Classic cars - like or dislike

[desertdude]

On ‎5‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 10:15 PM, Barry said:

JUST FOUND THIS ONE

http:/

/forum.retro-rides.org/thread/197444/1979-toyota-corolla-liftback-te51

 

Ewww....You couldn't pay me to drive that fugly prehistoric turd! 

Don't take it the wrong way barry but as the saying goes Dont meet your heroes. While the romance, myth and mystery might exist amongst most classics but in a reality majority of them are real turds to drive, even a modern Tiida drives and handles better than most of them and sometimes even faster.

While I might like a lot of classic muscle cars, I know I will never buy one because of this. Who wants a 7 ltr V8 that puts out only 180hp, slower than a modern van, sloppy drum brakes, crappy 3 speed boxes, no power steering and handling like a cart. 

Resto mods are different thing though but supremely expensive. Looks of a classic bit with all the modern underpinnings. That I can go for. 

[desertdude]

Barry here is something more along your lines

 

https://tnydu.biz/DOvvl4

Edited May 22, 2018 by desertdude

[treks]

6 hours ago, desertdude said:

Ewww....You couldn't pay me to drive that fugly prehistoric turd! 

Don't take it the wrong way barry but as the saying goes Dont meet your heroes. While the romance, myth and mystery might exist amongst most classics but in a reality majority of them are real turds to drive, even a modern Tiida drives and handles better than most of them and sometimes even faster.

While I might like a lot of classic muscle cars, I know I will never buy one because of this. Who wants a 7 ltr V8 that puts out only 180hp, slower than a modern van, sloppy drum brakes, crappy 3 speed boxes, no power steering and handling like a cart. 

Resto mods are different thing though but supremely expensive. Looks of a classic bit with all the modern underpinnings. That I can go for. 

Never was a truer word spoken on this forum...

[Barry]

I prefer driving old cars, as odd as that may sound. The noise, the smells, having a good upper body workout when you’re trying to parallel park. I can see why people drive modern stuff but it doesn’t appeal to me so much, it all feels too clinical and safe. My main gripe with older cars is that I usually end up buying some oddball that’s there’s only a handful left and I can never find parts easily. 

[desertdude]

Lol well if you are a glutton for punishment then there is nothing I can do about it, but I do understand what you are saying, some cars have a soul and character and no matter how crappy they are people will still spend loads and keep the running on the road, while majority of the cars are just transport like white goods like a washing machine and good at their jobs but you will never day dream about one or put up a poster of a washing machine in you bedroom no matter how good it is as doing laundry! 

Unfortunately most modern cars are like that, no matter how good reliable and cheap they are I know I will never get a Pajero, Pathfinder, Prado etc etc becaus to me they are souless cars and dont talk to me. Just bland like a fridge to me. I would rather get a tiny Suzuki Samurai which has loads more character and soul than all of the above combined. 

If you don't smile everytime you drive your car or at least look back at it once just to get one more glance while walking away after you have parked it, then you are driving a fridge. :)

[Barry]

You made a very good point in your last paragraph. 

Where im from, people (and I mean car people who are into tuning) are all into remapping their brand new diesel golfs, sciroccos etc. Get big torque, sure I get it. 

I went through a phase of buying mk2 polos before I left home. The last one (number 7) was a low miles green 89 breadvan model. When I was sitting at home watching tv I’d walk to the window and look at it and smile. It wasn’t fast, 1043cc, but every time I got into it, I had the biggest smile on my face. I owned it, I wasn’t making crippling payments on it ever month, it cost me 3 days wages. And it worked fine. All I had to do was change a carburettor gasket and it drove as new. 

My current car at home is a 1990 Peugeot 205. Pretty standard but I fitted a 2.1 turbo Diesel engine from a 406, added bigger injector nozzles, mechanical fuel pump from a Citroen bx, turbo from the new Renault espace 3.0 v6, gearbox from Citroen xantia. The whole build cost around £1,000, like 5k dhs. Took the car from 60bhp to 250bhp. Rolls coal like a boss and will embarrass many new Audi’s at the traffic lights. 250bhp in an 800kg car is nothing to be sniffed at. The only problem I have is that it snaps driveshafts regularly, they weren’t built for it. It’s safely stored at home and my next plan is to add nitrous to it. It’s a shame I can’t bring it here because the steering wheel is on the wrong side. 

[desertdude]

Slightly off topic : Why are you so obsessed with diesel motors, ok I get it petrol is expensive and all back home, we have a saying loosely translated mean passion has no price. Even when financially struggling the thought never crosses my mind to get something less thirsty than my V8s

Even the noun is petrolhead not diesel head   

And up until very recently diesel engines have been abhorrent in every category save cheaper fuel and better mpg, how does a car person get so funky about them. When I was growing up and even into my 30s  cant think of any car from factory that would be a car guys car.

Only post 2005 ish have some cars come out with good diesel engines.

I'll give you an example being a huge Range Rover when I heard and saw the performance of a 2003 TD6 L322 made me want to burn my range rover and buy a corolla. Sounded like a tractor and went like a glacier. I could not and still cannot fathom would would pay around £50,000 and buy that POS new from tge show room floor.. 

[Barry]

It’s a pretty even split in Ireland petrol/diesel. But mainly smaller engine petrols and big engine diesels. MPG and the price of fuel has a lot to do with it. If the fuel is costing 7-8 dhs per litre sometimes you can have a petrol car that does 20 MPG or you can have a diesel that is producing the same power and does 50 MPG. I can do 30k miles in a year so it’s a no brainier.

Its a lot easier to tune diesels too. 30 minutes of tweaking a mechanical injector pump and turbo can see an extra 30 BHP for no money and not much effort. Modern stuff can see an extra 80-100 BHP with just a remap but the clutch and gearbox can suffer. 

Some diesels can sound good too. A straight piped Scania V8 makes a wonderful noise snoring down the road.

I guess the only answer I can give is that I grew up with diesels so it’s just in my blood. Have diesel tractors on the farm and I spent a long time working as a truck and plant mechanic so there’s that too. Big V8 petrols, even V and straight 6s aren’t so common and you need to be pretty well off to run them. 

[desertdude]

Well hopefully your stay here in UAE will convert you from a diesel head to a proper petrolhead