> I'm sure those were fine cars for their day, but they can't compare to
> the performance and versatility of new cars like the PT Cruiser GT. >
> Here are some times for those old nostalgic cars for 0-60 and 1/4 > mile:
> ...Of course, the Gremlin was a joke:
> 1977 AMC Gremlin X 17.9 20.8 (
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A tiny car like the Gremlin with a 304 V-8? I find those times really hard to believe. Maybe they loaded those statistics by matching the smallest engines available?
Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")
Overall length on a 72 Gremlin was 161 inches. A mid 80's Mustang was
181 inches. Not that much difference and those came with 5.0's all day long. I think we just remember them as tiny because everything else back then was so HUGE.
That was my point Bill. You said that you "find those times really hard to believe". I was trying to point out the car wasn't really all that little and similarly powered cars have been offered in recent years.
20 inches is a big difference when it comes to vehicles. A 2003 Neon: 174.4 inches. An Intrepid? 203.7 inches. That's less than 30 inches overall length between the smallest and largest models Dodge made that year.
A 2003 Caravan is 189.3 inches long (the Grand Caravan 200.5). So a Neon is less than 15 inches shorter than a Caravan, and the Intrepid is longer than a Grand Caravanl!
Incidently, a 2WD RAM regular-cab pickup with an 8' box is 229.7 inches long.
LOL, tell that to my mom's 78 Bronco. While we never had a problem with it, it did indeed drop out of the P to R position on a couple occasions while I watched it.
In all other respects that truck was bulletproof, ran 235,000 miles before we sold it and the guy we sold it to still uses it every winter to plow his garage lots...
I had a '68 Ranchero (after my Dad drove it a nearly 10 years before I got it) that dropped out of Park also. How did we survive without death and dismemberment? Simple: Use the friggin PARKING BRAKE!! Over 200k miles on that car (uh truck... whatever) when I sold it, and it never injured anyone. Talk about things getting blown out of proportion.
One funny memory I have of it is that you had to adopt the "Standard Ford Starting Position (tm)" every time you fired it up because of the sloppy gear detents:
- Get in car.
- Lean forward
- With left hand, reach behind the steering wheel, over the top of the steering column, and grasp gear selector lever with left hand and pull UP firmly
- Reach down and insert ignition key with right hand
- Start car
- Release gearshift and lean back
- Repeat when car stalls :-)
You think I'm kidding? Next time you're watching "TV Land" or "Nick at Nite" watch the actors anytime they start a 60s-70s Ford. I remember a period of time when people accustomed to driving Fords would start ALL cars that way. In fact it took me a while to break myself of the habit when I started driving my 73 Satellite in 1981.
My Friends & Co-works need little explined to them. My Family might, but they would understand. Most of them would ask me how my bum ankle held up during the derby. Knowing that is what has kept me from running them or Tuff Truck compititions.
My family even understood as I basically disapeared for a week in 2002 to help a good friend build a Derby car for D.E.N.T. 2002. One week a 85 Pontiac full size Station Wagon went from a running driving Street Car to a Feature making Derby car in one of the hardest derby's around.
That was before Monster Garage was on TV. There were 2 main builders, and 3 people who helped one day each. In that week we even painted the car, at 6 am the day of the derby. It was lettered 2 hours before the Derby.
Sunday night, of this year, I went stright from dropping off my Cars & Parts swap meet stuff to Wardens Towing. Meet my business partner there, picked up the 93 Chevy 3500HD wrecker (9301), picked up another friend and headed stright for Kil-Kare speedway where the 2004 D.E.N.T. Derby was about to start. I spent the better part of the night operating the boom, and hooking with the Kil-Kare Speedway Wrecker.
I even towed off Cindy that was on Monster Garage, the episode where they built a Derby Car.
It really takes alot to phase, or make my friends and family ask "why". They normially just ask where I have been, and what I did. Charles
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