balthazar

I knew it was that car (Oldsmoboi had already answered): the color & taillight were unquestionable. Eldorodo bears quite a bit of resemblence to the late '90s concept Cadillacs (Voyage, etc), IMO: full fuselage bodies.

>>"Of course, this deficiency is something of an American tradition: the Impala is made by the same company that continued selling two-speed Powerglide automatics into the 70’s, when others had moved on to three and four-speed designs."<< 'Of course... the Impala is made by the same company that introduced the automatic transmission, that clever device that was since emulated by every other vehicle manufacturer known to man. Of course, General Motor's HydraMatic Division offered 4-sped autos in the '50s and '60s, before anyone else bothered beyond 2-speeds. Of course Chevy offered not only a 2-spd auto, but 3- and 4-spd autos while nearly every other manufacturer offered but one (which equates to no option), plus 3-, 4- and 5-spd manuals.

XP-511?

Forbes is a rag that gives Jerry Flintstone precious space to ramble & drool; no one reads Forbes for automotive news or insight. That said, I'd like to vomit for 30 minutes straight on the author/editor of this toilet paper article. >>"There's no such thing as media bias."<< Right.

Obvious...

Only seen stills of the Hornet 'corkscrew jump' but I agree: amazing. I enjoyed both Vanishing Point movies, as well as Bullitt, which I'll catch the chase scene whenever its on. Like Dual as well, tho I wish the car was at least interesting. I believe the Ryan O'Neal movie is The Driver, in fact. Never saw it. Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry is another good car chase movie. I also like The Car, tho I wouldn't neccessarily call it 'good'. Opening chase scene in Jeepers Creepers has some nice vintage iron in it.

I really don't know why I knew that, but I looked at it for a few seconds and 'late Vega' came to mind. Had to verify it via photos, because I knew early Vegas had quad taillights, and google showed the Cosworth had the chrome trim and '76's tails were a different shape. Capriceman- I just stuffed Leno's Toro pic in my 'OLDS' folder on my harddrive. F'ing rolling artwork!

You have a few steps ahead of you first. Retracting the shoes is temporary- driving it & braking firmly multiple times will adjust them to the correct spec, tho I would back them off of all-the-way-retracted first. BUT, with any car sitting a good long while, I would pull each drum and check the brakes' condition: linings for rust & thinness, shoes for cracking,/ thinness, wheel cylinders for leaking, hoses for dry rot, steel lines for excessive rust, wheel bearings for wear & repack them w/ grease. You want to drive it, right? What goes... needs to stop. Get the brakes in top shape- it's the first step.

Weeks have already turned into a month. Will a month turn into months? Will months turn into a year?

mightymouses's list....??? :sad: It wasn't that GM thing with the built-in shopping cart, was it? You are talking about the '64 GM Runabout. Pretty sure than was non-powered, but not 100% sure. AmRev makes a good deduction about "petrol", tho if it was from a British pub, that could explain the terminology. I am familiar with numerous dual fuel vehicles, but not a gas/electic one. I do not believe the ElectroVair retained an IC motor.... Stumped....

'75 Cosworth Vega.

I wouldn't kick it outta bed for eating crackers, but it's a tiny bit less cherry than I was expecting. Duct tape over leaking window seals always makes me shake my head, but whatcha gonna do? Still, real solid. I love finding them this way- solid and original. Looks like a lower-optioned car; a 425 would seem unlikely. Still, a damned fine cruiser- take care of her and she'll take care of you.

ANOTHER ONE?!?! This is friggin fantastic!

On the backside of the brake (the backing plate), down at 6:00 o'clock, is a little oval rubber plug. Wriggle it out and shine a light in there; get a look at what you'll be aiming for. It's a 'star wheel'. Get a brake spoon (looks like a wide flat-blade screwdriver at the end), engage the star wheel's teeth and move the other end of the tool, the one in your hand, down (rotates the star wheel up & away from you). This will retract the shoes away from the drum. It'll take a while for each one to retract all the way (the star wheel won't turn anymore). Might make 6 revolutions, tho that's a guess, not knowing the thickness of the linings. Do all 4 wheels. Electra should roll now, tho you may have to pull the car (in Neutral) to try and break things free. Don't drive it; with the shoes retracted all the way you won't have any brakes! Post again here if that doesn't work.

'Fatigue' is a component of the driver, not the car. It's an unknown and unpredictable factor, if any factor at all. Immaterial. Point was, the (domestic) 'family-sedan'-based car was able to virtually match the performance of a 'pedigreed' car costing many times more the price. That is certainly not an embarassment to the 'family sedan'... I don't wish to get knee-deep in a heated argument here. Mutual respect would be an excellent 'white flag': both 'camps' have had formidable, successful machines that greatly advanced their street products. You know what you know and I know what I know. Can we leave it at that?

A half second per lap advantage on a 2-minute course would require 240 laps for the quicker car to pass the slower one. That's EIGHT HOURS of driving (240 laps x 2 minutes). Hardly "huge".Sure, in a 24-hour scenario, that's something to contend with. In a one-to-one comparison (in other words: one lengthy & varied lap on a road course) of handling, braking & acceleration, it's virtually nothing.

I agree with Sixty8 in that I would prefer more choices as far as options are concerned: unbundle everything and let me choose. It's my damned money. Limitations and mandates doesn't come off as very user-friendly (tho it does seem thoroughly 'modern').

Where's the damn pictures??

I find her decisively repulsive. Horse-ish. She's a mediocre woman physically who sometimes, thru 'just right' make-up & photography/cinematography can look attractive, tho on film I think a good portion of that is her personality/character. She was bubbly & cute in that movie with Steve Martin in L.A. years ago, and I think she's been trading on that ever since. Oh; and don't miss the fact that she has full-blown man hands.

The above red barofsoap was first created for EPCOT for '82 and was named 'Aero 2000'. That version had skirted front wheels and a bobbed (much shorter) tail. It featured single-stick controls (ala the '58 Firebird III), HUD, rear cameras and a host of other high tech features. cd was .23. This was a non-running concept built around a 3-cyl TD. It was modestly reskinned (as seen above), aparently powered & renamed the 'Aero 2002'. I have a picture of President Reagan driving it, and although the Chevy Bowtie can be seen, the caption refers to it as the 'Saturn subcompact'.

Sure it was built, I have a feature article on it in my library. Did you mean factory-built? Then of course; no it wasn't. That was never the criteria as I interpreted it. 'Look foolish'? IMO if a 40-yr old 'family sedan' is matching the performance of ferraris & the like, it is they that, in comparison, look foolish. I am again reminded of the '65 Chinetti-supplied ferrari 365 vs. the '65 Pontiac 2+2 roadcourse test: less than a half-second lap time difference on a 2-minute professional course. That was a factory car. I know: we weren't talking about vintage exotics... I do so hate the assumptions that follow the exotics around, which seem to primarily rely on 'it costs more because it's better'. Blech. The protoype engineer on the Ford GT gave a nice 'dis' to ferrari & lamorghini, subtly insulting their chassis/design work. I would be very interested to inspect both. Nice to see you around again, razor.

The one possibility is, if the crank window retains the large steel spring to help raise/lower the window and the PW version has none & a mostly plastic motor.

How does 1.05 lateral Gs out of a '65 GTO rank in the exotic world?

What I stated was; PW used to be, without question, heavier than crank windows. This I know from direct experience (examining the 2 systems from the same year/make/model). The electric motors were heavy units. Someone above claimed that today PW are lighter than cranks, which I doubt, but I would welcome more detail on how that could be the case.

Well, I did draw it back when I started the project, so yes. Dreaming: block-sanded primer & Nitro-Stan in the scratches and out on the road, chasing down mercedes' & BMWs. I was originally going with speed discs and flamethrowers, but those details have been out for quite some time. In fact I am going to sell the speed discs I've been storing in their boxes from JC Whitney for over 10 years, tho I still do dream of flamethrowers...