What is your IDEAL car???

Ahh, what the hell... I'll chime in just for kicks. It's 3:30AM, but hey, why not.

Since you're limiting this to a jack-of-all-trades single car, a lot of things are immediately eliminated. Not too practical to use a new Viper or a Ford GT as a daily beater. I also live in an area where salt kills off everything and getting around in the winter can occasionally prove to be annoying... which is why I have a beater Probe GT.

That said... here are my ideas.

I drive approximately 60 miles round trip, 5 days a week to work. I can either take the highway or the twisty back roads. The roads around here are absolutely atrocious - a car with a stiff suspension is hell on both the car and the occupants of said car (my Cobra already makes old age squealing suspension noises and it's coming up on 45k miles). The car sits out on the street every day. I love to drive, so the car has to be both comfortable and enjoyable. No slouch in the performance department, but I also need a half decent gas mileage number if I'm forced to put 93 octane in the tank like everything I own now.

For me.... here are my top three.... not listed in any particular order.

• '96-98 Cobra coupe. While not a performer in the snow, I know from experience that it's not that difficult to get them to go when the white stuff falls. It's a decent compromise between comfort and performance, and while it's not perfect, it's definately not too bad either. While I'd like to have the IRS, I'm not big on the fact that they liked to break often and especially under drivetrain stress. Note that I would have selected a 5.0 notch, but the streets around here make that almost unbearable to drive in stock form. The Cobra has some give and still sticks to the road better, and has better brakes as well. I love my Cobra and if I had to pick any one car to drive from now until eternity, I could definately live with that one. The snake's a great daily driver, fun to take to the track, and plenty of balls when I want to open it up. I would have considered the '03 Cobra, but I'm not sure I'd want to drive around 400hp in the snow.

• 1st generation Probe GT (2.2L turbo). This is a damn amazing little car (thanks to JD Fensty for enlightening me). This car gets great gas mileage and outhandled my Cobra before I swapped rims and tires on the snake to something better. Chassis is rigid, and the suspension is electronically selectable to adjust to driving habits and road conditions at the time. More room in the hatch than you'd believe - I call it my truck. It went great in the snow last year with mediocre all-season tires on it, but this year it's struggled with different mediocre all-seasons. It's fun to drive, comfortable, good mileage, and can be made to run pretty well. Not really a track performer in stock trim, though it would outhandle a Fox hands down. Mine has 122,000 miles on it and is still going quite strong. This car will hit its 6000 RPM redline in 5th, and pulls harder from 70-100 in 5th than anything else I've ever driven, even the Cobra.

• Tie - 1st or 2nd gen Eclipse/Talon/Laser (AWD turbo only) and WRX. While I've driven none of these cars (I've tooled around in a few turbo FWD Lasers but that's about it), the performance capabilities out of all of them are amazing, the AWD goes great in the snow, and they'd be fun little cars to drive around. Again, since this is a list of cars that I'd have to live with day in and day out, I think this would be a good compromise. Without crushing the throttle, it would get good gas mileage. When the need for speed arises, it'd be there. Turbo systems have gotten more reliable, so I'm not afraid to deal with them.

Not a very impressive list, and all of the cars are fairly easily obtainable. I feel they're definately practical, could be used day in and day out, not overly targeted for theft (though the Cobra walked away this summer for a couple days), and fit my main criteria - fun to drive, comfortable to drive, half decent mileage (even the Cobra gets good mileage if I can stay out of the fun pedal), and performance-oriented.

The SRT-4 would have made the list if it were AWD, and if they ever do bring that option out, I may have to have one to replace the aging Probezilla. I'd consider the WRX, but its styling still hasn't stuck to me yet, and the price tag is a bit heftier if I remember correctly.

JS

Hmm, difficult choice for a car nut like myself. I have covered & monitored parking at work, and a 3-car garage at home so parking isn't an issue. If I could only have one car, it would have to be my NSX I guess. Rare, reliable, and looks better than the vette (*grin*), but not too outrageous like the S7 or a Ferrari. It ain't super practical, but I could always rent a U-Haul for those unlikely Home Depot trips. ;)

Of course, if I could afford it I would choose the Ford GT. *drool*

Get a fox mustang(89)5.0, but get the hatch lx,you'll have plenty or room to carry slicks,etc. to the track plus better weight transfer.

In a sense, in every sense, that's exactly what I did in 1993.

The hatchback model was my second choice (couldn't find a trunk model anywhere in Sept '93), but by far more utilitarian. (Wasn't it Patrick who coined the hatchback "the ultimate sport utility vehicle"?)

My kids were 13 and 11, at the time, so a back seat was mandatory. Cargo room was a concern, but not a priority. It had to have a V8 engine, rear wheel drive, a manual transmission, a high fun factor, and... Well, what else was there?

Now that I'm (jeez) eleven years older, and my kids are 24 and 22 and highly unlikely to ride in my back seat... Now that my wife has her SUV and cargo room has become a non-issue... Now that I have a 14-mile commute of highway and secondary roads and a nice wide parking space at work... I guess my ideal 2nd car would be a .... uh... 1993 GT convertible.

Yeah, I'm just livin' the dream.

dwight

Mmmmmm, gotta be a FSuperDuty Crew Cab 4X4... diesel, natch. More than enough power for dragging the holiday tailer out to the lake and lot's of oomph for pulling the car hauler (4.86s in the project car are going to make make for lloonngg highway trips).

OTOH, when I was a kid, I had a 64.5 convertible - wasn't happy until I hotrodded the piss out of that poor puppy and "blowed 'im up reeel good". The '88 5.0 coupe was nice, too but too much of a handful for my loving bride on our slippery winter roads. Jim Warman snipped-for-privacy@telusplanet.net

This is an interesting choice. My ex had one of these. It was quite rare in that it was loaded but didn't have leather. The rarest thing is that it was an automatic! When it got totalled, we could not find one with an automatic anywhere! I took it to the track once. With it at full weight at running snow tires (made for studs but empty holes), I was able to knock down the ET quite a bit. I think I ended up with 16.2's. Not bad for an automatic. It was also not putting out full boost. I think the best run got me only around 5psi. I think I'd seen as high as 9 at other times. Another thing about it is that it's practically invisble... nobody notices them.

I like that choice!

Steve BBB on a stand.

If this is a reply to me personally, I'd much rather stick with a notch. It's my favorite style... guaranteed to get a look whenever I see one on the road (although if I see it's a 4 cylinder it'll only get a short glance).

Steve BBB on a stand.

We could all learn from you...

...when we get old. :)

Steve BBB on a stand.

electronically

My '89 is a stripper car - no power windows, no power locks, no automatic, no leather, no fancy gadgets. It had air but it doesn't work. It had dealer scabbed-on cruise that didn't work and has since been removed.

I was missing the pipe directly after the cat when I bought the car, and in that form, the turbo would spool to 9psi almost immediately and the car would literally hang with a mostly stock '97 Mustang GT 5-speed... he couldn't pull an inch on me.

If I could find another one of these cars with very low mileage on it for a respectable price, I'd probably scoop it right up. Mine has 122,000 miles on it, and while a lot of things don't quite work as well as they used to any more (some of the seat adjustments, the headlight motors, etc), the chassis and suspension are still strong and the turbo still pulls 9psi when it's in a good mood. (this is computer controlled, so the computer has to be happy with its environment. It will still pull to about 5600 RPM in 5th gear, even with the mileage that's on it. In its like new day, I'm sure it could have hit 6k.

Time to go read the rest of the posts to see what other interesting choices were made.

JS

This was a 1990, so it had the updated body trimwork to it. In 1989 you could only get it with a manual transmission. It did have one weird problem. Somehow moisture would get into the control area for the windshield wipers (possibly that "moveable" dash setup). Out of nowhere, they'd come on! the only way to kill them was to pop the fuse. I can't remember how they fixed it though. Luckily it had an extended warranty that she got transferred from the original owner.

I would guess with the 9lbs of boost in a lighter weight version and a 5 spd, that it would be capable of mid 15's or better. That's about where the

Steve BBB on a stand.

This is going to be tough. I have 4 vehicles to meet my needs now, going down to one would be hard but I'll try, I love old cars. My new vehicle is an 89 F250 used to haul stuff and carry the camper for vacations. I drive a

My commute is 6 miles to work each way. We have a private lot at work and a

If I were forced into one vehicle, I would give up the camper/Truck and buy a 1966 Ferrari GT330 2+2.

It has that classic 60's Pininfarina styling, wood steering wheel and dash. AC was avail. It has that awesome 12 cylinder sound and best of all a fully restored car sells for less than a new Escalade.

Erich

Why not just pick a new Mach 1? It's a better and faster car than the '96-'98 Cobras.

Patrick '93 Cobra '83 LTD

ONLY one? Whew... just one... okay, let me try.

- 5 days a week/about 50 miles a day/nearly all of it highway

- Must be a fun weekend and track car

- Only need room for one passenger--both of my kids are grown

- Must have some cargo space--has to have some practicality

- Will spend its down time in a 2-car garage

Sorry, that's the best I could do... I cut it down to only 20.

Patrick '93 Cobra '83 LTD

"A Guy Named Steve" wrote in news:jKDJb.34110$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net:

Ouch!

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

"A Guy Named Steve" wrote in news:GktJb.17204$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net:

Cool thread, Steve.

For me, an easy choice. SRT-10. It'll do most anything I need on a daily basis.

You only live once, eh?

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

Now how old was dwight back in 1993??? I'm guessing I'm probably pretty close. Of course the practicality in me is showing too.

Steve BBB on a stand.

Good point... hadn't really thought about them at the time of writing that. The new Mach 1 is a nice ride for sure. Seems like it'd be a decent balance between the '96-98 Cobra and the '03 Cobra. I've not driven one to know what its street manners over the miserable roads of SW Pennyslvania are though. I heard it's a good suspension package though.

JS

Actually my favorite car would be a bike! I'd like to have a good old mint condition classic Honda CL 450 from the early 70s. Those bikes were soooooo classic looking! Since I use my '72 CL 350 90% of the time, my

Otherwise if i HAD to choose a car, my choice would be a tie between a '55 Packard Caribbean convertible or 57 Bel Air rag top

I do the PnR too, but carpool instead of bus. The car must be passenger friendly. Nowadays I usually leave the Mustang in the garage until the weekends. The A4 does most of the running around. If I had to do one it would be a tossup between:

1. Cadillac CTS-V. ups= looks, lots of power, classy. downs= it would stay at a PnR every other day, and would get 15,000 miles / year
2. Audi S4 (new generation). Same issues as above.

1. The M3 would have also made this list, but would be my last choice due to the problem in So Cal of not being able to glance in any direction without seeing a BMW.

For now, I just use the A4 for my commuter. It's a little pokey, but handles pretty good (not nearly as good as the modded GT), and has excellent road manners. You really need to *try* to lose control of that car with the AWD.

Vic