samboct
Posts: 1817
Joined: 1/17/2007 Status: offline
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Diane I admire your taste in cars- I've always been fond of American muscle machines. My first car was a 71 Skylark with a 350 c.i. V8, and I still miss it on occasion- even if the front end did get a bit floaty around 100 or so. When I was a kid, a buddy had a very beat up 72 Challenger with the 318- (think it was a 72, it's a long time ago) I remember having some issues with the gearbox and rolling out of a toll plaza in third with nary a hiccup. Toyed around buying a '70 Mach 1 with the 390- that was a kick. A buddy of mine just picked up a new Impala SS- it's a lot of fun. Aneirin- auto tranny's are beefier these days, it's not so easy to get a performance clutch. Ford blew it on my car, a Focus SVT, although I must admit, the drivetrain on my Neon ACR held up wonderfully- the cars got 180k miles or so and a chunk of that was spent towing a boat. Also, when you've got more horsepower, autos are less of an anathema, and they're very hard to argue with in traffic jams. I actually like the paddle shifters on the A4s I've driven. And yeah- US cars are maybe 85% autos, but apparently manuals are making a comeback along with the CVT. I guess I wouldn't buy a muscle car unless I had more dinero- but I always liked the look of that Magnum wagon. Probably one hell of a regattamobile. And if we figure out biodiesel or biogas (gasoline from ethanol) the day of the muscle car might not be over..... Sam
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