SAmadei

Interesting... looking at the GMC Terrrain, I see that the tranny is "on-axis"... instead of being folded behind the engine... anyone have some details as to really helps the drivetrain layout? I imagine the output shaft still needs to be put behind the engine.

Normally, I'd agree. But lets look at the GMC Terrain. Its 3867 pounds... and is punching a bigger whole in the air than the Catalina. The Terrain is 72.8" wide 66.3" tall.. roughly 4826 sq inches... the Catalina is 54.7 high, 79.9 wide... roughly 4370 sq inches. Granted, the Terrain is smoother... but a 10% smaller hole has to count for something. GM is stuffing 182hp 2.4 LAF 4 cylinders in these Terrains... getting 32 mpg EPA highway and 9.2 seconds 0-60... probably faster than the Cat is with its 400/2bbl and 2.56:1(?) setup. The Catalina is 4000 pounds... and I'd say swapping in a modern drivetrain will easily take 300 pounds out of the equation. Only problem... Terrain's setup is transverse. I need to find a similar setup that can be done longitudinally. I'm not too bent on weight... as it helps acceleration, but is not nearly as helpful for highway mileage. Best thing I could do there would be to go on a diet personally. I consider the Catalina is be a lightweight compared to vehicles its size today. Closest comparable car would be a smaller Grand Marquis at 4200 or S-class at 5000. I suppose some lighter wheels would shed a bunch of weight.

Renault called and wants their name back.

Well, a 6-speed would be nice. The trouble is... I already have a LT1 in my Caprice wagon. Its pretty good for mileage, but not as good as it could be. The LT1 is 18 year old technology. I want to see what modern technology can do. Right now, I'd like to find a existing engine and tranny that are matched from a particular vehicle. That way the only thing that needs to be customized in the computer is the rear gear ratio... which will likely be low... like I mentioned, I think the existing gearing is 2.56:1. I'm kind of bummed Dwight hasn't thrown in some food for thought.

Lets see... 1957 400 1958 304 1959 99 1960 101 It was one of a few ultra luxury cars of its day. How many Bugatti Veyrons did they sell last year? 40... in fact, only 291 have been made since 2003. Thats averaging 32 a year... topped out at 81... less than the EB's worst year. They have sold about 2110 modern Maybachs to date... in 9 years... thats averaging about 234 a year... not far from the 226 the EB averaged over 4 years.

I wasn't. The '70 Bonne parts car had fender skirts... of course I'd use them on this. I wouldn't use them on my '70 Tempest.

Good question. Sounds like a new Kinsley Report needs to be done. Problem now is that so much is computer based. Convert a few hundred gigs of that to tapes and paper and suddenly, you've got a half of a room full of porn.

While I'd love to imagine a hypocritical Bin Laden jerking it in his compound, I wonder how much of this is anti-Al Qaeda propaganda. Just like the original claim that he used a woman as a shield... later shown to be not the case. I'm sure any porn cache that might have been there is an order of magnitude smaller than the average American porno cache. Of course, if it really was his, it just goes to show how important a "porn buddy" is.

The LUV was RWD... or 4WD.

Well, I do happen to have a set of '70 fender skirts. Well, by swapping in a complete drivetrain and computer, I was hoping to be able to reprogram the computer for the rear gearing ratio and have the DIC report the average and instantaneous fuel economy. It would be cool to funnel that info into a old gauge... probably beyond my scope... unless I add a custom car computer that interfaces with the drivetrain computer automagically. I wouldn't be doing any major aero modifications... besides fender skirts and maybe a smooth undercarriage. If I went that route, it would have double the Volt battery pack and would never likely see a gas station again. Don't get me wrong, I look forward to the day everyone dreams of where the used batteries are still functional and so cheap used that retrofits are possible. But I fear the Volt will be a classic before that happens. >>I could see you getting 25-27 mpg out of it from a Roadmaster LT-1.... it would also probably be the easiest and least costly swap. Why would a LT-1 get better fuel economy than a 3.6 HFV6 or a LNF? Again, this does not have to be fast... my figuring is that if a 4 cyl is good enough for GM in a 3600lb Malibu, its not a stretch for a 4000lb Catalina that goes on a diet. >>Another one that might be interesting that I didn't see brought up is one of the Atlas motors. You have your choice of 4-cylinder, 5-cylinder, or 6-cylinder. Good point... I'll didn't look into those. Of course, at this point, this is speculation. By the time I'm actually installing something, there may be a better donor drivetrain... maybe something with start-stop.

Agreed ... but didn't they used to do that "back in the day"? I seem to remember receiving HotWheels and MatchBox cars that featured pics of the models on the packaging.... It was hit or miss. IIRC, some '80s Hot Wheels packages didn't have cars on them at all. MatchBox packaging would have a car on it... but it was always the same car for some yearly series... not necessarily the one in the package. Most of the time both Hot Wheels and Matchbox had different packages for different classes of vehicle... but the cars still didn't necessarily match the package. It think the idea was that a kid would get a package that had a more desirable car on it... so when junior got a 4 door sedan car, he'd bother his parents for the hot sports car featured on the packaging. I know any cars listed on the back of the package were quickly added to my want list. I'm not finding the vehicle on the packaging so useful. ;-( My retailers are packing the units so tight you can't hardly take the first package off the hook without pulling two others off with it. And there is no space to look through the sides. Making searching a real PITA.

So... I have a broken '70 Catalina 4 door hardtop. I picked it up about 10 years ago as a parts car, for its drivetrain. It was hit pretty hard in the front... but I still drove it home. I was surprised by how nice the interior/body was, and didn't have the heart to part it out immediately. The engine/tranny is still coming out, though. A little bit later I got a '70 Bonneville parts car... it was a rustbucket, and it was promptly disassembled. While looking at the two cars, it was obvious I could fix at least one car from the two. The major problem with the Catalina is the front frame horns... so I saved the horns from the Bonneville, in case I was going to attempt a fix later. '70 Full sizers are not my favorite, but considering that the Catalina weighs about 4000 and has a ton of space, I've considered putting an economical modern drivetrain in the Catalina. This Catalina actually got pretty good mileage from the 2 barrel 400... about 18 mpg on the freeway. I don't remember the rear ratio, but I'm sure its pretty low, numerically... as low as 2.29:1 was available... but I figure it has a 2.56:1 or so. No way it had higher than 3.08:1. Now, as has been discussed in another thread, I realize that older cars do suffer from aerodynamic drag at speed, but considering this car already was getting decent mileage, I'm thinking of what mileage could be possible with modern technology... a lighter drivetrain... more gears... better fuel control, etc. Yet offer enough space for me to actually drive comfortably... unlike most of GM's present cars (Lucerne and DTS excepted). So the question here... what would be the best ticket to hook up a modern longitudinal drivetrain and computer control into a car with either a 2.29:1 or 2:56:1 rear? I was looking at the CTS and second gen SRX drivetrains... but they both seem to be 3.73:1 ratio based. I was also looking at the Kappa drivetrains... but was disappointed by its standard mileage of the LNF. In this car, I'm not worried about acceleration, assuming its not crippled by it. So what would be the best GM drivetrain to install that would be flexible to adapt the computer to use the most eco friendly gearing. You guys love to talk about how great the torque in the LNF and 3.0/3.6 are... this would be an opportunity to see if it would work here. Again, being quick is not an issue. This would be a cruiser that gets decent mileage... 30 or 35 mpg would be a nice goal.

Is this a must-go-now or a I'd-list-it-to-leave-but-otherwise-I'll-keep-it? I could be interested... but I'm still too strapped for time, space, transportation to get too serious about it right now. Might be able to hop on it in a few months.

Swordfish done right is no fishier than anything else, IMHO. 1. Swordfish 2. Tilapia 3. Salmon 4. Tuna 5. Bluefish I love fish, though... pretty much anything except Scrod... Not real fond of Cod or Catfish... usually prepared awful. Trivia... I recently learned that Tilapia are actually Cichlids... closely related to Oscars, Convicts, Firemouths... aquarium fish.

Is this the thread with the most positive upvoting per reply ever or what?

Sounds like you're volunteering as a tester. Maybe Olds can get some tester vehicles. How often does a write like that happen?

Well, they built quite a few of my favorite Pontiacs. But that's only because we forced them to do it. ;-)

I prefer "Made in the USA". Its more specific and gets revenge on those darn smug Canadians. ;-) "Made in America" can mean its made in some central American tin-pot dictator led country by kidnapped children.

Careful saying that. Next thing you know, it'll be all "Professional Grade" FWD trucks at GMC. GMC knows how to do it... remember the GMC Motorhome.

Actually, I knew Sammi was... but shes a less famous character. Deena is new... I never heard of her. I don't actually watch the show, as it makes me physically ill. In any case, they have adopted their NY friends' accents from someplace... Keep in mind, I could be considered a NYer at times... if it wasn't for my need to sleep within New Jersey soil from time to time to regenerate. ;-) Well, Trenton is hardly the shore. In any case, it sounds like she has emulated the NY tongue instead of NJ. There is more of that in north Jersey... which Trenton is close to... but most of the Jersey Shore... uh, the non F'd up Jersey Shore (Seaside Heights... thats you)... is in South Jersey. All those BS accents on the Sopranos? Stolen from Brooklyn. Most North Jersey people I know don't sound anything like that. Ask your sister to pronounce 'water'... my Brooklyn GF thinks my South Jersey accent is "quaint"... especially when I talk about "wadder". But at the same time, I laugh when she gets pissed off and drops into "Heavy Brooklyn" mode.

ARGH! They are all New Yorkers! No native Jersey Shore people sound like that!

Agreed... they really should be putting units in places where women shop... or metrosexuals... for hours... places that rhyme with Beer None... Bled, Wrath and Abscond... Eye-Pea-Ahh... or Rome Woods. I kind of thing the Leaf matches their demographics anyway. (That list is actually my GF's favorite places that I hate... yet, so far the Leaf does nothing for her.)

So whats the count at now? 3100 was a far cry from 100K.

It sold 11000 copies in 2 years. According to Wiki: Captive imports are tricky... these all lived piggy backed on more successful carlines overseas, using spare capacity. Some, like the GTO had caps. 18K a year. Also, the GTO was going to be a 3-year run from the start... the car would not pass 2007 Air bag regs. The GTO certainly had problems in MY 2004... but GM and GM's dealers made those missteps and it cost them sales in 2004... but overall, the GTO you are calling a failure sold almost 4x as many copies as the Marauder your are calling a success.

Not going to happen. Detroit's functional literacy is at 47%... its computer literacy is likely at 90%... and the rest of the country is trying to catch up in the race to the bottom. I don't do helpdesk... Yes, I have the No, I will not fix your computer T-shirt. Actually, I have several of Think Geek's classics and I am horrified needing to explain the shirts to people working in IT at various "Internet companies". But I do computer and network security... and so any really inane question is followed up with questions concerning an inquiry as to "Are you even allowed to do that?" That stops inane questions pretty quickly.