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balthazar

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Everything posted by balthazar

  1. Sorry to raise some folks hackles, but AD vehicles is pretty much hand-in-hand with EVs. The media & other 'public speakers' are pushing it so hard, mostly because it's new and therefore nearly automatically gets coverage. It garners clicks. This is my suspicion. I mean; there aren't any fully AD vehicles for sale, yet the common spin in print is 'OEM Q is behind the AD development curve!!!' I understand how R&D is done... but in actuality- there is no 'curve' yet. These numbers show fledgling possible interest at best, yet "every OEM MUST get their AD vehicle out now!!!" except- they don't have to.
  2. Circa 1947 ~
  3. Ya know... a Mk II drive could be pretty sweet- I think I agree with you there! Tho I think I"ll go with the Turbo-Drive. :D
  4. But the #2 thru at least the #8 best selling EVs in the US are hatchbacks. Bolt finished #2 last year on the EV charts, and so far is #4 this year.
  5. Bolt is a small hatchback, which are gaining in popularity, vs. the Model 3 as a sedan, the fastest shrinking vehicle preference. Model Y should have been built first.
  6. ^ NONE of those cars are remotely interesting to me. I 'like' some of them, but still find them, to a large degree; boring.
  7. Musk just shot himself in the foot- the 100s of thousands that put down deposits thinking their 'in brand' car was going to be $35K, STILL waiting, years later, to get that car when all that's available is $42-49K..., Musk gives a Model 3 update and the new version costs EIGHTY THOUSAND instead. All those people still waiting must be PISSED. Let's see if Tesla issues an update on deposit cancellations...
  8. Most garage doors in my experience are 7-ft, not 8. 8-ft is out of average reach for manual operation, and although most people have openers today, doors most often 'carry on as is'. Of course, you can get any height you want- my brother's shop has a 14-ft door. I can't get my '04 2500HD into my shop- even with the mirrors folded those sub-8-ft wide doors are too narrow. Single-vehicle garage doors are going to be a problem with both height & width on these new trucks... but they're trucks; they're SUPPOSED to sit outside, right?
  9. Wrangler prices are nuts. That is all.
  10. Looked at the links and came away with this: >>"Ideal for jewelry, statues, home hardware, or replica artifacts"<< Sounds like a far cry from suspension or structural pieces at this point.
  11. Pretty sure the lawsuit was the 350s in X-Bodied cars, circa '73-75, or before the Seville.
  12. yes- Olds sourced basic engine, tho it did get FI in the Seville. And you couldn't get it in other Cadillacs, so it's not like there'd be a question upon opening the hood of a given Cad in this era, but still- these were co-existing engines in the same brand.
  13. Perhaps, except NOBODY BUILDS SOMETHING LIKE THAT. And that includes the almighty Tesla.
  14. I can't leave you guys back in the past alone for a few hours without you running amok and drawing on the walls, can I? The Wiki quote is correct RE Olds, they had distinct small & big blocks. Pontiac did not- the 326 up thru the 455 have the same external size block, so Pontiac does NOT have a small and/or big block. OK; the 301 is technically smaller, but it's so utterly forgettable that it's shunned for the purposes of this discussion. Still ... the 301 & 400 overlap, so I guess from '77-79, technically, if you want to be a total jerk about it, Pontiac had a SB & BB. ? But nobody cares and everyone hates the 301. There; I said it. They are relative terms addressing external V8 engine size within one brand. Chevy, Olds & Buick had SBs & BBs, Pontiac did not, Cadillac only had one displacement until the same-family 472/500 of '70, and no SB (or BB) until the 350 of '76 appeared. Trivia point: even tho Chevy got it's V8 in '55, it wasn't a "small block" until the 348 came out in '58.
  15. Except, OF COURSE, for the Volt & Bolt. EV1 was a pilot lease program, not a production car. Perhaps it could have been put into production I believe (in no way am I up on it's specs/costs), but clearly the time was not right. There were a healthy bunch of fledgling EV cars since the '70s- ALL failures. There is no "pullback" since the Volt came out, and the Bolt is irrefutable proof of that.
  16. I hope they're not doing structural/ suspension pieces with a 3-D printer. That would be very UNcool.
  17. EPA uses interior cubic volume- to them a 1973 El Camino is a subcompact.
  18. OK, but they're not restomodding with a 307 in there. 350 minimum, if keeping it in the Olds camp. Those caretaking the H/Os are going to keep things original in the hopes of a future payday. I don't know what the rest of them are doing- these are marketed first & foremost as performance cars... but they have no performance. Yank all the 307s, get some power under those hoods. Or LS 'em. Just my opinion. Buddy just asked me today if I would consider my brother's pulled motor for my B-59, but that's a 400 Pontiac. And thusly :
  19. There's no measurable enthusiast base for the 307, c'mon; be serious.
  20. Yes- as I mentioned elsewhere recently, I had a bunch of miles behind the wheel of a 135/301 Safari. Competent, but certainly not stirring. Even the Turbo T/A was in the 16-sec range for the 1/4-mile. Unfortunately, that was pretty good for the era- ferrari was hovering around 16 sec, too (308GTI : 15.6).
  21. See, my bias is showing. You are correct of course; the 301 was Pontiac-built, but they're basically mediocre people movers at best, with no aftermarket support or collector interest. Throw-aways. It's like offering someone a dish with a geen/moldy carrot nub and a fresh, hot, seasoned piece of grilled chicken; they're really close to each other but only 1 is at all appealing. "The last REAL Pontiac V8."
  22. The '79 Trans Am W72 400 was actually stockpiled '78 engines; both the last 400 and the last Pontiac V8. :(
  23. This will not occur in any of our lifetimes, Dave. In fact, I predict it won't even get to 50% EV usage in our lifetimes.

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