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Mar 18, 2014 23:18:56 GMT
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The 'F' in ERF (lorry makers) stands for Foden, another lorry maker. I believe there was a split in the family and ER went off on his own to form ERF. Foden made steam lorries before belatedly turning to diesels. Eric R Foden wanted to produce the new-fangled diesel lorries but was stopped by his elders. He formed his own firm using his initials, E.R.F. in protest. This seemed to have happened a lot in the early days of motorcars. Henry Ford started the Henry Ford Company in 1901. After a year he left the company, which then was revamped and renamed after the founder of Detroit. The resulting company, Cadillac, lives on to this day under GM. After a dispute with his first car company, Olds Motor Works, Ranson E Olds started a new car company using his initials. Whilst the REO brand is most known for the band REO Speedwagon, Olds Motor Works was later renamed into Oldsmobile and then lived on to a rather more succesdful future under GM. It's sad the brand is dead now though. Have a Toronado. Also the early 60s GM Y/Z body is, as far as I know, the only monocoque car platform that was available in a rear engined (Chevy Corvair) And front engined (Pontiac Tempest) configuration.
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What about a transaxle (and engine) of an early Renault 5? Right layout, 5 gears, and it bolts to (and can survive) a very light and very tuneable 5 GT Turbo engine.
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Feb 18, 2014 17:50:00 GMT
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The 1397cc engine in a 12 is nearly exactly the same as found in Volvo 340s, although a 340 has a heftier 72 bhp. Plenty around, everything's available for it, and run happily on unleaded. Boxes are shared with 18s and Fuegos so a bit more rare. 5 GT Turbo engines will quite comfortably drop in if you love torquesteer The Megane 1.6 16V K7M/K4M engine also bolts up to the box, 110 bhp and injection. Rest of the conversion is harder though, but it has been done in DAFs (similar layout).
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Last Edit: Feb 18, 2014 17:55:31 GMT by mkickert
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It's an interesting subject, and a louse in the pelt of many an auto-exec. The first signals of this have been coming since about '06, and it was very much relevant when I did my master's thesis on it a few years back.
Personally I think it's a combination of factors: a decreasing necessity for owning a car, and the simple fact that driving is more regulated, and modern cars are harder to differentiate on product content. Put simply the difference between a '14 320i and a '14 Mondeo lies more in branding and image, giving roughly the same driving experience, whereas a '72 2002 and a '74 Cortina GXL differ a lot more in terms of experience and content. The car culture defining notion of the car as an embodiment of choice, character and freedom is being ebbed away by all this.
By the way: though the cost of running and insuring cars has gone up disproportionally over the last few years, but it's still worth noting that the cost of buying and running a new car is still much (about 15%) cheaper than it was in the seventies. Relative to income that is.
So my generation doesn't need cars as much, and the cars they do get are perceived as dull. Personally I feel that my generation doesn't inherently lack an interest in car culture. But they demand a car with personality and customization possibilities, in the same way we express ourselves via our clothes, or merely the apps on our phones - in exactly the same way over the years one used to be able to do that with the books in your closet, your Doc Martens, or knowing that by choosing the different options on your lowly 6 cylinder Mustang you knew only 1 in 1200000 would be exactly like yours. This customizability goes a long way in explaining the runaway success of cars like the new MINI, the Fiat 500 or the DS3. Sadly a lot of people are still stuck in resale-metallic leaseboxes.
From that in my opinion there's a damn lot of potential! Young people getting more and more into distinctive and affordable retro cars is a big thing (I drive a '64 Fintail Mercedes because I simply think it's the coolest car around. I really wouldn't trade it for a new one). From a new-car-buying standpoint another big thing to rekindle that love affair with the car will be electrically driven cars, in my opinion. The potential it gives for packaging cars in an exiciting, fresh form is endless. Not having to make room for bulky engines, exhausts and such generates endless potential for some nice, spacy (and spacious) cars that finally won't look like every single car ever. I'm thinking the same kind of form evolution when we went from horseless carriages to the mondern unibody.
I really would love nothing more than to see this. I want the automotive world to move my generation like it could move those before. To give us an similar shock as when we'd be leafing through a car mag full of Minis and Escorts in 1970 and suddenly seeing a picture of a Lancia Stratos Zero. To make a car aspirational for us again something outrageous isn't simply an option - it's a necessity.
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Last Edit: Feb 4, 2014 17:35:59 GMT by mkickert
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The Rampside Corvan. Based on the rear engine Corvair this van had an extremely high loading treshold. So they offered it with a side opening ramp, to wheel stuff into. Can't see it doing much for rigidity, but in terms of access definitely an improvement over a VW flatbed!
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Jan 30, 2014 11:28:25 GMT
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And to stay on the French theme: There must be something in the water....
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Jan 30, 2014 11:23:12 GMT
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Apparently this was an official conversion for French policemen so they could signal drivers to stop. There's no way of closing them as well, so it really proves its daftness in the wind/rain/anything other than perfect weather.
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Thanks for this, I'll add some more renault content, close to heart: Is it Renault Sport or Renault-Elf-(Michelin)? Here's the 5 Turbo (as driven by Ragnotti): And the R11 Turbo: The DIAC livery on Renault 5 Turbo: And to finish, the Renault Philips livery, first Renault 5 Turbo: The Renault 11 turbo ph1: and the R11 Turbo ph2: I have to say I have no idea if there's a direct Elf link. Renault changed the color scheme somewhere in the 70s, previously being an also lovely red/white/blue. Like in this Alpine A110 1800. Or this 17 I've always been a sucker for black and yellow (hell, I even like the song), so have some Opels!
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Jan 26, 2014 18:23:29 GMT
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I'm actually working on a project with a lot of these liveries, making a nice bit of art out of them. Other than those mentioned before some personal faves for me are: Renault Sport Porsche Hippy 917 BMW M1 map of France Lancia Beta Turbo And the Tic Tac M3 Real works of art, some of these. And that's not even mentioning the actual Art Cars!
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Last Edit: Jan 28, 2014 1:54:59 GMT by mkickert
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Nov 25, 2013 20:41:59 GMT
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Brilliant! Group 5 always did tend to make cars look agressive as hell. Couldn't say if it made them prettier though. Compare this group 4 Lancia Stratos: To the group 5 Stratos Turbo. Or how about the Beta Montecarlo Turbo? Also, someone Group-five-ing/ Garuchaning a BMW E21 would have a field day! And if we're talking wacky paint jobs you can't go wrong with an Art Car scheme. Proving once and for all that BMW were the original Bosozoku
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Last Edit: Nov 11, 2013 3:34:43 GMT by mkickert
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A little more back story. Wish I could read Dutch, and if anyone feels like translating that into English then please feel free. The main text: I knew being Dutch would come in handy some day.
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Last Edit: Jul 8, 2013 18:40:43 GMT by mkickert
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Sometimes the lining of the clutch shoes comes apart in the drum, causing it to lock up. Especially if it's been apart by someone not familiar with them that mounted the springs on wrong.
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Jun 18, 2013 10:52:10 GMT
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*finger hovering over lock button* Good point. We're mature enough to keep it all in good clean fun, naturally. There's enough smut online after all. And I dread to think what people will do with fuchsia. Have a picture of Tiff Needell's Hearing Aid Beige Triumph as penance.
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Jun 18, 2013 10:17:59 GMT
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Following up on this post made a while back or this this one from Four Wheel Drift, it got me thinking to make it a little game. Colour names have always been a way for marketing men to give a certain extra bit of cachet to a car. Back in the days the Dutch streets were filled with DAFs in this lovely colour called Nationa (orange being the national colour and all) And not forgetting the absolutely hilarious names the American public got for their Mopars and Fords: Names like: Freudian Gilt Vitamin āCā There She Blue Moulin Rouge Good Clean Fawn Counter Revolutionary Red Tor Red Three Putt Green Anti-Establish Mint Last Stand Custard Plum Crazy Young Turquoise So why can people nowadays only buy white, silver or black cars with boring names like Onyx Black or Emerald Green? This needs to be spiced up. Imagine how much happier you would have been as an owner if you could have actually ordered your fancy SLC in Jewish Racing Gold? Just like this Escalade with very rare Pablo Escobar option packet, consisting of blacked out windows, 24" rims and finished in fetching Colombian White. Or this surprise van of the early sixties, shutters in the windows and all, in the then VW-optional colour of Statutory Grape Of course these names are already around. But we can do better. EmDee of this very parish has shown that with this professional chart: So lets give our colours the name they deserve. Be a marketing exec for a day, fuel up those creative juices, and show us a picture of a car with the name that the colour should have had all along!
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I might be biased, but I love the 'thermometer' speedo on my fintail. Even though it is completely unreadable. It even has capillary tubes for oil pressure and water temperature too.
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May 29, 2013 22:34:49 GMT
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As an avid (albeit rusty) modeler: Hobby Lobby Japan. They have everything. Or just find a local model shop. It terms of brand the Japanese ones are the ones to beat for fit and finish. Tamiya, Fujimi, Hasegawa, that sort of thing. They are expensive though. For Golfs I very strong recommend the MK1 Golf by Fujimi (the only one around really, there's a very old Rabbit model by Monogram or Revell too but it's hard to find), and for the Mk2 also get the Fujimi one. It's way nicer than the cheaper Revell ones. For retail as said try the Hobby Lobby site, but also scour eBay for good deals. It makes a LOT of difference in price. Happy modelling!
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Last Edit: May 29, 2013 22:35:33 GMT by mkickert
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Jan 16, 2013 13:46:22 GMT
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The eighties were a magical time. It was a time when phones had cords, hairdos were extremely flammable, and spandex jumpsuits could also be considered menswear. A time where all the things that current hip kids love ironically were the pinnacle of style and good taste. The eighties were loud, they were tacky, and they were brilliant. And chances are that you would have rolled up to the club in your plastic-clad Capri, to dance all night to music made by this man: Giorgio Moroder. He was the god of eighties disco, forming the missing link between 70's Kraftwerk and the later house and techno music. He produced the rolling, spacy synthesizer music that defined the era, using countless bands as a marketing tool. An era that he started off with Donna Summers' great hit, I Feel Love. Now by the mid eighties the man was behind about a quarter of all mainstream disco music. There wasn't a club you could go without hearing him playing a Roland TB 303 at least once a night. And as such the man became rich as hell, rich enough even for the ladies to ignore how spectacularly hideous he was. Which is where this story actually starts being about cars. You see, being Italian Moroder had a love for cars. And since he had the cash he would probably be driving something suitable like this, thundering down the autostrada with a giant cloud of cocaine in his wake. He wanted something better though. So he teamed up with Claudio Zampolli to make his own supercar, a car to define the era. And this is the result: the Cizeta-Moroder V16T. Moroder knew that the car should look as outrageous as possible, and he found help in Marcello Gandini. Gandini was of course famous for penning the Lamborghini Miura and Countach, and as such had quite some credentials. In fact, at that very time he was working on a replacement for the Countach by the then Chrysler owned Lamborghini. Chrysler didn't like his original designs though, deeming them "too aggressive". Gandini then passed these designs on to Cizeta, who loved them. This explains why the V16T bears more than a passing resemblance to the later Diablo. It was a car of superlatives. Whereas your typical Countach or Testarossa had twelve cylinders the Cizeta had sixteen. The engine being two Lamborghini Urraco V8's mated together, and put transversely behind the driver. You think your Fiero is badass with its two pop-up headlights? My Cizeta has four. Moroder knew as no other other that good music is about timing. As such the 1988 unveiling of the car was perfectly timed as well, with a global economic depression that is. Only ten cars were ever built, and Moroder backed out of the investment to move into Colombian baking powder. Don't think that this meant an untimely death for the V16t, in fact it is still possible to order a brand new one today from Cizeta. At a meagre $649000. Or $849000 if you want the roof cut off. A $100000 deposit is mandatory. In every logical way the Cizeta is utterly ridiculous, which is exactly what makes it the perfect child of its time. It makes the Cizeta the original hipster supercar; the supercar you've probably never heard of; the car that was into 16 cylinders before it was cool (this is looking at you, Bugatti). Gah. As a parting gift, a short video of its unveiling.
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Last Edit: Jan 16, 2013 13:47:00 GMT by mkickert
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Jan 14, 2013 17:31:44 GMT
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Well for being small engined and auto I do dearly love my Variomatic (CVT) DAF. It does rev quite a bit though, and it's bad on fuel. Quite fast though. I have a 64 Merc 220SE though with a 4 speed column change manual, and whilst I love the idea of a column change, I can't help but think it would have been a nicer car with an autobox.
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