Your childhood dream car

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I had a model car kit exactly like this one (1960 T-Bird). A great looking car, but looking at pictures now I realize the 58-59 model´s even greater. Growing up in Sweden in the seventies there weren´t too many cool american cars around... So I was very happy when we got the (german, but still with the round rear lights!) ´66 Ford Taunus 17m Super. And equally sad when it went to Car Cemetery. Then we got a Peugeot 404. ;D

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SSLtech said:
Ah. -Sounds like quite the scene. -You could film a sequel to "twelve angry men" and call it "Three Bitter men"

Just what are they fetching these days, I wonder? -It mattereth little in real terms however, since you could be given one as a gift and still end up in the poor house after a year.

Keith


The prospect of hanging with David Lynch was almost persuasive.  Actually the Bitter Crosby had in mind was not quite as sporty as the one pictured.  But reliability was a bit questionable---I didn't consider it a favorable portent when he drove us to a museum to look at an outstanding gem and mineral collection, and his Bitter was leaking fluid of some sort.  ::)

He rolls with the punches though.  He has a five car garage, and about 9 cars, including a rare Facel Vega coupe and a couple of Maserati.  At any given time a few cars are in the shop and others in another storage location.  His professional realtor car is an older Jag V12 sedan.
 
> I wanted a 1968 Mercury Cougar. These days, I'd have to take that Cougar body and make it a hybrid or convert it to electric in order to afford to drive it. Heresy, maybe?

>  I think Cougar's were around from '66 to '70 (or '71) in the form that I like.


The magnificent styling of the first (1967) was only slightly marred by side-marker lights on the 1968 (actually this was a mid-year change but I don't know which year).

The elegance is, IMHO, lost in the 1969 re-styling. Now it is just another Bunkiemobile, though less bloated than later jobs.

The Falcon "chassis" is cheap junk. We are talking brakes and balljoints every 20K miles. And the original A-arms were designed to fatigue and crack; eventually (6 part-number chain) they were subbed with a part that weighed three times as much.

'71, Mustang and Cougar grew significantly onto the 1g-Torino floorboards (really over-stretching the poor Falcon "structure"). The side of a 71-73 Cougar is less exciting-looking than the better Ramblers. And you lose the flip-headlights (boo) and the electro-mechanical tail-lights (yay?).

The 1974 got off the Falcon tinwork onto the 2g-Torino "Elite" frame.

I once saw a large boring wagon, and noticed a cat hood ornament. By golly, there was a fuuuull-size "Cougar" station wagon, 1977 only. Except for the cat, it would have been an Elite or LTD Wagon.

77-79 "Cougars" (and T-Burds) were big cars on a beefed-up 1966 Galaxie frame. Very lush speedway cruisers, mechanically robust, poor performance. I stepped out of my 79 Bird when gas hit $2.

1980 was Fox-based, a very different machine. There are people who like these rides. It has its points. I think many of the things Ford was doing wrong, they "perfected" in this period, and it was the mid-1990s before they could do something half-right again.

> make it a hybrid or convert it to electric

By today's standards, even the sweet '67 is a heavy yet fragile "frame". It will not survive long with enough battery-weight to go anywhere interesting. Me, woman, dog, and suitcases tore the rear shock out on the long bumpy shoulderless run down to the Tappen Zee. I think when you have enough battery to peel-out half as good as the '79 Burd (never spilled my coffee) with more range than a Corgi, it's gonna crumple quick.

"Afford"? I think a very-very lame conversion would cost $4,000, and a practical conversion 2X or 3X that much.

But take $4,000 and gasoline at $4/gal... that's 1,000 gallons you could put in the existing engine. My '68 302 would do 18MPH easy; a '67 Mustang with a 170 Falcon Six routinely did 22MPG in the day when $1/gallon was a shock. So NOT converting it gives you 20,000 miles "free fuel", and more likely 40K-60K free miles, and "infinite" range.

While the first Cougar is a fine round-town car, what you REALLY want to be able to do is get a full tank of gas, a full pack of Camels, and head on out Route 66 at 66MPH "forever". That long-long hood, and the 3 extra inches behind the seat, make the Cat a verrry fun long-run car.

Some guy put a non-USA Diesel in a '67 Cat:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/05/20/craigslist-find-of-the-day-67-mercury-cougar-with-mercedes-die/
Note that the gearshift conflicted with the iconic Cougar center console, so that's gone and he got a bench-seat to cover the gap. But the Falcon bench was awful and the '67 Mustang/Cougar buckets are the best $3 seats ever made, really very comfortable. Considering the cost of cleaning-up a German Turbo-banger, I tend to wonder if you could ever pay-back the Diesel conversion, even before repressive taxation on "truck fuel".

> I have a 67! ... new sheet metal.

You are a man of taste. And, I hope, wealth. Mustang parts are cheap, but there is SOOOO much bad structure in the Falcon platform, zero to spare for wear and tear. Look for cracks running up from where the A-arms bolt to the inner fender. If it has ever seen dew, the trunk "frame rails" (really the whole trunk fooor) should be torn-out (wear gloves, but you may not need even a hammer) and replaced.

Dream car? If I could lock-in gasoline at $2/gal, a '67 Cougar with a frame!!

The 66 Galaxie/79 T-burd frame is one of the finer heavy-car frames ever made; but it must be shortened and I don't think it would readily channel under a '67 Cougar's floors without narrowing. And when you ponder all that, the best path becomes a 1966 Avanti. Similarly elegant styling on an honest small-wagon frame. The Galaxie had better rear suspension but even the Avanti's long-leafs beat the junk-leaf and tin-floor of the Falcon rear "suspension". The early Avanti has other problems: Studebaker was thinking about quitting the business and the Avanti was a rush/slap job, also there's a rocker-box which collapses. Still, even if you re-engine, less radical work than a full-frame Cougar.
 
You mentioned Studebaker... Man, I always loved those '50s Studes. They had that archetypal '50s styling in a more reasonably-sized package.

Cougars make me think of the old PBA telecasts. If a bowler on the show bowled a perfect game, he would receive a bonus of "ten thousand dollars and a new Cougar automobile!"
 
>>>77-79 "Cougars" (and T-Burds) were big cars on a beefed-up 1966 Galaxie frame. Very lush speedway cruisers, mechanically robust, poor performance. I stepped out of my 79 Bird when gas hit $2.

I stepped out of my '77 T-Burd when it blew it's engine on Rt 287 at 3AM (with a full load of band gear).  You could hit a speed bump at 20MPH in that car and not even know it.  The downside to a ride like that was that the car wouldn't start turning until 10 seconds after you turned the wheel.  Also, average MPG for me was about 11.

BTW, my Burd was originally bought by my Grandmother, who was a nurse at the local Ford plant.  In those days, when a Ford employee bought a car, it was earmarked as an employee vehicle right from the cradle.  A note would be attached to it as it went down the assembly line noting it as such.  In other words, "this one is for one of us, don't screw it up TOO bad".
 
PRR said:
My '68 302 would do 18MPH easy

...Either that's a particularly amusing typo, or you were very easily impressed, back in the day!!!

;)

The local Ford plant where I grew up (now a Jaguar plant) also had an 'employee-family-purchase-program', where a card was attached to the frame and followed the car down the line. -The car would get extra spot welds, and more rust-protection and so forth. -Nowadays such a favor is essentially impossible... Cars are welded, dipped and assembled by computers and robots. Perhaps if you slapped a sticker on one saying "this one's being bought by the toaster" a lovelorn robot might slip a note inside, but that's about all.

Keef
 
> T-Burd ... blew its engine on Rt 287

Not on the hill UP from Pluckemin?

Mine quit there, after I passed a slow BMW and apparently exceeded a 3,800RPM redline(*). But the barge had so much momentum, that I wasn't even sure the engine had quit. Sure had poor throttle response.

Unlike the usual faults, this was unfixable at roadside. I had it towed home, was trying to get spark, was turning the engine over with the distributor open, and noticed the rotor didn't turn. Autopsy found a loose advance weight, a push-out in the side of the dist casting showing that the weight had got loose and jammed the dist shaft solid. Yet clearly the engine had been turning while the car had coasted-down... I had power steering, I did not have OIL or ALT lights until it came below 20MPH.

The deeper details were bad but not fatal. The gear on the dist is supposed to sheer to protect the gear on the cam. The dist gear was toothless at one point, but peering down the hole I saw the cam gear was missing half a tooth. Oh dear.

The right repair is to replace the cam, and the whole routine to go with that. PLUS drop the pan and fish-out the 1.5 teeth laying down there, before they get in the oil pump.

The wrong repair is to drop a new dist in the hole and hope the half-tooth doesn't bind. And hope the screen keeps the teeth out of the pump.

The wrong repair never gave trouble in nearly 100K miles.

(*) We all know that a 351-W crank and pistons is 99% sure to stand 5000RPM all day and bursts to far higher. My build had such poor breathing that Ford rated it for max power at 3600RPM, and no kidding. So I figured the engine would never over-rev. Just proves weak-link-in-chain. If a 150K mile dist weight can't stand a snap to 3,800RPM without breaking the distributor, that's Red Line.
 
> that's a particularly amusing typo

You must be particularly easy to amuse.

A 289 1967 Mustang will do 18MPH.... with your foot off the pedal! Dang slushbox works so well that it evennnnntually builds up considerable speed.

I have been stopped for going too slow in a '67 Stang. My actual problem was I thought the wheel-bearing had spun-out AGAIN, but a cop thought this was worth investigating.

88MPH in a half-tired 1967 Stang is exciting and bad for the valves. 88MPH in the '79 T-Bird was well within its comfort zone, though thirst was starting to rise. The car was so over-geared that best economy (~14MPG) happened 70-75MPH. Unlike the Stang's C4, the T-Burd slush-omatic was so rubber-band that dropping below 45MPH dropped economy to single-digit. More oil-whirl than thrust.
 
> I always loved those '50s Studes

I grew up in two '53 Studebakers and a pink 1956 Plymouth. We thought these were sad used cars. I think 90% of those Studebakers got chopped-up for lakes racing. The Plymouth was a V-7 from birth, flooded like the Nile, I have a scar from the ashtray, and it eventually lost Reverse; we pushed it backward to the street and drove to the Ford dealer. A '57 Plymouth in hardly any better shape than we abandoned it is now worth twice what we paid for the new Ford which replaced it.

We had the 1966 Galaxie, the 1967 Mustang, neighbor had a Sunbeam Tiger, next neighbor was holding his 1956 Lincoln and driving a 1963 Econoline, and there was a Facil Vega parked in the next street over. An alleged pedophile had a Datsun 2000, but there were several MG TDs around which the boys liked better. 1953 Divco milk trucks delivered glass bottles. Bug-Eye Sprite was the flower-lady's daily driver. I went to high school with the world's largest Cadillac dealer (well, his son, but the son took over and expanded). There was a 1959 Berkeley B90 for sale in the next town. I knew a 1949 Straight Eight Chrysler sold for $400 in excellent running condition.
 
Daimler Majestic - spacious bench seat in the front - no need to get in the back with your girlfriend ;D ;D ;D

http://www.motorbase.com/profiles/vehicle/picture.ehtml?i=541;p=699973518

Wonderful shagging wagon and plenty of room for guitars and amps!!
 
>>>Not on the hill UP from Pluckemin?

You nailed it.  It died in Bridgewater.  Again, I'm not really a car-guy, so I have no guess what the failure mode was.  All I know was that there was a huge BANG noise with no warning and the engine completely stopped, almost instantly.  Since there weren't floorboards in the back anymore, and I was getting 11MPG, I didn't bother bringing it to a garage for a repair or an autopsy.  It was also a lousy car for hauling gear, despite it's large external dimensions.  The trunk was curiously small for a full size American luxury car (even a 70's model), but it's saving grace was that I could open the rear doors wide enough to get a 2x15 Marshall bass cab into the back seat.
 
I recall as a kid buying a old Studey supercharger in a junkyard. I never managed to finish that project. I needed to build a DIY air box to pressurize the carb and amp up the fuel pump pressure. I'm sure if I got that far I would have blown up even more motors than I did.

There was a pretty rare quasi-stock Paxton setup used on Fords momentarily in '57 to counter the fuel injected '57 Chevy. I never saw one in person, let alone in a junkyard. A friend's father had a very un-stock Latham "axial flow" puffer on a '57 bird. That was a sweet ride.

I had one more failed attempt to put a blower on my Mustang when some small company flaked out on me, several $k into the project. Finally my third try was the charm and I bought a setup from Vortec in the early '90s to finish the project I started decades earlier. I miss that car. It left us before it's time, impaled on a guard rail in the rain. RIP.

JR

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After seeing what top gear did to a Toyota Hilux... I was strongly tempted to get one.

Hit youtube, and search "toyota hilux top gear"

it's amazing what they did to that truck.
 
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Australian Classic - Holden HK GTS Monaro with chev small block 327. Funnily enough I don't love these like I used to when I was a kid....
 
"Awww, the sound of pure muscle."

From my fave speed metal band album for speaker/amp testing, Powerman 5000's Tonight the Stars Revolt:

"Supernova, you think it's ovah,  but supernova don't stop..."

 
JohnRoberts said:
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A tidbit missed by some is that electric motors are far less complex than conventional IC engines etc, so the barrier to entry into that industry will be much lower. As the big three sink into the sunset (if the government stops throwing our tax dollar life savers to them), a new crop of car companies could emerge.

The Chinese electric car company started out as a battery company, and for the near term batteries may be the threshold technology to make or break new car companies.

Yea, that's what I've been thinking, too. EV drivetrains are simpler. Other than the large power levels required, power inverter algorithms are orders of magnitude simpler than modern engine management. Battery management may get complex. Up here, battery thermal management is pretty important.

Tesla is a bargain for its performance... if you're in the market for an equivalent gasoline-powered beast ('vette, Ferrari, that kind of thing), the Tesla is a pretty good deal. But it's not a 'daily driver' in the same way that your Ferrari isn't either. Of course, you *could* use either as a daily driver. The initial cars are sold out! I'm looking forward to the EV Smart. My wife drives a diesel Smart, and it gets 65mpg!
 
Volvo wagon supercharged V8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs100JqQGuw

Of course, it needs to be chopped to get rid of that shoebox look.

This is nice too...
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3874984

=FB=
 
That volvo is totally suck-ass.  The line-lock smoke is just to cover-up the pink dicks all over it.  And it has a Chevy engine in it?  What a waste.
The volvo wagon, 960 spurtwagon, my first foreign car, is the absolute worst car I ever had.  Might be good in southern US- flat, no snow, but it could not take the NYC area.  9 "computers" in it?  llllllllame. 
The Forrester XS that replaced it was better, and that is not saying much.
Mike
 
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