jimrankin

Great episode. Thanks for the post. Did they end up putting Captain Slow in the R500 just so there would be some chance for the other two? Biggest surprise of the episode was the Morgan replica being as good as it was. I have turned several "non car nut" friends of mine onto watching top gear and the typically understated English humor and the chemistry between the three of them has made them all fans. A couple of them have actually started to understand the addiction some of us have about ours and others cars.

Go out and drive!. If it's not running, shut off the computer and go work on it!.

Well, I made it through most of the first session in a pack of cars but as soon as I broke out and went by the sound station I got the big bad meatball. Ouch!!. Since the car is a lot quieter than it was (somewhere around 103DB wide open before) I didn't know if it would pass or not but was runing wide open up the hill past the sound check anyway. Was closer to 96 than the required 92 so had to start running that section in 5th and half throttle the rest of the day. I screwed up by not ordering the fiberglass muffler packing I had planned to install in the "Monterey box" and just welded it up "empty". I may grind off the bottom welds and pack that sucker full of glass before I go back to LS in April just to see where I come in on their sound meter. I'm going to have to get my s--- together and build myself a better exhaust, probably using one of the mufflers taht can have internal baffels taken out or adfded as needed. I was really having a hard time to get the car into Vtec, it usually came on just about when the rev limiter was less than 1K from kicking in. The stock Honda ECU was probably reading a fault on something, either intake or exhaust and playing the "I'm protecting myself" game. Even with that I was sure having some fun. It's a great track and there were a lot of fast cars including RNR's and about 3-4 other 7 types. From talking with a few of them we all seemed to be playing the "tiptoe up the hill in high gear" game. Since I probably won't get a new exhaust built in the next few weeks I'll probably just re-use the box and cool it where I have to. To fun a track to miss another chance at it. I know your Jonesing for the Black Ultralite to get here from Texas so I won't go on about just how much of a kick these cars are on the track but....HURRY!! It's a blast! LOL.

There are always going to be those who at some time are going to need some help. The problem we face with welfare/food stamps/assisted housing is summed up nicely buy a statement I heard 20+ years ago, "what started out as a needed safety net has unfortulately become a comfortable hammock". I don't know why welfare has ever been given out without some type of incentive to get off it. If the day you started on welfare you had to also get up and dressed and report for "work" every morning, such as cleaning up your own neighborhood or watching, cleaning, feeding other people's children while they did work you were not able to perform it might make you more interested in finding a regular job and also maybe a bit less inclined to have more childern you can not support. I was infused by my parents and grandparents with what used to be called a "yankee work ethic" so while not being the sharpest knife in the set I was still able to start with nothing and eventually end up owning my own business and a very comfortable life. The group of people on "generational welfare'' that is being addressed in this post, and the children they are raising, obviously are not self motivated so unless some type of reason to change is provided, or forced on them, it will remain the status quo. Being from California I can tell you that there are literaly millions of jobs being filled by people who sneak into this country for the advantages millions of "legal citizens" just don't have a reason to take advantage of. I do know that if I was on welfare and I had to get up and report to the welfare center to go scrub graffiti off walls or pick up fast food wrappers and trash instead of sleeping in late and deciding just how much drama I could create with all my free time, the welfare route might not look so inviting. Real change is not going to happen because it's a government program, and all government programs only know how to change to "bigger", not for better. So get ready for more welfare, not less, and if you think who is President is actually going to make for a change, well, you should watch an old British show calle "Yes Minister". Just so true, the leaders change, the real government goes on and on as usual.

"on paper" the 914 should win hands down. The small motor isn't going to be too much of a problem if the roads were as good for "spirited" driving as you say. The 914 might have been a "VW in a sardine can" as it's Porsche purist detractors called it but they didn't knock it's turn and stopping ability. If your getting off from a bunch of stop lights and too much straight road it's going to be too slow.

The truck is WAY faster but the 2500HD fuel milage and cornering are not up to the old MGA's. Your right, todays cars are wildly better than cars from the 50's and 60's and I have no problem with all the things the MINI, BMW and Silverado do to make my life easier. But with the possible exception of the MINI with the electronics turned off I don't "enjoy" driving any of them anywhere near as much as I enjoyed the raw fun of an MGA on a twisty two lane back road. Yes, my friends with Z06's, 911's and a host of other fast new cars can do it much quicker than any MG/Healy/Jag from the 60's but to get to the same "driving at the limit" feeling and required constant corrections they have to get some serious speed going. Maybe it was the non-power assisted steering and brake "feel" and the old tire compounds that squealed like a pig at almost any hard input that made it feel so fast (when it probably wasn't) and so good, don't know. Maybe it is that the cars are so good now that you do need to get to really dangerous speeds to have them reach their limit and bring your heart rate up.

When I was looking for the original dealer cost on some of the older sports cars I was struck by just how high the current pricing had gone on ALL older sports cars. What I paid "way back" for three used MGA's, a Morgan, a Jag and a first year SS/RS Camaro wouldn't get me a good Bug Eye now. Part of it could be that they represent the cars of us older folks youth and we can afford to own them now, even at the inflated pricing, but more so I think it's something else. Anyone can get a used "modern" sports car that is a more powerful, safer and better performing counterpart to much older cars that are now in the same or even much higher price range. From a practical standpoint one would seem a fool to want to put up with leaky tops and side curtains, heaters and defrosters that are all but worthless and so much noise you don't need the radio it didn't have anyway. It might just be me, but I think a lot of the appeal is that you can not only understand all of the components that make up the car (no magic computer systems and 22 page wiring diagrams with symbols and values that look like they are for the space shuttle) but actually figure out what's wrong with simple tools and then fix it yourself. I have no desire to even lift the hood of my 2011 Silverado (actually don't think I have yet and it's a year old) where as the first thing I did when buying cars in the late 60's through the late 70's was drool over the motors. When was the last time you walked into a dealership and saw a car on the showroom floor with the hood up? WOW! look at all the pretty plastic covers! LOL. Don't get me wrong, modern cars with cruise control, anti-everything driving assist, turn by turn direction and XM radio make going place more comfortable and safer but they have taken a good bit of the "fun" out of the "getting there'. Driving coast to coast does not seem the adventure it once was, or maybe it is and it's just me. '66 GMC van towing a '61 MGA with not much more than gas money in my pocket and no worries because anything short of blowing a rod I could fix with my packed in the van tools and a cheap locally sourced part. Kid's doing that now probably face "if it stops running I hope there is a dealer close by and my creit card limit can get upped". On the other hand, they will be more comfortable and probably more likely to get there without anything actually breaking.

Tell your brother that there is a 1956 dealer price sheet on Ebay for $5.00 Standard-Triumph Motorcar Co. Might be fun to have it hanging in the garage.

found an original list price sheet.Car was about $2,500.00 and if you did a hard top add $750.00. That was a lot of money for the car as full sized american cars were selling for less, even dressed up.

All things are relative...If you look at what we get in a car these days for the money they are indead "cheap". Technology, robotics and standardizing parts across several models has made it possible to provide very complex yet reliable cars for "reasonable" prices. These manufacturing traits, the need to please a mass buying group to keep the production unit numbers up and wind tunnel testing for milage has also made them mostly bland cookie cutter copies of each other. The man who said "you can't have it all" wasn't too far off the mark. We either get "cheap and reliable", but bland, or we can get "Unique, hell fire hot and I really want one", but it sure ain't going to be cheap! At least "hot" cars have become more reliable. Anyone who ever owned a 435HP 427 will tell you that about once a month it would be harder to live with than the wife. "Honey, can you adjust my solid lifters and does this #8 plug make my exhaust look black". LOL. Now you can beat the s--- out of your 450+ HP Chevy, Ford or Dodge and drive it by the dealer about once a year for an oil change. As for $3,000.00 for a '56 TR3, must have been a lot of import duty in that price because MG and Triumph were the "cheaper" import sports cars, Austin Healy was one step up and Jag on top. Probably do some research and find what they actually listed for. Have a great weekend everyone, and if it's sunny you better give the 7 some road love.

I remember watching The Walt Disney show "Futurama" episodes on black and white TV ( I think Disneyland was still being built and the DisneyWorld area was still producing nothing but Gators). In the "future", like maybe the 1980's, cars would be driving themselves along magnetic highways with no possibility of an accident or a traffic jam. They always showed these great "plastic bubble top" cars with sweeping fins and a family inside sitting around what looked like a resturant booth playing cards or whatever while while the car did all of the driving. Gee, that seems so dated now, because by the time TV went color the cars on Disney's Futurama shows were all "flying" themselves and we didn't need highways anymore. Somewhere along the line things seemed to have gone terribly wrong!!! Come back Walt, we need you. LOL.

That car really showed where American corporate auto thinking was when it was first produced. Legend has it, urban or whatever type, that it was first pitched to GM who stupidly passed because they already had the vette and thought it might cut into sales of a high profit line. Then to Ford, they were just DUMB as they did not have anything like it in their line as Mustangs were by then clearly not smal sports road cars. Lucky for Miatas that Ford had a big part of Mazda by then so tossed it to Japan. If either GM or Ford had produced it in house at that time it would have probably been a POS and even if they didn't screw it up the first time in 3-4 years the next tooling would have had it bigger, softer and more expensive. On the "up" side, if GM or Ford had made it here it would have been packing a large V8 by version 3. LOL.

One that says to the jerks driving 60 in the fast lane, the ones who stop at the end of the acceleration ramps and the ones who put their turn signal on as they are already making the actual turn, "Your driving like you have a stick up your a--, learn to freakin' drive or just get off the highway". I'm usually shouting that bit of informartion at them but it would make my life easier if their car just told them. LOL.

Only the cheap sandwich you don't want is $5.00, and the one you end up buying for full price doesn't look a bit like the nice one on the TV commercial. Jarred probably lost all that weight because they don't put any real meat in the sandwiches. He probably had to go by Burger King to avoid starvation. LOL. Have a Great Valentines Day everybody.

If you don't remember the old saying about what the definition of "rich" is here it is: "If you have to ask the price of anything, your not rich". I'm more of a "is that $5 foot long deal still on"? LOL.

"Cars" keep getting better and better as far as the mechanicals, gas use to power ratio and rusting away goes but..... they suck the big one on the excitment meter and unless your dad owns the dealership where you bought it you probably can't work on it or afford to get it fixed once it's ten years old. Short of a couple of the "hot" cars like big Porsche, M series DMW's and some other notable efforts there isn't a lot to drool over. Even the MINI keeps getting bigger and the Fiat 500 will be a fat pig in no time. LOL. I could keep my '55 and my '57 Chevy running for peanuts (other than my penchant for shopping on the back pages of Hot Rod magazine ***** pre-internet equivalent of Summit Racing} for anything to make them go faster. LOL). Now it's pretty much out of reach of a "kid" to do anything since even if he doesn't need a computer to tell him whats wrong he need so many special tools it takes it out of his hands. Only someone my age can remember when your entire "special tools" section of the box had a torque wrench, ring compressor and a snap ring plier set. And that set made you "the man" amoung your friends at 17 years old. Oh, and a sawn off input shaft from a blown 3-speed to center up your new clutch, FREE special tool.

It's not that you couldn't make a car like that here, it's that you couldn't SELL it here. The government won't let you drive a car without all the "safety features" but they will let you drive a car that won't turn or stop and you can't see out of. It's kind of schizophrenic in the government's "car world". You have to put daylight headliights (actually a good idea) on the car but you can have them disabled. You have to have bumpers (as previously noted) but anyone can jack up a pick up till their bumper is over your boot lid and the headlights are at your eye level. The Camery has a great crash rating, which is good because that is just the driver who is going to put a set of "four for $99 installed" tires on to save money and slide right into the back of your 7. Too bad for you though, your car wasn't safe, it stops too quickly. LOL. California doesn't have a yearly vehicle inspection and you see junkers driving on the road that are, literally, unsafe even when parked. There was a big Hub-bub a few years ago because (a few blocks from my home) one of our state legislators surgeon husband was killed when he was broadsided in an intersection by a car being driven "without working brakes". I actually thought something might come from it but nothing ever did. Your car and you insurance still get checked AFTER the accident. Oh well, just venting, I shouldn't try to use the terms "common sense" and "government" in the same paragraph.

I really like your way of thinking!! Puts new meaning to "go big or just stay home". Most of the houseboats I see at the lake I frequent have a motorized davit/crane to hoist their jet skis aboard. Since I didn't see a davit, or a helicopter pad on the boat I'm afraid that Klasik-69 may be right. Photo-shop !! Say it ain't so mister Type II mega rich guy. LOL.

Just plain having it ALL. I have worked with some really rich people over the last 30 years in silicon valley and they break down into two kinds. The ones who make making more money the "game" and it's all they do, and the other kind that spend half their time making more money and the other half doing all the stuff I would do if I had the money. Obviously, the owner of the "garage" is of the second type. Having worked projects for both kinds, type II's are by far my favorites. My daily commute passes me in front of the entrance to FaceBook every AM & PM. With the IPO now out I'm sure to start seeing some really fine rides coming and going out of that stoplight. I'll be sure to honk and give them one of their own "thumbs up's".

I'm glad K-69 asked about getting in and out of the car once in the trailer as that was my first thought, well, second really. My first thought was "Holy Crap, I'd need new fenders every few weeks" I have a hard enough time just getting my car near the "middle" of an 8'6" wide trailer. LOL. If your on track driving lines are as precise as your parking line has to be you must be fast.....

I know what at least a few of you are thinking... Humm..,Turbo Hyabusa?

RNR's car had a nice open space for the box, slam dunk. I had the horn and overflow right where the "box" was going so had to make up the bracket in the attached photo. Shot of it all installed and unless we get rained out we should be good to go for Laguna.

The two tabs on the bottom go through the muffler clamp bolt that is part of the mount I made to hold the muffler with a flex instead of the solid mount that broke the muffler apart at the ends. The muffler and the add on move together. There is a "slide over pipe" welded to the add on box that isn't really attached to the muffler, just kind of a slip fit. Made it tight enough that not much exhaust slips out. If you look close the clamp is over the original muffler but not over the "slip over pipe".

Track has been around for many years but the big money people moved in and a county sound ordenance got passed. Everywhere else in CA. is pretty much "SCCA" limits and most cars make it OK. It's 103 (I think) at ThunderHill, Infineon and probably at Buttonwillow also, Just Monterey that has the tight sphincter problem. Oh yeah, got to cool it after/before certain hours most everywhere but it's usually not a problem.

After thinking about it for a while I could market it as "a condom for 7's" since it slips over your pipe when needed and prevents the dreaded "black flag" disease.