balthazar

I'm gonna pic : AT4, AT4, and the AT4. ;)

There was a LOT of this going on in the '60s. Ford had production SOHC big blocks, and Pontiac developed (but never produced) SOHC and DOHC 421 V8s also. There were other looks into OHC valvetrains, and of course Pontiac produced their OHC I6 for a number of years.

^ "Luxury!!" and conspicuous consumption. The beautiful people, in imported, high-capability luxury trucks, loaded with tech and features. Head-turners & trend-setters. The latest Thing.

Just noting the attempted correlation of plastic to more volume, when clearly it's a matter of design, not material. 'Package space' is gobblygook; it cannot offer more volume in the same physical space. Sometimes the hyperbole gets tiresome.

Some questions from the Experiential World Inventory (test for schizophrenia) (answered either true or false) ~ • I seem to have discovered the secrets of the universe. • Animals try to fool me. • I am afraid I may forget my own name. • People are parasites. • I sometimes keep talking to convince myself I exist. • Someone is making copies of me. • I am in the far, far distance. and two of my most favorite : • I do not know what my hands will do next. • The terrors of hell approach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o_uF1L5l6o&t=3752s

There's no 'mainstream exotic car culture' in the US either, but I see Maseratis weekly. I'm not saying Ford would need to sell 900K F-Series a year there, they could be exclusive luxury play things, like a Lambo. Rare, expensive, luxurious. Same segment as a Lambo, just with a tailgate. :D

Still have to pay people to drive EV. The take-away from that is there will be strong opposition to the implementation of a ban. Median household income in Denmark is $38K US. People are not going to be able to 1. afford EVs unless heavily subsidized, and 2. not going to be able to afford conversion. Big Gov't likes to talk the talk, we'll see if the talk flies.

All the engineering, race-testing, performance data that has taken solid rubber 3-in wide tires to -say- 375-22s degree of traction (nevermind slicks) tossed RIGHT OUT THE WINDOW in order to look like an insufferable idiot. Might as well use solid rubber Model T tires.

I'm a 'bottom line' type of person, it matters little IMO if the E motor is "cheap" if the whole project is going to cost $50,000 to $250,000. Or $500,000. I too am eager to get my car completed. ?

I'm in the process of replacing a V8 ICE powertrain with a more modern one, only 11-12 years newer in my case, and everything has to be changed, everything. Beside the obvious, also exhaust, brake lines, and electrical aspects. Just dealing with my gas tank is taking at least 16 hours (some of that is elective)- pegging shop rate at $110/hr, that would be $1760 just on the fuel system. I can't even reuse the original throttle linkage- so that has to be re-engineered. Putting an EV powertrain where a longitudinal V8/trans/driveshaft/rear was would be 500 hours in labor in a shop no problem- that's $55,000. Then you have parts on top of that. Just as OEMs cannot sell EVs at competitive prices to ICE equivalents (and make a profit), one-off retro-fitting is enormously expensive. Neil Young has stated he believes his LincVolt project will have cost around $500,000.

A mercedes GLS is 84" wide including mirrors, 76" at the body. A F/S truck has a 4-in wider body, and all truck mirrors fold in. Does Daimler sell the GLS in Europe? Not everyone in Europe lives in a tiny 2000-yr old ox-cart town. Saying a F/S truck is impractical due to X-dimension is like saying no one will buy a Lamborghini in the US because it has no trunk and no headroom.

OK; I suppose if you blow the side wall of a block out, it's not repairable, but such has been spray welded back together before. You could ALWAYS find a replacement block- there are even long block Tucker motors out there today. Once you have to fabricate mounts/plates and re-engineer an electric motor/battery packs where a ICE/ transmission/driveshaft was, you are getting into MAJOR hours time-wise, and time = money. Bolt-in usually always trumps re-engineering. The other thing to consider if the thinking is - a marked increase in power is going to require a lot of other tangential upgrades, such as brakes & tires. A '37 Olds coupe is only 95 HP as a 6 / 110 as an 8, in a 3200 lb car. A nissan leaf is 3500 lbs but has 147 HP and arguably; markedly better brakes. We're not talking about putting a 100 Kw Tesla motor in a '37 Olds that's otherwise stock, are we??

People said the same thing about tiny, tinny miserly Euro cars when gas was 33-cents here. Then they became increasingly available and buyers found appeal in them. If Rollers, Bentleys, A8s and 5000lb s-classes can find buyers, just think what an imminently more capable, comparatively luxurious and far more exclusive F-150 Platinum could do over there.

I've never heard of a 'plastic' pan in 'Ye Olden Days of Yore', or prior to this century, but I'm not surprised there's already a number of examples already. Plastics encompass far more composition variants than steel or aluminum, and as for heat- if OEMs have worked out plastic intakes years ago on TOP of an IC engine, I have no worries about a plastic oil pan on the bottom end. Just take the propaganda in with a critical eye; the Daimler pan posted above isn't 30% larger capacity because it's plastic- if anything the plastic versions are obviously much thicker-walled. The shape is different.

Far more cost effective -both from the project cost and the ensuing value issue- to rebuild the original engine that to engineer/retrofit an electric powertrain into an antique auto. ANY IC engine can always be rebuilt.

"It's a tarted up Nissan."

• Got a fuel return fitting, so drilled another hole in the tank for that; 1/4-in rubber return line. That hole allowed me to see inside the tank fairly well, there is some residual rust inside here & there- not heavy but more than I would have expected. Tank has been dry since about 1995-96, was it there before? Have a very good radiator shop up the street, going to see what they say about getting it boiled/coated (they did the COE's tank in '03). This, after my buddy & I successfully got the fuel pickup assembly installed- took about 30 mins and a good 10 drops of the half-washers into the tank. • Pipes for the header surgery are en route, as are mufflers. Made a cardboard 'muffler' to gauge room underneath, they may get close to the driveshaft- I don't have that yet so I don't know what diameter it'll be. The ladder bars are crowding where the mufflers will likely be (in front of the rear axle... but I may have room to hang them all the way back under the quarter panels. • Started messing around with the braided fuel supply line & the fittings- think it's figured out.

Pic taken in 1996 (note that generation Ram in background) :

And it's obviously Esquire UK, as the references are painfully geographical. Likewise is the claim "The X-Class is also the only pick-up around that hits the “luxury” mark." Pity the Brits- bet they're continually whining about 'why do others always get the good stuff?' when looking at USDM trucks. https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a23640970/will-mercedes-benz-new-pick-up-make-you-the-man-you-were-always-supposed-to-be/ There is zero question in my mind that this turd will be coming to the US; Daimler canNOT resist a carrot nub on a string even if it meant a lifetime of carrots next week.

Coupes are the sexy ones.

Bloomberg remembers, for some infathomable reason.

Well, certainly not everyone is going to agree with much of this paragraph!

Numbers-wise, it doesn't pay to buy the diesel to save fuel money. I did some figuring on the Ram V6 gas vs. I6 diesel a few years ago and it was going to take something like 19 years to break even. Just watched a vid on the F-150 diesel and it was of the same opinion- fuel cost savings were between $46 - 200/year, but the 3.0 PowerStroke costs in the $4K range- at $200 yr savings on fuel, that's again 20 years to break even. Buy a diesel because you like the power, or the longevity, or merely the image... but not for fuel savings.