The Automotive world gets rocked by Hyundai!!!

[JohninVT]

I bought a brand new Vega in 72. It was an absolute blast to drive. No rattles or clunkiness, sharp as a tack in tight cornering, very well balanced. I can see why it was highly regarded. The cost cutting BS problems from GM (thinned out the cylinder coating to save money, no rustproofing) showed up far beyond what any test magazine finds. If GM had sleeved those things and did any kind of rust proofing, they would still be highly thought of. BTW, a GM tech told me he never saw a warped block on a Vega with the proper amount of antifreeze in it. Even today that is a critical issue. It was not close to challenging a real supercar, tho, and I would never have made that claim.

I had many, many cars in high school and college.  I would buy them from junkyards or on the side of the road, get them running and usually they’d last a few months before they were sold, died or crashed.  I found an honest to god Cosworth Vega in a junkyard when I was about 17.  They weren’t collectible in 1986 and most people had no idea what they were.  I resurrected it in a week and drove it for six months.  Yes, Vega’s absolutely warped heads on the regular.  In fact, 33 years later I still have scars across the tops of three fingers from when I picked up a Vega block partly by the flywheel.  It spun when I lifted it and peeled back the flesh of three of my knuckles to the bone.

It lasted six months before the entire rear axle was ripped from under the car during some late night shenanigans that involved alcohol, racing an IROC Camaro down a dirt road with our lights off and a very large stone wall. 

[Muzz]

I get called in to my son's work every now and then when they get busy doing power steering and wheel alignment.  I must say I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to working on vehicles the Hyundai overall would have to be about the best when it comes to doing post-assembly work on them.  Their design makes sense and thought has gone in to helping poor suckers  who have to work on them at a later date.

The absolute worst are the European vehicles. For example, there is a Mercedes 4WD SUV which, when you have to take the steering rack out you have to drop the entire front end and take the front diff out.   There is a vital bolt which has to be removed.  It can't be.   You have to sneak up a very narrow gap with a pneumatic hack saw and cut the head off, it will then slide out.  This bolt is high tensile with a hardened surface.  There is no-one who makes this bolt; it has to come from Mercedes at great cost.  If they had put this bolt in the other way round it could be easily withdrawn; they didn't.   There is absolutely no crap like that with Hyundai.

[redrider90]

Real hot rods have clutches .

 Dusty

Well my 2000cc Pinto had a clutch and rack and pinion steering.

[oldbike54]

Well my 2000cc Pinto had a clutch and rack and pinion steering.

  Well , the 1600 CC OHC engine was used in thousands of FF race cars .

 Dusty

[fossil]

Well that is interesting! There is in the moment a single car that has the potential to "rock the automotive world": the new Mazda 3 with the self-ignited petrol engine (and yes I know it has and uses spark plugs). An engine that is as frugal on gas as a modern Diesel but at least as clean as a very good normal petrol engine. Light because they build it with intelligence and just invented very hard and tensible steel that they could put into their presses. And at least in my eyes it does not look good but stunning. And its ride is not as good as that of a Golf or Focus. It is as good as that of a Jaguar (I have driven all of them).

All other cars in the moment are just - cars. And Hyundai? Well here my experience is limited. I had a brand-new I10 for a week ant it was by far the worst car I have ever driven. Making a good small car is an art. Renault and Ford can do that. And Mazda. Hyundai? No.

Interesting regarding the Mazda 3: Most journalists who have driven that car (be it in GB, US, NZ, AUS, India, CH, ...) say it is that good. Only our German journalists try to hide these characteristics. A bigger booth suddenly seems to be of more importance to them.

And no, I don´t drive that model. My car is a Mercedes C-Class that is in the family for 25 years now and will stay there until it dies.

[Rough Edge racing]

  Well , the 1600 CC OHC engine was used in thousands of FF race cars .

 Dusty

  The 2000 cc OHC were cam eaters, very few made it to 30K miles without a cam replacment...But they and the 2300cc made their mark when modified for midget car circle track..I believe the 1600 cc engine standard in the early Pintos was the Kent OHV ? Same engine used later in the German built Fiesta....

[fossil]

  The 2000 cc OHC were cam eaters, very few made it to 30K miles without a cam replacment...But they and the 2300cc made their mark when modified for midget car circle track..I believe the 1600 cc engine standard in the early Pintos was the Kent OHV ? Same engine used later in the German built Fiesta....

Fiesta, Escort (in a Cosworth - version this model achieved the Rallye World-Championship), Ka, Lotus, De Tomaso (!),...

[Lannis]

  ..I believe the 1600 cc engine standard in the early Pintos was the Kent OHV ? Same engine used later in the German built Fiesta....

Yup, and in the Morgan 4/4 ....

Lannis

[wrbix]

Yup, and in the Morgan 4/4 ....

Lannis

Yup, and in the Caterham Super Seven Sprint...
(and maybe in late Lotus Sevens?...hafta pull the book)

[blackcat]

I just read an article about ten or twenty muscle cars nobody wants to be seen in.
ZZ

1970 AMC Rebel Machine


Not a beauty, but it would be fun to own.

[redrider90]

  Well , the 1600 CC OHC engine was used in thousands of FF race cars .

 Dusty

Well now I know I had a hot rod cause after I posted I remembered it was a 1600 cc. It was the engine that the timing belt could break and not wreck the valves. I had it break on me and pulled off the road.  I was able to fix it roadside without much work.
It really was a fun little car and got 30+ MPG if I wasn't "hot rodding" it. 

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

Well now I know I had a hot rod cause after I posted I remembered it was a 1600 cc. It was the engine that the timing belt could break and not wreck the valves. I had it break on me and pulled off the road.  I was able to fix it roadside without much work.
It really was a fun little car and got 30+ MPG if I wasn't "hot rodding" it. 

The 1600 was an overhead-valve design, not overhead-cam, so no cam belt.

[redrider90]

The 1600 was an overhead-valve design, not overhead-cam, so no cam belt.

Well there goes another hole in my memory. I guess it was a 2000 cc. One thing for sure it had a timing belt that broke at 40 mph and the valves were just fine and I did fix it road side.

[JohninVT]

Yup, and in the Caterham Super Seven Sprint...
(and maybe in late Lotus Sevens?...hafta pull the book)

Yes.  My Seven had the 1600 Kent block.  Elan’s did too.

[Rough Edge racing]

 A good friend has a Super 7 back in the 1970's...His had a 1000cc engine and was not very fast at all..He had sort of 1600 DOHC engine but he never got around to swapping it in.He sold the car in 1981 for $6800..Was the DOHC based on the Kent block?

[redrider90]

A good friend has a Super 7 back in the 1970's...His had a 1000cc engine and was not very fast at all..He had sort of 1600 DOHC engine but he never got around to swapping it in.He sold the car in 1981 for $6800..Was the DOHC based on the Kent block?

Everything you want to know about the various 1600 cc Fords including the Kent as well as 2000cc.
https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/document.asp?DocID=TECH00149
 From the above link
"A belt-driven DOHC version was made just for Lotus in the 1960s using a short-deck 1500cc Kent engine block. Cosworth put their own belt-driven DOHC heads on many different Kent engines, including the "uprated" 1600cc block."

[bacongrease]

Takeaway....they make a very good auto, at a reasonable price.

Did not  read.  What was mpg?

[Lannis]

1970 AMC Rebel Machine


Not a beauty, but it would be fun to own.

I didn't own that model, but I owned a '68 AMC Rebel sedan.   Even for a guy who was used to driving older cars, the AMC was a rolling anachronism.   It still had vacuum-operated windshield wipers, the kind that came to a stop when you punched the gas to pass someone in the rain, and then went like mad when you backed off.   The sheet metal was heavy; it was build like a tank.   No power steering so it took a stout man to handle it, everything was over-built and solid feeling, though.  It FELT older than the '64 Ford Falcon that I had before it.

Lannis

[Zoom Zoom]

1970 AMC Rebel Machine


Not a beauty, but it would be fun to own.

Yes it would. I'm not sure if it was that model, ( I think it was), or a different one that made a a showing at a local car show this past year, but it had a V8, 4 speed, bucket seats, ram air and body graphics like or similar to your pic. Anyway, neat. I don't know anything about its performance though. My buddy has a '69 AMX. Green, white stripes, 390 4 speed, side pipes. It had its shortcomings but it was pretty fast and really looked cool. At high speed, (breaking the law), the rear of the door windows would gap away from the quarter glass by about an inch.

I suppose in '98 when the motorcycle world named the '98 Cali EV as the bike of the year, the motorcycle got rocked too.

John Henry

[oldbike54]

Yes it would. I'm not sure if it was that model, ( I think it was), or a different one that made a a showing at a local car show this past year, but it had a V8, 4 speed, bucket seats, ram air and body graphics like or similar to your pic. Anyway, neat. I don't know anything about its performance though. My buddy has a '69 AMX. Green, white stripes, 390 4 speed, side pipes. It had its shortcomings but it was pretty fasy and really looked cool. At high speed, (breaking the law), the rear of the door windows would gap away from the quarter glass by about an inch.

I suppose in '98 when the motorcycle world named the '98 Cali EV as the bike of the year, the motorcycle got rocked too.

John Henry

 Your example was likely a Hurst Rambler Scrambler , and yes , the early 390 AMX models were considered fast in their day .

 Dusty

[blackcat]

My buddy has a '69 AMX. Green, white stripes, 390 4 speed, side pipes. It had its shortcomings but it was pretty fasy and really looked cool. At high speed, (breaking the law), the rear of the door windows would gap away from the quarter glass by about an inch.

John Henry

Probably the only AMC car I ever wanted to own.



The interiors were pretty boring compared to what GM or Ford were offering at that time.



The latest season of Better Call Saul has a 71 Javelin in the show owned by a drug dealer, which has to be the first time I've ever seen that vehicle in any entertainment show or movie.

[LowRyter]

Your example was likely a Hurst Rambler Scrambler , and yes , the early 390 AMX models were considered fast in their day .

 Dusty

[oldbike54]

 It's odd , I simply don't miss the good old days at all . Of course not ever being a car guy , those cars didn't cause me any excitement even in 1970.

 Dusty

[redrider90]

It's odd , I simply don't miss the good old days at all . Of course not ever being a car guy , those cars didn't cause me any excitement even in 1970.

 Dusty

Dusty doesn't like cars? For a guy who just came up with this bit of trivia  "Well , the 1600 CC OHC engine was used in thousands of FF race cars." Surely you jest. 

[oldbike54]

Dusty doesn't like cars? For a guy who just came up with this bit of trivia  "Well , the 1600 CC OHC engine was used in thousands of FF race cars." Surely you jest. 

 There is an exception for open wheel racing cars 

 Dusty

[Gliderjohn]

In the early 70s I worked at a gas station and every nice Sunday afternoon this older couple would come to gas up their gold colored AMX 390 4-speed. She was dressed like a typical little old lady and he like an English gentleman complete with the tweed jacket and leather driving gloves. Bet that car would have been a great used buy a few years later.
GliderJohn

[LowRyter]

There is an exception for open wheel racing cars 

 Dusty

Take a load of this one, it didn't stay in one piece very long and dang near killed the Flyin' Hawaiian but it was a one of a kind.

[oldbike54]

Take a load of this one, it didn't stay in one piece very long and dang near killed the Flyin' Hawaiian but it was a one of a kind.


[/quote

 Penske ?

 Dusty

[LowRyter]

Not Penske.   "The Batmobile".   I thought it was a one-off built for Danny by Ted Field/Interscope Team but it might have been a variation of that year's Eagle.  Crashed to oblivion and smashed Danny's legs. (You can google the photos)  Danny wasn't done and competitive years after and raced at Indy in the '90s.  He's still kicking.

Danny raced everything: bikes, Top Fuel Drag Champion, IMSA Champion in Top Level Porsche Turbos , Lemans Porsche Turbo,  F-1, and Indycar.

He was going to field a Factory Porsche Indycar but it was banned before entry.

[Rough Edge racing]

It's odd , I simply don't miss the good old days at all . Of course not ever being a car guy , those cars didn't cause me any excitement even in 1970.

 Dusty

 i'll have to agree that old guys look back on 60's Muscle cars and pony cars with rose colored glasses...I clearly remember, as compared to modern vehicles the harsh ride, limited handling ,not so good brakes and cowl shake and rattles over rough roads...Like a vintage Triumph, the are fun for certain situations until some punk in his mom's V6 family car blows you off..