Automobiles? Any other car freaks out there?
- Thread starter Chevette Girl
- Start date
-
Love Gotmead and want to see it grow? Then consider supporting the site and becoming a Patron! If you're logged in, click on your username to the right of the menu to see how as little as $30/year can get you access to the patron areas and the patron Facebook group and to support Gotmead!
-
We now have a Patron-exclusive Facebook group! Patrons my join at The Gotmead Patron Group. You MUST answer the questions, providing your Patron membership, when you request to join so I can verify your Patron membership. If the questions aren't answered, the request will be turned down.
*cries*
I learned to drive in an automatic BMW 318, then learned to drive stick in a '95 BMW M3. I don't know what my dad was thinking, letting a 17 year old take that thing out. Looking back I'm just glad I never crashed it doing so many stupid things (or even get a speeding ticket!). Ever since I drove that car (and a few newer models) I have been in love with it. I'm hoping to buy an older one in the next year or two once my '06 Jetta is paid off.
My Jetta has been great. It is fun to drive, maybe a little big for my tastes, but gets great gas mileage (24 city, 32 highway).
My dream car, though, is a Porsche 911 Turbo... *drools* I got to drive one once with permission to do whatever I wanted. It may have been the best 60 minutes of my life. I like to think of them as a miniature version of god.
Now, that IS sweet.
My next car was a '97 Ford ranger 2WD. By the time I left Idaho I had gotten so good at driving it on every kind of surface, famous last words were "You'll need 4wd to do this" Videos of me driving it (that I have now lost) that were posted on the internet garnered comments to the effect of "You're lying, you're a professional rally truck driver, there's no way you can pull this driving off"
Somewhere in there I did actually get a Suzuki Samurai. The kid that owned it before me rear ended a Jeep and messed up the front pretty good but didn't hurt the frame. I replaced a timing belt, timing cover and water pump. Put a used nose clip into place to re-make the engine compartment. By the time I was done I had all of $500 into it and used to joke, "I could roll this thing off a cliff and so long as everyone was safe it'd be a hell of an experience"
In between there was a series of unmemorable vehicles, then my '96 Cavalier which simply won't die. I had a '82 Honda Silverwing 650 Interstate edition bike (was funny riding it around at Daygton Bike Week and jump starting Harleysand now I've finally got a truck again... well... my nused SUV, but I'm enjoying my Pathfinder for now
Yeah, I can't tell you how many times I've one Chevette or another to jumpstart many other vehicles far newer... ("far better!" my roommate chimes in)... That is so awesome with your Ranger, when you really "get" a vehicle it's amazing what you can do sometimes. The stuff I get up to in the 'vette...
But then I've been driving one for over 15 years, by now I SHOULD know how to handle them. Like a 2wd truck, only much littler. And only 4" clearance on a good day (although once I get going 6" of snow isn't that big a problem... 8", yeah, I get stuck. It is only a Chevette after all).I have not been so financially lucky with my vehicles, but so far I'm not going to complain, they always get me to as safe a place as they can manage before cacking, and I always seem to catch things (like a shock absorber popped out of where it belongs and rubbing against my gas line) BEFORE it's critical...
And Caffeine211, as much as I hate the look of most of them, I've heard that Porsches are a really awesome drive (my brother in-law had one so my hubby's been in one), don't take it personally that I hate the bubble-butt look, I mean, I love Chevettes, I think they're cute, so that's gotta say something about my tastes! A friend of mine has two diesel Jettas and swears by 'em ("You learn to be a patient driver!"), I'd think about one but the parts are crazy expensive, especially body bits, or so I've been led to believe. At least Hondas and Toyotas are manufactured in this country...
Last edited:
I've had a few favorites but my current is a 1963 Chevy short bed, step side K10 (first year for a factory chevy 4 wheel drive) And it'srestored, not perfect under the hood, the dash has a spot that needs some work but prettty much brand new.
Sweet! I admit - I like almost anything built in the 1955-1970 era. Styling was as important as performance, and although Detroit products had begun their long, slow decline into near-oblivion by then, most of what they built at least had some redeeming value!
I've gone from owning that Olds, to a 1980 Chevette, to a 1984 Honda Accord, to an '88 Honda CRX Si, to a '92 Dodge Dakota (that was a mistake!) to a '94 Chrysler minivan (the beginning of our "baby on board" era) to a '96 Subaru Outback (which we still own and if it weren't for my son wrecking it while trying to avoid a deer last month, we'd still be driving) to our two Jeeps ('86 Cherokee and '99 Grand Cherokee). Funny how I've come back to US products in the past few years simply because they were the best for our situation (4WD mandatory in these Colorado mountain winters, although the Outback got thru most of the time). I'm not particularly fond of modern Mopar, especially considering all the work that I have to do on that '99 to keep it on the road. Oh, and I managed to pick up a 1950 Olds 88 along the way, as a nostalgia project car!
My two most fun rides were the Olds and the CRX, though. Wish I had 'em both back again!
Young with more money than brains!
This car could pass anything on the highway, except a gas station. It got 13 miles/gallon, highway or city driving. OUCH! (Who remembers the Arab Oil Embargo?) It had a 160 miles-per-hour speedometer. I once got it up to “P” miles per hours on I-80. By that, I mean I-80 was clear and the truckers were going in excess of 80 MPH. A long, straight stretch of highway, completely clear of traffic greeted me… and I punched it. The speedometer did not have a little peg to stop the speedometer needle once it got past the end of its range. The needle was soon pointing straight down, to the “P” on the “MPH” label at the bottom of the speedometer. I estimate that I was traveling at about 185 to 190 MPH. The car then started to shake a bit, so I immediately backed off the gas. What a rush! And how VERY stupid.
On my 40th birthday, I had a cousin ask me if I ever thought that I would reach 40 years of age. After a brief reflection, I said “Absolutely. Making it to 30 was kind of questionable. But after hitting 30, some common sense set in and 40 was no problem at all.”
I had a brand new 1978 Trans Am. Black with red valor interior, T-tops, 6.6-liter engine, 4-speed Hurst shifter and the “giant chicken” on the hood. And don’t forget the 8-track player! This car was super sharp, similar to the one in “Smokey and the Bandit”, but actually had more options. It listed for $8,600 and, at that time, they were going for full sticker price. But I had a cousin who was a District Manager for Pontiac and got it for cost, $6,800. As a young engineer, fresh out of college, I was in heaven.
This car could pass anything on the highway, except a gas station. It got 13 miles/gallon, highway or city driving. OUCH! (Who remembers the Arab Oil Embargo?) It had a 160 miles-per-hour speedometer. I once got it up to “P” miles per hours on I-80. By that, I mean I-80 was clear and the truckers were going in excess of 80 MPH. A long, straight stretch of highway, completely clear of traffic greeted me… and I punched it. The speedometer did not have a little peg to stop the speedometer needle once it got past the end of its range. The needle was soon pointing straight down, to the “P” on the “MPH” label at the bottom of the speedometer. I estimate that I was traveling at about 185 to 190 MPH. The car then started to shake a bit, so I immediately backed off the gas. What a rush! And how VERY stupid.
On my 40th birthday, I had a cousin ask me if I ever thought that I would reach 40 years of age. After a brief reflection, I said “Absolutely. Making it to 30 was kind of questionable. But after hitting 30, some common sense set in and 40 was no problem at all.”
I know the feeling.
I was once pulled over for doing 114 in a 55 outside of Elko, NV. I was driving a Chevy Suburban.
I realized it was a cop with one of the super low profile light bars right as I passed him. I pulled over and waited for him without the lights even coming on. Sure it was the middle of nowhere, but in the middle of nowhere there's nowhere to run or hide.
First the cop asked why I was going 114, to which I replied "The governor kicks in at 115"
He gave me a dirty look then told me, "You should know, the only reason you're not going to jail is because you pulled over. If you had made me chase your A** down you'd be in cuffs right now"
Niiice... especially the part about the governor... sounds like something my brother in law would say... A quote after he'd been pulled over: "Do you realize you just drove through a stop sign? "f**k off, really? Where?" Somehow he didn't even get a ticket...
I have actually gotten a speeding ticket in my Chevette. Yes, I considered having it framed. Although the fastest I've gone in one (the last one) is around 160 km/h (yes it was down a hill, shut up), the speedo only goes to 140 and I had it down to "right signal indicator), my dad told me he had the Pig (Delta 88 ) at "right signal indicator", but its top speedometer reading was 100 MILES per hour and being a much bigger dashboard console, had a lot further to go to get there than on a Chevette.
I love 70's cars but they're the same age range as I am. I'm only 7 years older than my current Beast. And my Cutlass (only 2 years older than me) got the same mileage as Pitbull's Trans Am... and that's back when I was 17 and gas was $.60 per litre. It's just over double that now (more than $4.50 per US gallon).
at a guess without ABS you would have crashed.
having said that i have never driven snow so i don't know if braking is similar to gravel. on any slick surface ABS is always better than a without ABS, simply because you can't get traction if the wheels lock up. however on things like mud/gravel where locking the brakes actually helps get traction, ABS is a major pain.
i simply think you simply didn't adjust your driving to suit the different vehicle. you simply can't treat different vehicle the same, especial in high risk situations. you can't just slam on the brakes any old time and expect it to stop.
i spent many years as a tradesman driving multiable different vehicles each day. that was probably the best driving training you could get.
tho i've had similar experience simply caused by a change of tires.
Not true Tweake. I've seen testing done where if you are a very experienced driver and have the presence of mind NOT to just lock up the tires non-ABS is better.
ABS is better in most cases since most people aren't that good of drivers and don't have that level of self control in an emergency braking situation.
Ice is fun to drive on, I once did a complete 360 spin at somewhere between 70 and 80 kph and managed to pull out of it and just keep driving (pickup trucks are HORRIBLE for ice and snow, fishtail all over the place and get stuck super easy because they have no weight at all on the drive tires unless you carry around a load of sandbags...).
The main key to driving on ice is if you notice you're slipping do nothing. Do not turn, do not break, do not accellerate. If you're drifting then make very slow gentle adjustment turns of the wheel (not while accellerating or breaking), we're talking very small though, like a couple inches max of movement on the driving wheel. Then if you have to break do so extremely gently. But definitely only do any of that after a moment of doing absolutely nothing but assess the situation! Panic is bad.
It's better to crash on your own terms than to do something too drastic and crash out of control.
I've been in a ton of situations driving up here where I could have died pretty easily, I've seen people flip their cars end over end (with 30 feet of clean snow between where they left the road and landed, so we're talking seriously airborne...) just by drifting slightly into the snowbank.
But as long as you aren't getting killed, driving in the winter is serious fun. ;D
The main key to driving on ice is if you notice you're slipping do nothing. Do not turn, do not break, do not accellerate. If you're drifting then make very slow gentle adjustment turns of the wheel (not while accellerating or breaking), we're talking very small though, like a couple inches max of movement on the driving wheel. Then if you have to break do so extremely gently. But definitely only do any of that after a moment of doing absolutely nothing but assess the situation! Panic is bad.
It's better to crash on your own terms than to do something too drastic and crash out of control.
I've been in a ton of situations driving up here where I could have died pretty easily, I've seen people flip their cars end over end (with 30 feet of clean snow between where they left the road and landed, so we're talking seriously airborne...) just by drifting slightly into the snowbank.
But as long as you aren't getting killed, driving in the winter is serious fun. ;D
I share his perspective. But when you grow up driving on snow and ice, your perspective is warped accordingly! ;D
I disagree with this statement.
Generally if you have broken a drive wheel free it's because you were applying too much power. If that's the case leaving the accelerator where it is will increase the wheel spin enough to start into the spin.
You need to release the accelerator just enough that wheel spin is neutral to the ground movement. You leave the accelerator there until the vehicle has straightened out. Too much or too little throttle and you have the same problem with slippage between the ground and tire.
If the vehicle isn't straightening on it's own you definitely need to steer into the turn. If you over or under compensated on the throttle this is a very likely scenario.
i seriously doubt it.
short of a race car driver on full alert, its darn near impossible to apply full brakes on an unknown friction surface without under braking or over braking (locking up). considering that most emergency braking situations that i've been in you only have one shot at it. getting off the brakes and back on chews up a lot of time and distance.
Agreed! I am now confident I can handle snow (only took me 15 years practice). Ice, not so much, because sometiems there really is nothing you can do. I think the biggest key to it is to relax and don't do anything sudden.
Yes, when accelerating on a straightaway, as soon as you hear your drive wheel spinning in snow (or see your speedometer jump) you let off the accelerator until it catches again and then be more gradual next time (although I'm told in snow rear wheel drive is different from front wheel drive in this respect, getting right off the accelerator in front wheel drive can screw you up), and steer into the turn, but if you're on glare ice you're mostly hosed unless you make very small adjustments, and "do nothing" is about the right attitude to think about while you're making the small changes.
But sometimes the disconnect is when you try to turn the wheels, even though they're not locked, the momentum carries the vehicle straight instead of the turn you were asking for, it's not always because of acceleration. And now and then if you crank the wheels and goose the gas, you can get the ass end to swing around and point in the direction you wanted. Again, practicing this helps a lot.
But if your whole car is rotating, as opposed to your wheels relative to the drive surface, in snow you can often drive out of it (because I have one drive wheel from the rear, I do practice this a lot in the winter) but on ice you're often screwed, there's nothing you can do because turning your steering wheel will have no effect, they just slide even if you're in neutral, just hold on and try to relax until the vehicle comes to a rest, I do know someone who spun out, stayed on the road and would have been fine except her wheels were pointed towards the ditch when she finally did have traction so right into the ditch she went... I generally "relax" by repeating a swear word over and over in a calm and rational tone because at that point, things are well out of my control and all I can do is wait until there's something I CAN do
Last edited:
I generally "relax" by repeating a swear word over and over in a calm and rational tone because at that point, things are well out of my control and all I can do is wait until there's something I CAN do
They really should teach that approach in Driver's Ed. It is the same thing that I do when I'm in a similar situation, and if nothing else, it minimizes the chances of additional damage! ;D
Firstly, like Wayne, growing up driving on roads you could practically skate on instead of walking definitely leaves one with a totally different perspective on whether it's fun or terrifying! (To be honest, as much fun as it is, there's always moments of sheer terror in there...).
As for the technique that Loadnabox was disputing:
Oops, I should not have said "do nothing", I should have said release the accellerator and then "do nothing" until mentally under control. I totally forgot to mention that part, I guess it's just such second nature to me I forgot that very important detail at the beginning.
Your technique of just a slight release works perfectly when just driving along and you feel a little slipping starting, what you do is exactly what I do in fact. My "let go completely" is for situations that have already gotten out of control. I definitely should have clarified that in my post, 2 different situations. (And your technique would definitely work for a more out of control situation as well, it just requires more experience on ice than simply letting go of the gas entirely, which is part of why I recommend it to people who don't have the experience).
In serious loss of control situations, total release of the pedal works fine, generally as soon as I let go it starts gripping the road immediately. I haven't had an issue with that in rear or front wheel drive vehicles - but that said my experience is with a Chev pickup, a Chev van, and several Chev Cavaliers... I fully admit that it's possible letting go of the gas can cause problems in other vehicles, I honestly don't know.
The problem that can arise however from a complete release is that at some point you're going to obviously have to apply some again, at which point it's very easy to cause the slippage all over again, but if pressure is applied carefully it won't come up.
Like CG said above, yes you do obviously have to steer sometimes. My statement is more about what you do right at the beginning of losing control (I think my post does talk about how after a moment of doing nothing you would then begin to correct very gentley... yup just checked it, it says if you're drifting you're going to have to carefully correct - but most important is not to try to turn while accellerating or breaking). But also like she says, on sheer ice steering can often do nothing at all or cause an even bigger problem, so that's why I teach people not to turn at all until their mind is wrapped around what's happening so that they avoid making a knee-jerk turn which will pretty much 100% of the time cause a spin.
Sometimes turning at all is the worst thing you can do, crashing under control may be better. (For example taking a corner at higher speeds, better to hit that rail/curb/wall/whatever head-on than spinning or flipping)
So yeah... I obviously need to work on how I explain my technique, I don't come off super clearly at all in that post!
As for the technique that Loadnabox was disputing:
Oops, I should not have said "do nothing", I should have said release the accellerator and then "do nothing" until mentally under control. I totally forgot to mention that part, I guess it's just such second nature to me I forgot that very important detail at the beginning.
Your technique of just a slight release works perfectly when just driving along and you feel a little slipping starting, what you do is exactly what I do in fact. My "let go completely" is for situations that have already gotten out of control. I definitely should have clarified that in my post, 2 different situations. (And your technique would definitely work for a more out of control situation as well, it just requires more experience on ice than simply letting go of the gas entirely, which is part of why I recommend it to people who don't have the experience).
In serious loss of control situations, total release of the pedal works fine, generally as soon as I let go it starts gripping the road immediately. I haven't had an issue with that in rear or front wheel drive vehicles - but that said my experience is with a Chev pickup, a Chev van, and several Chev Cavaliers... I fully admit that it's possible letting go of the gas can cause problems in other vehicles, I honestly don't know.
The problem that can arise however from a complete release is that at some point you're going to obviously have to apply some again, at which point it's very easy to cause the slippage all over again, but if pressure is applied carefully it won't come up.
Like CG said above, yes you do obviously have to steer sometimes. My statement is more about what you do right at the beginning of losing control (I think my post does talk about how after a moment of doing nothing you would then begin to correct very gentley... yup just checked it, it says if you're drifting you're going to have to carefully correct - but most important is not to try to turn while accellerating or breaking). But also like she says, on sheer ice steering can often do nothing at all or cause an even bigger problem, so that's why I teach people not to turn at all until their mind is wrapped around what's happening so that they avoid making a knee-jerk turn which will pretty much 100% of the time cause a spin.
Sometimes turning at all is the worst thing you can do, crashing under control may be better. (For example taking a corner at higher speeds, better to hit that rail/curb/wall/whatever head-on than spinning or flipping)
So yeah... I obviously need to work on how I explain my technique, I don't come off super clearly at all in that post!
Wow this has been a fun read, little late on the wagon here, but what the hey. My first car was a 1973 Ford Torino 2 door, baby blue paint "elecritc blue" vynl interior. Stock 302 (5.0 L) v8 with a 2 barel carb. Am radio only, but the ac worked. Man I miss that car, got 30 mpg no matter how I drove it, cornered way better than a long heavy peice of steel should have been able to. My fav feature was the climate controls being on the left side of the steering wheel (left hand drive of course) so that no one could mess with the heat or ac but me. Since then I have been through a corsica, a conversion van, 2 caviliers, and a couple of others I dont remember. My current ride is a 1998 Suzuki Swift, 1.3L 4 cyl with the 5spd manual tranny. Rated at 85 HP from the factory, but its a torque monster for its size, wind is not my friend at all, but if the air is calm it will out climb just about anything I have ever driven. A few years ago I got pulled over by a state police officer while going up a hill around a mild curve with 4 adults in the car, according to him he clocked me at 98 MPH, but wrote the ticket for 75 cause he did not belive the car would go that fast. On the winter driving aspect, way down here we dont get a lot of snow over the winter, but when it comes it comes in hard. Most of the time I will agree with the others here that ice and snow driving is fun, when caution is used, with one exception for me. While responding with the Volunteer FD a few winters ago to an accident on the highway I had the rear end of the pumper truck I was driving come lose while crossing a bridge. Thankfully training and instinct took over and I was able to recover with out damaging anything and render aid to those in need. One of the officers that was onsceen watching said that seeing a full sized fire truck go accross a 2 lane bridge totaly sideways was the coolest thing he had ever seen. From my view though, having the ass of a 30,000 pound truck decide it wants to see whats going on in front of the truck is not cool at all.
Congrats on pulling out of it, that's awesome, one of those things you wish someone got on video.
I love this thread! Cars and trucks and driving on ice! I grew up in North Dakota, there were times when the city wasnt into snow removal that we went 3 months without seeing the road (just the compacted snow and ice over it) I must say though its trickier driving in South Dakota its much slicker when the temp is close to freezing than it is at say 10 deg below zero. I had a 65 Continental with the 460 in my undergrad days. Ol slabsides got 15 on the highway at 55 (17 to 18mpg at 70 she liked to go fast) was more like gallons to the mile in town. Miss her though. My other fave was my vw rabbit gt, thirty plus mpg and handled like a dream but so different from the conntinental. My current fun ride is my 2000 Vmax, better mpg and better hp to weight ratio than any of my 4 wheeled friends (at least those I have been able to afford)
Jim
Jim
