My dream car(s) is/are:

[The Meromorph]

Citroen 2CV Economical, indestructible, and a blast to drive.

[Sibling Chatty]

I've driven 2 Citroens, both 70's models.

I'd have rather walked...perhaps it was a bad match-up of car and area roads, but my spine felt like a slinky all the way from San Antonio to El Paso.

[ivor]

Here's my dream car.



or maybe the Levi's Gremlin.



MB

[Sibling Chatty]

Driving a Pacer was like driving a fishbowl.

Gremlins were actually fun!! Yeah, you could outrun 'em on a skateboard, but they were fun little things, almost like bumper-cars!!

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Driving a Pacer was like driving a fishbowl.

Gremlins were actually fun!! Yeah, you could outrun 'em on a skateboard, but they were fun little things, almost like bumper-cars!!

Once got to drive a gremlin that someone had shoe-horned a small-block V8 into.  That little thing would scoot.  NOT very stable, though, too short a wheelbase for the power-curve.  Unfortunately, the hood kinda gave it all away what with that scoop and all - but it would have been fun to trundle up to a stoplight, all stealth-like, and compete against a traditional muscle-car ... imagine their surprise when you either kept up or won.  <heh>

Many years ago, I saw a 4-wheel drive gremlin - no, seriously.  It had been jacked up in a major way, with 36" tires all around, and a pair of driveshafts pointing up at nearly 45 degrees - or it would have had, as I saw it after it had just broken a u-joint from the rear shaft - too steep an angle for a classic-u-joint. Shoulda used CV joints ... but it was an odd site to behold.  That gremlin had a small-block v8 squeezed under the hood, too.

[Sibling Chatty]

There's an elderly lady here in town that drives a bright orange Gremlin.

She bought it new, and has had it taken care of properly, with maintenance and all, and doesn't drive it beyond Brenham, Caldwell or Bryan/College Station. It's got about 55,000 miles on it.

[ivor]

That straight six they put in those Gremlins will run forever when properly maintained.

I saw a Gremlin with a 440 in it.  Taking off in that thing would be quite frightening I imagine.

MB

[Sibling Chatty]

That AMC straight six, and the old Plymouth slant six...they'd literally run forever.

My ancient Plymouth slant-six from college is still functional in a dune buggy on South Padre. From a 1966 'Cuda, so that engine's 40 years old, and it had over 155K on it when I got rid of it in 1974.

[ivor]

Yeah.  AMC didn't make their own motors.  They used Plymouth/Dodge motors almost exlusively I believe.  That's why they ran forever.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

That AMC straight six, and the old Plymouth slant six...they'd literally run forever.

My ancient Plymouth slant-six from college is still functional in a dune buggy on South Padre. From a 1966 'Cuda, so that engine's 40 years old, and it had over 155K on it when I got rid of it in 1974.

There is a branch of engineering called vector analysis.  I was exposed to this interesting bit of "how 2" when I took a math class (which I later dropped--beyond my capabilities. ).

Anyway, a vector is simply a very precise description of a force-line.

A rotating engine generates a series of these force-line, or vectors.  When a vector does not have an opposite vector canceling it out, you get vibration.  Alternatively, a single large vector can have 2 small vectors canceling it out.  And so on.

When you analyze the vectors generated by a slant six-- it's amazing.  Due to the adjustment of the timing of the compression-cycles of the 6 cylinders, you see that almost ALL of the vectors are canceled out.  No need for special "balance shafts" or other anti-vibration systems.  It's almost automatic, if you space your compression cycles around a circle, divided up into 6 parts.  Very little tweaking needed (which can easily be done by trial-and-error, no massive computer sims required).  Very smooth engines.

It's really no wonder why those straight-6 engines just kept going and going and going ....

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Contrast that to a V6, which does NOT have such a neat arrangement of vectors.  In fact, until advanced computer modeling, they could not easily make a low-vibration V6.

A V8 is not quite as neat as a straight-6, but almost. Particularly if the opposite banks are at 90 deg or 60 deg-- the vectors line up, and cancel out.

A straight-8 is just a smooth as a straight-6.  Perhaps a bit smoother.  But 8 cylinders in a row is a bit of a design issue.  You WILL still see straight-8's in huge over-the-road trucks, and engines that power shipping.

Incidentally, no straight-4 or V4 is inherently anti-vibration.  There MUST be "extra" parts to cancel out the vibrations of 4 cylinders.

The exception is the boxer engine, of course.  This is a "flat 4", with 2 banks of 2 180 deg apart. Like in the venerable Volkswagen engine.  And in some modern-day Subarus.  Even with just 2 cylinders, a boxer engine layout is automatically "smooth" (as in the older BMW motorcycles). (with smooth being relative, of course.)

[Bluenose]

A straight-8 is just a smooth as a straight-6.  Perhaps a bit smoother.  But 8 cylinders in a row is a bit of a design issue.  You WILL still see straight-8's in huge over-the-road trucks, and engines that power shipping.

Ah, but straight 8's were tried in cars but they had their own peculiar problems, mainly to do with torsional effects in the (long) crankshaft.  I used to know a guy who had an old Riley Straight 8.  It was a magnificent old beast.  It could take about 12 people and at highway speed you could count the cylinders firing - bang, bang, bang, bang... at a nice sedate rate.

This tended to be the way they overcame the problems with the crankshaft, by having long stroke, low rotational speed engines.  A product of this design option was enormous torque, you could drive off in top gear if the spirit so moved you.  The Riley was a great old piece of work.  I wonder what ever happenned to it, regretably my friend is no longer with us, so I guess I'll never know.

Sibling Bluenose

[ivor]

I gotta get me one of those! 

[Aggie]

Dunno if this'd actually be my dream car, but check this video out....

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x157l2_bugatti-veyron-at-top-speed

[Black Bart]

I used to own a Morris Traveller!

I like things made of wood...I can't help it!

[beagle]

Wasn't that the only car that could fail an MOT test on woodworm?