Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

stickguy

well, that has to be 1 of 1. I kinda like the concept, but just can't get past having the rear doors still on it, complete with handles.

roadburner

If I was forced to drive a pickup:



But what I really want is the M3 Compact:

stickguy

now that looks like a fun car. Was that an official product just for the fatherland?

xwesx

stickguy said:

well, that has to be 1 of 1. I kinda like the concept, but just can't get past having the rear doors still on it, complete with handles.

Yes, but sometimes a late-night hack job is destined to look like a late-night hack job; that's 60% of the appeal!

roadburner

stickguy said:

now that looks like a fun car. Was that an official product just for the fatherland?

Unfortunately they were just some one-offs from the M skunkworks. Some others included a true M8 spun off the original 8er as well as a two door convertible based on the E34 5 Series.

28firefighter

tifighter said:

Hey @28firefighter - I found your utility vehicle...

Volkamino

I have so many questions. But, I don’t hate the concept. I’d probably just try to find a Subaru Baja rather than risk some random person’s garage project.

Also, that car is worth $750 bucks at most.

stickguy

RB, you already have the Ti. Turning it into an M car can be your next retirement project! Though yours is too nice. Find a clean body bad engine model and go to town!

roadburner

stickguy said:

RB, you already have the Ti. Turning it into an M car can be your next retirement project! Though yours is too nice. Find a clean body bad engine model and go to town!

You’d be surprised how many ti owners have swapped in a six cylinder; the car is an E36 sedan from the firewall forward so an engine swap is an easy weekend project if you have all the parts and an engine hoist.

kyfdx

roadburner said:

stickguy said:

RB, you already have the Ti. Turning it into an M car can be your next retirement project! Though yours is too nice. Find a clean body bad engine model and go to town!

You’d be surprised how many ti owners have swapped in a six cylinder; the car is an E36 sedan from the firewall forward so an engine swap is an easy weekend project if you have all the parts and an engine hoist.

Seems like an S50 would be an easy swap.

stickguy

Get fancy and put in a new tech 2.0t? That would be more complicated of course. I assume a similar vintage NA 6 would be much easier plug and play.

Would an LS fit in there? Not sure I’ve ever heard of a V8 swap into an older 3 series.

kyfdx

stickguy said:

Get fancy and put in a new tech 2.0t? That would be more complicated of course. I assume a similar vintage NA 6 would be much easier plug and play.

Would an LS fit in there? Not sure I’ve ever heard of a V8 swap into an older 3 series.

I know a guy locally who swapped in an LS to an E36. A whole bunch of special fabrication.
But, he is a professional.

The E36 M3 or 325i/328i 6-cylinders are a pretty straight swap. (168 - 240 hp, depending).

roadburner

Aside from vintage hot rods, I really don’t care for engine swaps between different brands, but that’s just me.

roadburner

Racing Dynamics installed a 5.0 V12 in an E36 Compact. Insane. I’d love to have it.
A B46 2.0 turbo four would be nice; the main issue would be the interface between the motor and the car’s 25 year old electronics.

mjfloyd1

I remember a long time ago, one of the car magazines did a review on a new car that had 500 HP (IIRC). The next month, there was a letter to the editor asking why anyone would possibly need 500 HP in a street car. The editor replied “you sad pathetic little man”. It still makes me chuckle.

qbrozen

roadburner said:

Aside from vintage hot rods, I really don’t care for engine swaps between different brands, but that’s just me.

I don't even like it in that case.

kyfdx

Seems like every ‘30s Ford hot rod has Chevy power.

kyfdx

V-8

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

Get fancy and put in a new tech 2.0t? That would be more complicated of course. I assume a similar vintage NA 6 would be much easier plug and play.

Would an LS fit in there? Not sure I’ve ever heard of a V8 swap into an older 3 series.

stickguy

That V8 swap looks very tidy. Can’t tell how tight it is but seems workable.

qbrozen

kyfdx said:

Seems like every ‘30s Ford hot rod has Chevy power.

And it bugs the heck out of me.

kyfdx

stickguy said:

That V8 swap looks very tidy. Can’t tell how tight it is but seems workable.

A lot of custom fab. Not an easy fit

mjfloyd1

qbrozen said:

kyfdx said:

Seems like every ‘30s Ford hot rod has Chevy power.

And it bugs the heck out of me.

I think it is cost related. The Ford crate motors cost more - at least that’s what my home builder said when he put a Chevy motor into his old Ford

stickguy

Aren’t the fords physically bigger too? I thought there were fit issues related to that.

ab348

Small-block Ford pushrod engines are pretty compact. The Coyote is another story of course.

fintail

I've seen a couple MB W123s with smallblock Ford V8s.

andres3

oldfarmer50 said:

I remember reading a while back that some state or city had banned new drive-thru restaurants to prevent excessive idling. I wonder if restaurants which are suffering severe losses now because they have no drive up service can sue the government.

My credit union had their lobby open until Saturday when the went to drive up only. Not the best idea IMO because now multiple people handle the tube. I also noticed that most of the cars in the long, long line didn’t bother to shut their cars off during the 5-10 minute wait between movement in line. Since the line was a long one I’m guess some of these cars were idling for the better part of 30 minutes.

What ever happened to stop-start?

I would think not on the lawsuits because no one put a gun to their head to open a restaurant without a drive through. They could have not opened one at all; their choice. They chose; live with it!

You can also sell food as "takeout" only; no need for a drive through.

Some might feel like turning off their engine gives permission to the teller to work slower.

andres3

breld said:

I'm a sucker for a good yellow.

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/798383049/overview/

love Vegas or Imola Yellow, especially on the TT.

andres3

mjfloyd1 said:

I remember a long time ago, one of the car magazines did a review on a new car that had 500 HP (IIRC). The next month, there was a letter to the editor asking why anyone would possibly need 500 HP in a street car. The editor replied “you sad pathetic little man”. It still makes me chuckle.

My response would be "so you can smoke the guy with 400 HP"

qbrozen

mjfloyd1 said:

qbrozen said:

kyfdx said:

Seems like every ‘30s Ford hot rod has Chevy power.

And it bugs the heck out of me.

I think it is cost related. The Ford crate motors cost more - at least that’s what my home builder said when he put a Chevy motor into his old Ford

Then why not start with a Chevy body? Its just silly, IMHO. There is virtually no visual difference between a 32 Chevy 3-window and Ford 3-window.

I suppose I could be a LITTLE more forgiving if its like a rat rod and you used whatever parts you had lying around, but that almost never happens. We're talking vehicle people put 10 of thousands of dollars into, so telling me you saved $500 by mixing manufacturers makes zero sense to me. BTW, I would say it makes it worth less in the end than you saved in the build.

mjfloyd1

His money. His call.

qbrozen

well, of course. Still doesn't mean I have to like it. Some folks paint their lambo hot pink. We have every right to cringe in horror when it drives by.

stickguy

I showed my daughter the old car links I liked from a few days ago (Z3, wrangler, and celica). She was on board with that plan. Little troublemaker!

tjc78

I think at the end of the day an LS motor makes more power with less effort/expense than the Ford.

An FE block can make lots of power too, but the push rods that go through the intake drives a lot of people nuts.

mjfloyd1

qbrozen said:

well, of course. Still doesn't mean I have to like it. Some folks paint their lambo hot pink. We have every right to cringe in horror when it drives by.

What's the difference between a Ford wrong motor in a Chevy or a Chevy wrong motor in a Chevy? There are more big block C2 65-67 corvettes available than were ever built. It's a Chevy motor but it is still the wrong motor.

I think tjc78 is correct about HP and $/HP.

qbrozen

mjfloyd1 said:

qbrozen said:

well, of course. Still doesn't mean I have to like it. Some folks paint their lambo hot pink. We have every right to cringe in horror when it drives by.

What's the difference between a Ford wrong motor in a Chevy or a Chevy wrong motor in a Chevy? There are more big block C2 65-67 corvettes available than were ever built. It's a Chevy motor but it is still the wrong motor.

I think tjc78 is correct about HP and $/HP.

Just seems to me you’d want to be brand consistent. Chalk it up to the editor in me. A kit car? Absolutely anything goes. But if you go through the trouble of sourcing and/or rebuilding an original chassis, I’d think that means you like that brand.

For example, my Coronet doesn’t have its original motor, but it is the correct motor for that car. If I was to ever upgrade, I’d get a newer mopar. If I want to install an LS, I’d sell the coronet and find a GM project.

mjfloyd1

I guess I consider a restomod more like a kit car

qbrozen

I would say there are certainly some that get to that point. Sometimes they mod things SO FAR that it makes no sense to me why they started with an old chassis to begin with.

xwesx

I wonder if I could fit an LS into my Econoline?

ab348

xwesx said:

I wonder if I could fit an LS into my Econoline?

Sure, just put it behind the seats.

Fascinating thing on Motor Trend online this week from Mike Brewer of Wheeler Dealers fame. He visited a shop in Calif. that is fitting Tesla motors/drive units/battery packs into classic cars. Big $$$ apparently, but exceedingly cool.

jmonroe

ab348 said:

xwesx said:

I wonder if I could fit an LS into my Econoline?

Sure, just put it behind the seats.

Fascinating thing on Motor Trend online this week from Mike Brewer of Wheeler Dealers fame. He visited a shop in Calif. that is fitting Tesla motors/drive units/battery packs into classic cars. Big $$$ apparently, but exceedingly cool.

Now that is doing something just because, well...you can. Can't imagine if you wanted one of those beasts the line would be very long.

jmonroe

corvette

Quarantine is getting expensive. Picked up a pair of AirPods Pro from Amazon. The noise cancellation on them is astoundingly good - and also probably dangerous if you’re walking or running near traffic, but fortunately, it’s easy to disable for those situations.

stickguy

I ran across a video on Youtube not long ago of someone with a shop that did a transplant. Into an Audi coupe. I think it was this one. But if you go to Youtube there are swaps of all kinds popping up. Saw an E30 BMW, a 1950s something, a pickup, and assorted others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGVVioOjCUU

ab348

The conversions Brewer showed were commissioned by celebrities and others who are very well to do. This particular shop fabricates full cradles for the motor/drive, mountings for the batteries, and creates the electronics to control it all along with new dash displays. I hate to think what they charge but it sure looked nice. They showed them doing everything from VW Beetles to Porsche 911s and BMWs. Rear-engine air-cooled cars seemed ideal as the battery packs go up front and help with weight distribution.

ab348

jmonroe said:

Now that is doing something just because, well...you can. Can't imagine if you wanted one of those beasts the line would be very long.

jmonroe

They said the wait list is 2+ years.

fintail

MB 190D/200D/220D/240D Tesla conversion would be fun to troll people with.

28firefighter

corvette said:

Quarantine is getting expensive. Picked up a pair of AirPods Pro from Amazon. The noise cancellation on them is astoundingly good - and also probably dangerous if you’re walking or running near traffic, but fortunately, it’s easy to disable for those situations.

I bought the Echo Buds and I really don't like them; I might cave and switch them out.

jmonroe

ab348 said:

jmonroe said:

Now that is doing something just because, well...you can. Can't imagine if you wanted one of those beasts the line would be very long.

jmonroe

They said the wait list is 2+ years.

Like the man said...there's a butt for every seat.

jmonroe

corvette

28firefighter said:

corvette said:

Quarantine is getting expensive. Picked up a pair of AirPods Pro from Amazon. The noise cancellation on them is astoundingly good - and also probably dangerous if you’re walking or running near traffic, but fortunately, it’s easy to disable for those situations.

I bought the Echo Buds and I really don't like them; I might cave and switch them out.

I had forgotten those existed, and I own two Fire tablets. I have a gas powered push mower and was able to listen to a podcast while I mowed this afternoon. I can’t wait to use the AirPods on a flight.

28firefighter

Took the ZHP to get tires and got the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500s installed. A set of 4 (staggered size front and back) mounted and balanced was $575 including tax at Discount Tire.

Initial impressions are very very good. It holds grip incredibly well, has about 90% less road noise, and has nearly eliminated the tram lining I experienced relative to the Bridgestone Potenza S04s that were on the car. Completely changes the driving dynamic for the better.

Very impressed so far.

nyccarguy

28firefighter said:

Took the ZHP to get tires and got the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500s installed. A set of 4 (staggered size front and back) mounted and balanced was $575 including tax at Discount Tire.

Initial impressions are very very good. It holds grip incredibly well, has about 90% less road noise, and has nearly eliminated the tram lining I experienced relative to the Bridgestone Potenza S04s that were on the car. Completely changes the driving dynamic for the better.

Very impressed so far.

Besides driver training, tires are one of the most effective modifications you can do to your car.

Firestone Firehawk? I’ll keep them in mind when I search for tires for my Prelude this spring/summer.