i think growing up in the US has made me very spoiled for power. its hard to find anything from this century with less than 1.6 liters in it. the first 1.6 i had in my last civic made 106bhp. the 1.6 in my current civic makes double that. how can you safely merge onto a hiway with a 1.3 in it?
It weighed a mere 900kg. Mine had the Š 781.136M engine in it, a 1.3 litre 8v pushrod motor. 67hp at 5500rpm and 106Nm torque from 2600 to 3750rpm (a few reviewers used to make comment on how it was pretty diesel like generating its absolute peak torque in a pretty large range). Its not powerful by any means, but it didnt have any mass to lug around, and I had the 4.11 gearing. Got 95mph out of it and was still climbing. Highway merging was not an issue at all. Even my corsa could highway merge and that had even less power and torque (59hp at 5600rpm and 88Nm torque at 3800rpm). Our highway speeds are higher than the US too at 70mph. Its fine. Getting another is on the bucket list, probably with an engine swap but nothing OTT.
it would never cut it in new york city. people here are insane. there are times and places here where i have to launch at 6k to get up to speed fast enough or you sit there all day. worst city in the world besides los Angeles to be a car guy in. the roads suck and even at 50 mph people act like they are in the BTCC.
your averaging 7 mph in london. try merging on to the grand central parkway. also, europeans in general are much more polite. everyone in new york is a war criminal who wants to scalp you to save 5 minutes. is it unheard of to put both milk AND lemon in your tea?
Well, I had an epiphany last night involving my absolute favorite engine., and now I realize what I must do with the blue and white C10, Take the 350 out, put it in the Blazer, grab a $600 hunk of junk early 70's Cadillac with a 500, rebuild the 500, put an aftermarket intake and cam in it, and shoe-horn it into the C10. The 500 is, and has been my favorite engine for quite some time, high nickel content block, stupid crazy torque, arguably the best power-to-weight ratio of any GM engine, small block MPG, and only 40 lbs lighter than a normal SBC. You can take a 71 or 72 500 and with nothing but a cam, intake, and headers, make almost 500 HP and over 700 Ft-lbs of torque, while getting 18 MPG on the highway. And without a whole lot more done to them, can hold their own to most all newer diesel trucks. There was a guy who had an early 80's C30 crewcab dually with a junkyard fresh 472 Caddy in it, and that truck pulled 23,000 lbs regularly for over 3 years, before the transmission exploded. Then he put a 4 spd manual behind it and its still going.
I'll just point out that US "highway" speeds vary quite a bit. You have highways that average about 55, but they're usually smaller roads. Some highways and some interstates do 65. After that it's mostly interstates with the higher speeds. 70 and 75 are very common, and in Texas I know we have 80 and I think we have 85.
In New England, our 55mph highways seem to average 70-75mph. On the 65mph highways it isn't uncommon to see 85-90mph. I'll be doing 80mph in the slow lane and STILL get passed like I'm doing 50mph.
When talking about "highway speeds" the distinction between an interstate and a highway must be made. Highways are sometimes just 2 lanes and can have speed limits as low as 40 or 50mph, yet interstates are always 2+ lanes each way, with a wall or median dividing opposing traffic and can have speed limits as high was 80mph in some states. You'll see some divided highways, but they aren't as common as 2 or 4 lane highways. Interstates require an interchange to get on or off and won't ever have a single stop light or entrance directly onto them, but highways can have stoplights and entrances directly onto the road. There, I've made a complete ass of myself. On interstates, entrance ramps are usually downhill and more than long enough to build up enough speed to merge. On highways you just wait for a big gap if you're driving a slow car. Occasionally, though, you'll encounter some asshole that won't move over and seemingly deliberately matches your speed as you try to merge. It's nice to have a bit of passing power then.
I have a junction joining a 70mph road from a complete standstill, no ramp, no merging lane. Still managed fine in the 1.0
http://jalopnik.com/a-collapsed-old-railway-tunnel-hides-these-rare-cars-un-1495585003 A very interesting article that I just found
Its kinda crazy how much the engines often differ in north america, generally the trend is more torque down low, which often leads to bigger displacements. Kind of a shame most drivers here have a "fear of the red zone" so to speak and great base engines get "Americanized", not that I am complaining about the power; It just feels silly foreign manufactures have to soften suspension, often making cars handle worse, and make bigger displacement engines to move any units here.
Damn, how do Aussie police get such powerful and expensive cars like Commodores and Mercs? I mean for a span of like 20 years the U.S. main workhorse was the Crown vic, which was mainly because it was cheap to run, tough, and good for highway cruising. Now our two most powerful cars are the taurus twin turbo and charger, which afaik are both around 370ish hp. However most departments around where i live either still use their old vics or base fwd non turbo tauruses. I reckon I could probably take on a base taurus police car in a drag race in my 4100lb vic... eh well at least my car will still look cooler than the taurus when im loosing.
Its not all as flashy as it seems, its mostly Highway Patrol with the flashy cars. Regular beat cops just drive V6 Commodores & Falcons, as well as some uninteresting cruisers.
Huh? Are you saying that you'd rather have tiny little engines that make "enough" power than the usually larger and more powerful, yet fuel sucking engines that we get? Usually the engines that aren't/weren't available for the American market are/were the pathetically small ones that there is only a demand for elsewhere because gas is so expensive. If anything, the American car market is being "Europe-ized". V8s, rwd, and soft suspension are giving way to smaller v6s or i4s paired with the front wheels with unnecessarily hard suspension. One of my friends drives a Chevy cruze. It's an awful experience all around. Cheap, dreadfully slow, and you can feel and hear every single imperfection on the road. I swear you can feel the lines as you go across them. I don't understand why an every day car needs hard suspension anyway. If anything, soften the springs and shocks and throw some anti-sway bars on if you want it to corner decently. I guess just making the springs hard as a rock is cheaper.
As I said I am not complaining about the power, it just feels odd that some engines that were absolutely fine get replaced because the american market demands torque (example, Honda s2000). As for suspension, yes the European market suspensions are firmer on average but they are not rock hard, actually in my trip to Europe a few years back I was amazed at how well the cars felt on bumps and still handled decently; They feel more sport tuned, but this does not mean they are always uncomfortable. Another thing I have been in a rented cruize, and it feels exactly as you say, but nothing about its suspension setup reminds me of what the European cars are like. Sorry I don't exactly share your view, but I will happily respect your opinion if you do so to mine.
Someone help me. Please. I should have never clicked this link. I love my 'Murican cars but HOLY HELLS these things are cheap. http://japaneseclassics.com/inventory/
