The General Car Thread - The Facelift.

[Petrolheadia]

When you're ready to get serious about the zombie apocalypse.

>serious about apocalypse
> buys an unreliable car with practically no part supply

>top kek

[Cannot think of a name]

When you're ready to get serious about the zombie apocalypse.

>serious about apocalypse
> buys an unreliable car with practically no part supply

>top kek

You should relax.

[Cannot think of a name]

Some sort of retro futurism mobius strip...

Designed in the 80s as a futuristic take on track roadsters. So now it's an 80s take on a futuristic 30s cars...

[Petrolheadia]

You have to replace your car or cars with stuff from a different company (not brand; for example, if you own a Ford, you can't get a Mercury, Lincoln, FoMoCo-era Volvo, Jag, Land Rover, Aston, etc.).
Your budget is what you paid for your current set(s) of wheels.

What do you buy?

[Vassenor]

You have to replace your car or cars with stuff from a different company (not brand; for example, if you own a Ford, you can't get a Mercury, Lincoln, FoMoCo-era Volvo, Jag, Land Rover, Aston, etc.).
Your budget is what you paid for your current set(s) of wheels.

What do you buy?

Fiesta.

[Auzkhia]

You have to replace your car or cars with stuff from a different company (not brand; for example, if you own a Ford, you can't get a Mercury, Lincoln, FoMoCo-era Volvo, Jag, Land Rover, Aston, etc.).
Your budget is what you paid for your current set(s) of wheels.

What do you buy?

Buick Park Avenue or Lesabre.

[Eggistaan]

For the past three days ive been thinking of a Transit van mobile home, problem is getting electricity and WIFI in it
What do you think?

[Petrolheadia]

For the past three days ive been thinking of a Transit van mobile home, problem is getting electricity and WIFI in it
What do you think?

All I could help you with is evaluating other possible models in the segment and price range.

[Vassenor]

For the past three days ive been thinking of a Transit van mobile home, problem is getting electricity and WIFI in it
What do you think?

Generally you're going to have an auxiliary battery and some manner of mains hookup.

[Cannot think of a name]

For the past three days ive been thinking of a Transit van mobile home, problem is getting electricity and WIFI in it
What do you think?

Generally you're going to have an auxiliary battery and some manner of mains hookup.

Usually both. There are also solar panels for van lifers as well.

[Auzkhia]

For the past three days ive been thinking of a Transit van mobile home, problem is getting electricity and WIFI in it
What do you think?

There are so many ways to do that, from using batteries on board or having its own source of power like solar

Vanlife really is fascinating.

Oh, and wifi hotspots are easy to get and use.

[Vassenor]

Generally you're going to have an auxiliary battery and some manner of mains hookup.

Usually both. There are also solar panels for van lifers as well.

Yeah, I know my parents' Transit-based RV has both.

[Cannot think of a name]

This roughly covers internet for RVers (or, again, people who have adopted the van life)

You can get satellite internet at broadband speeds allowing you to get internet anywhere you can face south, but it's like $150/month.

[Elwher]

You have to replace your car or cars with stuff from a different company (not brand; for example, if you own a Ford, you can't get a Mercury, Lincoln, FoMoCo-era Volvo, Jag, Land Rover, Aston, etc.).
Your budget is what you paid for your current set(s) of wheels.

What do you buy?

Ford Probe or Pontiac Fiero

[NeoOasis]

For the past three days ive been thinking of a Transit van mobile home, problem is getting electricity and WIFI in it
What do you think?

All I could help you with is evaluating other possible models in the segment and price range.

Reality boils down to Ram ProMaster being the go to choice for many van lifers. Apparently pretty wide, low cargo floor, and cheaper than other equivalent vans. I don't think many van life people go for a Ford. A used Mercedes van is apparently another fairly popular choice.

[Cannot think of a name]

All I could help you with is evaluating other possible models in the segment and price range.

Reality boils down to Ram ProMaster being the go to choice for many van lifers. Apparently pretty wide, low cargo floor, and cheaper than other equivalent vans. I don't think many van life people go for a Ford. A used Mercedes van is apparently another fairly popular choice.

A fair amount of Vanagons with Westie packages make up the van life community. But those aren't always as well appointed.

[Cannot think of a name]

I wanted one of these in high school pretty bad.

Mostly because of Peter Brock's SCCA car.

I never wanted it $40k+ bad, though.

[The Two Jerseys]

All I could help you with is evaluating other possible models in the segment and price range.

Reality boils down to Ram ProMaster being the go to choice for many van lifers. Apparently pretty wide, low cargo floor, and cheaper than other equivalent vans. I don't think many van life people go for a Ford. A used Mercedes van is apparently another fairly popular choice.

C/D did a "camping in a van for the weekend" comparo test a couple years ago, I remember they weren't too fond of the Ram.

[NeoOasis]

Reality boils down to Ram ProMaster being the go to choice for many van lifers. Apparently pretty wide, low cargo floor, and cheaper than other equivalent vans. I don't think many van life people go for a Ford. A used Mercedes van is apparently another fairly popular choice.

C/D did a "camping in a van for the weekend" comparo test a couple years ago, I remember they weren't too fond of the Ram.

Car and Driver is an extremely poor indicator of what car is appropriate for someone. They tend to deviate towards the more "fun" car to drive. The ProMaster may be dynamically a dud, but low loading floor, price, and flexibility all conspire to make it the go to choice for a lot of van life people... that or buying something else used.

Honestly... if I was going to vanlife, and buy brand new... I imagine the ProMaster would be the winner by virtue of being quite a bit cheaper than the other options available. Failing that I'd go for a more recent Ford E-series or slap a camper bed on a truck.

[Cannot think of a name]

The coach doors are back on the Continental.

[Cannot think of a name]

Wooo! The Porsche turbo is going racing again!

The 911 turbo was a staple of endurance and sports car racing for such a long time, but it was so dominant that the ACO and FIA kept hobbling it until Porsche threw up their hands and walked away. Then the categories where the 911 turbo also faded, maybe because there wasn't an abundant costumer racer for people to fill the field with as the Viper GT2 faded and the old GT2 category just became two Corvettes.

But now SRO has revived it as a sprint series and the GT2 turbo Porsche that use to be just a track novelty for the super rich is actually a race car again!

I keep reading the reasoning behind the GT2 category and it makes no sense to me, so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. Apparently there are a lack of Pro/am drivers for SRO's GT3 category because the downforce on the production based cars makes them too pro to drive or something so to make a class more friendly to Am drivers they created this category where you can't change as much from the production cars but the HP limit goes from 540 to 700. So somehow more powerful cars with less downforce will be better for gentlemen drivers. I guess. And the first car to homologate is literally a track day car not legal on the streets in its customer form. I don't get how this is for gentlemen drivers but whatever, turbo Porsches back on the track for like a year at least.

[Elwher]

Wooo! The Porsche turbo is going racing again!

The 911 turbo was a staple of endurance and sports car racing for such a long time, but it was so dominant that the ACO and FIA kept hobbling it until Porsche threw up their hands and walked away. Then the categories where the 911 turbo also faded, maybe because there wasn't an abundant costumer racer for people to fill the field with as the Viper GT2 faded and the old GT2 category just became two Corvettes.

But now SRO has revived it as a sprint series and the GT2 turbo Porsche that use to be just a track novelty for the super rich is actually a race car again!

I keep reading the reasoning behind the GT2 category and it makes no sense to me, so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. Apparently there are a lack of Pro/am drivers for SRO's GT3 category because the downforce on the production based cars makes them too pro to drive or something so to make a class more friendly to Am drivers they created this category where you can't change as much from the production cars but the HP limit goes from 540 to 700. So somehow more powerful cars with less downforce will be better for gentlemen drivers. I guess. And the first car to homologate is literally a track day car not legal on the streets in its customer form. I don't get how this is for gentlemen drivers but whatever, turbo Porsches back on the track for like a year at least.

Very indirectly linked to the above, I really miss the old SCCA races. I wonder what a similar concept would look like today? Corvettes. Miatas, Challengers perhaps? A class where the cars have to be street legal and in regular production would not be as fast and furious, I know, but seeing finely tuned varieties of cars you could see on the streets would attract some fan base, I suspect.

[Cannot think of a name]

Wooo! The Porsche turbo is going racing again!

The 911 turbo was a staple of endurance and sports car racing for such a long time, but it was so dominant that the ACO and FIA kept hobbling it until Porsche threw up their hands and walked away. Then the categories where the 911 turbo also faded, maybe because there wasn't an abundant costumer racer for people to fill the field with as the Viper GT2 faded and the old GT2 category just became two Corvettes.

But now SRO has revived it as a sprint series and the GT2 turbo Porsche that use to be just a track novelty for the super rich is actually a race car again!

I keep reading the reasoning behind the GT2 category and it makes no sense to me, so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. Apparently there are a lack of Pro/am drivers for SRO's GT3 category because the downforce on the production based cars makes them too pro to drive or something so to make a class more friendly to Am drivers they created this category where you can't change as much from the production cars but the HP limit goes from 540 to 700. So somehow more powerful cars with less downforce will be better for gentlemen drivers. I guess. And the first car to homologate is literally a track day car not legal on the streets in its customer form. I don't get how this is for gentlemen drivers but whatever, turbo Porsches back on the track for like a year at least.

Very indirectly linked to the above, I really miss the old SCCA races. I wonder what a similar concept would look like today? Corvettes. Miatas, Challengers perhaps? A class where the cars have to be street legal and in regular production would not be as fast and furious, I know, but seeing finely tuned varieties of cars you could see on the streets would attract some fan base, I suspect.

The SCCA races still happen, they televise or use to at least the run offs every year.

As far as the old SCCA Trans Am series, the World Challenge is pretty close. For a while it straight up looked like the old races, with Camaros, Challengers, Mustangs, 911s, Exiges, etc all production based. The 2017 winners in GT were Porsches a Lambo, a Camaro and a McLaren. The TC class was won by a Miata an Audi RS3 and a Chevy Sonic. So it's basically what you want. And now one of the classes will have 911 turbos!

[Cannot think of a name]

You can actually watch full races on YouTube. You have to dig a bit to get the TC class, though.

[Elwher]

You can actually watch full races on YouTube. You have to dig a bit to get the TC class, though.

Very cool, Thanks for the info.