Sixty8panther

So tell us already? If you want to be an adult spill the beans, otherwise you're at an unfari advantage don;t you think? You want to poke fun at a car that cost twice what a Corvette did in 1984 and was rivaled by only a few exotics in terms of smooth top speed ability? But you do not want to disclose your ride...? this would be like the old argument in 1st grade: "my dad is bigger & stronger than yours!" Even if your daily driver is more exciting than the Mercedes I'm willing to bet it cost a LOT more than the $1460 I paid for my hardtop.... and in any case I seriously doubt your ride makes people rubberneck like my '59 Buick... but that's neither here nor there. :AH-HA_wink:

Very cool stuff. Nice post, the Mazda Miata I just can't get into very much, esp. since GM's Kappas have been out, but of course in either case you're dealing with a true driver's car, RWD, manual trans & sporty chassis is almost always a great combo.

Yup.... this makes the (new & new only) SRX look like a Hyundai Santa Fe.

My favorite Mitsubishi was the ZERO. What with that bamboo airframe and flimsy structure, not to mention the lack of self sealing fuel tanks, it was bad enough to suffer something like 27 kills for every ONE F4U Corsair, which itself had an overall kills ratio of 11:1. After that it was ALL DOWNHILL for Mitsubishi.

Walked away form the computer and immediately thought of the Olds rocket-based 307 that powers so many '80s cars & Chevrolet small block 307 that served as the base motor for half of the '69 Camaro's lifecycle. IIRC the 307 replaced the 327 as the F-body (and other Chevy '69 m.y. cars) base V8 motor in the spring of 1969.

Don't forget Pontiac had its' own 455, unrelated to either the tri-shield or the rocket. Chevy and Buick had the 3.8 liter V6, chevy's was the 229, Buick's was the famous 231. Great reason why i can't argue with Balthazar about using cu. in. instead of liters. Then again CCs are even MORE accurate. The super-downsized 4.3 V8 is oft. confused w/ the "3/4 of a SBC350" V6 with the same displacement from the same basic era.

Yup... by far my favorite post-war Cadillac. Very underrated imo. '62s are nice as well but just not the same.

Yeah... the Beetles around here have at least doubled from last year, they are everywhere... incl. on craig's for insane money. $1500 would have bought you a nice '70s driver last year, for $4000 you could have a clean, original convertible, now a rotted, beat & engineless VW from the '70s is worth $3000?!?! I saw a very nice, clean 1950s Beetle for sale recently w/ a built-up Porsche motor, it was awesome & I was drooling until I saw the $20,000 price, then I laughed!

I love it... just wish the rear windows were a bit bigger, this would also reduce the bulk of those chunky C-pillars. Why not some FWD euro-box?

Yeah... instead of dropping like $10,000-15,000? to aquire, remove & install an AMG V8 I'd rather spend $2000 on a rebuild or junkyard motor & use the remaing money to buy one of these: (an even cooler hardtop than the 500SEC) ---- what is it with these orange-tangerine cadillac 2dr hardtops? ----

It's high time for real, honest to goodness manual transmission to come back. THERE IS NO BETTER, MORE EFFICIENT TRANS, PERIOD! It's 2008, like it or not MPG is KING! V6 + manual WOULD sell, there's no question. As far as the "ST" name: Alphabet soup sux.

I've actually been thinking the 6.9 V8 conversion would be a fun way to keep the car 100% MB while making a sick sleeper/custom. But if i ever replace the 5.0 SOHV in the MB it will most likely be an iron block 350 Chevy & mated to a 4-spd manual for the ultimate bizzaro world muscle car.

1. I know, it's called sarcasm 2. This car cost $57,000+ in 1984, it's a GERMAN spec. gray market import and it's both V8 powered & RWD noty to mention a pillarless hardtop... BLAND? what do YOU drive again?

Meantime, Airbus is worknig on the A799 "ill tempered sea bass"

And for the record I order my Bacon Cheeseburger with NO tomato but EXTRA lettuce.

It's WIFE, but yes... she does enjoy a good hot beef injection quite frequently... among other things, er... I've said too much already I think.

The T-rex is cooler.... better yet just get an ATV and figure out how to make it street legal.

For the record I had to google Maddox to know what/who in the heck you were talking about... Armenian I am not, but opiniated & fired up as hell I AM! And if I was famous enough to have my own Wiki page I would already own a V16 Cadillac :wink:

Just when the Cadillac lineup was starting to look liek GM "gets it" ...this is what replaces the SRX? Unreal. This is an SRX by name only, overall it has some very nice touches, and although that side-vent this is so played out that even the @^$*ing Ford Fucus has them, obviously the biggest gripe is that profile. DF said it all, those two pics. are worth well over 2,000 words, this is YET another example of a stupid compromise on GM's part. I'm so sick to death of mediocrity where there is oportunity for near perfection, esp. on GM's part!

OMG, there's no C-pillar = DEATHTR4P!!!!!!!' Hpw could our government let this happen. Somewhere out there Ralph Nader and Al Gore are curled up fetal positon, cryling like babies! ---- Now that I got that off my chest Here's how I feel: A+ for creativity! WHY NOT!?!? Is it something I'd ever buy? NO, but I'd be more likely to buy THIS ragtop than most of taday's ragtops, I personally think ANYTIME a company thinks outside the box they deserve to be praised, saluted and commended! Now any of you "doom & gloom" naysayers wanna tell me how your vaginas hurt, and there's nothing to be done about the lack of creativiy in production cars these days.... Blah-blah... ROLLOVER standards... $@%*#^ Now which one of you b!tches want to be the first to apologize for all the bull$h!, exageration & negativity surrounding your theories about how the Camaro, Challenger and CTS-coupe' could NEVER be hardtops in 2009/2010. I'm waiting.

You're not kidding. Can you imagine a clay model of the Element... if I was on that design team I'd step back and say "okay, enough clowning around, this is beyond stupid!" Other cars that have ZERO soul, absolutely no character, not ONE well placed line or though out exterior styling feature: - Honda Ridgeline - Honda Pilot - Ford Focus (only the current gen.) - Chrysler Sebring - Nissan Rogue - Kia Rondo - Kia Sportage - Toyota Yaris - Toyota Highlander - Toyota Camry - Toyota Corolla - Scion xB & pretty much EVERY Scion - Prius, both generations actually! And just to be fair, let's name some ugly GM cars/trucks that prob. never went to clay once they were finalized in 3D/CGI: - Chevy Aveo (all of them, but esp. the hatchback) - Cobalt Sedan (dear lord that C-pillar is gross!) - Suzuki XL7 And the current Saab 9\5 - prob. the most disgusting botched-abortion of a car (stylistically) that Gm has made in the past 10 years, yes including the ASS-tek.

I see your point Balthazar but I'm not ready to completely give up just yet... there's always a way to think outside of the box, and to be fair I'm surprised that you're DEFENDING the lack of originality. Production cars like the Viper, Mercedes CLK & CL fixed roof hardtops, Chrysler Charger, Challenger & 300C, Infiniti FX/G, Cadillac CTS the now dead Prowler & even the now stale & dumbed down PT Cruiser prove just how lazy, unimaginative & untallented most designers are... or perhaps companies like Toyota & to a lesser degree GM stifle, trip up & discourage anything outsied of the box. ---- I would say the DARK perior was 1974 - 1984 as far as styling goes, but even then there were a few really nice designs and overall there was more B+ & A- designs than today, while the D- & Fs were just as prevalant. L.A. I pretty much disagree with 75% of the list you posted on the 1st page. Late '80s B-bodys were ugly ut somehow all those disgusting FWD piles of camel turd were NOT!? I'm stumped.

The good: CTS, esp. the coupe... (delete rant about the $@%#ing B-pillar) :flamed: Escalade, esp. the EXT HHR, Silvesrado HD, Corvette (obviously the Camaro, but that's '10) GMC anything, esp. Sierra HD & Acadia Pontiac G8!!!! Buick Enclave 300C, Challenger, Charger, Magnum, Viper Lincoln MKX (that baby-crossover thing) Infiniti G37 coupe, FX37 & FX50! BMW 5-series, and mot of the M-cars Mercedes Benz.... pretty much everything, although I HATE the CSL's thick, triangular B-pillar Porsche has a few good lookers... The bad: Pretty much 50% of Ford's lineup 65% of Toyota's lineup The ugly: Honda Element Honda Ridgeline Honda Pilot Acura ANYTHING: Toyota Prius: Nissan Maxima

I voted for the (452 ci, ohc V16) Cadillac, as should YOU! http://autoshow.autos.msn.com/autoshow/peb...h2008/vote.aspx This poll is so damn arbitrary and randomly nonsensical the only reason why I cared was to give props to the V16 powered pre-war car, and by extension GM/Caddy.

L.A. Point taken, my panties are unbunched.