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I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)
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What I forget, really, is how to younger people - which at the age of 57 is most people where i work, for a start - anything that doesn't have air-con and electric windows is out of a museum.
I gave a lift to a young bloke in our office a few weeks ago when I had gone in with the Magnette - he spent the whole journey asking about the car and enjoyed the ride, but it was like I had turned up in a stage coach or something !
And, as the Lord as my witness, I have NEVER seen that woman before, and no, the kid did not bear a family resemblance to me! :shades:
Kids can fixate on strange things. Apparently when I was a little kid, a relative had a beat up 64 Galaxie convertible laying around, and I was fascinated by it. Might have been because it was a convertible, but something about it pushed my buttons. I also remember when I was about 5, I got a ride in a white whale tail 911 that was owned by someone my dad knew - I was in love with that car and still remember the ride vividly. I also had love for the RX-7 (also white) that belonged to the family across the street.
I was a little odd though - I also had a thing for MGs - especially old TA/TC era cars and Midgets, VW pickups, Porsches, then-new Fox Mustang fastbacks, Capris, RX-7s, old prewar era cars, etc. I didn't get into MBs or larger cars until I was older, I think because I imagined those smaller cars were small enough for me to drive.
I get little kids pointing at the fintail now and then - probably more now with the eye catching tires. I remember back in the mid 90s when I bought it, pulling up at a grocery store, and a kid who was on his bike nearby exclaimed something like "tight wheels!"...I was amused. The car gets a bit of reaction, likely due to the color and the front end styling.
Funny! Your plea sounds like a throwback to direct testimony in the pre-DNA era of family court. But for the last 25 years or so the swab is mightier than the penmanship.
By the way fintail sounds neutral and non-gender specific for Washington state but my name may soon get filtered into omar*** like some kind of ToS violation.
Almost forgot...saw a really nice early 90s Mustang GT convertible like this on the far north side of Columbus near Westerville.
I think the 50's and much of the 60's was less diverse in music than some critics state. Rockabilly versus Doo-Wop, British Invasion vs West Coast Surf...they were different from each other, but all were kind of upbeat variations of pop music really. Cars of that era differed mostly in style, Underneath they tended to be RWD with OHV engines.
The late 60's and early 70's added some complexity to rock music. Greater use of brass and/or orchestration, as well as the emergence of underground, progressive, acid rock ... whatever you want to call it supplementing the old Top 40 radio stations. Cars of that period were adding muscle and then having to start meeting gov regulations leading to big bumpers, catalytic converters, etc.
The mid 70's brought on disco, a new format. During this period we started seeing imports gain traction, VW was supplementing the old Beetle with FWD and even a diesel. D3 was fighting back with a lot of ostentatious product flaunting vinyl tops, fancy wheel covers, and plush velour interiors...went well with leisure suits really!
The 80's was a period that seemed to really segment music. Besides traditional upbeat variations to pop, there was now big hair power rock and very different new wave coming on board. In the auto industry, FWD was becoming dominant and imports were successfully expanding their product lines into larger vehicle segments.
In the 90's new wave seemed to win the market share battle in rock music. Sadly though, what this really did was uplift Nashville and popularize country rock. Automotively, D3 was losing market share in bundles to import cars and import brands began building transplant factories in the states. Combine this with all the energy efficiency regs and D3 seemed to be ceding the car segment and moving big into trucks, vans and SUV's.
So, now that D3 is fighting back with decent product in all auto segments, does this mean the Beatles and Beach Boys will have a resurgence?
Well, that's my marketing disertation for the week at least!
Umm, that's Crocodile Rock. :P
As a kid, I pretty much listened to whatever was popular at the time I guess (I LOVED "Afternoon Delight", even though I wasn't old enough to understand what they were alluding to). My Mom liked the Beatles, so in the car she'd tend to put on whatever station would air them.
But, when "Christine" came out, it started getting me interested in oldies music. And, around that time, a new oldies station started broadcasting in our area. They really didn't have classic rock stations yet, but those would start popping up in the late 80's, and I began listening to them instead.
Speaking of classic rock, yesterday I got a reminder of how good I really have it at my job (and the way things have been going lately, I NEEDED that reminder!) I went home for lunch, and when I got in the truck, "Hey Jude" was playing. By the time the song finished, I was in sight of my house. So, if I can make it home in one song, that's not a bad commute! Of course, that's a bit of a long song. And I could probably make it out of the state in the amount of time it would take "InnaGoddaDaVida" to play, if I drove fast enough!
I got into oldies when I was a kid in the 80s too - my mom had a bunch of records that I discovered, and I probably had some influence from movies and TV too, as the 50s were kind of a fad then. Today, Seattle has no oldies stations, just a classic rock station. I am glad the fintail's radio has an aux input (Germans, ahead of their time once again), so I can still listen to old music in it.
I sometimes loathe work, until I realize my job provides me with my things :shades: I can make it to work in the length of Hey Jude, but in the afternoon, no way. On the very worst days, my ~4 mile drive has been around 45 minutes, due to snow or bizarre parking lot traffic jams.
My first car was a 1968 Buick Special Deluxe. I put an aftermarket stereo with cassette player under the dash as I didn't want to remove that cool Sonomatic AM radio with the BUICK lettering on the preselect buttons. I used to play classic rock such as the Beatles, Rollings Stones, the Byrds, the Who, the Doors, etc. to make it seem like it was the 1960s again.
I'm 34 and I'm all over 80s music. My wife absolutely hates it, so naturally I play it more!
I think today with MP3 and being able to carry 400 albums in your pocket it allows you to really be all over the map with your choices. Heck, I can go from Audioslave, to Duran Duran, to Frank Sinatra onto who knows what else. Choice is good!
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
Huh - I've got all 3 of those artists on my iPod. Nice to set it to "shuffle" when I'm delivering pizzas.
Confession time - I actually attended a Duran Duran concert when I was in college. And The Cars. And Dire Straits. And Bryan Adams.
My wife consistently asks me if I ever listen to music from this decade. Occasionally - when I'm riding with her and she is choosing the music!
Be careful making a bet on that. There is a much shorter 45 rpm version that some radio stations played.
Sounds, a lot like me!
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
My first car, the 66 Galaxie, had a cassette player under the dash installed by the prior owner, as not to mess up the original radio. I only listened to period music in it, too. I have a couple hundred oldie mp3s I can listen to in the fintail via ipod. Back in the day when I could get an actual oldies station on the radio, I listened to it 95% of the time, which made a good friend of mine call the car "Christine" ...sadly, it won't restore itself :shades:
PS - I think modern rock has lost a lot of their age market to country these days.
I seem to have adopted a musical taste by the time I was in high school, and it hasn't changed. Modern rock fans probably listen to as much older stuff as anyone. There's not a ton out there, seems to be more country or horrible pop.
Wonder Years aired on an oddball channel here maybe a year ago. Might be the same one that airs Leave it to Beaver etc.
My feeling is that we have just so much time to sift through everything, so whether it be cars or music, leave out the mediocrity.
Although I will say, when you are mediocre, you are ALWAYS at your best! :P
As for the Wonder Years, maybe they could bring Winnie and Kevin back - her as a college math professor and him as a television producer (their real lives today).
Better is ABC Family is rebooting Boy Meets World as Girl Meets World. Cory and Topanga are the parents of a 13 YO girl.
Maybe due to so much information sharing, copying, etc., things no longer "jump" forward, but just sort of "morph".....?
That Wonder Years idea could be good, for those who remember the show especially.
To use one example, here are some 50's 0-60 stats I've found over the years, for various DeSotos (only using DeSoto since I have one)...
1953 flathead six, 250.6 CID, 116 hp. 0-60 in about 21.6 seconds. Not sure of the transmission, most likely the Fluid Drive
1953 Firedome convertible, 276.1 2-bbl Hemi, 160 hp, Fluid Drive, 0-60 in about 17.6 seconds (I remember the article stating that the Hemi was about 4 seconds quicker than the 6, so that's how I guessed the 6-cyl number above)
1955 Fireflite sedan, 291 4-bbl Hemi, 200 hp, 2-speed Powerflite, 0-60 in about 13.3 seconds, according to Consumer Reports
1957 Firedome convertible, 341.1 2-bbl Hemi, 270 hp, 3-speed Torqueflite, 0-60 in about 9.7 seconds.
1959 Firesweep, 361-4bbl Wedge, 305 hp, 3-speed TF, 0-60 in about 8.6 seconds.
So, in the course of just seven years, they managed to drop 0-60 from around 21.6 seconds to 8.6. That's a drop of 13 seconds, about 60%! Simply astounding (and I'm not saying that to make DeSoto look good, as just about everybody else saw similar improvements in that era).
But, where do you go from there, and how do you improve upon that? I remember seeing a Consumer Reports test of an early 70's Impala or Caprice with the 454, and it managed 0-60 in something like 8.7 seconds. Just a touch slower than the '59 Firesweep. Now granted, an early 70's Impala would be notably heavier, and most likely have a taller axle ratio. But it also had a LOT more cubes, a lot more torque, and hp would've been something like 365 gross/270 net. (only switching from Mopar to GM here because this was about the only powerful early 70's big car test I can remember, although a '71-72 Centurion 455 was close)
I think the 1994-96 LT-1 in something like a Caprice, Roadmaster, or Impala SS was good for 0-60 in about 7 seconds. But, by that time, it had a 4-speed automatic, fuel injection, and all sorts of computer controls.
I've seen the Chrysler 300C SRT-8 quoted at something like 4.3 seconds from 0-60. So, it's taken something 50 plus years for a big car to halve the 0-60 time of a 1959 DeSoto. And look at all the technology and whatnot that had to go into that car. Not to mention it has a HUGE engine. I think the SRT-8 has a 6.4 V-8 that comes out to 392 cubic inches, same as biggest version of the old Chrysler "whale" Hemi.
So, I think all the big advancements have already been done. Unless we get into flying cars, driverless cars, stuff like that.
Maybe it's easier to go from 20 seconds to 10 on 0-60 than from 10 to 5. I don't know whether or not that's true, but it seems reasonable when you consider how difficult it would be to go from 5 seconds to 2 1/2.
Anything less than 10 seconds seemed awfully fast back in the day.
I think ever tighter emissions was a significant factor conspiring against reducing 0-60 times.
I've only heard the term through the Mopar crowd. Probably came out around the time that they started calling the 426 the "Elephant" engine, so someone decided to give the old Chrysler Hemi the name of a large animal, as well.
And yeah, it's definitely easier to get 0-60 down to 10 seconds versus 20, than it is from 10 to 5. That's the point I was trying to make about how the better things get, it simply gets harder and more expensive to improve upon it, and the return is diminishing.
To use a rough example from the late 60's, your typical late 60's midsized Mopar, like a Belvedere, Satellite, or Coronet, probably did 0-60 in about 15 seconds with the 225 slant six and Torqueflite. Consumer Reports tested one with a 318/Torqueflite, a '68 I think and got 0-60 in 10 seconds flat. The 318 had a 2.76:1 axle. Can't remember what the slant sixes used. I know in compacts, the 225 slant six, at least, used a 2.76:1 standard in '68, but I think it was a 2.94:1 in '67.
Anyway, the hp difference, to get from ~15 seconds to 10, was a jump from 145 gross to 230 gross.
However, Consumer Reports also tested a 1968 or 1969 intermediate (I want to say a Charger, but might have been a Roadrunner or something else) with a 440 big block, Torqueflite, 3.23:1 axle, and I think a 350 hp setup. They got 0-60 in 7 seconds flat.
So, in this case, it did take more effort to get from 10 to 7 seconds, than it did from 15 to 10.
This demonstrates one of the things that has happened in the last 40-50 years. The above car, with a 7 second 0-60, was not the biggest dog in the pack, but it wold have been considered a serious performance car in its day and very few other cars could have gone up against it. A few modern cars with similar but lower 0-60 times are:
Buick Regal GS
Chrysler 300S (the six)
Fiat 500 Abarth
Honda Civic Si
Mazda Miata
VW Beetle Turbo
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
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2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
Money for Nothing....80s come back was cool.
That little Clampett he's a millionaire!
Oh, wait, that was the Weird Al version. :P
I don't think there are any new cars sold in the U.S. that are underpowered. That's a fairly recent phenomenon because quite a few cars of the '50s - '90s were underpowered, especially by today's standards. Think of all those domestic sixes and fours with two-speed automatics, and the foreign econoboxes. Or, the four cylinder Volvos and MB diesels.
But, just to show how far cars have come, back in 1980 a Dodge Mirada or Chrysler Cordoba with the optional 360-4bbl, essentially a police car engine, was good for 0-60 in around 10.5 seconds. And I remember seeing a test of a 1980 Seville with the Caddy 368, and 0-60 was 10.6 seconds. And that was probably about as quick as you could get a domestic mid- or full-sized car to go in those days. Although, maybe a Century/Regal, or the elusive Monte Carlo with a turbo might have been a bit quicker?
The Seville with the 368 was indeed quick for its time. You paid more for that Caddy, but you got superior performance in return (in a straight line, at least).
I'll tell you what, I wouldn't feel comfortable getting onto some of our highways in South Jersey with a 13 second car.
Heck, I'm so used to a mid 6 second car, I have to remember my Grand Marquis doesn't have near the power of my Lacrosse, and it's not really all that slow (8 seconds to 60).
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.