Asper's Automotive Corner.

[Eagle Kammback]

My dad bought the bike today, to save us some trouble we paid the guy to trailer her to our house, runs a little rough when cold, and you need a special tool kit to change the plugs, and she is a bit quiet for our tastes (we don't like ridiculously loud pipes, but these things are just not loud enough) so my dad is paying an old friend to give her a tune up

1984 Honda V65 Magna, we have a Sabre, and I guess that is my project now, now I have an bike, boat, and car that are all projects

http://v4hondabbs.com/index.php?topic=49446.0

[Asper Sarnoff]

I've always admired the 70' Ford Torino, the 69' Dodge Charger, the 70' Cadillac el Dorado, the 1986 Nissan 300ZX, etc. 

(I'd paint them all in Arwing colors) 

Just watched Tarantinos "Death Proof" for the 'nth time today. Man do I love the car chase in that movie. Perhaps the best one ever made. '70 Dodge Challenger vs '69 Dodge Charger. Both 440's.

I also love the '70 Torino. Among the candidates when I'm going to go hunting for a car project for my little brother one day.

My dad bought the bike today, to save us some trouble we paid the guy to trailer her to our house, runs a little rough when cold, and you need a special tool kit to change the plugs, and she is a bit quiet for our tastes (we don't like ridiculously loud pipes, but these things are just not loud enough) so my dad is paying an old friend to give her a tune up

1984 Honda V65 Magna, we have a Sabre, and I guess that is my project now, now I have an bike, boat, and car that are all projects

http://v4hondabbs.com/index.php?topic=49446.0

My dad bought the bike today, to save us some trouble we paid the guy to trailer her to our house, runs a little rough when cold, and you need a special tool kit to change the plugs, and she is a bit quiet for our tastes (we don't like ridiculously loud pipes, but these things are just not loud enough) so my dad is paying an old friend to give her a tune up

1984 Honda V65 Magna, we have a Sabre, and I guess that is my project now, now I have an bike, boat, and car that are all projects

http://v4hondabbs.com/index.php?topic=49446.0

Sounds great, but the link is off-limits to those not members of that forum.

[CrypticQuery]

Just watched Tarantinos "Death Proof" for the 'nth time today. Man do I love the car chase in that movie. Perhaps the best one ever made. '70 Dodge Challenger vs '69 Dodge Charger. Both 440's.

I also love the '70 Torino. Among the candidates when I'm going to go hunting for a car project for my little brother one day.

Sounds great, but the link is off-limits to those not members of that forum.

Death Proof was pretty awesome!! This is sorta irrelevant, but have you ever heard of the movie DUEL? (Directed by Spielberg.)

[Eagle Kammback]

Oh yeah, almost nothing on that site is visible if you aren't a member

http://rodderscorner.informe.com/viewtopic.php?t=8876

I love that Death Proof movie, though it is one of the few movies that reeeaaallly made me feel sad for the cars, if you liked that movie, you'd like Vanishing Point

[Asper Sarnoff]

Death Proof was pretty awesome!! This is sorta irrelevant, but have you ever heard of the movie DUEL? (Directed by Spielberg.)

Got it on my external HD. Was Spielbergs first movie, and a proper good one at that!

Oh yeah, almost nothing on that site is visible if you aren't a member

http://rodderscorner.informe.com/viewtopic.php?t=8876

I love that Death Proof movie, though it is one of the few movies that reeeaaallly made me feel sad for the cars, if you liked that movie, you'd like Vanishing Point

Yeah, the sad part is that they used up about a dozen each of Chargers, Challengers and Novas during the filming. But our sacrifice will hopefully be the gain of the future generations. When all the classic muscle cars have gone to the big highway in the sky, they can watch movies like that, and imagine how things was before their time. When cars had soul, personality, and sounded like thunder in the skies.

Vansihing Point is indeed in my extensive library of car movies! Powalski behind the wheel of the white Challenger is perhaps the coolest and most badass guy in television history.

While I'm at it, I'll recommend looking up the car chases of both Bullit and Ronin as well. Both properly good, but in their own way.

All these chases share one thing in common tough, they were all real. None of that CGI BS.

"Real cars smashing into real cars! With real dumb people behind the wheel."

Like the looks of that Magna BTW.

But now, it's getting a little late on my side of the world. See yah all tomorrow!

[CrypticQuery]

A good video to watch for people that haven't seen many car chase movies is located here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nZEji76jKU

(strong language throughout YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! LOL)

[Eagle Kammback]

Duel is one of my favorite movies I don't own yet.

A few great car movies that weren't mentioned in that list that I'm sure you would love

American Graffiti/More American Graffiti

Dukes of Hazard movie (It was a bad movie, but had good driving scenes)

LeMans (Steve McQueen is the best actor ever)

Cars (How can you not love it, Paul Newman as a Hudson Hornet, awesome)

Gran Prix

Two Lane Blacktop (One of the best ever)

The California Kid

Canonball Run

Gumball Rally

[Guest Julius Quasar]

The Plymouth Barracuda...one of the best classic cars in existence, regardless of what year it is, ANY Barracuda is an awesome car, IMO.

[Asper Sarnoff]

Duel is one of my favorite movies I don't own yet.

A few great car movies that weren't mentioned in that list that I'm sure you would love

American Graffiti/More American Graffiti

Dukes of Hazard movie (It was a bad movie, but had good driving scenes)

LeMans (Steve McQueen is the best actor ever)

Cars (How can you not love it, Paul Newman as a Hudson Hornet, awesome)

Gran Prix

Two Lane Blacktop (One of the best ever)

The California Kid

Canonball Run

Gumball Rally

Four of those on my "to-watch" list, rest I've allready seen.

The Plymouth Barracuda...one of the best classic cars in existence, regardless of what year it is, ANY Barracuda is an awesome car, IMO.

The 1971, with the 426 HEMI, manual stick and shaker hood is my favorite car of all time, of all time!

[Eagle Kammback]

There is a guy near me, who has a GORGEOUS 71 Hemi Cuda Convertible, Probably a cloan, but with the other rare cars he has (2 AAR Cudas, used to have a DeTomaso Pantera, Torino Cobra, and a bunch more) it could very well be the real thing, one of seven if it is

[Asper Sarnoff]

There is a guy near me, who has a GORGEOUS 71 Hemi Cuda Convertible, Probably a cloan, but with the other rare cars he has (2 AAR Cudas, used to have a DeTomaso Pantera, Torino Cobra, and a bunch more) it could very well be the real thing, one of seven if it is

Doubt that. Even a nice clone of a '71 HEMI convertible costs a bloody fortune.

One of the seven real deals was auctioned away three years ago, and it brought in 2.2 million dollars.

[Asper Sarnoff]

Sorry for the double posting, but I think many would like to have a look at what I'm about to show.

Recently, Star Fox Runner visited Graceland, which as we all know, was the home of the King of music, Elvis Presley.

Elvis loved his cars, and many of the various automobiles he owned over the years have been preserved in an awesome exhibition. One which Runner thoughtfully snapped a good number of photographies of for us to share.

First out comes one of his motorbikes. Don't quote me on this, I don't know much about things on two wheels, but I think it's a Harley Davidson Desert, a bike meant for police highway duty, and which Elvis had a liking to.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9458.jpg

Next up is a 1960 MG A Roadster, a small british sports car which was in the Elvis film "Blue Hawai". Elvis liked the car so much that he bought it for himself after the filming was complete.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9459.jpg

Here comes a 1971 Mercedes 280 Roadster.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9444.jpg

In 1970, he also bought a Mercedes 600 Pullman, a gargantuan six-door limo straight from the factory. Complete with hydraulic systems and proper German, thoughtfull enginering in every single bolt. And also the most expensive car in the world of its time.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9481.jpg

For a video on it, look at this.

Naturally, liking the finer things in life, Elvis had a couple of Rolls Royces in his collection. I've been able to recognise the black one as a Phantom V, which he bought to celebrate signing a 5-year contract with Hal Wallis in 1961. Once he drove home to his mother, her hens and chickens took a liking to peck at their reflections in the black finish. Instead of just getting rid of the birds, Elvis opted to have the car repainted about five times over the years.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9445.jpg

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9446.jpg

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9450.jpg

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9447.jpg

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9449.jpg

If it's one thing people think of when they hear "Elvis" and "Cars" in the same sentence, it's Cadillacs, in all the colors of the rainbow. This 1956 Eldorado was originally white, but Elvis once took it to a car customiser, the same who repainted his famous pink Cadillac, squashed a handfull of grapes on one of the fenders, and told him he wanted the whole car repainted in that excact color. The result came out a lot better than it might sound.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9455.jpg

Perhaps the worlds most famous car, is this pink 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood series 60. Saying everything worth saying about this car would take a lot of space, so if you're interested in reading more, I'll recommend taking a look at this.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9472.jpg

Another one of Elvis favorites, at least in the 70's, was the Stutz Blackhawk (Fun fact, the founder of the brand was named: O'Donnell...). By far the most expensive car of its time. Elvis was the first to take delivery of one, and later bought four other Blackhawks. While it may seem ghastly at first look, one will realise why it was so expensive once one takes a closer look at it. I've seen a Blackhawk up close once myself, the only one in Norway, and the craftmanship and attention to detail was breattaking. Read more about the Blackhawk here.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9462.jpg

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9465.jpg

Elvis also owned a couple of sports car, such as this 1975 Ferrari Dino 308 GT4.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/IMG_9456.jpg

He also owned a De Tomaso Pantera, a supercar blending gorgeus italian styling with an american V8 heart.

But it was also plagued with problems during its first years of production. And naturally, one day, Elvis's Pantera stopped as he was driving around in Memphis. He got the car towed back home, pulled out one of his many pistols and shot it. After that, it started! Shame that car wasn't in the exhibition.

There where a couple of picture I let out, if you're interested in having a look at them, Runner uploaded them to an album on Photobucket. http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/starfoxrunner/Graceland%20Cars/?start=0

Thanks Runner!

[CrypticQuery]

If I ever owned that many cars, I'd probably need GPS on all of the keys!

[Eagle Kammback]

Elvis was (and still is in my opinion) awesome

The Stutz Blackhawk has always been one of my favorite cars

[X-Gamer]

If I ever owned a car, it would be a landmaster Mercedes-Benz CL!!! I dunno much about cars, but Mercedes is my fav. car company and the car is impressive to me.

[Star Fox Runner]

I know that some of the pictures I took weren't the best, but I was having trouble with lighting and keeping the camera still. There were some really nice cars in that museum, Plus there was a really nice John Deere tractor in there that was real beauty.

Elvis was a very talented singer, it's sad how he met such an undignified end. They found him dead on a toilet after having a heart attack from a drug overdose. A shame.

[Eagle Kammback]

my favorite musician of all time, Jerry Reed, did some work with elvis, he played guitar on Elvis's cover of Reed's Guitar Man, though I prefer Jerry's version still

And back to Automotive, here is an AMAZING video of some old twin stick rigs,

, and the music is awesome too

[Asper Sarnoff]

Elvis was a very talented singer, it's sad how he met such an undignified end. They found him dead on a toilet after having a heart attack from a drug overdose. A shame.

A real shame indeed. Drugs have taken so many lifes over the years. I can't simply fathom how anyone even wants to try the poison.

And back to Automotive, here is an AMAZING video of some old twin stick rigs,

, and the music is awesome too

Yeah, I doubt I could do that as good as them if I practiced solely on it for ten years. Nothing less than impressive.

[Showtime 1-1]

And back to Automotive, here is an AMAZING video of some old twin stick rigs,

, and the music is awesome too

Now THAT is some serious coordination. I like the one with a hand on each shifter and an arm through the steering wheel. Awesome.

I got my solo driver's license almost a week ago, and I've already driven to a couple neighboring cities in my dad's Jeep. I also took my driving test in that rig, and the examiner I had didn't even know how to drive with a standard transmission. I'm really proud to be one of what seems to be a dying breed of manual gearbox users.

April 15 is my motorbike road test, I'm stoked for that too, I think it'll be a piece of cake.

[Eagle Kammback]

Manual is the way to go, I don't like automatics

In order to be a good driver, you musn't see your vehicle as a mechanical device you use, but as an extension of your own body, and a manual trans enables you to be more at one with your car

[Showtime 1-1]

Yeah, you steer an automatic, but you drive a standard.

I want to get my hands on the old Prelude my neighbor has sitting in the lane, it's got the big engine and the 5-speed tranny, with upgraded suspension and low-profile tires. I've never driven a sports car (or even a sedan, for that matter), and I want to see what it's like to drive something a bit more... pure then an SUV.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Manual is the way to go, I don't like automatics

In order to be a good driver, you musn't see your vehicle as a mechanical device you use, but as an extension of your own body, and a manual trans enables you to be more at one with your car

Funny, I prefer automatic transmission to the ol' stick shift. 

I agree with you about the whole "see the car as an extension of your body..." thing.

[Asper Sarnoff]

Manual is the way to go! I've only driven one car with an automatic, my Corvette unfortunatly. I'm hoping to do a conversion to manual transmission. Hopefully drop in a modern 6-speed, ideally a Tremec TR6060 if I can get my hands on one someday.

But there is also a lot more to becoming one with your car than just being able to gear yourself. One have to feel how each tire grips to the ground, when they loose traction, and how to counter that.

[Kursed]

Anti-lock brakes?

On Ice i know there not a good idea as when your sliding you want to create as much friction a possible to stop quicker and locking up the wheels is much better on ice then anti-locks.

[Asper Sarnoff]

Anti-lock brakes?

On Ice i know there not a good idea as when your sliding you want to create as much friction a possible to stop quicker and locking up the wheels is much better on ice then anti-locks.

No absolutely not! When you lock up the brakes, you effectively have no steering of the car. If you're doing an emergency brake with a car without anti-lock brakes you have to pump the brake pedal and steer between it. It's difficult, but it's better than to slide foreward with no controll what so ever. I'll advice people who don't know the technique to try and learn it someday. I don't know how much the cops in the states like if you drive around at speed in empty parking lots. But try practicing it a few times under safe conditions, I can guarante you will appreciate that you learnt it sooner or later.