Drew Dowdell

On 5/5/2026 at 12:14 PM, crvette_guy said:

Is it possible to fit a Holley Dual Plane Intake on an '09 lacrosse super?

29 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

There's not a lot of choices for RWD in the big family sedan space. Charger, 300C, Town Car, Crown Vic, or if you go a lot older, Impala, Roadmaster, Fleetwood. Crown Vics and Town Cars really don't have the performance to be doing sideways stuff. Charger/300 with a Hemi is your best bet for that.  I wouldn't want to see you doing that with the Roadmaster / Fleetwood.  They have the ability, but they're classics now and should be preserved.  Outside of that you're looking at Germans (too expensive to maintain) or Lexus / Infiniti. 

@crvette_guy - I just thought of one if you really wanted a northstar and a larger sedan. You could get the final generation of Cadilac STS. 

The first gen CTS-V would work also, but they're harder to find cheap while also being in good shape.  Still, the first-gen CTS-V is just a standard GM 5.7 or 6.0 liter and dead reliable. You can get it with a manual also.  It might be worth spending a little more to go this route instead of going with a cheaper Northstar powered car in the long run.

4 hours ago, crvette_guy said:

I don't know why i didn't consider that it had fwd

There's not a lot of choices for RWD in the big family sedan space. Charger, 300C, Town Car, Crown Vic, or if you go a lot older, Impala, Roadmaster, Fleetwood. Crown Vics and Town Cars really don't have the performance to be doing sideways stuff. Charger/300 with a Hemi is your best bet for that.  I wouldn't want to see you doing that with the Roadmaster / Fleetwood.  They have the ability, but they're classics now and should be preserved.  Outside of that you're looking at Germans (too expensive to maintain) or Lexus / Infiniti. 

2 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

I do definitely agree there. 150kw max charging certainly isn't great, although I'd try and never publicly charge to make that a near-never issue. 

I'm probably going to be traveling more often for work again.  I've done it in Teslas before, so I know that 250kw would be okay. 

4 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

You're the one who kept telling me that the Silverado EV still had CarPlay... 

If I had the monies, I'd love to go the Scout route. I think they look so damn good. I've seen a handful of Silverado EVs and they just don't do anything for me. I want to like them because technologically they are so damn good, but I can't get past their aesthetics. The same goes for the Blazer EV. I want to like it. It does what I want and has the technology that would suit my, but I just can't get past how it looks. 

The Silverado EV does still have CarPlay... if you get the W/T trim.  I'm not a W/T kinda gal. RST or Trail Boss (or High Country if they made one) for me and they don't get CarPlay.  The only Silverado EVs that look any good to me are the RSTs in Blue or Black. The Red Trail Boss is... okay.  In white, they look like an electric company fleet vehicle. All of the Denali EVs seem to be in Military Gray Metalic that looks blah.  I really don't know where I want to go. I am going to try and hang onto my Avalanche regardless. I think I'll end up regretting it if I sold it.  Part of me also thinks just get something like an Ioniq 6 or GV60 for myself to put business miles on and put the Avalanche into storage. 

The Lyriq has really grown on me (it still has CarPlay). It might be an option once we replace the 300C. We just passed 100k miles there. His job situation is still in limbo. It could go to where he is 100% public transit or 75% travel requiring a vehicle.... so still waiting on that. We find out by July.

On 5/4/2026 at 12:43 PM, crvette_guy said:

I'm 14 and looking for a good year round car to drive that still has potential to go sideways when I floor it. I'm thinking something like a 2009 Buick lucerne super that I can turn into my own little project car. Does that sound like a good starter car? If not, any suggestions?

Nothing front wheel drive is going sideways when you floor it. 

2 hours ago, ccap41 said:

"good enough" would likely serve 90-95% of half ton truck owners. The only thing it really didn't do all that well in was towing and it wasn't the towing itself, it was the lack of a 200+kWh battery, like the Silverado EV has. 

 

Reduced cost but much added complexity. 

Right on both counts.  The Lightning would be perfectly fine for my needs though I do wish it had faster than 150kw max charge speed. If it could have been 250kw like most of the Teslas are, that would be been a significant improvement.  That's really my only complaint about it.  They ride great, drive great, have amazing torque. The only "truck" stuff I ever do is haul motorcycles and that has zero noticeable impact on my Avalanche MPGs.

TBH, I still don't know where I'll go next. I could end up in a Lightning, or a Scout, or a Silverado EV, or a Rivian R1T.  Because of some potential coming shifts in my driving habits, I'm leaning Silverado EV for now even if I have to grit my teeth about the CarPlay issue.  Range and charge speed will take priority.

19 hours ago, crvette_guy said:

I am looking for a good starter car and am thinking of a 2009 Buick Lucerne super. Is that a good starter car? if not, any suggestions?

The Super would have the Northstar V8 and while the engine was mostly sorted out by then they are higher maintenance and are a Premium Fuel recommended car, so you have to be willing to be spending $5+ per gallon.  The 3900 V6 isn’t as exciting but it’s dependable and reasonably fuel efficient for such a large car

On 5/1/2026 at 11:59 AM, G. David Felt said:

Here in Washington State, there are incentives to turn your roof into a complete Solar panel with storage and the county / state will buy back any excess. 

I have many coworkers who have done this and now just charge their EVs for free pretty much.

As one that is planning a complete remodel of the house for retirement as the wife and I have decided to stay put till we are 6ft under, the one thing I will do is change the roof into a 45-degree angle with complete solar panels and storage. The assessments are showing that I will more than be able to power the whole house and charge my EVs with no pulling from the grid, but excess that I can sell back into the grid.

EV is the future, Solar charging just makes it so much better.

I mean, you'll probably pull from the grid since the EVs charge at night, but your NET will be adding to the grid daily rather than taking. 

1 minute ago, A Horse With No Name said:

I wonder how energy contracts will evolve with the changes in society and industry. 

just by going up lol.

I use to be able to get a solar/wind contract for 8c/kWh as recently as 2 years ago.  I get the rates e-mailed to me once a week and they range from 12.5c - 14c.

22 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Pittsburgh area rail fanning for Drew...

 

 

That's really close to my house. I can often hear them.

3 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Yep. that's one of my biggest issues, the instability. I REALLY doubt my electricity rates will just double in a month or triple in a year or anything wild like that. 

In many states you can sign 1 or 2 year rate contracts. That only covers the cost of the generation and not the delivery, but even delivery is set by the state and is usually once a year rate change at most.  I've had green energy contracts for my house for years.  It's nice to know my rate is fixed. 

$4.65/g here in Pittsburgh.  Trump accidentally promoting EVs again.  Even if prices go back down, it is the instability that is the problem. 

21 hours ago, knightfan26917 said:

*
THIS weekend, 04.18.2026. ALL welcome, rain or shine. I will be in my 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis LS with some model cars & other items.

# to TEXT me is on this page, under CONTACT & LINKS:
https://www.oldcarsstronghearts.com/ocsh-cruise-nights/2026-ocsh-steaknshake-events/

PEACE | Cort, pig and cow valves with pacemaker
2003 MGM LS + 1981 cmc SC; need 1975 Chrysler Cordoba
"You take the good, you take the bad" | Gloria Loring | 'The Facts Of Life'

Darn. if it was 5/18/2026, I might have actually been in town. no firm plans yet but... 

Just now, G. David Felt said:

Too funny on the German thing, but so true, there are consistent ways German's dress and I can always pick out relatives faster than anyone in a room due to how my extended family dresses on both sides. Germans are very interesting as a German myself.

In regards to Ford EV division, I agree that they should have never had two divisions, but getting rid of the person who was leading it with better insight into the EVs than turning this over to ICE people makes me think EV will always be second and that the Skunks work project in California will probably get minimized if not outright killed as the ICE leaders move all back to local Ford headquarters and leave it on the back burner as they refocus on going backwards in ICE development.

Ford not having cleaned up their books like GM did for debt, I feel is in a much worse position to compete with China and Korea. Japan will have consolidation as they try to step up, with EVs, some will survive others will die or get consumed and made into rebadge divisions.

I think that platform is do or die for Ford. If anything, everything not named F-150 or Explorer is likely on hold until that project is done. 

18 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

This one weirds me out.

Everywhere I go, I meet Germans!  In grad school ... on vacation ... on this ship.  I now have a new German friend who lives in the greater Houston area. I don't have any signs on my head!  They're friendlier to me than Italians.

lol that use to be a joke when i was traveling for work with the energy company. I have friends in germany and there are certain stereotypes about german men's fashion that are proven true far too often and I can pick the german guy out of a lineup every time.  

15 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

This imho is the start of the death of Ford. Going backwards to ICE and dissolving the EV division is a failure move.

 

https://electrek.co/2026/04/15/ford-doug-field-leaves-ev-unit-dissolved/

eh, it didn't make sense to run it as a separate division. I don't see a problem with this. It's not the end of EVs, just the end of the division. It never really made sense except for ford to do battle with their dealers.   This is a paper move only.  

5 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

While home charging is 10 cents per kW, The work chargers are 29 cents per kW which is still not bad compared to other public chargers around Washington state.

Tesla has had one affect here, initially they were very cheap compared to the first few public chargers, now that we have them all over from Rivian to EVgo, ChargePoint, etc. it is interesting to see that they are all within a penny or two of each other now, so the price has come down greatly.

While you are lucky with your energy prices where you are, the rest of the country is seeing steep increases in energy costs. I used to be able to get eight cents a kilowatt hour for the commodity charge, now the cheapest I can find is 13.9 cents per kilowatt hour. There’s a delivery charge on top of that and that has also been increasing.

2 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

Pretty interesting read, but wow: The rest of the charts are very eye opening.

How far will $1 get you in a diesel car and an EV, and which cars are cheapest to drive?

3.04 miles and 25.6 miles in freedom units.

I still wonder what they are considering an average vehicle since this is in KM.  An average vehicle in Europe is different in size than an average vehicle in the U.S.

2 minutes ago, G. David Felt said:

We are in interesting times and I think that those with the balls to look into the future past Idiot47 administration see change and growth as good for the EV industry.

It's not even a hard business case to make now. Even with gas stations, the money is in the selling of snacks, drinks, and prepared foods, not in the selling of gas.  For EVs, that calculus actually gets easier because EV drivers are MORE likely to stop in for food or coffee while charging. 

Just now, Robert Hall said:

Interesting.. we have Circle K and Get Go here in the Cleveland suburbs, and they tend to be small locations.   The bigger stations around are Sheetz. 

Sheetz is getting Ionna also.

15 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

Very cool

Ionna has agreed to take over all Circle K's and will manage the charging network, upgrade where needed and add super fast DC charging at all locations.

 

https://insideevs.com/news/792988/ionna-circle-k-fast-charging-partnership/

This has interesting implications in the greater Pittsburgh and eastern Ohio region. We don't have Circle K in our area. However, our grocery store chain Giant Eagle just sold off its chain of gas stations called GetGo to Circle K's parent company.  Apparently all of the stores are slated to be remodeled to the new branding eventually.  Would make sense to install these during the remodel in locations where they will fit. (some GetGos can be very small and won't have room)