Horsepower cuts embarass Asians

My take on it is that they had a styling theme and wanted to stick
with it for 58 and were in the middle of the range in 57, dead on
center at tasteful. Trying to keep the same theme but with
substantial changes took them out of tasteful for that theme.

I think we recently witnessed the same thing happening with aero
styling. Conisider the first couple of renditions of the Taurus and
then the one with the oval back glass. Same thing with the Intrepid
and other LH cars. And the Pontiac Grand Prix that's so swoopy the
back door beltline is at eye level for a back seat passenger. And
current Dakota, Durango, and Ram versus the previous models.

 

Detroit's decades-long obsession with HP -- and NOTHING else -- has
made it a worldwide laughingstock when it comes to sports cars.

 

Detroit's decades-long obsession with HP -- and NOTHING else -- has
made it a worldwide laughingstock when it comes to sports cars.

 

from 1970ish until relatively recently, they couldnt even offer HP. 350
cubic inch engines delivering 150HP? boat anchors.

 

from 1970ish until relatively recently, they couldnt even offer HP. 350
cubic inch engines delivering 150HP? boat anchors.

 

it's the only way they could make them halfway reliable. cast cranks?
what garbage! increase power? need to increase spending on materials
and production!!! and that would never do.

 

it's the only way they could make them halfway reliable. cast cranks?
what garbage! increase power? need to increase spending on materials
and production!!! and that would never do.

 

so true. i think that every time i massively out-corner a mustang in my
89 civic hatch on my skinny little 185/60-14's. a friend of mine has a
seriously rodded mustang, and we went out one day into some hills where
there are some nice twisty narrow roads. first, we both went in his.
no question, /way/ more power. seriously way more power. then we went
in mine. thing is, power doesn't mean squat when you have to brake and
corner hard with two wheels in the ditch. after i drove, he wasn't
speaking much. then he drove. when we were done, he just got out and
threw me my keys and walked away! it took him days to stop sulking. i
love civics!

 

so true. i think that every time i massively out-corner a mustang in my
89 civic hatch on my skinny little 185/60-14's. a friend of mine has a
seriously rodded mustang, and we went out one day into some hills where
there are some nice twisty narrow roads. first, we both went in his.
no question, /way/ more power. seriously way more power. then we went
in mine. thing is, power doesn't mean squat when you have to brake and
corner hard with two wheels in the ditch. after i drove, he wasn't
speaking much. then he drove. when we were done, he just got out and
threw me my keys and walked away! it took him days to stop sulking. i
love civics!

 

Everyone in the US who doesen't have a big powerful sports car makes the
same claims and tells this same story with minor variations.

The Europeans have tried to redefine a sports car as a car that goes fast
through the turns. This completely ignores several fundamental realities
of driving:

a) Driving like this makes you throw up
b) Just about all roadway corners do not have enough forward visibility to
safely go around at 80Mph. While you may be easily able to stay in
your lane, the big panel truck coming the opposite direction going 40Mph
could easily have crossed over the centerline, and your not going to have
enough road at that speed for him to get back over and for you to swerve
safely

The rest of the world doesen't like to look at straight-line performance
because if they built cars that had it, very few of their customers would
buy them.

But, driving in a straight line is the safest possible way to race against
the next guy on the public street, and there is nothing like being slammed
back in your seat with powerful accelleration as the feeling of power in
a car.

Watch little kids playing with their HotWheels, they race against each
other in a straight line, when have you ever seen little kids with toy
cars pretending to saloom through a bunch of curves? How fun is that?
little kids know what a fun car does, the only reason you have forgotten
is because you have been reprogrammed by the advertisers who only
have crappy product to sell.

Rocket ships go stright with tons of accelleration. Racing jet boats
go in a straight line with tons of accelleration. Drag cars and drag
motorcycles go in a straight line with tons of accelleration, and you
have not lived until you have sat on a 1000cc Kawasaki with wheelie
bars and shot down a quarter mile at full throttle.

Ted

 

Everyone in the US who doesen't have a big powerful sports car makes the
same claims and tells this same story with minor variations.

The Europeans have tried to redefine a sports car as a car that goes fast
through the turns. This completely ignores several fundamental realities
of driving:

a) Driving like this makes you throw up
b) Just about all roadway corners do not have enough forward visibility to
safely go around at 80Mph. While you may be easily able to stay in
your lane, the big panel truck coming the opposite direction going 40Mph
could easily have crossed over the centerline, and your not going to have
enough road at that speed for him to get back over and for you to swerve
safely

The rest of the world doesen't like to look at straight-line performance
because if they built cars that had it, very few of their customers would
buy them.

But, driving in a straight line is the safest possible way to race against
the next guy on the public street, and there is nothing like being slammed
back in your seat with powerful accelleration as the feeling of power in
a car.

Watch little kids playing with their HotWheels, they race against each
other in a straight line, when have you ever seen little kids with toy
cars pretending to saloom through a bunch of curves? How fun is that?
little kids know what a fun car does, the only reason you have forgotten
is because you have been reprogrammed by the advertisers who only
have crappy product to sell.

Rocket ships go stright with tons of accelleration. Racing jet boats
go in a straight line with tons of accelleration. Drag cars and drag
motorcycles go in a straight line with tons of accelleration, and you
have not lived until you have sat on a 1000cc Kawasaki with wheelie
bars and shot down a quarter mile at full throttle.

Ted

 

Uh, "redefine"? Seems to me the original British sports cars that
went fast around corners *DEFINED* the sports car, around 40 years
ago.

FloydR

 

Uh, "redefine"? Seems to me the original British sports cars that
went fast around corners *DEFINED* the sports car, around 40 years
ago.

FloydR

 

Methinks you friend does not know how to drive. One of my neighborhood
kids challenged my stock 2005 Mustang GT convertible to a timed run with his
riced up 2006 Civic up over a local six mile mountain road, loaded with
hairpin turns where all the locals 'test' their cars . If we had been
running for titles I would have yet another car for one of my grand
children, if he had the title instead of the bank. LOL

mike

 

Methinks you friend does not know how to drive. One of my neighborhood
kids challenged my stock 2005 Mustang GT convertible to a timed run with his
riced up 2006 Civic up over a local six mile mountain road, loaded with
hairpin turns where all the locals 'test' their cars . If we had been
running for titles I would have yet another car for one of my grand
children, if he had the title instead of the bank. LOL

mike

 

Wasn't that an unfair competition? RWD vs FWD, real competition experience
vs. (probably) none? ;-)

 

Wasn't that an unfair competition? RWD vs FWD, real competition experience
vs. (probably) none? ;-)

 

More likely it was my 60 some years of driving experience, vis-a-v his 6 or
so years I supose. I guess he never heard of the Ford GT 500 that blew the
doors off every sports car in Europe, in the sixties

There is no question a RWD vehicle will out handle a FWD vehicle and that is
the point. The original poster seem to think otherwise.


mike hunt

 

This turns out not to be the case. It has been known to affect my wife
though...

True. But you'd be amazed how much fun you can have at 30, in the
rain. It rains over here...

Because we pay a dollar a litre for gas. That's right, per LITRE. call
it 4 dollars per US gallon.

I don't disagree so much with the rest of your comments!

Andy

 

This turns out not to be the case. It has been known to affect my wife
though...

True. But you'd be amazed how much fun you can have at 30, in the
rain. It rains over here...

Because we pay a dollar a litre for gas. That's right, per LITRE. call
it 4 dollars per US gallon.

I don't disagree so much with the rest of your comments!

Andy