Don't meet your hero(car)s

Javelin said:

parker said:

Javelin said:

Yes, C5 Z06 and 911 GT3

You were disappointed in a GT3?  Interesting.

 

I pulled a faster time in a Cayman S. The 911 doesn't want to turn unless it's snap-oversteering. You drive a Cayman, you wrestle a 911.

So as someone who's driven every road going Porsche made between 1962 and 2020 on a track I'd never consider a 911 a wrestling match. The only resembles is the early turbo 911.

I will concede it could be prospective as I'm stupidly comfortably with oversteer........read I don't find 356s to be treacherous on trailing throttle.

With that said Caymans are indeed wonderfully balanced.

In reply to Uncle David (Forum Supporter) :

It is. No build thread. I haven't started on it yet. 

This showed up yesterday so, soon...

I got a 1964 or '65 Jeep CJ 5 once, and it had pretty green paint and was on either 31s or 32s.  It looked great and had a nice 350 in it.  Unfortunately, it rode like utter garbage, and the 4-speed manual was like stirring a literal bucket of bolts.  It of course revved out around 65, which was fine, as you'd die going any faster.  I sold it to a moderately unstable guy who wanted to use it for towing a boat.

Some time after this, I got a lovely 1968 Bronco (dark blue, flares, soft top), slightly lifted and on 33s.  It was like Ferd came along and said "we must do every single thing better than the Jeep."  It did.  This was my hero vehicle.  Then I sold it for four grand because it was full of a crazy ex-girlfriend's hair.

When I first started driving in the mid 80s, first Buick offered a Regal T-Type and later Grand National and then the intercooler versions.  My mom had a Buick at the time and I tried SO hard to convince my parents that they needed to trade and buy an 86 model when they received the intercooler and power boost.

I was a reader of Hot Rod and Car Craft at the time and they swooned over the car at the time.  I knew "we" needed one.

Fast forward the clock over 30 years, and I was in a position to buy one.  I saw an ad on Craigslist for an 86 GN, called the owner and he proceeded to explain that he owned both the GN and a Stage 1 455 car from the early 70s.

He further explained that he was being relocated to the South in his job and couldn't take both.

I went to see the car (middle of an ice storm), started and ran it in his garage, climbed around underneath, and a deal was made.

We agreed that I would return for pickup when the snow and ice had been cleaned from the road.  I handed him a bag of cash, threw a plate on the car and drove it home.

The ran fine, but was now 30+ year old tech.  I've owned many, many other performance cars that were newer and this car paled in comparison to any modern metric.

It wallowed down the road, was particularly comfortable, and overall was a huge disappointment.  That disappointment was similar to seeing my high school and college girlfriend at a reunion 25 years later to find that she had gained 150 lbs and didn't get prettier.

The good news in this story is that I sold the car on Ebay for well beyond what I had in it.  That provided a little consolation.

rustomatic said:

I got a 1964 or '65 Jeep CJ 5 once, and it had pretty green paint and was on either 31s or 32s.  It looked great and had a nice 350 in it.  Unfortunately, it rode like utter garbage, and the 4-speed manual was like stirring a literal bucket of bolts.  It of course revved out around 65, which was fine, as you'd die going any faster.  I sold it to a moderately unstable guy who wanted to use it for towing a boat.

Some time after this, I got a lovely 1968 Bronco (dark blue, flares, soft top), slightly lifted and on 33s.  It was like Ferd came along and said "we must do every single thing better than the Jeep."  It did.  This was my hero vehicle.  Then I sold it for four grand because it was full of a crazy ex-girlfriend's hair.

A 1963 CJ5 was my first car.  F head 4 cylinder and three speed transmission.  Still liked it better than the Mustang II that I got a couple of years later.  A rusty 240Z was like a Ferrari after those.

parker said:

Recently drove an S2000 for the first time.  The steering wheel was in my lap.  That engine, people complain about the torque curve of the 1st gen 86?  I'll take my FR-S all day long over the S2000.

That's wild! The steering-wheel-in-lap was one of my favorite parts of the cabin ergonomics in the s2k. When I drive "normal" cars some of them feel like I'm steering a dinner plate.

Toyman! said:

In reply to Uncle David (Forum Supporter) :

It is. No build thread. I haven't started on it yet. 

This showed up yesterday so, soon...

It's nice that they included a toilet float or hand grenade - with the pin already pulled...

Or maybe it's a new shift knob... I dunno, having never owned a Bentley 

I'm debating whether or not Lotus 7 goes on that list. 

I've learned over the years to lower expectations when it comes to cars like this. I go by the mantra that all cars are terrible in their own, unique ways. One that failed to meet the hype for me was a 2017ish Tesla Model S P90D. While it still remains the fastest thing I've driven to date, it just wasn't fun. Too much tech, the interior felt super cheap, and it felt gimmicky. I felt completely disconnected from the road, and out of control of everything. And that was before putting it into self-driving mode. I have zero against electrics, and I've driven others that have been more pleasing overall. This one just didn't do it for me.


The one that lived up to the hype, and I mentioned it here many times before, was the Challenger Scat Pack Widebody. Damn, that car was awesome. I still think about it all the time. Anything that can cruise like a loafing, left lane-hogging Camry one minute and spin 305-width tires downshifting at 60mph on the highway the next gets an A+ from me. It's a bit crude, but it was comfortable, more than fast enough, made all the right noises, and looks like it needs to be on a poster in a kid's bedroom. It's the kind of car I fantasized about in high school study hall, manifested in reality. 

Agree with Loweguy, I owned a corrado vr6 in 2000.  Sold it and always wanted another one.  Bought a nice one last summer and it was just meh.  In the passing 20+ years I've driven so many nicer, more fun cars that the corrado no longer did it for me.

As far as GT3's, you need to drive them differently than a cayman.  A cayman is a better car to jump in and drive fast but if you're not going faster than a cayman in a GT3, the problem isn't in the GT3, it's you as a driver.  I've driven a few GT3's and I'd *love* to have one, sadly they're far more expensive than I can afford at this point.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

You have nicely highlighted a point that few seem to make about the Challenger:  It seems to be genuinely nice to drive.  I had a talk with Mike Musto (Google if you don't know the name) a few years back after he'd bought one with a Hellcat engine--he was shocked over how good a GT car it turned out to be.

parker said:

Recently drove an S2000 for the first time.  Probably good on a track but I didn't like it at all on the street.  The steering wheel was in my lap.  That engine, people complain about the torque curve of the 1st gen 86?  I'll take my FR-S all day long over the S2000.

I was dailying a BMW with the same weight and same HP as the S2K when I got to drive it. I really missed that 70 ft*lbs.

In reply to solfly :

The Corvette was mine. As a race car it was meh!  I kinda felt like a stock car driver. Suspension was numb.  Even though it typically took 3 rd in class the Datsun and Jaguar XKE  simply beat it up in corners and the pull of the 350  wasn't massively better than those 2lower class cars. 
     At Elkhart  Lake I really had to be right on the edge of control through the corners  in order to pass them  on the straight and if I failed to pass by 3/4 of the way down the straight they'd be right back nipping at my heels maybe even pulling a pass off.  
 On the front straight  I had to be at their rear bumper or higher if I was going to lead at the checked flag. 
 

So many Italian "exotics" that were kit cars in everything but name. 

Especially the F40, it's a terrible street car, honestly its a terrible car in general to use anywhere but the track. 

Only one where I actually pulled my checkbook out was a early Diablo before the pricing went nuts and I just don't fit. You cannot see out, the clutch is beyond bad.  

frenchyd said:

In reply to solfly :

The Corvette was mine...

Never owned one but got a ride in a late 1980's Corvette. I remember a rather grim comment about the earlier generations from Road and Track, paraphrasing, "... It wasn't so much a car, but an assembly of parts flying in formation." That pretty much nailed it, at least on public streets.

I have been suppressing an urge to own a BMW 850 CSI with manual trans but fear I might be disappointed.  If I found one at a reasonable price (ha!) I'd be willing to risk it.

toconn said:

E8x & E9x BMW's. I searched long and hard for a nice example with the twin turbo N54 engine and the 6 spd. I had ridden passenger in a couple and got ~5 minutes behind the wheel in one when I started my search. I never expected it to feel like a Miata but I thought it would be a sporty car in a daily-driver package. All the reviews raved about it and unanimously agreed it was the king of the sports sedan hill. 

 

I've owned the car for 6 years now and regret the hell out of buying it. My friend's G35S feels more composed, sportier, more engaging engine, better transmission, better steering, wayyy better reliability, etc. It literally gets outclassed by the G35 in every subjective way as a daily driver with sporting intention. He's had 3 problems in 8 years of ownership, I've replaced essentially every wear item in the suspension, most of the reliability issues in the engine, and altogether have spent more on parts than I did on the original car over my 50k of ownership. I still don't understand how these cars got such rave reviews. At this point I'm just treating it as a summer-only camry until the fuel injectors go out ($3k) or some other big ticket item comes up.

I think this shows it's certainly all very subjective.  I agree that the N54 is very troublesome, and that's very well known and documented.  Not sure if you did your research on that before buying the car.  I have a 128i with the N52.  I couldn't love the car more.  It's had some small issues, but nothing tragic.  I've owned 2 G35/37s and they don't compare to the 128i.  Yeah, it's a little quicker.  Beyond that it's far less composed, has less feedback, lacks refinement and is just not as fun of a car overall.  I'm not putting the G down, there's a reason I had two.  They're very good cars and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one.  IMO, in comparison to the 128i, it falls quite short.

A friend's E46 M3. I drove it with SMG and with the recent 6spd swap (all BMW parts). I mean its good on track...probably better on the street as a daily though. For all the M3 hype I found the narrow power band annoyingly small, chassis was mushy feeling...even with really good coil overs, the manual's clutch is WAY too soft and poor engagement feel plus there's just no positive gear placement feeling in the shifter. I kinda wanted one of these as a possible daily/backup track car, but not anymore. On the upside I really appreciate and understand what I have accomplished with the Cutlass.

As for the vintage Ferrari stuff... even the engines are disappointingly poor quality from back in the 50's and 60's. Really poor castings, crankshaft looks like its out of a Model A, hell some had "mouse trap springs" for the valve springs (these got converted to coil spring as top priority). On the other hand I was flat out impressed by the casting quality of a late 50's Rolls Royce engine block.