My wife was really anti-truck. Emphasis on was. She drove the FJ Cruiser to the grocery store two weeks ago and came home and said, “That thing is smooth. Also only one person tried to run into me and then I honked and they freaked out and realized I was going to run them over. I kinda like it.”
Steel bumpers are coming for me. So the next time some asshole parks his shitty jalopy Buick blocking my driveway, I can move that pile of shit out of the way, without scratching my truck.
Car skates. Just push him out in the middle of the street and leave him there as you drive away. Bonus points if you can turn him sideways to block both lanes, stuck between parked cars and unable to extricate himself. The tow truck operator will have fun with that.
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Not another dime.
Having called tow trucks on all manner if wrecks/crime scenes/whatever, if you get a driver with more than two years experoence, the things those guys can do are magical. Picking up a really screwed up vehicle, and then placing it down within inches of where you want it.Originally Posted by OlongJohnson
pat
Ain't no thread drift like P-F thread drift!
Start with Wranglers, end up going through the merits of minivans, poached laps at Indy, and the frustrating societal problems of big cities. I love you all. Seriously. Being able to enjoy an hour or three a day of P-F is significantly helping me stay sane out here.
Yes, it is. But there's always an opportunity to enjoy more car. Driving a properly sorted 1000whp twin turbo Mustang or supercharged Corvette while blaring good music with a pretty girl in the passenger seat is about as close as I've come to nirvana in this mortal coil.
And Siennas in particular refuse to die. If you need to move a family around and have $4k, there's absolutely no competition.
I fucking hate the knob - a shifter is what's really needed. But the dual clutch auto isn't as bad as you'd think. Honestly as street driven cars start getting north of 700whp a stick can go from being 'fun sporty' to 'scary sporty' real fast.
I distinctly remember a customer's 2013 Shelby GT500 - it was an actual Shelby delivered vehicle, not just the 'regular' GT500 off the lot. The customer checked all the blocks and it came to us with a Kenne Bell 4.0L twinscrew supercharger on it. It baselined at 740whp, when it left after the pullies and headers and a tune, it was making 960whp and 800-something ft-lbs. 6 spd Manual. That car absolutely *DEMANDED* respectful and accurate application of the gas pedal. Unlike the 1400+whp twin turbo setups, where a sharp blip into the throttle didn't immediately try to murder you - that car could end up totally sideways as fast as you could stomp your foot.
An auto or dual clutch trans would have been a lot more enjoyable, as then you could keep both hands on the wheel ALL the time and you could spend that much more mental brainspace allocated to reading and driving the car.
That particular customer called us about 45mins after he picked it up, and he was parked in a parking lot calming himself down after scaring the hell out of himself.
I'm extrapolating my experience here from older stupid-fast Mustangs here, but I honestly kind of agree with making the GT500 an auto-only game for that reason. Kind of.
We did plenty of Focii and several EB S550 Mustangs at the shop, but we also saw a lot of headbolt/headgasket related failures. Ford mostly addressed those issues (mostly) with the 2.3 EB they put in the Focus RS, but it's a real weakness that can induce scary-early failures even in 100% stock vehicles.
Also, mid grade minimum for the 2.3L EB, I don't give a fuck what the owners manual says about being able to run 86/87 octane. Whatever knock correction strategy the PCM is employing it is not fast enough, and I've pulled a lot of fried spark plugs out of low mile 2.3L EB Mustangs that had owners putting regular in the tank.
Personally I would strongly recommend 91 octane or higher for any of the 2.3L EB Fords.
If you're willing to do a set of ARP headstuds, though, that more or less bulletproofs the engine for anything you can do on the stock turbo. With basic breathing mods and a tune for 91+ octane you can get pretty much even with the stock 5.0L V8's HP and Tq but you'll see 30mpg on the highway, which is pretty fuckin' cool.
Here is another pointless picture of my car in the snow on a business trip this morning:
So, in the Focus (2.0EB) I used to switch around, and if I was going to smoke through a tank on the highway I might run low octane, figuring it will be gone in a few hours. Then I pretty much stuck with mid grade, but I have also gone through some plugs pretty quickly. I had NO idea that could be an issue until my late model car just died while idling on a hot day (while I was hundreds of miles from home...). Now I pretty much run 93, figuring WTH, it is going to cost $6 or so. But I hear you saying that I should run the better gas, because even if it is retarding automatically it is still mildly pre-detonating in order for the sensor to pick it up? I also run mid grade in the truck with the 3.5EB, and it seems to run better.
Plus I am a dork that doesn't like to do what all of the other old suburban guys his age are inclined to do. Imma send you a PM at some point, the car is out of warranty and the truck is about to be out of his extended warranty. Not really worried about performance so much, but if I am committing to the better gas I might exploit it. If I can pick up some mileage too, bonus!
The Gladiator, to me, is a huge disappointment. I know a couple people who make them, so it's kind of sad.
First is the price, it's insane. I drove a $55K one, and I thought the whole time, "This thing should be about $40K, sticker, tops!" and in the low 30's out the door.
The 3.6 V6 is barely adequate for freeway driving, let alone towing. If they put the 5.7 Hemi in it, with the 8 speed auto, or even better, the 6.4/392, and wanted to sticker it at $50k+, that would be different.
It would still be too high, but with the discounts, $40K or so wouldn't be bad for the fun a 6.4 powered one would be. But if they did put the 6.4 in, they will sticker in the $60k+ range, and that's just as insane as they are now.
I know some people say, "But he 3.6 has more power than the V8's we had in the late '70's!", but those cars and trucks were a PITA to drive and the torque of a V8 helped mitigate the lack of power. There is a level of power needed to be a good driver, and the Gladiator isn't quite there, the 5.7 would be fine. I've owned in the past some agonizingly slow vehicles, and I sure don't miss them at all.
I was considering replacing my old vehicles with something made this century but noticed something very disturbing. It's pretty hard to find a 4x4 with a manual transfer case. I've even seen trucks with manual transmissions and electric shift T-cases. WTH? Recently I had to use the 4wd on a truck at work and it didn't want to cooperate, so none of that for me. The Gladiator has a manual T-case (Or at least it has a lever. I wouldn't put it past a car company to make a fake lever that's actually just an electric switch) so if I actually were going to buy a new truck the Gladiator would be right up there. As it is I'd rather spend a lot less money buying a clapped out truck from 1990 and paying someone to make it not a pile of crap.
Fords with the 6.0 diesel (yeah, but they can be fixed) came with a 6MT including a crawler low. Some had manual transfer cases and hubs, too. A non-rusty one will bring some bucks, but might be worth it. I keep jonesing for one with standard cab, long bed as a personal vehicle. Like in the old days, before pickups became station wagons without weather protection for the luggage.
ETA: The 6MT apparently survived the generation changeover in 2008 and the advent of the 6.4L. I should look into how long it remained available. I bet one of those would cost less than the $40k not-Rubicon Gladiator I posted about earlier. (Although I read for about two minutes, and it's conceivable the 6.4L's problems are essentially unfixable, and therefore worse than the 6.0L's problems.)
This is almost certainly a FoMoCo photo. Using for discussion and to show how awesome it is.
Last edited by OlongJohnson; 02-16-2020 at 08:09 PM.
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Not another dime.
Aren't the Tacoma's available in 4x4 with manual transfer case?
Exciting cars don't need to be fast, and fast cars aren't necessarily exciting in a good way. There's a very fine line to pulse quickening excitement and oh shit I need a new pair of underoos and pants. The latter can get expensive on the dry cleaning bill.
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