Automotive Myths, Lore, and other incorrectness

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

gamby wrote: I'm sure a lot of people know someone who knew someone who, back in the 80's, had a car bought back from them because it had some "experimental" 50 mpg carbureter on it that accidentally made its way out of the factory. also-- Back in the height of the Honda craze, I couldn't even count how many times I heard someone (at a quick lube/auto parts store/etc...) say about my 99 Civic Si "yo, my cousin/boy/brother has one of those and he got this chip that gave it an extra 30hp, y0!!! I'd just usually let it go--sometimes I'd say "gee, that's really odd, since a header only adds 4 or 5 hp". The EM1 Si is very well-tuned from the factory. Unless you're doing big cams and high comp pistons, expect nothing outside of 10-12hp peak. My "chip" was in an OBD1 conversion ecu that would allow the car to simply run after camgear and fuel tuning. The stock ECU doesn't tolerate it. The unwashed masses are fascinated by the concept of this mythical, omnipotent "CHIP" that will add untold power to any car it graces.

That said, the butt-dyno was very improved when you did your basic breathing mods and farted around in Crome or Neptune for awhile. Doubt peak power was much affected, though. To this day i think the vtec engagement was too high on those cars.

Sonic and I did many a dyno pull to figure it all out (with cam gears, timing and V-AFC tuning). Flattened out the torque curve massively, got rid of the VTEC dip (lowered crossover from 5800 to 5300 IIRC), got a nice gain in the fattest part of the powerband.

The car felt faster on the butt dyno after that--for a little while. Then I got used to it.

Way more work than just installing a "chip".

My favorite story, told to me by my street racer co-worker.

night vision drug mule, Even on Snopes!

Curmudgeon wrote: Motorcycles: 'the Vincent Black Shadow was the fastest bike ever produced.' Nope, 'fraid not. It was the fastest production bike of its time (125 MPH) for about 5 years. 'The Vincent Black Shadow was so fast it was banned from the US.' Nope, never was. There were only 1700 produced and not many of them crossed the pond, but it was never banned from US sale.

Are you into Vincents? My buddies father-in-law is hardcore into Vincents, quite possibly has the only running one in Alberta. He loves to talk about them, in case you are also a lonely Vincent owner...

Joe Gearin wrote: Just because your speedometer numbers go up to 150mph, this does not mean your car will do 150mph, or 120, or 85, or whatever dummy......

The two most hilarious factory speedos come on the Samurai and the C4.

The Samurai's speedo, depending on which model you have, goes up to 140-200kph while the vehicle struggles to break 100kph.

The C4's speedo only goes up to 85mph.

Isn't everyone into Vincents? post some pix!

My avatar is the Rollie Free Vincent:

During test runs Free reached average speeds of 148.6 mph (239.1 km/h). To reduce drag, Free stripped to his swimming shorts for the final run, which he made lying flat with his legs stretched out and his head low, guiding the Vincent by following a black stripe painted on the salt bed. The stunt worked as Free covered the mile in 23.9 seconds, passing the 150 mph (240 km/h) barrier and on the return run he reached a record average speed of 150.313 mph (241.905 km/h).[4] This led to one of the most famous photographs in motorcycle history, known as the "bathing suit bike".

Here's a Vincent Comet (500 cc) engine (not Black Shadow) in a Norton Featherbed frame. I saw it last weekend at the New Hampshire Vintage (a vintage race event with old bikes, sidecars and also old cars). The owner also has a Velocette. One of the Formula Junior owners I race with has a Vincent Rapide.

HiTempguy wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote: Motorcycles: 'the Vincent Black Shadow was the fastest bike ever produced.' Nope, 'fraid not. It was the fastest production bike of its time (125 MPH) for about 5 years. 'The Vincent Black Shadow was so fast it was banned from the US.' Nope, never was. There were only 1700 produced and not many of them crossed the pond, but it was never banned from US sale.

Are you into Vincents? My buddies father-in-law is hardcore into Vincents, quite possibly has the only running one in Alberta. He loves to talk about them, in case you are also a lonely Vincent owner...

I would SO love to have one. Unfortunately, my XS650 tracker is about as far as my motorcycle dollar will stretch right now.

Joe, that pic of the bathing suit Vincent shows how much things have changed at Bonneville.

In reply to aeronca65t:

That is a beautiful thing, though I find myself wondering whether it's mid-oil-change or whether that's just that standard parking configuration for an old British bike, with the two oil pans...

Knurled wrote:

mmosbey wrote: Oil changes: three months or three thousand miles.

You know those horrible sludging problems that lots of cars have? I haven't seen any. Ayup, waste of money it is. (Ever see a 250k 1.8t that is perfectly clean under the cam cover? ) I don't think either of my cars make it to 2k before it's time for an oil change. One turns the oil to a vile, spiteful sludge, the other dumps fuel into it at an alarming rate...

I know a guy that changes the oil and filter in all his cars on the 3 month or 3k mile schedule.....with full synthetic. For the money he has spent in oil and filters he could afford to replace and engine or three.

I think I've heard this a few times....anyone else?

Upon rebuilding an engine, the break-in procedure varies with how you are going to use said engine.

Be gentle if you're going to drive it gently all the time, but if you're going to abuse it, run it hard from the start.

I've spoken to 4 or 5 people who used to own civics/crx that their cousin/brother/friend/themselves put a twin turbo kit on. I usually end the conversation at that point.

And being in the land of pickup trucks everyone thinks their truck is fast, especially diesels. I recently read a test of the new diesels from gm, ford, and dodge and the fastest one ran mid 17s in the 1/4 mile. Not exactly what I consider fast.

Even better are the claims of beating a Porsche/corvette etc while towing a trailer. Yep I really believe your stock truck with a chip and exhaust runs at least low 13s with a trailer...

Strizzo wrote: i overheard a guy talking about "those SVO mustangs" that had a engine "designed for Ford by BMW and were supercharged" when i was working at AZ.

What, you didn't know the Ford 2.3 was designed by BMW? I always call it the Pinto/BMW 2.3.

A VW specific myth:

"VW Corrado G60 cars are garbage because the G-lader will "grenade" without warning."

I have heard this from so many stupid ass VW kiddies. The only probably with this myth is that there is a maintenance schedule that the kids that create these "catastrophic failure" stories seem to leave out. Typically when one of these dumb-berkeleys get their hands on a Corrado G60 for $1500 or so with 200K miles, the first thing they do is throw a smaller pulley on the G-lader with no regard to the health of the charger itself. Most don't even bother checking the damn charger timing belt, which if snapped can cause the "grenading" failure.

There are things to bash about the Corrado G60, one being that the charger requires maintenance over a relatively short amount time. But the overall nightmare of the car that they never bring up is the wiring disaster throughout the entire car. I swear they zombi-fied Joseph Lucas himself to comeback and design the cat abortion some would call electronics in the Corrado.

Hybrids are good for the environment.

I have a fifty mile highway commute, therefore a hybrid is the best choice.

Joe Gearin wrote: My avatar is the Rollie Free Vincent: During test runs Free reached average speeds of 148.6 mph (239.1 km/h). To reduce drag, Free stripped to his swimming shorts for the final run, which he made lying flat with his legs stretched out and his head low, guiding the Vincent by following a black stripe painted on the salt bed. The stunt worked as Free covered the mile in 23.9 seconds, passing the 150 mph (240 km/h) barrier and on the return run he reached a record average speed of 150.313 mph (241.905 km/h).[4] This led to one of the most famous photographs in motorcycle history, known as the "bathing suit bike".

I saw that pic on Cafe Racer last week. I never knew the story behind it before then.

All I thought was--if he ever went down like that, he'd have no skin left. That was a truly insane "stunt".

GameboyRMH wrote: The two most hilarious factory speedos come on the Samurai and the C4. The C4's speedo only goes up to 85mph.

Not only that, but in the first C4s, if you pegged the speedo AND redlined it, the digital dash would have a seizure and just go solid green, leaving you flying instrument-blind and over revving.

gamby wrote: All I thought was--if he ever went down like that, he'd have no skin left. That was a truly insane "stunt".

Oh man... can you imagine how "salt rash" would burn?

B430 wrote: I've spoken to 4 or 5 people who used to own civics/crx that their cousin/brother/friend/themselves put a twin turbo kit on. I usually end the conversation at that point. And being in the land of pickup trucks everyone thinks their truck is fast, especially diesels. I recently read a test of the new diesels from gm, ford, and dodge and the fastest one ran mid 17s in the 1/4 mile. Not exactly what I consider fast. Even better are the claims of beating a Porsche/corvette etc while towing a trailer. Yep I really believe your stock truck with a chip and exhaust runs at least low 13s with a trailer...

I got blown away by a truck one time....I was in my 911 and we were doing over 100. That was one fast truck! He did not have a trailer thank goodness...it was bad enough as it was.

neon4891 wrote: My favorite story, told to me by my street racer co-worker. night vision drug mule, Even on Snopes!

Back in the mid 80's, there was an article in a Mustang mag about a '67 Shelby GT 500 that was set up for Cannonball type racing. 60 gallon fuel tank, liquid filled sprayers (oil) at the rear, 5 speed, hopped up 428, gauges, stealth material, radar detectors etc.. The owner was on a shake down with night vision goggles. Cool car, and for the time...futuristic bad assery.

In reply to Cotton:

Not going to argue that their aren't fast diesels out there, but just like 8 second street cars they are pretty rare and have a lot of work and money in them by people with a pretty uncommon skill level.

JFX001 wrote:

neon4891 wrote: My favorite story, told to me by my street racer co-worker. night vision drug mule, Even on Snopes!

Back in the mid 80's, there was an article in a Mustang mag about a '67 Shelby GT 500 that was set up for Cannonball type racing. 60 gallon fuel tank, liquid filled sprayers (oil) at the rear, 5 speed, hopped up 428, gauges, stealth material, radar detectors etc.. The owner was on a shake down with night vision goggles. Cool car, and for the time...futuristic bad assery.

Oh come on, RAM coatings were pure skunkworks in the mid 80s, not something you'd find on a car.

mmosbey wrote: I have a fifty mile highway commute, therefore a hybrid is the best choice.

Not environmentally speaking it isn't.

"So, do you know of any good body shops in town? The Range Rover took a bit of damage."

"Sure - I can't believe you damaged the Rangie! What happened?"

"Night vision goggles don't give good depth perception when you're offroad."

Sounds like an urban legend - but that was an actual conversation between myself and Bill Burke. Bill was apparently training some sort of special ops team on the Moab trails at night, complete with black helicopters. From anyone else, I wouldn't believe it. But Bill? Yup.

The Rangie in question. It's been doing this its whole life...