The cars and bikes thread!

[tribe125]

Mike Hailwood, there’s a name from the past. Competed in F1 as well as racing motorbikes. He stopped during an F1 race to try and get Clay Regazzoni out of a burning car. He caught fire himself, was put out by a track marshall, and then went back to Regazzoni again.

[geoffbot]

If you like cars or racing at all this video is highly, highly recommended. Genuine drama and near nail biting excitement for novice racers https://youtube.com/watch?v=3_vQebs8S-U&feature=share7

Gears and gasoline is newish to me but fast becoming my favourite car youtube channel.

[Raza]

So, I was thinking…are there any cars you missed out on and wish you hadn’t? I don’t mean as investments, or anything silly like that, because cars are a bigger losing game than watches and if you had a time machine you’d be better off just buying Apple stock. But I mean maybe it was something you liked, but at the time (maybe budget, maybe other circumstances) you couldn’t fit it into your life. Or maybe it’s something you couldn’t afford then, but can afford now, but it’s impractical to own for some other reason.

I’ll start, maybe this will make more sense. The Mazda RX-8. Not a traditionally beautiful car, but from some angles it was properly handsome. And the backseat was roomy enough to fit my 6’1” friend for a 20 minute drive and he was just fine. It didn’t have the most horsepower—initial reports were something around 250bhp, but I think that’s when the measuring standards changed over to SAE Net and it lost a few for an official rating of 238 when the 350Z had something around 280. It was lighter, though, and as I mentioned, more practical, but that rotary wasn’t to everyone’s taste. It was just so beautifully balanced and fun to drive that it just didn’t really need much more power or a more conventional engine, but ultimately, I just couldn’t find a way to fit one into my life.

And now, you can get one for a song—I’ve seen decent condition manual models going for $5,000, sometimes less. But the rotary engine continues to be a concern, especially because not that many people work on it, there are so many horror stories, it’s hard to separate myth from legend (like cold starts, for example), and nowadays, as a daily driver, it’s missing out on lots of modern tech that aren’t strictly necessary, but are nice to have, like backup cameras or phone integration/CarPlay. And, as a second car, it would fall short of the thrills of driving a proper sports car.

[tribe125]

Back in my twenties, I drove cars until they broke and then bought whatever happened to be available to replace them - sometimes on the same day. I was driving a Mini that mashed its gearbox, and the village mechanic drove out and towed me back to his garage. He pronounced the Mini dead, without a rebuild that wasn’t worth the expense. He had a couple of cars for sale, including a white Citroen DS. He said it was beautiful, with a ride like nothing else, but they were a bugger to fix if the air suspension went south. The car was incredible, and I had the money, but it was a slightly scary prospect. Instead, I bought the car the mechanic was then using himself. I could have gone from driving a Mini in the morning to a DS in the afternoon, but went home in a Vauxhall Viva…

[Raza]

Back in my twenties, I drove cars until they broke and then bought whatever happened to be available to replace them - sometimes on the same day. I was driving a Mini that mashed its gearbox, and the village mechanic drove out and towed me back to his garage. He pronounced the Mini dead, without a rebuild that wasn’t worth the expense. He had a couple of cars for sale, including a white Citroen DS. He said it was beautiful, with a ride like nothing else, but they were a bugger to fix if the air suspension went south. The car was incredible, and I had the money, but it was a slightly scary prospect. Instead, I bought the car the mechanic was then using himself. I could have gone from driving a Mini in the morning to a DS in the afternoon, but went home in a Vauxhall Viva…

I’ve never been in a Citroen DS, but Citroens of that era are legendary for their ride quality…and their complicated suspensions. Like you, I don’t think I would have been brave enough to risk it.

Pretty car though, it would be tempting.

[geoffbot]

Cars I missed out on? Hot hatches. I mean I could buy one now, but I'm used to more power I guess so I wouldn't appreciate them.

[geoffbot]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5awrSW8WcNI&feature=share7

£150-200k?

You must be mad.

[geoffbot]

Koenigsegg is an absolutely heroic designer. This car is another level to anything I've seen before.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nbDLHkMMvFc&feature=share7

[pacifico66]

Back in my early 20's i was broke and a friend sold me a rabbit diesel 4 door for $500 it was a godsend at the time proved to be insanely reliable and very easy to work on i sold it on for the same $500 to another friend in the subsequent years i looked fairly hard for the pickup version but they had either succumbed to rust or people just wouldent let go of them

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[Raza]

Cars I missed out on? Hot hatches. I mean I could buy one now, but I'm used to more power I guess so I wouldn't appreciate them.

Power is a lie, Geoffrey.