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Dec 18, 2006 10:28:10 GMT
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The Hilux and Blazing Blazer were amazing - I made do with the much cheaper Sand Scorcher! I raced it a bit but with no diff and too much weight in the rear it either understeered or spun off everywhere At it's best on those old Tamiya promo videos jumping around sand dunes! I modified the Sand Scorcher by turning the waterproof battery compartment around to move the weight forwards a bit and put the steering servo on the front with a Frog servi saver. This gave a bit more positive steering and I could usually balance the car in a slide around corners. Next I got a Tamiya Grasshopper, put some better rear shocks, a 7.2V battery pack and a Demon Mr T motor - that thing really flew! It suffered on bumpy tracks but with front tyres from a Holiday Buggy it looked good and handled well on smooth tracks. After that came one of the first Kyosho Optimas, this was the time when everyone else was racing Tamiya Hotshots (and very expensive RC10s!). I got a ballrace kit for the Optima and it was successful out of the box. The chain stretched a bit and the steering arms kept popping off as they got worn but it was very quick on most tracks. By this time I was about 16 and I sold the Optima to get a Mardave Meteor. This was so light that it would just blow away with a gust of wind and the chassis was as floppy as Noddy's hat. However it was quick and handled quite well and it was huge fun to race. I'm not allowing myself to look on ebay because I know I wouldn't be able to resist
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Dec 18, 2006 14:00:13 GMT
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Renault 5 Turbo Vs Renault 8 Gordini Swing axle-tastic around the track ;D
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Dec 14, 2006 16:23:02 GMT
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Dec 14, 2006 13:01:07 GMT
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how can anything be better than the A team!!!!!!! ;D Because they did the same crash with a jeep every week - it gets hit by a bullet just as it runs over a bush and then spirals through the air landing on its roll cage then bounces over to face backwards on its wheels again. Apparently the first series of Hardcastle & McCormick used a VW based car, later series used a DeLorean based car
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Dec 14, 2006 12:11:48 GMT
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Last Edit: Dec 14, 2006 13:32:18 GMT by iRocco
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Dec 14, 2006 11:58:04 GMT
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The last of the real Impala SS Ooooh, nice! It's got a similar look to a mid 60s Galaxie - dark, low, huge and menacing
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Does a Renault Twingo sneak in as a modern car? I love these things! When I was going through my 'modern car' phase a few years ago I had a 106 Rallye. It was the last of the 1.3 engines, 100bhp and great handling. It was black, with white painted steel wheels and looked fantastic. I sold it and got a Suzuki Cappuccino which was a hoot as well. 660cc 3 cylinder turbo engine and very easy tail out handling. I'm 6'1" tall and I could juuuust about squeeze in with the seat all the way back and the steering wheel adjusted up. Comfortable to sit in, but a bit of a squeeze to get in and out. Newish cars can be good fun
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Dec 13, 2006 10:27:54 GMT
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Sounds normal to me.
Take heart that new cars can be just as unreliable, but they do it in different (and more expensive) ways. If modern cars didn't come with a 2 year warranty, nobody would buy them!
It happens with simple technology too - I have a slow puncture on the bicycle so couldn't ride it this morning. Had to take the motorbike instead ;D
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I love that 959 rally car, they always looked aggressive! I've seen a Ferrari 288 GTO up close, it's so pretty it gives me heartache As an engineer, I love the Panther Solo, mid engined, 4WD, carbon fibre composite bodyshell, wasn't it a similar 4WD system to the Ford RS200? I'm just not sure it's sexy enough to be a supercar
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Dec 11, 2006 16:16:33 GMT
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I cant get over how unbeleivable cool these cars are, id happily swap every member of my family just to have a ride in one. any takers??? Send photos of your sister and I'll see what I can do
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Dec 11, 2006 15:32:20 GMT
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I like movie clone cars - I can see how endless General Lees and Herbies are a pita at a car show but on the street amongst the Vectras and Mondeos I reckon they're pretty cool. I think if they're done right they look good (I'm biased of course because I've got one) and in a car show stick them all next to each other, don't put a General Lee in with the Chargers, stick it next to Starsky's Torino As I said on the Failures thread, I do love DeLoreans. Wonder what one would look like lowered a bit? Didn't they do the same as the MGB in the 70s - raise the ride height of the front to reach headlight limits?
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Didn't know the silhouette class still existed! Remeber the imps!! ooooofffff I've seen photos of Silhouette Imps racing, but I was mighty impressed to see real racers at Brands Hatch when I was a kid. For some reason the Toyota Starlet stuck in my mind, perhaps because it was so insanely quick compared to the road car ;D
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Just fantastic! The multi-windowed bus and the rocket truck really show up the optimism of the time. Everyone wanted to be in the future, fly into space, build cities on the moon... Not like now when we're preoccupied with our own doom in the next 20-100 years Has anyone got a pic of the GM Futurama bus that toured in the late 1950s?
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American Ford Econoline Chevrolet Corvan I watched too much 70s American TV when I was a kid as well ;D
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Most of us know that if you want the glamour and performance of driving a retro van, there are lots cheaper than the classic VWs. Here are some that I'd have in an instant ;D RAF 10. Produced in Russia in the early 50s, it won't suprise you to hear they used a split screen VW van for inspiration But it's a lot bigger! Still in Russia, I've got a soft spot for these doe-eyed UAZ 452 vans. They're based on the UAZ jeep with 4WD. You might have seen one in Ewan & Charlie's "Long Way Round" motorbike programme Staying Eastern-bloc, this Tatra 805 has an aircooled V8 in the front and 4WD. They'll really go where Land Rovers fear to tread and like most military things they were available with an open or closed rear. Here's an East German Barkas 1000, powered by a Wartburg 2 stroke engine, the Transit van of the DDR ;D Or like this..... I didn't notice them go, but of course there used to be thousands of these on the roads And if I wanted to deliver the bread at Miss Marple's house, I'd use one of these Morris J vans. Character in heaps Your favourites?
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Last Edit: Dec 8, 2006 13:26:27 GMT by garethj
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Stiffening the front up will make the understeer worse, just drop it and see how it feels
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Dec 14, 2006 14:49:03 GMT
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Agreed, entirely! I hate the 'curse word cars' or those msn lists that smug journos come up with, not judging cars by the standards of the time. This is more about 'heroic failures' or perhaps more accurately 'cars I wish had succeeded'. The main difference is, that while some lists are done to make the journalist appear clever, I love most of the cars on this list! I haven't been fortunate to have a ride in a DeLorean, but there's one in Coventry museum of transport, and when I was a student at Cov Poly / University I used to go to the museum at least once a week, look at that fantastic DMC12 and dream!
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Chevy Corvair After Ralph Nader's book "Unsafe at any speed" this car was dead in the water. Even though I think the Pontiac Tempest was a worse offender? Another misconception. You think? I don't believe it ever recovered from Nader's onslaught, when GM improved the rear suspension to semi trailing arms instead of swing axles Nader said that was an admission that the car was unsafe in the first place! If he was sitting here right now I'd smack him in the mouth I've never heard about the dwindling market affecting sales, although maybe by the late 60s it was expensive for what you were getting compared to newer cars. It sneaks into the 'failure' camp as a technology dead end for GM though, they never built a rear engined or aircooled car again, and I can't imagine them continuing the name over through different models like they did with the Corvette - a bit like Ford releasing a car today called the Edsel ;D
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