Anyone Here Drive A Fast Car?!?

[Fred]

One of my college buddies/ex co worker/ex roommate has an Elise.

If you're 5' nothing tall like he is, they're awesome. He dailies it and it will never be worth less than he bought it for unless it gets wrecked.

If you're 6'1 like me, its a nightmare figuring out how to fall into and out of one. The roof off helps, but not much.

Very fun to drive though.

I'm hoping to replace my GTI with a Focus RS next year...

[UncleStasiu]

I'm sorry. I have to ask, even though it's none of my business. What do you guys do for a living? Or, more bluntly, think Joe asking Peter on Family Guy, "How can you afford these things?"

The only thing I can contribute to this thread is that I got approval from the wife to buy a 2015 WRX, but my daddy instincts kicked in. She wanted a third row something for future mommy carpooling ambitions. Bought her a 2015 Highlander. I got her 2011 RAV4...at least it's a V6 AWD Sport with the appearance package (no tire on the back, among other things).

Oh, and I did see XMT's car when a buddy and I went there to buy an E-Mag. So the car exists, and after seeing his machine shop, I'm sure he's got lots of homegrown goodies in it.

I'm sure you're a wonderful person, with very different priorities than me, obviously. I'm not riled up at you, just at the question, since I get it often. So here goes.

By ignoring the "responsible" voice, and listening to the one that says "make life fun". My responsibilities go way beyond keeping my kids safe and making raising them easy. I need to make life fun, to teach lessons like fast can be fun, so can slow and bouncy. Getting stuck is ok, as long as you figure out why. Sliding isn't scary, just a thing to deal with, and can actually be fun if there aren't other cars around. The view out the window is better than the one of the DVD player in grandpa's minivan.

My little boy runs around making blow-off valve noises with his Hot Wheels, yells faster in the Skyline, loves waving at people from the "wrong" side of the car, but has zero interest in driving it ever. He always wants to get behind the wheel of the Jeep and go offroading, climb up the gullies and rocks, and splash through the mudpits.

Not sorry for the minor rant. "How can you afford that?" is usually just a thinly veiled "how can you be so irresponsible? You need a minivan or SUV!" in my experience, and I cannot abide that sentiment. I can afford these things because I've owned the car since before I met my wife, because she bought my Jeep as a (cheap) gift from her friend, because she traded her crappy CUV in for her Jeep and made a profit on the transaction, because I paid less for the sandrail than for my Viking.

How can YOU afford to prioritize convenience, comfort, and blandness over fun, skill, and new experiences? In ANY aspect of life? What lessons does that teach?

[blackdeath1k]

I'm sure you're a wonderful person, with very different priorities than me, obviously. I'm not riled up at you, just at the question, since I get it often. So here goes.

By ignoring the "responsible" voice, and listening to the one that says "make life fun". My responsibilities go way beyond keeping my kids safe and making raising them easy. I need to make life fun, to teach lessons like fast can be fun, so can slow and bouncy. Getting stuck is ok, as long as you figure out why. Sliding isn't scary, just a thing to deal with, and can actually be fun if there aren't other cars around. The view out the window is better than the one of the DVD player in grandpa's minivan.

My little boy runs around making blow-off valve noises with his Hot Wheels, yells faster in the Skyline, loves waving at people from the "wrong" side of the car, but has zero interest in driving it ever. He always wants to get behind the wheel of the Jeep and go offroading, climb up the gullies and rocks, and splash through the mudpits.

Not sorry for the minor rant. "How can you afford that?" is usually just a thinly veiled "how can you be so irresponsible? You need a minivan or SUV!" in my experience, and I cannot abide that sentiment. I can afford these things because I've owned the car since before I met my wife, because she bought my Jeep as a (cheap) gift from her friend, because she traded her crappy CUV in for her Jeep and made a profit on the transaction, because I paid less for the sandrail than for my Viking.

How can YOU afford to prioritize convenience, comfort, and blandness over fun, skill, and new experiences? In ANY aspect of life? What lessons does that teach?

Both side of said coin is relevant. Some people are in a position they can barely afford a single mid priced vehicle. In which case the one that does all needs comes first. I grew up with parents that worked hard to make ends meet so that there kids could hopefully have the things they could not. What they would have liked to do for me and what they could afford to do were not the same. Me and the wife have friends that do stuff all the time. They also have debt up to there eyeballs and get concerned at any change for the risk of not making there loan payments. Us on the other hand. All bikes are paid for. And our house may not be flashy but it works and costs little. So if one of us misses a couple days of work it isn't the end of the world. Flip sides to everything.

[nak81783]

You're right. My question deserved such a response. Sorry for my question and for derailing the thread. I'll butt out.

Edit: Or rather, I deserved such a response for my question.

[UncleStasiu]

Both side of said coin is relevant. Some people are in a position they can barely afford a single mid priced vehicle. In which case the one that does all needs comes first. I grew up with parents that worked hard to make ends meet so that there kids could hopefully have the things they could not. What they would have liked to do for me and what they could afford to do were not the same. Me and the wife have friends that do stuff all the time. They also have debt up to there eyeballs and get concerned at any change for the risk of not making there loan payments. Us on the other hand. All bikes are paid for. And our house may not be flashy but it works and costs little. So if one of us misses a couple days of work it isn't the end of the world. Flip sides to everything.

Very true, I had a similar upbringing. (Poor immigrant parents, I was born 2-3 years after they got here. Turns out the streets arent actually paved with gold, but way better than behind the Iron Curtain still) I didn't touch on that side of the argument as any parent who paintballs and is in the market for a new Highlander or WRX isnt scraping the bottom of the barrel. The question generally comes from this financial strata. Friends that are less well off don't ask how and don't see irresponsibility, they just work harder, and do the best they can. They drive what they can until they can drive what they like. And since they're of like mind, their still have "fun" vehicles. Just that they can only afford one cheap one, so it needs to be reliable enough to be a daily driver, and any (few) mods have to do with ingenuity and barter rather than "ooh shiny!" and a credit card.

[maniacmechanic]

Constantly.

I do bad things on the behalf of good people.

That's my real job.

and I Thank You for that , L & L

[blackdeath1k]

Uncle.
Very true. Wife is a polish immagrant. She was 3 when moving here. And yes all points apply. I hear that question a lot too. My general response is. I've worked hard a lot of years to acquire my toys one toy at a time. Anyone else can do the same.

NAK.
All good. When you have a handful of people talking about there apparent high dollar playtoys it does beg the question. "What do you do for a living.". And when looking. Some apparent expensive toys are actually pretty cheap.


Cockerpunk.
I've really thought about a motor swap for my corner Carver. For other uses I do enjoy all the power of my other bikes. But in reality. The added rotatig weight alone makes for a total change with throwing a bike side to side. So my final decision with that bike is that it stays stock. With minimal overhead in it. The 600 is literally my desposible bike.

Fred.
Sorry I missed your Elise comment earlier. Luckelly for me. I'm 5'10" and 160lb. So the overgrown gocarts are not that bad. My sky was about the same.

[cockerpunk]

I'm sure you're a wonderful person, with very different priorities than me, obviously. I'm not riled up at you, just at the question, since I get it often. So here goes.

By ignoring the "responsible" voice, and listening to the one that says "make life fun". My responsibilities go way beyond keeping my kids safe and making raising them easy. I need to make life fun, to teach lessons like fast can be fun, so can slow and bouncy. Getting stuck is ok, as long as you figure out why. Sliding isn't scary, just a thing to deal with, and can actually be fun if there aren't other cars around. The view out the window is better than the one of the DVD player in grandpa's minivan.

My little boy runs around making blow-off valve noises with his Hot Wheels, yells faster in the Skyline, loves waving at people from the "wrong" side of the car, but has zero interest in driving it ever. He always wants to get behind the wheel of the Jeep and go offroading, climb up the gullies and rocks, and splash through the mudpits.

Not sorry for the minor rant. "How can you afford that?" is usually just a thinly veiled "how can you be so irresponsible? You need a minivan or SUV!" in my experience, and I cannot abide that sentiment. I can afford these things because I've owned the car since before I met my wife, because she bought my Jeep as a (cheap) gift from her friend, because she traded her crappy CUV in for her Jeep and made a profit on the transaction, because I paid less for the sandrail than for my Viking.

How can YOU afford to prioritize convenience, comfort, and blandness over fun, skill, and new experiences? In ANY aspect of life? What lessons does that teach?

wow, well said. im not a father, but your point is excellent.

another point i'd add to this is that in the modern era, we worship "practicality" to an impractical level. everyone, all the time, must have a car that can take 5 people, have at least 4 doors, and carry camping gear, 300+ miles, in comfort, in 16 inches of snow, and if you don't ... why did you bother buying it at all?

when i first got into cars, i bought a GTI (mk6), excellent little car. but after a year of owning it, realized that i had to go out of my way, to use its hatchback form factor. i had to go out of my way, to carry more than one other person, or carry enough stuff to fill more than a small trunk etc etc, and that it was simply silly to pay so much money, for something that i used literally less than 5 times a year. in fact, i don't own a car with a real back seat anymore, have not in 3 years, and never had an issue.

we think we need far more than we need, until we have created such a demand for a device, because we expect 1 car to literally accommodate without hassle, everything we plan to do for the next 2-8 years. thats insane. its perfectly ok to take two trips to home depot to pick up paving stones. saving me that hour or so round trip ... isn't worth buying a bigger car. making it 3 or 4 trips, still doesn't convince me.

im not saying two door sports cars are for everyone, but we all could, scale it back. like a lot.

and, if you want to be clever, we can do far more, with far less, and have more fun because of it. yeah people look at you funny when you are dumping bags of leaves out of your miata at the city dump. yeah, it can be fun to try and figure out how to fit a bookcase in the back of your porsche ... but you can do it.

we simply do not need as much "practicality" as we think we do.



thats a bookcase AND a nightstand in the back of my 944.

[blackdeath1k]

⬆⬆⬆⬆. I love it. That's so what I would do. And actually do haul all sorts of things on the bikes. A 4'x8' piece of closed cell foam rolled up down the interstate may be my best.

As far as practicality.. Practicality is in the indevidule. My wife loves her 4 door little civic. Me. I prefer small 2 seat cars. I drive my s10 though because I have need for the bed. And not theoretical need. It has stuff in it off and on weekly. Could I use a trailer. Probably. But I really hate that even more. So a small truck it is. It will take some major life changes for us to consider anything bigger than her civic though. It will hold 4 normal sized people fine. Gets almost 40mpg consistant. 45 at times. And she enjoys it. Together if we ever have a need for a vehicle bigger than her civic. We can rent one.

Here is my little playtoy. I sold it only to buy a house. Before we got married. And when I had it. It was my daily driver.

[cougar20th]

Cars, Got several.
The current fastest since I sold my supercharged MonteCarlo SS is now my 1989 Tbird Supercoupe.

Others are
1964 F100
1969 Mustang Mach 1
1987 Mercury Cougar
1988 Iroc Camaro Convertible
2001 CrownVic

[cockerpunk]

to expound on my philosophy when it comes to cars, it was this video that changed my life. i watched this video ~5 years ago, and decided, it was stupid to keep modifying my car to make it go faster. instead, a far better investment, is learning to drive the car better. the cheapest, most economical, way to get a faster car, is improving your driving. im not say modding cars is dumb and insane HP builds are silly, almost every car i have is modified quite highly, im simply saying, that driving is more important than modding EVERY time. and rather than being a sunk cost, one you can never get back, being a better driver travels with you from car to car, through your lifetime.

its no secret how to build fast cars. it really just takes money. wrenching is one thing, but you can pay for wrenching too. when the rubber meets the road though, its the driving that determines how quick your car is.

without further ado, the insane 470hp narrowbody 911, on 80s tires ... driven to the limit:

i love watching his inputs ... dat wheel control ....

[flampaint]

I am far from owning one, but if money were no object I would pick one of these beauties any day over any car out there. (I've been lucky enough to be able to whip other people's 458s and Berlinettas around a racetrack without regard for wear and tear, so I've had my share of racing and driving experience)
Convenience? Usability? pah! Nonsense... this is about having fun driving

[cockerpunk]

more slow cars driven fast:

winter miata is best miata:

[FlawleZ]

Well its not 1000HP Corvette or Cadillac like some others here. But, it was built AND tuned 100% by me. ;-D S

Just an old 80's 300ZX making 545 RWHP 540 TQ.

[Automag Ranger]

Well its not 1000HP Corvette or Cadillac like some others here. But, it was built AND tuned 100% by me. ;-D S

Just an old 80's 300ZX making 545 RWHP 540 TQ.

That's awesome. Very impressive little car that probably hurt a lot of feelings. I'd certainly enjoy looking at pics of this over a Miata any day.