Automotive Myths, Lore, and other incorrectness

Joe Gearin wrote: BMW cars are Bimmers, not Beemers.

I thought "bimmer" was pronounced "beemer" in German.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: They were all OIL COOLED until the 996, which was water cooled.

I guess we can add that one to the list.

The 911 has LARGE oil capacity, but there is NO way you are cooling the heads of an engine with oil! There's almost no oil flow there (only to the cams / valves). 911s are sometimes refereed to as oil cooled, but that is a bit of a joke.

"Your gonna get a ticket for those studded tires", um, no. NY studded season in Oct. 16-Apr. 30, now go back to your regularly scheduled mouth breathing.

Knurled wrote:

Joe Gearin wrote: BMW cars are Bimmers, not Beemers.

I thought "bimmer" was pronounced "beemer" in German.

Bikes are "Beemers". Don't know why, they just are.

That "Miata" is the answer...

There's a saying about the whole Bimmer/Beemer thing:

Bimmer = BMW car Beemer = BMW motorcycle Bummer = Not owning a BMW

RexSeven wrote: There's a saying about the whole Bimmer/Beemer thing: Bimmer = BMW car Beemer = BMW motorcycle Bummer = Having to maintain a BMW

Fixed

Best one ever.

A school when I was 16 I owned a 2.6 liter Torana GTR, other guy owns a Toyota Crown 2.6, I state mine is most likely faster due to weight and manual trans (sports options)

His response, and it led to a serious argument, his Crown was faster because the wheelbase was longer.

D'oh

Motorcycles: 'the Vincent Black Shadow was the fastest bike ever produced.' Nope, 'fraid not. It was the fastest production bike of its time (125 MPH) for about 5 years.

'The Vincent Black Shadow was so fast it was banned from the US.' Nope, never was. There were only 1700 produced and not many of them crossed the pond, but it was never banned from US sale.

I had some yahoo in a bar tell me his Trans Am would do 200 MPH. I dodged the statement as long as I could, then finally told him it wouldn't go that fast if it was dropped off a cliff. He then challenged me to ride with him. I took one look at this half drunk guy and said no frickin' way. Of course he called me puzzy, etc.

I still to this day think he was looking at the KPH ring, which IIRC Trans Ams had. I just know there was no way in hell I was getting in that car with him.

RX Reven' wrote:

aircooled wrote:

Hungary Bill wrote: ..."Did you know if you lay a board across your rotors and roll them across a flat surface the board wont move?" (referring to up or down motion) Uh.... that would make them "circles". Although the sides are rounded, these are still triangles...

He's thinking of Reuleaux's rotor: It's close, but not quite:

I'll just leave this here... How Round Is Your Circle

The berkeley is this, physics?

My personal favourite.

The best cams for a turbo car are the stock ones.

This might be a half truth but,

Rotarys are unreliable.

All BMW parts are expensive.

Joe Gearin wrote: Just because your speedometer numbers go up to 150mph, this does not mean your car will do 150mph, or 120, or 85, or whatever dummy......

Can't count how many times I've heard this. Especially about Opel GTs. They have a speedometer that goes to 160mph and invariably someone will tell me that they knew someone that pegged the speedometer on theirs. Yeah right, even the factory literature say it will only go 112mph tops. Then there are the ones that say they installed a side-draft Weber on an Opel GT and it would peg the speedometer. The best are the ones that say they installed dual side-draft Webers. Uhm, not without cutting the heater core and box out. A Weber may get you to top speed faster and it may be a little over 112mph but with the stock 4 speed you run out of gearing. The 32/36 downdraft I have on mine does let it run better than the original Solex and it can keep up with traffic but it still isn't the speed demon that it looks. The AT will supposedly do a little better, maybe 115mph but they have different gearing. A 5-speed swap may also do a little better but as for pegging the speedometer......I doubt it. After all, it is the same basic engine that came in the Manta, Kadette and 1900 Ascona. All family economy cars. The GT engine supposedly is a little more performance but not a lot. I get this from guys older than me to younger guys that have only heard of them and never seen one.

I'm sure a lot of people know someone who knew someone who, back in the 80's, had a car bought back from them because it had some "experimental" 50 mpg carbureter on it that accidentally made its way out of the factory.

also--

Back in the height of the Honda craze, I couldn't even count how many times I heard someone (at a quick lube/auto parts store/etc...) say about my 99 Civic Si "yo, my cousin/boy/brother has one of those and he got this chip that gave it an extra 30hp, y0!!!

I'd just usually let it go--sometimes I'd say "gee, that's really odd, since a header only adds 4 or 5 hp".

The EM1 Si is very well-tuned from the factory. Unless you're doing big cams and high comp pistons, expect nothing outside of 10-12hp peak.

My "chip" was in an OBD1 conversion ecu that would allow the car to simply run after camgear and fuel tuning. The stock ECU doesn't tolerate it.

The unwashed masses are fascinated by the concept of this mythical, omnipotent "CHIP" that will add untold power to any car it graces.

In reply to gamby:

Now they combine the power chip with the super carb and also claim that they get insane fuel economy improvements as well.

Curmudgeon wrote: I had some yahoo in a bar tell me his Trans Am would do 200 MPH. I dodged the statement as long as I could, then finally told him it wouldn't go that fast if it was dropped off a cliff. He then challenged me to ride with him. I took one look at this half drunk guy and said no frickin' way. Of course he called me puzzy, etc. I still to this day think he was looking at the KPH ring, which IIRC Trans Ams had. I just know there was no way in hell I was getting in that car with him.

Pus*y.

You need a manual transmission to be "in control" of the car.

Neons have a Mitsubishi engine.

Nope, other way round. Base 2L Eclipses have a Neon engine, with the head on backwards.

RealMiniDriver wrote: You need a manual transmission to be "in control" of the car.

Automatics don't suck donkey balls.

Javelin wrote: That "Miata" is the answer...

It's also a myth that GRM board isn't burdened with trolls.

MG Bryan wrote:

Javelin wrote: That "Miata" is the answer...

It's also a myth that GRM board isn't burdened with trolls.

If that's not a troll i don't know what is!

aircooled wrote: The 911 has LARGE oil capacity, but there is NO way you are cooling the heads of an engine with oil!

Yep, Porsche discovered that

Note the racing 4v heads were watercooled.

(Were there any aircooled 4v heads? Besides the 550, anyway)

There was one v6 mustang guy that wanted to upgrade his short-block to a long-block.