hacker-pschorr

Hey now - I've won 3 autocrosses with my stock 115hp 2000 beetle - in my class were Corrado's, GTI's and the non STI WRX's and a few other cars. The stock beetle was given the sport suspension standard (no other VW except the GTI has this) and the same brake's as the GTI. Off the line it is a bit pokey (ok, slow as sh*t) but the chassis and suspension are awesome!

Practical? Granted it's no Volvo wagon but it can swallow more gear than my 928 with the back seat removed - and has heated seats that will set your *** on fire (no joke, some were recalled)

You do have to be a VERY secure with your sexuality being a 27 year old man driving around a Silver beetle. Go drive a 180hp Turbo S Beetle - you will be suprised. I went to the VW dealer to buy a GTI, had problems getting the color I wanted, drove the Beetle, I was sold in about 10 seconds.

I know this is OT, but the thread is about a Mustang so I figured anything goes

Old & New

It'll hang with a lot of cars, but not a forced injection 928 for under $25K. Agreed on the rest of that.

Old & New

But Hacker

You're only 20.

onewhippedpuppy

I'm suprised by your drive, every car magazine I've read gave the new Mustang a glowing review. Maybe it's just a matter of different strokes for different folks, or maybe it's just SOOO much better than the previous model. Still, to go fast for cheap in a new car, the new GT seems tough to beat. Skidpad numbers, etc were all good too, and I think it was Car and Driver that commented on the accuracy on the steering. Our local dealership has a 5 speed GT, I've been meaning to go give it a try for $hits and giggles. Looks wise, it's growing on me, but I still think that car companies should be going forward with their designs, not backwards with retro. Anyway, one things for sure, no matter how good it is, no Ford will ever be a Porsche.

Nicole

You know, the way you spelled this, in German that would mean "go, fu@%er"... Probably not exactly what you were trying to communicate.

Kind of like that Swedish furniture company that named a childrens' bed "Gutvik", which, pronounded in German, means a good... well, you know what.

Be careful out there when molesting language - even if it's your own!

ViribusUnits

Soild rear axles: The current mustang buyers are the old mustange buyers. They like to do loughts of drag raceing. A live rear axle holds the wheels EXACTLY right for a drag racer. In other words exactly parrel to the ground no matter how much you load up the rear suspension.

The goal of independent rear suspension in a car like the 928 is to keep the outside wheel parral to the ground when you go around a conor. So what they do is that when you load up the outside suspension, and the car tilts just a touch, the wheel tilts inward to offset the tilting of the frame. The problem is that when you load up the rear suspension when you accelerate, both of the rear wheels tilt inward, and are no longer parral to the ground. Clearly you can't do this with a solid axle, so you have to use independent, double wishbone systems.

The other advantage to independent suspension is that you can mount the transmittion on the final drive unit, w/o haveing to make the transmittion part of the unsprung weight. This would allow you better weight distribution, and keep the unsprung weight down, allowing the wheels to follow bumps in the roadway better, meaning better traction over bumps.

You can set up your car to go around a curve fast, or go straight fast. But without some sort of computer controled system, you can't set it up to do both fast. Clearly for a car like the 928 thats designed to hit curves fast, you want the independent system. But for a drag racer on nice flat peices of cement, there is no benifit for an independent system. Result, the Mustang, and it's drag raceing fans, get a live rear axle with leaf springs. It's cheaper, and it's pretty much optimum for what they want.

JKelly

Doesn't one of The Big Three sell some sort of insert device that makes the independent rear suspension on a 928 not so independent....or am I thinking of something else?

mpesik

Are you talking about'pinning the Weissach axles?

ViribusUnits

Yes they do.

You'll have to ask them, but my understanding that that only effects the toe of the wheel. Also, my understanding is that it reduces it, but doesn't remove it. ie, retunes the suspension for higher hps so it's not so flexable and thus isn't forced out of alignment by the higher hps.

The camber around a turn is changed by the spring rates, and the lengths of two parts of the suspension. I'm fairly sure that their product doesn't change these.

Camber is what the independent systems are FAR better at optomizeing for turns over solid systems.

Parnelli Joneser

puppy,
I was surprised by my lack of enthusiasm for the car too. I subscribe to Car and Driver and have read the reviews and had great expectations of what the car would be. Add in my predisposition for Fords and I should have been claiming it a home run for the blue oval boys...I guess this 928 thing has changed my perspective more than I realized. I'm coming up on one year of 928 ownership. That's another thread...
My comparision car is a $3000 salvage recovery that's been rode hard and put away wet . I still would rather have it than the 'Stang. Like someone else has already said, imagine what kind of 928 could be had for $30,000. Or half that... which goes to further my original thought- the new Mustang is no 928.

Nicole

You know, as sad as it is, the US car magazines are very shallow advertising rags, and probably not nearly as independent as we'd like them to be.

Way too many "Editors Columns" versus real product tests, feature articles, and the like.

I have long given up on those, and continue to "import" my information just as the cars I drive are imported. Do a search on my rant about Excellence Magazine versus Auto Motor und Sport, and you'll see what a good magazine could and should offer.

Then consider this: American cars are mainly built for the US. Their international market share is no more than a rounding error. So, as long as they "wow" the very publications that predominantly live from their advertising, they will get good reviews. If those publications have low standards, people believe that the cars are great, when in reality they lack against 20 year old imports.

Have you ever noticed how rarely US cars are directly compared to European or other Imprt cars? It does happen occasionally, but the tests are so shallow that few of the advantages of Import cars are actually exposed. So, Imports are called "luxury" - not "functioning", "long lasting", "no corners cut", or simply "no-crap"...

Everything is relative, and as long as somebody has or only knows low standards, he will not be able to see the difference between the basic and the better stuff. If you don't know what to look for, you are less likely to see it.

Anybody believe the US Media always tells us the whole story? I'm not one of them...

Parnelli Joneser

You're preaching to the choir, Nicole. I've come to realize that comparison of "there" to anything US is a sure fire way to get a migraine, regardless of one's perspective.

hacker-pschorr

Don't tell the bartender that......

special tool

Best friend's brother in law has a new Mustang - VERY bad. But you know, you have to say, yes, its nice
I think he only wanted me to drive it because he has been in my 405 rwhp, 2700 pound, escort suspensioned 951, and he wanted a nutjob's opinion.
I think that the new na mustangs are a nice, safe secretary's car.

Chuck Schreiber

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chuck Schreiber
,,, Go figger.

You know, the way you spelled this, in German that would mean "go, fu@%er"... Probably not exactly what you were trying to communicate.

Kind of like that Swedish furniture company that named a childrens' bed "Gutvik", which, pronounded in German, means a good... well, you know what.

Be careful out there when molesting language - even if it's your own!


Nicole,

Just my 2 cents worth of Trailer Park trash talk, intentionally. I will work hard not to molest the English language especially if it's my own!
I will work on my Figger to figure and my Bug 3 to Big 3, and next time I see someone at a stopight I will roll down the Window and ask them for some Gray Poupon!!!!