiency.

2) I can't be absolutely sure of this but I believe one of the largest problems with rear mounted radiators is the plumbing. In order to route the cooling to the proper locations you need a large number of angles and bends in the plumbing to get your coolant from point A to point B. Each one of these bends creates a major reduction in overall coolant flow. Add them all together and you get very inefficient system flow. I installed a new high flow water pump but I feel it is still under-powered for all the corners I have push coolant around.

3) Pay attention to the air flow EXITING the radiator. I found that heated air exiting my core was getting trapped under the car and then forced around the sides of the radiator only to be sucked right back through the core. Very inefficient. I ended up adding a shroud as well as some sheet metal air dams on the "exit" side to remedy to situation, but it's still far from perfect.

[walterick]

It sounds like your rear radiator is more trouble than it's worth? Would a larger front radiator handle the heat by itself?

[adina]

I'm going to read this whole thread tomorrow. But let me just say, we are looking at minivans the end of the summer.

[villenadecorte]

"my" car is an 88 e30 bmw 325is... currently the spouse's daily driver (I want it back!)

I have the Rango (04, Hemi) so I can wrangle my three stooges all over - as a daily driver, which is a super waster...
and now I have this...

yay! my wallet is getting fatter by the nanosecond!

[JETA]

02' trans am. I also drive a 01' suburban when I need a family truckster. We also have a 05' chevy truck and an infinity I have no clue what year it is. I drive neither of those cars. The truck is my husband's and the Infinity is the car we bought for our kids.

[julsoph]

Chrysler Town & Country...

[schrackman]

I have a 1999 Subrau Outback Sport with about 79K miles on it. Yeah, I drive a lot!

Whahhhh?

The wife and I bought new a '02 Jeep Liberty 4x4 and we've put 157,000 miles on it. THAT'S driving a lot, LOL.

Oh, and mjs, they ARE awesome vehicles...will take you just about anywhere. Gas mileage ain't the best–only 19/17mpg–but if they still make the V6 diesel for the Liberty then you can get better mileage than that...up to 500 miles per tank, I believe.

My wife takes the Jeep during the week for work while I drive a '96 Geo Prizm that we inherited from my wife's mother before she passed away. The car runs great, gives me 28-30 mpg, but the paint is oxidizing and fading on the roof and trunk lid, the driver's inside door is barely hanging on, and I swear Geo doesn't believe in sound proofing their vehicles for driving on the freeway.

Other than that, it's been a great car and will go to our niece once we decide to purchase a new vehicle later this year.

[mjs1973]

Thanks for the info on the Liberty Ray. The wife and I bought a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder a couple months ago. I'm getting about 22 mpg! Not the best, bur for a 7 passenger SUV, I'm very impressed. I still put a lot more miles on my old pickup truck tho.