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PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 2:37 pm 
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Turbo Slant 6

Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:44 pm
Posts: 790
Location: New England
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I went to get a sticker today on my slant six 67 Barracuda. I usually drive across town to have a friend inspect it, but he doesn't really look too close, so I wanted to see what an impartial inspector would say. I went to my neighborhood gas station, around the corner.
The guy tried to stare me down, which doesn't work on me, since I just smile and look like I've just met my new best friend. He looked over the car shaking his head, and admittedly it could use a new top and some paint.
"Everything works," I said.
"It had better," he said. Still not charming me out of my socks.
He took an alarmingly long time on the car before me, and then finally had me drive in.
"So everything works, huh?" he said.
"You don't like old cars, do you?" I asked, sympathetically.
"You have an exhaust leak."
"It doesn't have a catalytic converter which may be why it sounds like that," I said. "It didn't come with one."
We waited for the machine to process its information.
"Are you a mechanic?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said, without going into specifics.
"Where do you work?"
"Well... I fix my own vehicles." I had assisted at a friend's garage during the late 80's, but I was going with my S.O.P. of being friendly and vague.
He rolled his eyes, and sneered for a while longer. I smiled back.
I figured he would give me a rejection sticker, but he slapped on a fresh sticker, as if it was a booby prize, without even checking to see if the horn worked.
"You came here because you didn't think it would pass at a real garage, didn't you?" he said by way of a goodbye.
"I think it would pass..." I offered, but then figured, what's the use?

Someone summed it up for me a long time ago when they said, "There are a lot of nice places in the world, and Boston isn't one of them."


:roll:

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/6 '67 Barracuda convertible, electronic ignition, 4-OD, street cam, SBP KH discs, 3.55 SG 7.25" 1" t-bars. Bilstein.
340 '67 fastback, Doug Nash 5-speed.
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 3:00 pm 
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Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2002 4:32 pm
Posts: 4880
Location: Working in Silicon Valley, USA
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Great story...
Some people, here in California, ask me how I 'get away' with driving "that old car"... How do you get it to pass a smog test?
I look them in the eye and say... "It's exempt".

I get a number of different reactions to that... Some ask "really... tell me more..." like they just found a gold nugget.
Others, like the Prius owner in the store parking lot, get's on a soap box about how bad my car is on the environment...
That's about the time I say "have a nice day... and walk away.

The biggest reasons I continue to drive these cars:
1) No bi-annual smog checks.
2) I can't stand new car dealers.
DD


Last edited by Doc on Fri Mar 16, 2012 5:06 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 3:57 pm 
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Joined: Fri Nov 01, 2002 5:02 pm
Posts: 1827
Location: Waterloo, Iowa
Car Model: '23 T-bucket
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Others, like the Prius owner in the store parking lot, get's on a soap box about how bad the car is on the environment...DD
*****************************************************

I read somewhere, (admittedly on the internet), that the Prius consumes more energy, from fabrication to scrapping, than an H2 Hummer. The same "story" included that the mine where the metal for the batterie(s) comes from has nothing growing around it for something like five miles, due to dust fallout.

Roger


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 4:49 pm 
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Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2002 5:39 pm
Posts: 24499
Location: North America
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Quote:
the Prius owner in the store parking lot, get's on a soap box about how bad the car is on the environment...
You obviously take the high road by just walking away. I'd be tempted to say "What, y'never heard of 'reduce-reuse-recycle'?" or I might say "Yeah, well, your low-emissions Prius cancels out my high-emissions Dart. Thanks for the subsidy!".

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 8:37 am 
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2 BBL ''SuperSix''

Joined: Fri Aug 26, 2011 10:01 am
Posts: 10
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What's really interesting (while we're Prius-bashing) is that the Prius represents no net savings for any category.

It is a truly global car, with parts manufactured by lowest bidders all over the world...USA, Canada, Taiwan, Malaysia, India, Japan, Australia, Sweden, Spain, UK...the list goes on. All of those parts are shipped to the assembly plants (one in Saitama, the other in Mississippi...I think)

Between the massive amounts of energy required to manufacture the battery, the giant amount of diesel burnt to not on assemble all those parts, but to ship them around the world...and the large amount of petroleum needed to produce the large amount of plastic in the car to make it light...the car is anything but carbon-neutral. Even though it has the lowest emissions of any car (other than electric or fuel-cell) currently sold.

The study I read indicated that the Prius only becomes carbon neutral after the car has been driven over 80000 miles. Of normal driving. If you are stop-start urban driving, the threshold is a much lower 34000 miles.

I guess we lose sight of the bigger picture in our race to become greenest on the block. I wonder how the carbon footprint of driving a 64 valiant for 50 years compares? Without all that plastic, battery, and shipping...do you think we might be greener than people assume?

I'm going to search for the article that itemized all of this. It was written in 2009 as part of a doctoral thesis...when I find it I'll post it here.

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1985 Nissan 720 ST 4x4
1999 F150 XLT V6


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 9:01 am 
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Turbo EFI
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Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2004 8:43 pm
Posts: 1153
Car Model: 1967 Dodge Dart GT
Quote:
"What, y'never heard of 'reduce-reuse-recycle'?"
saw a kind of cool sticker the other day that said "reduce, reuse, recycle, rebuild"


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 9:04 am 
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Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2002 5:39 pm
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Location: North America
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Quote:
"You have an exhaust leak."
Bulk wrap. If you did, he wouldn't have given you a sticker.
Quote:
"Are you a mechanic?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said, without going into specifics.
"Where do you work?"
You missed an opportunity to say "Utopia Planitia" (where Federation ships are built in "Star Trek")
Quote:
"You came here because you didn't think it would pass at a real garage, didn't you?"
Sounds like he has a lot of pride and confidence in his work, eh? Sheesh.

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 9:22 am 
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Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2002 11:22 am
Posts: 3740
Location: Sonoma, Calif.
Car Model: Many Darts and a Dacuda
Don't get me wrong, I have no "ax to grind" with the low emissions vehicles and how they are making their way onto our roadways (and "culture") but I don't like being lectured by any vehicle owner (or mechanic, inspector, etc) about my choice in the vehicle I decide to drive.
DD


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 10:54 am 
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Turbo Slant 6

Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:44 pm
Posts: 790
Location: New England
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Or as Jeremy Clarkson says, "Pr-eye-us."
I think a well-tuned slant six can have low emissions, if it's able to be efficient, with optimized combustion at the right operating temperature.
The "real garage" comment was a slow pitch across the plate, but since he had given me the sticker, I just kept on steppin'. I gather he was filling in at the place, and thought I was through there every week with a junker. The irony is that I went there for a legitimate safety inspection and instead got a big pile of unprofessional prejudice. I went there because it was the closest inspection place to where the car is parked.
Jeremy Clarkson:best car in India


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 11:25 am 
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Contributor
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Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2002 9:29 am
Posts: 1046
Location: Texas
Car Model: 1964 Valiant convertible 225 automatic
The son of a friend bought a Chevy Volt last month...the one taxpayers subsidize to the tune of $7,000.00 per unit. Well, it's been over 80 F the past week, so he turned on the air conditioning. Total distance he was able to travel on a battery charge...20 miles. Then it had to charge all night before he could get another 20 miles from electric power. Without the A/C on, he gets about 28 miles in normal driving conditions.


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 6:48 pm 
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Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2002 7:27 pm
Posts: 14564
Location: Park Forest, Illinoisy
Car Model: 68 Valiant
Quote:
The son of a friend bought a Chevy Volt last month...the one taxpayers subsidize to the tune of $7,000.00 per unit. Well, it's been over 80 F the past week, so he turned on the air conditioning. Total distance he was able to travel on a battery charge...20 miles. Then it had to charge all night before he could get another 20 miles from electric power. Without the A/C on, he gets about 28 miles in normal driving conditions.
I've seen the subsidy number as high as $250,000 PER CAR when you figure in all the money GM got for developement and testing.

I think the Volt is a repeat of the failed EV-1 project. GM spent a billion dollars of taxpayer money at the governments request just to prove an electric car is a novelty at best until someone invents a magic battery.

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 Post subject: Hmmmm...
PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 8:50 pm 
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Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 8:27 pm
Posts: 9714
Location: Salem, OR
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GM spent a billion dollars of taxpayer money at the governments request just to prove an electric car is a novelty at best until someone invents a magic battery.
I'm curious what happened to the project that was working on a fuel cell to replace old gel cell in the electric car. A few years back they were making some good headway on something you could pour a common available liquid into, the mesh/media broke it down and the loose electrons provided power... (probably got nixed by NASA).

We have 2 generations of Prius's at work...they get OK mileage, but I would bet my life behind the wheel of an old valiant with bad bushings and a slant six to get out of a big rigs way, than those things...they have the worst steering...everybody is fighting for the honda hybrid, oddly enough.

I'd definately be interested in seeing what the carbon footprint of a current production compact car is...anybody who has seen my parts stash and the fun I've had at junkyard can say I do reuse/reduce/recycle...

-D.Idiot


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 9:30 pm 
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*shrug* I donno. The taxicab companies in Vancouver and Portland seem to like the Prius quite a lot, and they're catching on in Seattle and New York City, too.

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:43 am 
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EFI Slant 6

Joined: Sun May 23, 2010 8:38 pm
Posts: 454
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Start of a greener future I think, shame that it's paved with wasted money, long term projects without good results and morons who tell you how to live.
At some stage when Hybrids etc are the majority of cars, the carbon footprint will lower since more factories will be avail meet supply on demand. I've seen a lot more hybrid cars around lately in the city where I live. Still think keeping a slant six is better!


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:52 am 
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Start of a greener future I think, shame that it's paved with wasted money, long term projects without good results
That's how all progress happens: slowly and expensively and with poor early results, and then it gets gradually better and less expensive. There are vastly more cars driven vastly more miles today in 2012 than there were in 1962 when the very first thought and effort started being directed towards emission control, but the air in every populated area is vastly cleaner now. That's a freakin' miracle (not really, it's the result of an enormous amount of brainpower applied to the problem), but to get to this point we had to slog through a period of cars that ran poorly and were troublesome to repair. And the same is true of roadway safety; despite a lot more cars driving a lot more miles, we've got historically low rates of traffic-related death and injury -- because of government intervention and despite auto industry foot-dragging.

We humans are not very good at grasping and understanding the effects of our choices on those with whom we share space and resources on this one and only planet. Unfortunately, we tend to hog unless we're not allowed to. "Nanny state" types of complaints in response to these unpleasant but necessary first steps towards relieving a real problem are just as thoughtless, selfish, and narrow-minded today as they were in the 1960s and '70s.

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