Hobo Jungle

[sarge]

Standing beside the road broke down, stressed out, and wondering what to do is definitely not boring.

My chances are real good I won't be wondering what to do, and can get it to go again. When I can't make a car go, it's because of the dam electronic engine management or the death of something mysterious called a "module".

My 95 Honda Del Sol Vtec with its 8200 redline is defiantly fun and lots of it. Extremely free revving, eager to rev, you often don't shift when you would in another car, just rev a little more when there is a stop ahead. I'm old and my friend lives in the past, he thinks high school was yesterday.

Exactly my point. How boringly like everything else on the road is that. Anyone can do it. I bet the mileage is exiting, too.

Not for me thanks. I'll walk.

[AFTP375]

Yep.I never had a BB gun because I might "shoot your [my] eye out".

Somewhere along the line, early 60's probably, my parents gave me a Daisy Pump-Action BB rifle as an x-mas gift, along with a home built plywood "target" box (wood sides, cloth back, rubber band clips to hold the paper targets, a layer of sand to collect the BBs for reuse). Honestly, a cool thing, although I think I didn't really understand/appreciate what my dad was trying to do (if only we could redo our lives).
In any event, I was in my bedroom one hot summer afternoon, bored out of whatever mind I might have had; took up the rifle and shot a BB into the bedroom. Apparently, the BB bounced off the headboard of my bed, and "whack" right into that point where the eye lids meet the nose structure (tear duct?) of my left eye.
Your parents might have had the right idea.

[Mitch]

Muscle cars? Not in my blood I'm afraid. I prefer a car where both ends go around the same corner very quickly at the same time without requiring me to look out the rear window to see where I'm going. My neck doesn't rotate that far, I'm afraid.

Enter the 2013 Dodge Challenger SRT8. 392 cubic inches of pure Hemi. 470HP, 470 #ft of torque. (Not Brake horsepower), but net HP measured at the rear wheels. Snap your neck solid acceleration, incredible cornering, and just plain damned good looks. Could be you, Sarge!

[sarge]

Mitch, mate

I don't know about that

That $45K would open up a lot of options...

Are they doing it for 2014, or just putting a muscle-car skin and a blower on a Fiat Panda?

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Those cars are not my style. I prefer American Muscle cars.

Hi Berk, Co-incidental to this conversation here, yesterday, while driving north along Rt.11 in Upstate NY, one of these MGs was tooling right ahead of me for quite a while, during the afternoon. (I was reminded of the photos and talk here.) Its license plate said,"MG A 62". The top was down, and the driver seemd approx. in his 20's, with a great shock of black curly hair a-blowin' in the wind, as carefree and content as a man could be, it seemed.

Since I was perched a tad higher than he, right behind him, in my Mercedes Benz M350, he seemed - only to me, I am sure - like he was driving a sidecar, without the accompanng motorcycle, he was seated so low and seemingly not attached to any significant motor. He seemed to have total control over his immaculate beauty becaue I never discerned him shifting gears whatsoever as we progressed, alternately slowly and then quickly, along the roadway, for quite a ways.

Having driven an MG B during a time I was in college, using it to go between campus, in Ohio, and home, in Pittsburgh, I enjoyed the car very much but sure wasn't even a novice at the shifting procedure required. Yet, my 93 yr old maternal grandmother enjoyed my picking her up in it to take her for several Springtime picnics of red wine, Genoa Salami, provolone, Italian bread, and black olives, on the grounds of the Heinz Chapel in Oakland, PA. She always said those excursions were among her best times ever. They were among my best too, though I was only in my very early 20's. Grandmother was the best, and the car did its best to make those top-down breezy days perfect.

Otherwise, in later years, personally, I have often had big dark sedans (and one '84 Trans Am w/ a "T" roof!!!)

Of course, American "muscle cars" are the greatest, too, IMHO. I sure would never turn one down! However, my favorite car of all time - the one I would try to buy if I ever hit a lottery - would be a 1962 Lincoln Continental 4-door convertible, in midnight-blue, inside and outside. The restrained lines are perfection, in my book. Hands down. Top down.
Murph

[rogruth]

Murph,

The Lincoln,yeah!!!!!

[sarge]

No! No! Noooooooo!

That's a living room with wheels, not an automobile!

What's that, 0-60mph in 8/10ths of a fortnight?

Help meeeeeeeee!

(Just so you know, all offered with a smile and in good fun)

[MurphOnMillerAve]

No! No! Noooooooo!

That's a living room with wheels, not an automobile!

What's that, 0-60mph in 8/10ths of a fortnight?

Help meeeeeeeee!

(Just so you know, all offered with a smile and in good fun)

I know that, Sarge, of course I do. You're a good guy and fun to play with. If we lived closer, you'd be invited to our home frequently.
Be well.
(And you're right to call that car a living room, even though I'd have thought of it more as a small drawing/sitting-room for intmate gatherings.This comes from a guy who used to give small parties in and from his '79 Cadillac Seville, incl. one at Rockefeller Center on New Years' Eve, in 1979, which included handing a mounted NYC police officer a flute of champagne thru the moonroof, which he accepted; then, directed us to move along and make our way farther down 5th Ave.)
(I made the most of my youth and its cars. Yes, sir!)
Murph

[webenda]

No! No! Noooooooo!

That's a living room with wheels, not an automobile!

What's that, 0-60mph in 8/10ths of a fortnight?

Help meeeeeeeee!

(Just so you know, all offered with a smile and in good fun)

1962 Lincoln Continental
430 cid V8 engine
Bore and Stroke: 4.29 x 3.70 inches
Compression Ratio: 10.00:1
Brake Horsepower: 300 @ 4100 rpm
Torque: 465 lb.-ft. @ 2000 rpm
Length: 213.0 inches
Weight: 5,213 lbs (convertible)
Top speed (calculated): 143 mph
Actual top speed: 110 mph (NOTE--Brakes don't work at 110 mph, you have to let air friction slow the vehicle down.)
0-60: 10.5 seconds. (That can be improved on with wider tires, but then the second gear clutches burn up.)
Fuel mileage: 11 mpg (in the city, in the country, air conditioner on, air conditioner off, up hill, down hill, 11 mpg)

You could install book shelves, a bar and model railroad in the back seat.

http://youtu.be/6ZtJqji-q8s

[rogruth]

I like that train in back idea.

Didn't hi-rail Jon have a train in the cab of a pick-up truck at one time?

[healey36]

You could definitely fit a layout in the back of this bad-boy:




Healey

[HONDO74]

http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dea ... 74064.html

[MurphOnMillerAve]

...1962 Lincoln Continental
430 cid V8 engine
...Length: 213.0 inches
Weight: 5,213 lbs (convertible)
Top speed (calculated): 143 mph
Actual top speed: 110 mph ...Fuel mileage: 11 mpg (in the city, in the country, air conditioner on, air conditioner off, up hill, down hill, 11 mpg)

You could install book shelves, a bar and model railroad in the back seat.http://youtu.be/6ZtJqji-q8s

See? ! Wonderful. (Sometims, one must suffer to be or to have beauty.) Then, there is the limo - like President Kennedy's beauty. Magnificent.

I'd forego the train layout, though; wouldn't want anything obstructing or damaging those pleated-and-rolled type fine leather seats.

I've kept the legend in my heart that those cars were nearly hand-made, almost to Rolls Royce standards.

P.S. The only time in my life I got angry w/my mother was when we went to buy one - white outside and red leather interior, when I was sixteen. (I can still see it sitting brand-new in the dealer's lot, gleaming in the sunlight,) and I had her just about ready to sign the deal when she started figuring in earnest what itwas going to cost her in college tuition for me, plus other expenses, so she dropped the Continental idea and bought...........wait for it.....here itcomes...........hold onto your butts..........she bought a Falcon. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeegods, the shame. Do you know that part of activating the heater in that Falcon (I say it like I am cursing) you had to bend over, toward the dashboard, and hand-open a little trap door that let the heat rush into the passenger compatment! Oivey. When she closed that deal, she told me to get the Continental for myself when I graduated from college. She sure knew how to handle me (and that damn Falcon.)

P.P.S. I never did get the car but did graduate, and I guess that has made all the difference. Yup.

[sarge]

Murph, mate

OK, you and Roger have the chance to live the rolling parlour dream beyond a mere Lincoln. All the space and comfort with even more chick-magnetism.



First one who sends a flatbed with an acceptable Spridget, Spit, or other Brit car acceptable to me that also has a pre-negotiated amount of cash in the boot (varies with what you send me) and I'll load this up back to you.

So, who will be first on their block?

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Let me see how well the upcoming TCA Meet at York goes first; that being in nine days. If you don't hear from me soon afterwards, assume I'm still looking for that Lincoln Continental 4-door convertible.
But thanx for the suggestion - it sure looks nice standin' there all proper n' all, and very, very sober lookin' , too. Yup.
Murph