What Did You Drive?

[pplassm]

Originally Posted by Buzglyd

Back in the IMSA racing days Mazda had an amazing car. The four chamber rotary made over 1000hp and sounded like bees on angel dust.

This: The noise starts at 7:50

Banned after minning LeMans.

YouTube - Mazda 787B "The Legend" 4 rotor Le Mans car

[12er]

Originally Posted by Buzglyd

I saw white snake and Judas Priest in San Diego in the summer. Coverdale had laryngitis and sucked.

Whitensake was popular in the 80s but they had records in the 70s after Coverdale was out of Deep Purple. Ive got some 70s Whitesnake vinyl and they are Bad Companyish rather than 80s hair band.

That was the tour I saw them on and yes his voice was gone. JP kicked ass as they always do, 9th time I saw them and 2cnd for WS (87 day on the green first time for whitesnake, oh what a foggy memory that one was)

[12er]

Originally Posted by schizuki

Mine was red, just like the one in Top Secret.

*ding* KA-BLAMMO!!!!

Someone in my hometown cut back the roof, chopped the top and sloped the windshield much more extreme. Shoehorned a V8 in it and cut out the back for slicks. Didnt look half bad actually, must of relocated the tank though when they cut out for the slicks. Coolest pinto I had seen to date.

[sarnali2]

Originally Posted by Morbo the Destroyer

Oh yeah, I was wrong about the Pinto being slated for a rotary engine. The Vega and Pacer definitely were, but there were no formal plans for the Pinto to have one.

Pinto's are one of the most under-rated cars ever built, the true model T of their time. All you had to do is take a sawzall or hacksaw to the bolts holding on the gas tank straps and that eliminated their fire hazard.

After that you had an economical, bullet proof car that an idiot could keep running or overhaul, parts were dirt cheap and most model years were interchangable in fact the 2.2l SOHC motor is the same one they powered the early Ranger with and is still one of the longest running engines around.

You could pick them up for a couple of hundred bucks, drive the crap out of them just about anywhere, snow, mud, rain and they just chugged right along. I had a '71 Hatchback and a '73 wagon that were almost indestructible unless you drove them off a cliff. It's a shame they got such a bad rap.

[12er]

Originally Posted by mscuddy

I drove the '68 GTO my Grandpa left me for thirty years, everybody hated that car, my wife, mom, uncle, so after I recovered from my first car-motorcycle accident (Got nailed I block from home on my YZ490 with the license plate, destroyed my left knee) I borrowed a grand from my uncle (to buy another dirt bike) who made the deal that I HAD to sell the GTO to pay him back...so in 1995 I sold my cherry Verdoro Green '68 GTO with the hide-a-way headlights and rally III wheels for $3,500.00 to some slack jawed idiot.

Someone shoot me....

My LeMans was the same color but you had all the options I wanted and lusted for. Mine came with the 2 speed Powerglide but I blew that thing into a million peaces within the first month. Too many downshifts at 80 ripping the rears loose.

Oh the pinto was supposed to be the most advanced car of tomorrow, but at the last second they decided it wouldn't be. Originally designed with a bladder to protect the tank, and yanked at the last minute as too costly. We then saw the results of that decision.

[mscuddy]

I never understood why people hated the Pinto. Mine was bullet proof, even all hopped up, it never missed a beat.

That 2.3 liter motor has been put into everything, the Ranger, it was turbocharged when they stuck it in the T Bird, I mean, damn, if you ever saw the crankshaft on one, it was like something out of a tank.

Five main bearings, and a 75 lb. counterbalanced crankshaft. That's why you can build the bejezus out of that motor, and it won't explode. They make great sand rail motors too, all that lower end weight.

My "Pony MPG" had a 3.30 rear end ratio, and was a rockship on the freeway. And Ford put a C4 transmission in it for gods sake, the same one that went in the ful sized LTD.

When people (boneheads) start bad rapping the Pinto around me, they better expect an earfull. Now the Vega was a real POS. I'll admit that. And the Pacer had the same 4.1 liter motor that was in the 1951 Nash Ambassador. Another tank-like motor. Every Jeep had one for years, and they just quit making it, I guess they ran out of blocks or something (AMC had about 80,000 curing in the Kelvinator plant's lower 40 at one time).

[silentgrayfellow]

I don't compare the Pinto and Vega to the Pacer. Their real competition was the Gremlin. The Pacer was a more upscale offering on par with the Chevy Monza or Ford Maverick.


My first car (in the photo below) was a '66 Pontiac Grand Prix, 389 with a Carter AFB (Aluminum Four Barrel), with the 3-speed Turbo Hydramatic trans. Nice car, looked like a GTO from the front.

Later I had '81 Olds Gutlass that I traded for a '59 Ford Fairlane 500 Tudor. My brother put that one in a ditch while I was overseas serving in the Army.

Marraige put an end to cool cars for me after that. I did have a '73 Monte Carlo 350 for a few months, but got tired of the old lady *****ing about the poor gas mileage.

Now I'm single, but like Sarnali I spend my money on my bike and drive a beater.