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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!cbdkc1!desoto!packard!ihnp1!ihnp4!pesnta!hplabs!oblio!jeff
From: jeff@oblio.UUCP (Jeff Buchanan)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: big block vs 4-bangers
Message-ID: <281@oblio.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Feb-85 13:49:46 EST
Article-I.D.: oblio.281
Posted: Thu Feb 28 13:49:46 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 3-Mar-85 03:17:35 EST
Organization: Counterpoint Computers
Lines: 76

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I can't really identify with a guy like you, Jeff.  Gimme a break!  I
have never said that I think a 170 hp turbo 4-banger is the ultimate
street car.  However, do you think a 60's rat-motor 'vette is the
ultimate?  I hope not.  I expect both of us have our ideal set
somewhere in the Porsche 959/Ferrari GTO land.

So what?  Well, this leaves us with the question of where to
compromise when our financial resources run out.  If I had to
compromise, I'd like to keep a nice handling and a good cockpit as
opposed to the raw power.  I believe that you, Jeff, would choose
otherwise.  But even a nice turbo 4-banger like the 944 engine is not
that bad, is it?

In any case, I (and several other people in net.auto) believe that the
most fun is to be had not by street racing rat motors and injected
hemis but by driving small, nimble cars with reasonable engines (here
again, we go our separate ways --- I'm sure 100 hp is not reasonable
to you) but with a lot of emphasis on handling and maneuverability.
Like a Fiero (140 hp with a V6).  Like a GTI (100 hp).  Like a CRX (85
hp I think).  These little cars are a h*ll of a lot of fun, even if
they do get blown off the road at the lights by big V8s.  However, you
can't take your GTO Judge or '68 Corvette to a Solo II contest either
without being blown off the course by little Mini Cooper S's...

I can live without a V8 --- can you?


				   \tom haapanen
				   watmath!watdcsu!haapanen
Don't cry, don't do anything
No lies, back in the government
No tears, party time is here again
President Gas is up for president		 (c) Psychedelic Furs, 1982


Dear Tom,

What's the deal?!  I never said you said a 170 hp 4-banger is the ultimate
street car.  As far as the mini Cooper is concerned, I don't know what
a Solo II is, but it would have to be extremely tight for a 68 Vette to
lose to a mini Cooper, e.g. 10 foot straight aways, turns less than the 
turning radius of the Corvette.  You put a 68 Corvette in the same
catagory as a GTO Judge.  This tells me everything I need to know about
your level of sophistication as a car enthusiast.

Why is it that so many people on net.auto think that great handling
and great acceleration are mutually exclusive?  Can people really be
so ignorant?  Is 100 HP reasonable?  In what context?
100 ponies is plenty to motivate a 2000 lb. car to 35 MPH so that one can
drive to the grocery store, work, or wherever.  Is 100 ponies enough to
feel some acceleration when you pull away from a stop light?  Of
course not!  

As far as the comment about nimble cars is concerned, how nimble
is a car with so little power that when you step on the gas, the
only indication you've done so is a change in the sound of the exhaust?
If you want to feel nimble, I'll take you for a ride in my '66
L-88 Vette.  The cars you mention are no match in straight line
nimbleness or side to side nimbleness for an '84 Corvette with
Z-51 suspension.  It has the nice cockpit you wanted and the handling
is literally the worlds best.  It isn't a fast car in terms of acceleration,
but it isn't dangerously slow.  Of course it costs far more than
those put-put cars you mentioned.  

The Porsche and Ferrari you mentioned are so exotic, I can't take you
seriously, especially at around $100,000 a copy.  But think what you
could have at 1/3 the price?  For that kind of money, the buyer
expects to have sensational performance.  You could buy an '84
Corvette for say, $24,000, buy a ZL-1 aluminum motor for it for
another $10,000 (including all mods to yield 800+ HP non turbo
charged, blown, or injected), drop the motor in the Vette, and
you would have a car that would blow away those "high price spread"
cars.
				  Jeff