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ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

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ORIGINAL: bomccarthy

My first car - paid $8,500 for it new, in 1982. I sold it 12 years later for $750 and bought a used 1991 Mustang GT.



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I can see why I never saw one of these in Canada. Those headlight sockets are just made to accumulate snow and block the lights!
Did it suffer from loose-steering wander like most North American cars of the time? I remember Fords being particularly bad - you had to tack back and forth like a sailboat!

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ORIGINAL: dave sindel

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ORIGINAL: crsutton

1976 TR7. The stylish wedge. Oh so beautiful and fun to drive. But more in need of a priest than a mechanic. Not a good time for British Leyland..... Here is a shot of the car with my girlfriend at the time sitting on it. I came home from sea only to discover that my brother had warped the head and that my girlfriend had dumped me. Sigh, good times...

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Is that Chrysler Cordoba in the background dark green also or dark blue? I had one just like that ( dark green) with the white half vinyl roof and white pinstripes. Was a pretty nice riding and driving car.

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ORIGINAL: wdolson

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ORIGINAL: sventhebold

My first car. 1969 Chevrolet Impala. Paid 250 bucks for it.

Mine was a 1967 Caprice. Looked like this with the stock wheels:
http://www.2040-cars.com/Chevrolet/Caprice/1967-chevy-caprice-sport-sendan-clean-nice-original-car-supernatural-tv-car-1165249/

They have become classics, $27,000? I think my father paid about $1500 new. I had it less than a year and my father bought a new car and handed down his 1974 Caprice to me. That wasn't as nice a car, it started developing problems when I was in college and I got a 1981 Impala instead. Even though that Impala had 70,000 hard miles as a company car before I bought it, I put another 70,000 miles on it with little trouble. The one time it had a catastrophic failure was when the housing on the water pump cracked while I was waiting at a traffic light. There was a service station on the same corner with no cars being worked on and it was a relatively short walk home. They were able to replace the water pump in a couple of hours from when it happened.

The 74 was also light blue with a white painted roof. It looked dated the day my father bought it new.

Every car I've driven had a GM small block V-8 in it though the new car only has a model of one. [:)]

As for a first aircraft, I don't recall what my first aircraft model was. I was only three. I do remember my first 1/32 model though. I was 5 and I had felt I was building second class models because my father only built 1/32 scale. My sister was building some 1/32 scale aircraft too. One night both my sister and father were working on 1/32 scale Zeros my father had picked up at Pick N Save for $0.98 each and I was pouting. He went out to the garage and came in with a Zero for me too.

It was this boxing of the kit:
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/1028083-revell-h-265-mitsubishi-a6m5-zero-sen

Not terribly accurate, but the fit and finish were pretty good. I built another one when I was in high school that I still have. I didn't need to use much putty on it as almost everything fit very well.

Bill

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ORIGINAL: Gregg

First car was a 1954 Buick Roadmaster hand me down from my Father, via my Mother, in 1960 at the ripe old age of 15.
My Dad really liked Buicks, and bought a new one about every three years.
The 54 was a real lead sled, but it was a top of the line Buick, and I drove it through high school.
My first new car was a 1964 Impala, that my father bought my as a going off to college car.
327 V8, Powerglide, PS, PB and AC; could not ask for more as a 18 year old.

My first and only aircraft I ever owned was a 1951 vintage PA-18, Piper Super Cub, that I bought as a basket case in 1969 and totally rebuilt.
Got it back in the air in late 1971, and sold it in 1975 when my first son came along.
Could not afford a wife, a family and a mistress, so N229T (the mistress) had to go :>((

Gregg

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ORIGINAL: bomccarthy

A '69 Caprice, in the San Gabriel Valley, and you kept the stock wheels? Didn't you at least install hydraulics? Or get a custom paint job?

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ORIGINAL: dave sindel

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ORIGINAL: crsutton

1976 TR7. The stylish wedge. Oh so beautiful and fun to drive. But more in need of a priest than a mechanic. Not a good time for British Leyland..... Here is a shot of the car with my girlfriend at the time sitting on it. I came home from sea only to discover that my brother had warped the head and that my girlfriend had dumped me. Sigh, good times...

[image]local://upfiles/8095/3F5F3061D4BB4DCF859C0816A409F6C8.jpg[/image]

Is that Chrysler Cordoba in the background dark green also or dark blue? I had one just like that ( dark green) with the white half vinyl roof and white pinstripes. Was a pretty nice riding and driving car.

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ORIGINAL: Hermit

My 1st car was a 1986 Subaru GL, that I bought new including TTL for $9,982.
At the time I was dying to buy a Toyota Celica, like one-half the Ensigns in my class did, but good sense (?) prevailed. I sold it for $175 in scrap value 10 years later, when it needed a new transmission after 147,000 miles. Only had to replace the brakes once.

Nowdays, when I behave, my wife let's me drive her 2006 Mustang GT (premium everything) that only has 30,000 miles on it [8D]
I've taken it up to 95 mph on the local tollway (80 mph limit) and it hasn't even broken a sweat. Someday before I die ...

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ORIGINAL: Colonel Mustard



Or maybe the same day you die....[:)]

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ORIGINAL: Hermit

My 1st car was a 1986 Subaru GL, that I bought new including TTL for $9,982.
At the time I was dying to buy a Toyota Celica, like one-half the Ensigns in my class did, but good sense (?) prevailed. I sold it for $175 in scrap value 10 years later, when it needed a new transmission after 147,000 miles. Only had to replace the brakes once.

Nowdays, when I behave, my wife let's me drive her 2006 Mustang GT (premium everything) that only has 30,000 miles on it [8D]
I've taken it up to 95 mph on the local tollway (80 mph limit) and it hasn't even broken a sweat. Someday before I die ...

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ORIGINAL: Hermit

My 1st car was a 1986 Subaru GL, that I bought new including TTL for $9,982.
At the time I was dying to buy a Toyota Celica, like one-half the Ensigns in my class did, but good sense (?) prevailed. I sold it for $175 in scrap value 10 years later, when it needed a new transmission after 147,000 miles. Only had to replace the brakes once.

Nowdays, when I behave, my wife let's me drive her 2006 Mustang GT (premium everything) that only has 30,000 miles on it [8D]
I've taken it up to 95 mph on the local tollway (80 mph limit) and it hasn't even broken a sweat. Someday before I die ...

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ORIGINAL: Hermit
At the time I was dying to buy a Toyota Celica, like one-half the Ensigns in my class did, but good sense (?) prevailed.

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ORIGINAL: bomccarthy
When I started looking for my first car in the fall of 1982, I saw a classified ad for a 1969 Z/28 (yes, with the original 302 cu in V8), asking $3,250. I considered it for a few days, but decided it wouldn't be practical for everyday use. Last I heard, a good 1st generation Z/28 goes for something north of $100k.
[image]local://upfiles/46072/8FE6143697DF4868AF1C6F4737221413.jpg[/image]

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ORIGINAL: wdolson

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ORIGINAL: Hermit

My 1st car was a 1986 Subaru GL, that I bought new including TTL for $9,982.
At the time I was dying to buy a Toyota Celica, like one-half the Ensigns in my class did, but good sense (?) prevailed. I sold it for $175 in scrap value 10 years later, when it needed a new transmission after 147,000 miles. Only had to replace the brakes once.

Nowdays, when I behave, my wife let's me drive her 2006 Mustang GT (premium everything) that only has 30,000 miles on it [8D]
I've taken it up to 95 mph on the local tollway (80 mph limit) and it hasn't even broken a sweat. Someday before I die ...

With my current car I got up to 101 mph on the highway by accident. The car did it without even trying.

With my 74 I did experiment seeing how fast it would go. I got my first ticket on a 2 lane highway very close to where James Dean died. When I saw the CHP I was doing 100 mph. He only gave me a ticket for going 65 in a 55 zone.

At another time I did get my speed up to 118 mph on the same road. I passed a truck going the other way and the wake made the hood flex. The steering in that car was hyper sensitive and driving that fast was terrifying.

My SO tells a story of driving a 60s vintage Corvette in Eastern Washington. The speedometer was broken so she wasn't completely sure how fast she was going. She started slowing down when the nose began to leave the ground.

Bill

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ORIGINAL: bomccarthy
What kind of range did you get on the charge where you hit 100 mph? I'm afraid of getting stuck somewhere in an all-electric car because I was doing 80 on the freeway (most everyone in SoCal drives 75+ when traffic permits).

I'm hoping that hydrogen filling stations start proliferating in the next 10 years - if so, hydrogen fuel cell cars will probably replace battery pack cars, and then (eventually) internal combustion cars. We will end up back where the first automakers dreamed; even Ferdinand Porsche's first design in 1898 was powered by an electric motor at each wheel.

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ORIGINAL: wdolson

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ORIGINAL: bomccarthy
What kind of range did you get on the charge where you hit 100 mph? I'm afraid of getting stuck somewhere in an all-electric car because I was doing 80 on the freeway (most everyone in SoCal drives 75+ when traffic permits).

I'm hoping that hydrogen filling stations start proliferating in the next 10 years - if so, hydrogen fuel cell cars will probably replace battery pack cars, and then (eventually) internal combustion cars. We will end up back where the first automakers dreamed; even Ferdinand Porsche's first design in 1898 was powered by an electric motor at each wheel.

I did do the normal 80 mph on I-5 on my last trip to CA. Going over the Siskyous as well as the Coast Range back and forth from Morro Bay, I averaged 318 Wh/Mi for the entire trip. That's an equivalent of 103 mpg. (Gasoline has around 33 KWh/gal.) I never got below 20% charge, the superchargers are spaced well enough that you'd have to be wandering well into the back of the beyond before range becomes a serious issue. On the leg between Red Bluff and Vacaville I was probably averaging around 80 mph the whole way and it cost me about 9% of rated range. I burned off 152 miles of rated range doing 131 miles. I documented everything because I'm writing off the trip. I work for a company in the Bay Area and I stopped in there for a day. The segment from Morgan Hill to Morro Bay isn't tax deductible, but the rest is. It's free money because the trip cost me $0 in "fuel". Supercharging is free for my car.

Hydrogen may find a niche somewhere, but I'm pretty sure it's a dead end technology for passenger vehicles. H2 cars need to carry around a large hydrogen cylinder somewhere and that takes up space. The Mirai is an SUV to get enough space under the backseat for the cylinder. Hydrogen is the smallest molecule in the universe and it will leak through any container. As it leaks through metals, it weakens them and hydrogen car drivers need to replace the H2 tank every few years or risk the chance of a rupture. The economics of hydrogen aren't that good either. It doesn't store well, so H2 stations need to be frequently restocked, or have their own H2 making equipment on the premises, which requires a lot of electricity if you're making it from water, or a hydrocarbon refining facility if you're making it from natural gas. Most have it trucked in from some kind of centralized refinery, but there are losses in transport and storage. This article outlines the losses converting electricity to hydrogen vs an EV:
http://energypost.eu/toyota-vs-tesla-can-hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicles-compete-electric-vehicles/

There is a graphic a little ways down. If you start with 100 KWh of electricity and set out to fuel a hydrogen car or an EV, you could get 69 KWh turning the wheels of the car vs 19-23 turning the wheels of the hydrogen car. These are pretty much the best case scenarios for each tech.

The fossil fuel industry likes the hydrogen car model because the cheapest way to make H2 today is from natural gas and North America has a glut of the stuff right now. Consumers might be a bit better disposed towards hydrogen because the fueling model is more familiar. But once you get used to the different way of fueling EVs, I prefer it. At home, I always leave the house with a 90% "tank" of gas, no more refueling in bad weather. On the road the "fuel" is free and I found being forced to take break every 200 miles was a good thing for my body. I did 600 miles in one day on one leg and felt much better than I did in 2015 when we did 700 miles in one shot from the Bay Area to home.

I'm not really an eco buyer. I wanted a little better fuel economy, but I wanted at least the same performance as my Buick (0-50 in 8s) so I could get on the freeway without concern. I was looking at cars like the Ford Taurus and Subaru Outback, but they really didn't do it for me. The 4 cylinder Outback got better gas mileage than my Buick, but had something like an 10s 0-60 and with the V-6 the acceleration was more reasonable, but the gas mileage was essentially the same as my Buick. The Taurus also didn't have very impressive gas mileage. The Tesla was a lot more than my initial budget, but the more I looked, the more I liked. It's really the only car I looked at that I felt was actually a better car than my 1992 Buick. All the other cars had new gadgets, but in many cases they were worse where it counted, in driving performance and capability. And I was surprised gas mileage really hasn't improved in 24 years. The improvements in fuel economy have mostly been from shaving edges rather than fundamental improvements.

My degree is in Electronic Engineering and I've been around science my entire life. (My older sister is a petroleum Geologist in Bakersfield.) I look at any tech through an engineering lens. I can appreciate good engineering. As much as I hate Apple's software, their hardware is very well designed. They are better at battery management than most of their competition, but otherwise their tech is not all that remarkable, just well executed. Tesla is in another league. The Model S took the concept of a car and rethought it from the ground up. They ended up with a 300 mile range car with over 100 mpg equivalent and the cheapest version accelerates like a sports car (my car is 4s 0-60). On top of that, it has insane cargo capacity. We were getting rid of an extra long twin mattress from a guest bedroom and I was able to get the mattress into the back and close the hatch. I had to run the driver's seat up to a point where I couldn't drive it, but my SO could. A standard twin mattress would have been no problem.

I'm still impressed by this car and I've had it since June 6 of last year.

Bill

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ORIGINAL: bomccarthy

That was an interesting article on battery vs hydrogen fuel cell technology. I haven't gone too deep into electric car technology, so I started reading some articles written from the car enthusiast side. I didn't realize that current electric cars are so much heavier than internal combustion cars. I'll wait until someone gets some more sporting models into the 3,000 - 3,500 lb range. Cars heavier than that just aren't much fun in corners.

Weight is also the main reason for the lack of progress in gas mileage over the past two decades. Your early 90s Buick probably weighed less than 3,500 lbs (a 1992 Regal had a curb weight of 3,300 lbs). With modern impact standards and design emphasis on rigid structure, the 2017 Regal has a curb weight of just over 4,000 lbs.

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ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

I was told that electrics cars have very little resell value after some years. Problem is that the battery will lose performance and eventually die (as it happens with any cell phone).
But in an electric car, the battery is the most expensive component, so changing it is not economic

Would that still be the case with new generation electric cars?

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ORIGINAL: bomccarthy

My first car - paid $8,500 for it new, in 1982. I sold it 12 years later for $750 and bought a used 1991 Mustang GT.



[image]local://upfiles/46072/3DFAD78A69D54A8080B1B7539BF4E1CA.jpg[/image]

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ORIGINAL: Zap

My First new car I bought off the dealer floor was a 1974 Caprice classic. I was 22 years old, ithad same color scheme as the one pictured along with the white vinyl top.
I remember the salesman complaining that he could not sell the car. So he put vogue tires on it. I got it for 3,000 dollars. Which was a bargain.
The caprice was a very large car I remember the front bench seat was very long. I had to fully extend my arm and the passenger, as well, to be able to touch each other.

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