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Agreed; blame Hurst. The factory quarter window was well done:

The last couple of days, including today. In order of seeing/spotting/noticing them C4 red Corvette on the Mazda dealership used car lot section. Still there today. I havent had time to stop and see the details, maybe tomorrow. dark grey Cadillac CT5. Probably the 2.0 Turbo. It has presence on the road seeing it out in the wild, but I wasnt really impressed with it. Probably the colour doesnt do justice to the car. That and I dont like grey on cars. Probably because the base car is kinda bland also. Too far away to really analyse it but close enough to have an opinion if I like the exterior or not... North American market MkIV Supra rolling on the opposite side of the road going the other direction. (Yes, the steering wheel was where it belongs!!!) Silver. I dont think it was the turbo model, didnt look like it was. Wasnt riced out. (Thank the lord. It looked stock.) Body was of a well driven Quebec car after all these years. No signs of rust. Probably kept in the garage during the winter, but it did have some battle scars on the body. It was a decent car. 1971 blue Chevelle SS with dual white racing stripes. 15 inch Torque Thrust II mags. Well restored car parked on a street. 1969 orange Camaro. All orange. I doubt it was Chevy's Hugger orange colour. Maybe it was. Another well restored car. Had modern 17 or 18 inch 5 skinny spoke mags. This car too, was parked. I stopped to analyse the Chevelle. I didnt for the Camaro. No time. mid 1960s Chrysler Newport convertible. Blue-ish grey-ish. Nicely restored car. In a McDonald's parking lot while I was driving towards a softball practice that was in Montreal. And today. I was going to Home Depot, to Reno-Depot (A Canadian-Montreal based -home renovation store) and back to Home Depot... 2 miles at the most apart. A red on red 2002-2005 Ford Thunderbird. He was leaving Home Depot while I was going in. When I left Home Depot to go to Reno Depot, I saw that 2002-2005 Thunderbird at the Reno Depot parking lot. While I was driving to Home Depot initially, a Dark Grey (kinda like Carbon Fibre grey colour) C7 Z06 with a Hennessy cursive logo on the back bumper left side was in the right lane to me driving forward while I turned left to go to Home Depot. Well, that same C7 was was parked in the lot at the 2nd Home Depot trip. Coming back home from this romp, an all black no chrome, nothing shiny CT5 was coming towards me on the opposite side. I dont think it was a V car, but it definitely was a Sport trim. This version had a ton more presence. This version looked mean and good and awesome. I LOVED this version!

All cleaned and ready for summer use. My 1994 GMC SLE suburban.

Too small for me, but a Fiesta ST might be fun...I've read they handle really well. About the only recent small Ford I've driven was an Escape rental about 3 years ago. Lots of hard gray plastic inside.

From Montreal. Happy Birthday USA!!!

Been a while since I've had a "toy" car. Decided to buy this 1988 Firebird Formula for my son and I to work on together. He is almost 13 and not at all mechanically inclined. Not so much because he can't be but because I am one of those picky people that would never let him help me because I wanted to make sure it was done right. It's a pretty clean and rust free all original driver but has more than enough flaws (starting with its anemic 305 V8) that I won't feel guilty doing an LS swap on it. I already sourced the engine and trans as well as a far amount of parts for the conversion but with COVID raging here in Michigan I would feel too guilty to order the rest of the parts I need to get the swap going so it is on hold for now. I don't have the time or equipment to do the engine swap so someone will be doing that for me. My son and I will fix up the interior, replace the little work and broken items and install all the suspension components, though. Should be a fun project once it gets going. I don't want to turn it into a race car. Just a fun, reliable street car. It will be a cam only LS1 with a small stall (2500 rpm) 4L60E. The goal will be something like a 375 RWHP car that will dip into the high 11's in the quarter. Perhaps more mods in future years but no plans to go faster than 11.5 as I already went the roll bar route with a different car and don't want to do that again.

Dats da sheet!

Just to finish what Balthy started

Saw this tonight. Nice color. The lady left the top down and went into the store. It's a nicer area, so she figured it would be o.k. Anyone who owns a Cascada should hang onto it for a long time. Especially one like this.

Toronto Maple Leafs

IMO, all the '73 GM mid sizers had the best rear styling of the '73-77 generation---'73 was the only year they had the tight rear bumpers before the '74 federal bumpers. The '73 Olds and '73 Buick are probably my favorites of that generation.

Most links I googled said 8-12 specifically for school buses and (much heavier) motorhomes of the same class, but even if it was 3, that's triple the cost, or less than $90,000, NOT "$400,000". Buses would have to get 0.7 MPG to burn that much fuel. It's disingenuous.

Sharks (sorry ... that's why it doesn't interest me)

IDK. Bullets 3 and 4 reference school buses....

^ And I would agree with that. But wants and costs are common head-butt-ers. We've been over this before, but here it is again. Federal Highway Admin reports the average annual mileage for school buses is only 8000. Recommended lifespan for conventional (Type C & D) is 12-15 years. This varies somewhat beyond that; excess mileage can shorten the lifespan, as can physical deterioration of surfaces due to local weather/climate. There have been numerous studies that were utilized to come to this recommendation. Like I stated earlier, it may well be that EV buses see a longer allowable lifespan in the future, but there's more to the current limitation that just the buses' powertrain. 8000 x 12 years is only 96,000 miles. At 10 MPG, a diesel bus would burn 9600 gals of fuel. Even given $3/gal, that's only $28,800 in fuel over 12 years. Somehow, dfelt's post above sourced some wild estimate that an EV bus : It's simply a ridiculous number, and therefore is assuredly a 'loaded' number to push a viewpoint. Taking that point as logical, the "$400,000" savings drops by $371,200!! - - - - The National Assoc of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services states: "Available funding is likely the single most important consideration in determining when school buses are replaced." To repeat myself - it sounds great to have these much quieter, no exhaust buses floating around, but there has to be money to pay for them.

i just know i would love it if the buses I rode were electric. The clunky-@ss transmissions and air brakes and howling diesel at interstate speeds make me want that ironed out.

Remember, Ford is getting out of the car business in NA...the Mustang is their only car left. (Fusion is gone after 2020, though the name may return on a CUV).

There is a reason for that: The Ford Escape probably crushes the Fiesta by a lot in the sales column. Small cars in general have been steamrolled out of the market by subcompact and compact CUVs.

Based on a quick glance at the phone, I thought it was the iconic Cathedral of Learning. Evidently, it isn't. Even if Molson wasn't in the photo, that's unmistakably the Pont Jacques-Cartier and Ile Ste.-Helene, two great things about Montreal. The fireworks look like they're going off from La Ronde. Thank you, merci, efharisto, and belated Happy Canada Day to you, frogger, and other C&G members from Canada.

TINY CAR.

Naval air base, TX, 1942 :

I believe this is the actual C&G HQ building. Imposing structure, to say the least :

Happy Fourth of July, C&G folks ... wherever you may be ... And, last but not least, C&G's headquarters: Have a great holiday weekend!

The old L03 305 is now out. Threw a cam and springs in the LS1 and it is now ready to go in. My torque converter finally arrived a couple of days ago after a 6 week wait. It will be interesting to see how long the trans and/or rear end last. My budget is already blown so no money for upgrades this year unless I can find a used 28 spline 3.42 rear out of a 1990-92 F-body.

You are right that they have the records on the cost of maintenance for a bus in a fleet. Yet NO WHERE do they show adding this to the Purchase price of a Diesel Bus when they compare it to the EV Bus which has always pointed out the reduced maintenance cost. If they did that, I think even on a 12 year comparison they would come out much closer. Started to search around and found a few reports. Many are done outside of the US, India and China where they have already flipped over to more EV than Diesel so I ignored those. Pointes stated in the reports: 528 EV buses with 1yr maintenance records used to compare to diesel buses Diesel bus costs $500,000 versus $750,000 EV bus for Transit. School diesel costs $110,000 versus $230,000 EV bus New Flyer buses for Transit and Schools allowed access to this report of their maintenance costs for both buses. EV Buses save $400,000 in fuel expense and $125,000 in maintenance cost averted over the 12 year life of the bus. Seneca South Carolina shared their records, shows EV Buses are 16.5 mpg equivalent fuel efficiency compared to 3.8 MPG for Diesel. Fuel Per Mile costs was $0.28 for Electric, $0.59 for diesel with maintenance costs of $0.55 permile for EV buses compared to $1.53 per mile for Diesel. Report also states that for those school districts and Cities that used Solar Power Charging where the surplus was sold back to the local grid, this further reduced costs. Another point made was the reductions in EPA certificates and disposal of toxic waste related to gas/diesel buses. Here are US based reports: https://www.publicpower.org/periodical/article/electric-buses-mass-transit-seen-cost-effective https://uspirg.org/feature/usp/electric-buses-america https://www.govtech.com/workforce/Electric-Buses-Are-Not-Only-Clean-But-Less-Costly-to-Run.html

On their website, the Rivian R1T has a width of 79.3 and a track of 67.3. Difference of 12", divided by 2 = 6 inches from center of tire to edge of 'envelope' (body). Tires are 275/65R20, for a sectional width of 10.8" / 2 = 5.4" per side. So track of 67.3 plus 10.8 (2 half tires) = 78.1. I'd say it's safe to say the mirrors stick out more than 0.6" per side. 79.3 is body width. Whew- exercise.

Ill go out on a limb and say: Cost of operation and initial purchase price and all the minute details regarding cost means very little in terms of us humans turning the corner and trying to live more environmentally friendly. Take that how you will, but this being an EV thread, we could discuss how green fossil fuels are versus how green electric power grids are. The mining of battery elements versus oil drilling is the same. Both need diesel power equipment to extract the materials from the earth. Moot point. The transportation of said natural materials to their processing destinations is also the same as both use diesel and gasoline powered vehicles for delivery. Transportation of final product (battery) and actual gasoline is also the same. Gasoline needs to be refined and that sometimes means that the energy used is not green and electricity is sometimes produced by coal powered plants so that too is the same. After the life of the battery is done, recycling of the battery is not yet defined. So that could be an advantage for the fossil fuel advocates. The problem though is that electricity in some cities/countries is produced by actual green sources and where the electric powered vehicle really gets an advantage over the fossil fueled one is that when an electric vehicle is used, virtually no pollutants are released in the atmosphere. Remember though, even if a coal powered plant is used to produce the electricity for recharging purposes, the electricity is being transported by wires to the charging station... But...oil and gasoline CONTINUE to be transported by fossil fueled vehicles to the gasoline station on a daily basis. Everyday. Every week. Every month. Every year. Every decade. Sometimes...the initial purchase price is really not that important when you factor in how we humans SHOULD be changing how we go on about our lives going forward in 2020 and beyond. Unless of course you dont think how humans live now is not harming our planet. Then it doesnt matter what I or anybody else says. Go on about and live your life the way you want to. Humans do have that choice to do what they want and we have that over the other animals we share our planet with. We have free will after all...

Seems the first fuel cell plane test flight was a success making it net zero equal for a plane. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/zeroavia-completes-test-flight-of-fuel-cell-airplane/ A video of the plane is a bum as I was wanting to hear how it sounded and the put a music track on it that keeps us from hearing. Cool Motor Finally found their post of it and WOW is that nice and Quiet. Chili just bought 150 electric buses from China to expand their bus fleet to 455 Electric buses, 2nd largest in the world behind China. https://electrek.co/2020/07/02/egeb-chile-orders-150-e-buses-santiago-france-nuclear-nevada-ev/

Seems that the war is on for who can slip through the Air the best. Lucid says they have the best numbers for aerodynamic efficiency of a luxury car. Seems Mercedes-Benz is going to have to work hard to catch up. lol https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1128703_lucid-air-claimed-to-be-the-most-aerodynamically-efficient-luxury-car

California has started to install fast chargers on the rural roads now. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/envisions-ev-arc-provides-solar-powered-dc-fast-charging-along-rural-california-corridor/

79 x 217 is full size. I don’t think with those numbers it has any size similarity with a tacoma.

The '70s era stuff was all around me growing up- I rejected them for older, better stuff. Designed, fitted bumpers, detailed lights & trim. 'Full-flow' body design concept. God; GM pulled off some true modern art in the '60s - unsurpassed.

Ill always do the muscle car version of the vehicle in question when it comes to the muscle car era. One thing the later Colonnade versions have it on the earlier ones is T-Tops. I love them T-Tops. One thing Id do to that 1973 Hurst is Id ditch the vinyl roof and Id very much do T-Tops. I love a 1973 Grand Am too. I just LOVE the rear. From the rear quarter panels and on to the ass of the car.

Even Pontiac joined in on the 1980s party. Those GM E Bodies were leftovers from the 1970s...and I wouldnt have said anything if those GM E Bodies embodied Glam Rock from Kiss or Sweet like a KITT Firebird or a mullet Camaro or even Disco like a G Body... Those E Bodies embody boogie woogie bugle boy dreams. Not new money, millionaire yuppiness that a BMW 6 Series embodies. And for the Cyndi Lauper and WHAM lovers out there. A Pontiac Fiero, as far as the1980s go , IS a beautiful machine. And what it could have been had GM not bean-counted it to death. Which blows both Corvette C4 AND BMW 6 Series outta the sky. This 1990 or 1991 concept was supposed to be the 2nd generation Fiero. Some believe it to be how the original Fiero was to be.

Haven’t seen this kind of heat in a while......