Off to Germany

81gtv6 wrote: Lotus Carlton

UNF UNF UNF so HAWT.

They made less than a thousand of those type 104s, so I bet they are large money still.

Mk I Escort FTW, Lotus if possible but unlikely to be in your price range at a guess, by the way if you don't want it I do.

http://classic-car.y2u.co.uk/Ford_Escort_Mk1.htm

I'd look at Ford Cortinas, Escorts, Capris, or Opel Mantas:

Maybe a little this: Or a little that: Or how about:

I see them occasionally, mostly Manta Bs, in Practical Performance Car (which is a similar mind set to GRM, but English), and people seem to have a lot of fun with them on the way cheap.

Carson wrote: I'd look at Ford Cortinas, Escorts, Capris, or Opel Mantas: I see them occasionally, mostly Manta Bs, in Practical Performance Car (which is a similar mind set to GRM, but English), and people seem to have a lot of fun with them on the way cheap.

There is nothing way-cheap about that Opel, but WOW, that is an incredible upgrade to a mundane car!

sierras are cool too

http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/showDetails.html?lang=en&id=125144874&pageNumber=1&scopeId=C&sortOption.sortBy=searchNetGrossPrice&sortOption.sortOrder=ASCENDING&makeModelVariant1.makeId=9000&makeModelVariant1.modelId=36&makeModelVariant1.searchInFreetext=false&makeModelVariant2.searchInFreetext=false&makeModelVariant3.searchInFreetext=false&vehicleCategory=Car&segment=Car&siteId=GERMANY&damageUnrepaired=NO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&export=ALSO_EXPORT&customerIdsAsString=&doorCount=TWO_OR_THREE&tabNumber=2

It's a shame you can't import something younger than 25 years old. Then the decision would be easy! Right? Everybody say it with me................Peugeot 205 GTI!

What? No? Only me?

Well, I've just spent the last 45 minutes browsing mobile.de, and wishing I lived in Germany.

Cheap TVR

Way over budget, but way awesome. NSU Prinz racer

Just over budget: BMW 1802 Touring

Something awful just dawned on me, what am I going to do for TV Yes I am a TV addict.

TVR man. They are way cool.

Buy whatever the hell gets you down to The Hofbrauhaus in Munich!

I'd use a Pogo stick to get back there if it was possible!

I'd say first choice would be MB 190e, the one with the 2.5 16. You could never get that one here; unfortunately I don't think it was available with the 2.5 until 1988.

That sort of TVR can usually be had cheaper over here in the UK. Not that far a drive either from Germany.

wherethefmi wrote: Something awful just dawned on me, what am I going to do for TV Yes I am a TV addict.

You might find some trouble in Germany, I want to say that Universal doesn't work there, so anything from Universal (for instance, almost any mainstream music on Youtube from the artists official page) probably won't work.

Try these:
hulu.com
www.casttv.com/shows
Try individual network pages (NBC.com has the office, snl, etc up)
ATDHE.NET has almost every live sports game going on, and lots of live TV as well.

Get a 6,9l 450sel, then you won't ever have to worry about getting into trouble because you'll be saving up for a 90l tank of gas.

Other than a 69er I'd bet whatever is cheap to run and gas will be key.

Cheap to run would usually mean Diesel - depends if wherethefmi has to pay German car tax on the car or not. Cars are taxed by displacement in Germany, the bigger the engine, the more tax you have to pay; There is also an additional fudge factor based on emissions so if you've got an old car (ie, one that doesn't conform to Euro-whatever) with a big engine, the tax will fall into the "I've bought road legal cars for less" bracket.

Of course, if he doesn't have to pay that tax, big engines look a lot better suddenly. Until you get to the gas station, that is.

For TV get a sling box and leave it at home here in the states or at a friends house. Then watch your favorite local programming anywhere in the world (as long as there is broadband)

4cylndrfury wrote: Do zee germans drive on zee proper zide of zee roads?

Deutschland is LHD, right side of road.

GOOD LUCK!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumholder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCrburgring

Looks like you're fairly close to the Ring . Nurburg and Baumholder are in the same German state, Rhineland-Palatinate (Rhineland-Pfalz auf deutsch).

Yeah less than 50 miles to the 'ring!!!

See if you can pick up one of these bad boys.

wherethefmi wrote: Something awful just dawned on me, what am I going to do for TV Yes I am a TV addict.

If you are spending time in front of a TV while you are in Germany you are doing it wrong.

With that being said, you get to look forward to AFN, good stuff. It has been awhile since I was over there but this is what I remember.

1. Old TV shows, in the mid 80's they were playing things like Raw Hide.

2. No commercials except for the occasional screwup during one of the few live broadcasts like the Super Bowl. What you got instead were things like "Don't drive your Jeep too fast on the on and off ramps, it will roll", and "Be careful what you say, you never know whois listening".

3. As a teenager German TV was awsome. They are much more lax on showing skin, shampoo adds are much more interesting and the German version of Soap Operas were good for "forbidden fruit".

Oh, and by the way you now get to host the "GRM goes to Germany to see way cool car stuff" trip. Thanks

oldsaw wrote:

Carson wrote: I'd look at Ford Cortinas, Escorts, Capris, or Opel Mantas: I see them occasionally, mostly Manta Bs, in Practical Performance Car (which is a similar mind set to GRM, but English), and people seem to have a lot of fun with them on the way cheap.

There is nothing way-cheap about that Opel, but WOW, that is an incredible upgrade to a mundane car!

Can someone please explain this suspension setup to me? I've always wondered about it... What are the pros to this? And how stupid would i be for wanting to do it?

mel_horn wrote: Rhineland-Palatinate (Rhineland-Pfalz auf deutsch).

Ahem. It's Rheinland-Pfalz.

In reply to 93celicaGT2:

Well, basically, the entire budget was shot building the car so there was no room to buy decent hood pins. The easier and more secure option was bolting the struts to the hood.

My real guess would be to lower the car while still maintaining an ideal suspension geometry and travel, but I don't really know for certain.

Carson wrote: In reply to 93celicaGT2: Well, basically, the entire budget was shot building the car so there was no room to buy decent hood pins. The easier and more secure option was bolting the struts to the hood. My real guess would be to lower the car while still maintaining an ideal suspension geometry and travel, but I don't really know for certain.

Hrmmm... if your real guess is correct.... how do i do this? I can see all kinds of nightmarish issues with doing this, including possibly custom control arms, which unless i miss my guess, could have solved geometry problems to begin with?

Or am i not picturing a suspension correctly, and this could be done with stock control arms?