Jonnyuma
Well-Known Member
Don't read this. It's a long-winded stream-of-consciousness ramble.
I'm a trucker and I drive at night. Doing this through the featureless eastern Oregon and western Idaho high desert has its perils... one of which is thinking too much. Having a 4-wheeled blank canvas (or 3. Or 4) sitting at home almost always guides the brain-drift.
Last night I revisited the idea of turning my 79 Lebaron coupe into a "what if" euro-trash fighter.
It takes some imagination...
Other than Porsche, the Germans weren't really in the performance game til the 80s (first M3 in 85, the Quattro came on around the same time) but car-snobs still gab on about the handling and seat-of-the-pants fun that the vintage BMW 2002tii, Audi Fox/4000, and even VW Rabbit deliver. The Ms, Ss, AMGs, GTIs all came later BUUUT... they really invented the concept of the "performance sedan" and sold it like crazy. While our Big 3 went bigger, softer, and added stripes, they went for handling, small high-revving engines and slick-shifting manuals. When American cars started to get smaller the Germans (and Japanese) had already cornered the market. They were adding turbos and gears while we were still pushing "personal coupes". Oh yeah, we tried (Cosworth Vega, the impressive Shelby GLH, etc) but weren't able to make much of a dent in that import market. I don't think the Big 3 really took the threat that seriously.
Nowadays you can hardly pick up a contemporary car magazine without a front-cover blurb about "Cadillac's Latest BMW-Fighter!" or "Corvette Takes Aim At Porsche!". I have an interest in almost all cars... the super exotics don't hold a lot of fascination for me, but they're still fun to look at and read about... kind of like a million dollar American musclecar crossing the block at Barrett Jackson. It's a different planet entirely, but we all burn gas and have 4 rubber patches on the road... there is a common thread.
My Lebaron as a contemporary concept (Lexus, Acura, BMW, Audi, Benz competitor) from another planet (1970s America) is what I was thinking about last night. What would the SRT team do if they were charged with beating the europeans at their own game? I don't mean L'il Red Truck brutish HP (I like that too), but inside, outside, and more importantly... underneath. Cop stuff? A 4-speed? Big giant swaybars?
I think I'm done for now. This was cathartic... sometimes I need to ramble a bit to straighten out my thoughts, bang ot out in wrinting.
If you read this entire nonsense, thank you. If you read all of this and have actual suggestions, thank you again.
I'm a trucker and I drive at night. Doing this through the featureless eastern Oregon and western Idaho high desert has its perils... one of which is thinking too much. Having a 4-wheeled blank canvas (or 3. Or 4) sitting at home almost always guides the brain-drift.
Last night I revisited the idea of turning my 79 Lebaron coupe into a "what if" euro-trash fighter.
It takes some imagination...
Other than Porsche, the Germans weren't really in the performance game til the 80s (first M3 in 85, the Quattro came on around the same time) but car-snobs still gab on about the handling and seat-of-the-pants fun that the vintage BMW 2002tii, Audi Fox/4000, and even VW Rabbit deliver. The Ms, Ss, AMGs, GTIs all came later BUUUT... they really invented the concept of the "performance sedan" and sold it like crazy. While our Big 3 went bigger, softer, and added stripes, they went for handling, small high-revving engines and slick-shifting manuals. When American cars started to get smaller the Germans (and Japanese) had already cornered the market. They were adding turbos and gears while we were still pushing "personal coupes". Oh yeah, we tried (Cosworth Vega, the impressive Shelby GLH, etc) but weren't able to make much of a dent in that import market. I don't think the Big 3 really took the threat that seriously.
Nowadays you can hardly pick up a contemporary car magazine without a front-cover blurb about "Cadillac's Latest BMW-Fighter!" or "Corvette Takes Aim At Porsche!". I have an interest in almost all cars... the super exotics don't hold a lot of fascination for me, but they're still fun to look at and read about... kind of like a million dollar American musclecar crossing the block at Barrett Jackson. It's a different planet entirely, but we all burn gas and have 4 rubber patches on the road... there is a common thread.
My Lebaron as a contemporary concept (Lexus, Acura, BMW, Audi, Benz competitor) from another planet (1970s America) is what I was thinking about last night. What would the SRT team do if they were charged with beating the europeans at their own game? I don't mean L'il Red Truck brutish HP (I like that too), but inside, outside, and more importantly... underneath. Cop stuff? A 4-speed? Big giant swaybars?
I think I'm done for now. This was cathartic... sometimes I need to ramble a bit to straighten out my thoughts, bang ot out in wrinting.
If you read this entire nonsense, thank you. If you read all of this and have actual suggestions, thank you again.