| Author | Message | ||
     Fresnobuell |
Or are you saying you didn't fit using both seats...with two people? | ||
| Aesquire |
Or are you saying you didn't fit using both seats...with two people?  Yes. language skills fell short there.  Both brothers are about 6"2" & 250+ lbs. I'm 6" and 225, more or less. All broad shoulder types. With either one in the car with me, we filled it at the shoulders side to side. Uncomfortably. Not that the Honda's a bad car at all, just doesn't fit me. Great shifter. Engine revs to the moon. Pity the rust belt eats cars, I do like the RX-7 and RX-8 too. | ||
| Etennuly |
For balance the later Vette has it's transmission in the back, attached directly to the rear axle. I have not looked it up but I think they achieved 50-50 balance with the C5. All aluminum V8 up front, all aluminum transmission in the back, ala VW beetle style. I did the Dragon this evening. With a couple hundred of my fellow Chevy owners. They were going for a World record number of Vettes on the Dragon. Should have done OK since it is the first time attempt!  No idea how many were there, but the parking lot at the store was over filled and they were parking to out of sight down 28, and the meeting place was at Fontana Dam. I had no problem running with a pack of Z06 (450 hp minimum) hot rods. But this kind of run is more of a carver's delight than a blasters open field. Not saying I can do anything better than any of them, but my recent autocross practice has shown me a lot. Most noticeably was when they were on the brakes. Many times as they were braking I was not even ready to move my foot to the brake yet, although we were not going Uly speeds either.  There were more than a couple of mean ass looking Miatas. A couple were really modified with slicks, roll cages and loud pipes. Another cool couple of sporty small cars I had were a 1976 Honda Civic CVCC wagon, and a 1981(I think, been a while) Honda Civic 2dr hatch. Had that wagon in Western NY state back when. It would go like amazing in snow. Standard new all weather radials. Drove it home one night from my parents home to mine, about forty miles in a blizzard. Plowed through snow drifts as high as the hood and had to drive around the Road Closed barricades at my end of the road! That thing would not spin, it would just bog down and bite without slowing down much. A perfect blend of power to traction. | ||
| Etennuly |
Etennuly, I am NOT dissing Corvettes. I know, more I believed dissing OLD GUYS and their potential bad habbits(too young of girls)  Then I noticed we are the same age!   | ||
| Fresnobuell |
I enjoyed that second youtube video. I think that's a pretty good example of scalpel versus sledgehammer. I wish they had a dry track of course and they never did say which one would turn a quicker lap time. I am guessing the scalpel. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
I am surprised you were going any faster than parade lap speed, usually the speed of the group is inversely proportional to the nummber in the group...ie the more you have, the slower you go. Its the lowest common denominator thing... | ||
| Etennuly |
When people left out of there it pretty much broke into groups of four or five cars at a time. It was not like a long parade procession. | ||
| Sifo |
Vern, you and I both know you have more racing experience that probably 99% of the folks you were surrounded by. A good surgeon with a sledgehammer is better than a butcher with a scalpel. * * Statements are not directed at any make or model of automobile. | ||
| Etennuly |
It is funny with all of the faster vs slower, power vs low power.....I just realized when I ran with those other Vettes on the Dragon, I was driving the underdog. Well doesn't that change my category for a moment! | ||
| Fresnobuell |
LOL. From what i know about the Dragon, it's not a HP track. Nurse, scalpel please.... | ||
| Etennuly |
Less is more.....more or less.   | ||
| Aesquire |
In real world driving when you want to keep your licence you restrict your speed to what you think ( right or wrong ) you can get away with. Heavily dependent on where and when. Absolute top speed in a country without Autobons is mostly a bragging rights issue. 0-60 is a more useful metric. It's the simple fact that you can drive a slower car at 9 tenths capacity more of the time than a fast one. And safer since your speed difference is less to potential traffic. A Hellcat is as insane a vehicle as a Buggati Veyron in America. Doesn't mean I don't want one. Personally I like to pull g's more than extreme speed. With some discretion I can have more fun. For example. I have stock U.S. gearing on my Cyclone. I considered going to Euro gearing which moves my top speed up twenty odd mph. But since I only test top speed a couple times a year. ...... just to verify tuning I decided not to. Does this mean you don't have fun in a Veyron? Heck no. It may mean you have much easier and less stressful fun in a freaking Rabbit GTI. More accessible fun. Now if the question was best for Bonneville? | ||
| Reepicheep |
I tracked a group squids on liter bikes running up the dragon . I was on a KLR-250. That's a 25 HP bike on a good day (and given their weak top end, there generally weren't many good days). We were going up from the general store back towards the overlook, I didn't know or talk to them, I just couldn't resist. I was right on their tail pulling out, and they were leaning and squidding and generally making a scene. I would catch up to them on every turn, they would gap me in the short straight, and I would catch them in the turn. I kept this up for a few miles. I have no idea if they knew there was a fat guy on a little bike behind them the whole time or not. Eventually, I got bored with the game, and backed off enough that I wasn't in site of them so I could just enjoy my own ride carving from side to side with a nice rhythm of swoop to swoop only a crappy off road suspension can give you. A few miles later, they were all pulled over getting tickets, which they deserved, because they were hitting pretty high speeds on the short straight parts (which is just stupid given the poor sight lines and many unknowns on the dragon). It was all fairly entertaining. Until I exploded the KLR-250 later that day on the Cherohola. | ||
| Bob_thompson |
Totally agreed with all you said Patrick (Aesquire), especially this statement: "Personally I like to pull g's more than extreme speed. With some discretion I can have more fun." That very thing works so well for me in these Utah canyons that I have never had more fun then on my M2, my 1125R and now this nice Camaro Z28. The only thing somewhat lacking on the Z car is better brakes. Coming soon. I've had to back way off from my entrance speed going into a turn from the bikes, naturally. But the good LT1 engine, suspension upgrades, wide Nitto 555 tires and low center of gravity lets me really drive hard enough to have much fun without getting myself or others into trouble. Top speeds approach only 90 mph. I am an "old" G force junkie that works out every day. I have not had a ride in two weeks. Bob | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Sounds like many of my track days. Morons on big liter bikes that pull you just enough on the straights so you can't get by, but then park it in the corners. A trick I use(d) was to square off the corner and cut underneath them at the exit so you get enough drive to make the pass stick and technically you aren't passing them in the corner itself (forbidden in most Novice TD sessions.) | ||
| Etennuly |
On my way home from the Vette Fest ride to the Dragon I finally got a worthy picture of my dinosaur. This was on the Foothills Parkway at about 7:00 pm.  | ||
| Bob_thompson |
Beautiful Vern. And all American. Love it. Dinosaur, not you or the Vette but probably me. Not withstanding guys, but I really do like many foreign cars out there. My gas saving ride in 1980 after selling the 68 427 Vette was a really nice sporty Toyota Celica Supra, pictured below. I put over 300K on that and was running great when I gave it to my Daughter. My wifes favorite car. Bob  | ||
| Hybridmomentspass |
Great thread minus the BS and non-roadsters. love teh british green with tan interior cars posted before. Less hardtop corvettes please. | ||
| Pwnzor |
I'm reasonably sure the top comes off Vern's car. | ||
| 86129squids |
 Targa top, 'natch. Dang Vern- you're prettied up that thing a bit since I rode in it! Next mod: Get one of those home recliner chairs that go from reclining to helping you stand up straight and walk, wire it for 12V or get one of them trucker voltage inverters, and mount a pair of those on a pair of old swiveling Monte Carlo seat frames!  (Message edited by 86129squids on October 18, 2015) | ||
| 86129squids |
"A trick I use(d) was to square off the corner and cut underneath them at the exit so you get enough drive to make the pass stick and technically you aren't passing them in the corner itself (forbidden in most Novice TD sessions.)"  | ||
| Etennuly |
I'm reasonably sure the top comes off Vern's car. It does. Targa top style. It is off most of the summer days that I drive it. Temperature was in the low 50s when I did that previous run. Too cool for me to run topless! I had the back window out for window tinting for about a week a year or so ago. Made for a "real" convertible experience. Any excuse to have the top off, and it is. | ||
| Pwnzor |
I don't care how cold it gets... if it ain't rainin', I'm topless. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
@86129squids: Yeah bro, I could run in the the crash, er intermediate session, *edited*. You got anything meaningful to contribute to this thread? (Message edited by fresnobuell on October 20, 2015) | ||
| Pwnzor |
um.... what? Did I miss the part where Brad said something ass-h-o-le-ish? | ||
| 86129squids |
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| 86129squids |
Frez- I was actually envisioning you doing that trick, with admiration and amusement... reminded me of some of my Deal's Gap runs on my Buell. Good times! Might do the Deal's Gap/Cherohala run tomorrow... | ||
| Fresnobuell |
It's all good. I obviously interpreted it incorrectly. | ||
| 86129squids |
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| Aesquire |
http://lanesplitter.jalopnik.com/why-nothing-beats -the-bike-1737040816 Over in the Jalopverse you’ll hear “The answer is always Miata.” If the question is “What’s a cheap, fun substitute for a motorcycle?” then I’m inclined to agree. I don’t have to wear a helmet or hi-viz armored clothes to drive it. If it’s nice out I put the top down. If it’s too hot or too cold I put it up and hit the a/c or the heater. It has a locking trunk, a spare tire, and a range of almost 300 miles. Maybe most important given the sorry state of my knees, it doesn’t fall over at a stoplight if there’s oil or gravel on the road. |
