1990 – The Unmuffled Auto News

September 19, 2015 zoomvroom Car Culture, Random

The Best Supercars of the 1990s!

The 1990s was the time when performance cars really started to get that oomph back. The supercars of that era still have jaw-dropping performance, and their designs are some of the most beautiful to ever howl and thunder their way down our roads.

They had no environmental restrictions, and they were the pure intent of the designer and engineers. These are the ones I view as the best.

1993 Bugatti EB110 Super Sport: The predecessor to the legendary Bugatti Veyron, the EB110 Super Sport was capable of 216 mph, which is still a blistering speed. Yet, it had a comfortable and luxurious interior. Oh, and it had a quad-turbo V12.
1998 Dodge Viper: Dodge’s Viper was a formidable car to begin with. However, it didn’t really compete with any of the European supercars. That changed pretty quickly when Dodge shoehorned a massive 8.0-liter V10 under the hood. It made 450 horsepower and topped out at 180 mph. It wasn’t as fast as the EB110 Super Sport, but it was much faster on a race track or winding road.
1995 Ferrari F50: The F50 was slower than the legendary F40. It was the successor to the F40 and the predecessor to the Enzo. However, it was still incredibly fast and rare, with only 349 built.
1990 Jaguar XJR-15: This was the world’s first completely carbon-fiber car. Jaguar only built 53 examples of this car. It had a 450 horsepower V12.
1992 Jaguar XJ220: This Jaguar was one wild child. It had a 540 horsepower twin-turbo V6. It was the fastest car in the world in 1992, topping out at 212 mph. The McLaren F1 beat it in 1993.
1993 Lamborghini Diablo VT: The Diablo VT could reach speeds over 200 mph. It was the first AWD halo Lamborghini. It’s also a car that many people have as their screen savers!
1996 Lotus Esprit V8: The Esprit V8 was in that weird space between high-end sports car and supercar. It had a twin-turbo V8 that made 350 horsepower. It put the power to the ground via a five-speed manual. It was also the first all-aluminum Lotus design. Oh, and you can look like James Bond (providing the car runs)!
1999 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR: This was more race car than street car. It made 604 horsepower out of a V12. Does it look expensive to you? It should. The Guinness Book of World Records pegged it as the most expensive car in the world in 1999, at a cool $1,547,620.
1993 McLaren F1: The world’s only three seat supercar, the McLaren F1. It made 627 horsepower out of a BMW V12. It was the fastest car in the world from 1993-2005. It’s top speed is a crazy 240.1 mph. The car that beat it was the Bugatti Veyron, which just so happened to beat it’s own record a few years ago.
1997 Porsche 911 GT1 Strassenversion: “Strassenversion” means “street version” in German. This Porsche made 537 horsepower from a 3.2-liter twin turbo flat six cylinder engine. There are about 25 that exist worldwide. Do the math. You’ll likely never see one. You’ve also probably never heard of it.

Well, those are what I think are the best supercars of the 1990s. Tell me what you think!

I’m having technical difficulties with WordPress and photos. I will resolve the problem as soon as I can, but you are going to be without pictures until then.

July 8, 2015 zoomvroom Car Culture, New car info, Random, The auto dictionary. Look it up here!, The History of Autos

How the Lamborghini V12 Has Evolved Over the Years

Lamborghini is perhaps best known for it’s screaming V12-powered supercars that seem to defy physics. Here’s how these screaming machines have evolved.

1966 Lamborghini Miura: The first Lamborghini supercar was the Miura, which debuted in 1966 at the Geneva Motor Show. It was the first of the big Lamborghinis. Of course, the big ones are the ones that scare you just by unlocking them. That’s how you know a car is fast. The Miura made 350 horsepower, which was more than enough to move a car that weighed under 3,000 pounds.
It’s one of the most captivating designs of the 20th century, especially in red.
1969 Lamborghini Miura S: It was basically a facelifted Miura with an extra 20 horsepower. Oh, and Miles Davis crashed one when he was high on cocaine. A man very revered in the racing world, James Glickenhaus, pulled the high and bloody Davis out of his totaled Lamborghini.
Lamborghini really delivered with this one…
1971 Lamborghini Miura SV: The final iteration of the Miura brought the power up to a then-absurd 385 horsepower, and lost the frilly eyelashes that previously surrounded the headlights. Lamborghini also came up with what was then a novel idea, splitting up the lubrication for the gearbox and transmission.
This was the best iteration of the Miura. The most power, lightest weight, and all of the kinks were ironed out.
1974 Lamborghini Countach: The curvaceous Miura was replaced by the blocky Countach, a car that looks like it was designed by a high school geometry student. It was a good car, but it was not without it’s flaws. Visibility was like looking out of a concrete bunker 50 feet below the ground. Another complaint was that the car was a much better pinup than it was a car. Just about every boy in the 1970s had a poster of a Lamborghini Countach hanging on his bedroom wall. The first version of the Countach had no massive wing and 370 horsepower.
1978 Lamborghini Countach LP400S: The LP400S lost 20 horsepower, but it also got wider wheels. The 1974-1977 models had skinny little wheels and tires that had no grip to them. That famous gigantic rear wing was an option that looked super cool, but cost you 10 mph.
1982 Lamborghini Countach LP500S: Just about the only change to the 1982 version of the Countach was the introduction of a 4.7-liter V12.
1985 Lamborghini Countach LP5000 QV: This is my dream Countach. The engine was a 455-horsepower 5.2-liter V12. Interestingly enough, when Lamborghini switched from carburetors to fuel injection on the very same engine, horsepower dropped to a still-impressive 414 horsepower.
It should be obvious why this is my dream Countach…
1988 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Edition: It was mechanically identical to the LP5000 QV, but it had a body that Horacio Pagani (yes, that Horacio Pagani) redesigned. It was a love it or hate it design, and most people fell on the side of hate. I don’t know why. It’s still blocky, but it’s a good looking car.
1990 Lamborghini Diablo: Marcello Gandini started the design, and Chrysler’s Tom Gale finished it. It had a 5.7-liter V12 cranking out 492 horsepower. It’s top speed was a then-diabolical 202 mph, which exceeded the initial target by six mph. It didn’t come with power steering.
I’m not sure I’d want to go 202 mph in a car with no power steering, especially with no electronic nannies to save me.
1993 Lamborghini Diablo VT: The Diablo VT was the first AWD car from Lamborghini. It could send up to 25 percent of it’s power to the front wheels, which drastically helped it’s traction. It also had redesigned intakes to improve cooling, a new interior, and various cosmetic changes to differentiate it from the “base” Diablo.
1995 Lamborghini Diablo SV: The SV was supposed to be the most diabolical Diablo out there. Because of this, it had 510 horsepower and RWD. It was also the cheapest Diablo available, which really doesn’t make sense.
Yes, those wheels are stock, and super cool!
1995 Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster: It’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s a Lamborghini Diablo VT with an electric folding carbon fiber top. Power went up to 530 horsepower for 1998.
1999 Lamborghini Diablo: The 1999 model was the first year that the Diablo didn’t have pop-up headlights. Instead, the SV model, which was the base model, had the same headlights as the Nissan 300ZX. I’m not joking. It also got a new interior, ABS, and power was now at 530 horsepower. The Diablo VT got the same upgrades.
1999 Lamborghini Diablo GT: Talk about absurd. The Diablo GT was basically a race car for the road. It was stripped down, the bodywork was substantially different from other Diablos, and it had a new 6.0-liter V12 making 575 horsepower. It was incredibly fast.
Looks can be deceiving. It might look somewhat similar to the 1995 SV model, but it is very different.
2000 Lamborghini Diablo VT 6.0: The final iteration of the Diablo got a redesign that made it look much smoother, thanks to Audi’s purchase of the company. The more subdued design, coupled with the engine from the Diablo GT made it a much better car to drive and look at.
2002 Lamborghini Murcielago: Yes, I know that it means “bat” in Spanish, but it is still a very intriguing car. Don’t let the name get to you. It was the first V12-powered Lamborghini to be designed and engineered in-house. It had 572 horsepower, and was only available with AWD. It also made extensive use of active aero and active cooling to keep the exterior of the car relatively clean-looking. It was also the first time that an automated manual transmission was offered in a Lamborghini. A roadster followed in 2004, with an overly complicated manual roof.
2006 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640: The big Murcielago now made 632 horsepower from its 6.5-liter V12, and it had a slightly revised body. Carbon ceramic brakes were an option, just in case you really wanted to show how well your supercar could stop.
2008 Lamborghini Reventon: The Reventon was essentially a rebodied Murcielago LP640. It was inspired by fighter jets, and as such, had creases and angles galore. It had an interior like a fighter jet cockpit, which meant it was extremely cramped, but it had a unique TFT display, instead of analog gauges like the Murcielago. Lamborghini only built 21 coupes and 15 roadsters.
2009 Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV: The fastest Murcielago ever to leave the Lamborghini factory doors was the LP670-4 SV. It had 661 horsepower, a heavily revised body, a stripped interior, and came standard with a massive wing. The wing limited it’s top speed to 209 mph. The optional smaller wing brings the speed up to 212 mph, but also provides less downforce. You could get it with either the clunky automated manual or a true six speed manual. I really want to have one with the big wing and the six speed. Help me find one!
How can you not want something like this, especially when it reeks of awesome?
2012 Lamborghini Aventador: The Aventador picked up where the Reventon left off. It’s all creases and angles, and is one of the most intimidating-looking cars in the world. The 6.5-liter V12 pumps out 691 horsepower, and sends power to all four wheels through one of the worst transmissions ever. It can never replicate the same shift. You either get shoved back into your seat, or you get an imperceptible shift. For something that costs so much, it should have a good transmission. A roadster is also available.
2013 Lamborghini Veneno: Like the Reventon, the Veneno is another extreme styling exercise. Lamborghini really went all out this time in terms of design and price, as the car cost upwards of $4 million. There are four coupes (one is in the Lamborghini museum), and nine roadsters.
The styling might be quirky, but the performance is not.
2015 Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 SV: This might very well be the ultimate Aventador. It’s certainly the fastest. It proved itself by going around the legendary Nurburgring racetrack in 6:59. It’s just seconds off the Porsche 918 Spyder’s lap time of 6:57. The SV has 750 horsepower, AWD, heavily revised aerodynamics, and is 110 pounds lighter. And yes, Lamborghini has confirmed that they will make a roadster version of it.
And there you have it. The latest in a long line of high-performance cars. This is the most diabolical, yet civilized of them all.

July 3, 2015 zoomvroom Car Culture, Gifts for the Car Enthusiast

More of the Best Japanese Sports Cars Ever!

This is a follow-up to one of my most popular posts of all time. Japan has given us some of the most iconic, endearing, and usable sports cars ever to drive.

1959 Datsun Sports/Fairlady: It was known as the Datsun Fairlady in Japan, but over here, it was known as the Datsun Sports. It came with a 1,500 cc engine, a 1,600 cc engine, or a larger 2,000 cc engine. It started as a cheaper competitor to the MG Midget, but it had a fiberglass body instead of the aluminum used in the MG. It developed into one of the most successful road-racing cars in the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America).
This is a 1962 model, but it is essentially the same as the 1959 model.
1963 Honda S500: This was Honda’s first car. While it’s successor, the S600 enjoyed numerous class wins in the SCCA and other road racing bodies, the S500 shouldn’t be forgotten. The S500 weighed a mere 1,500 pounds, and it was powered by a tiny 500 cc dual-overhead-cam engine with a 9,500 RPM redline. It had one motorcycle influence – chain-driven wheels. It was a fast, sprightly little car that could hang with the big boys.
1965 Toyota Sports 800: This was Toyota’s first sports car, and while it wasn’t a hit in the US, it’s had a devout following since day one. It has 44 horsepower, and a removable targa top. Oh, and it’s pretty cute.
The only thing that isn’t stock about this beautiful 1965 Toyota Sports 800 are the wheels, but I think it adds a nice touch.
1967 Toyota 2000GT: Riding off of the success of the Sports 800 in Japan, Toyota decided to build a competitor to the Jaguar E-Type. The result is the absolutely stunning Toyota 2000GT. Toyota teamed up with Yamaha to develop the engine and transmission, and boy did Yamaha deliver! It’s an achingly gorgeous car that breezes well over $1 million at auction.
1968 Datsun Bluebird/1300-1600/510: Datsun essentially reverse-engineered the legendary BMW 1600, and this wonderful rally/drift machine was born. It was known as the Bluebird in Europe, the 1300-1600 in Asia, and the 510 here in America. It still holds 2wd rally records. It’s one of the most legendary sports coupes ever made, and you can buy one for a relatively low price.
This is a picture from one of the original advertisements that Datsun put out in 1968. The No. 85 car is one of the legendary rally cars.
1970 Datsun 240Z: This is certainly one of the most beautiful sports cars ever made, let alone one of the most beautiful cars ever made. My grandparents and dad used to own one, but guess who decided to sell it so I couldn’t enjoy it? It had a single-overhead-cam inline six cylinder engine, a five speed manual, and fully independent suspension. European sports cars never knew what passed them.
1971 Mazda RX-2 and RX-3: These cars were the precursors to the legendary RX-7. The RX-2 set so many records and poles in IMSA that rotary engines got banned. The RX-3 went 160 mph at Bonneville.
This is a 1971 Mazda RX-2. It’s not exactly pretty, but it got the job done.

This is the slightly larger 1971 Mazda RX-3. It’s equally homely, but it was much faster than the RX-2.
1979 Toyota Celica: The original Toyota Celica was for all essential purposes, a Datsun 240Z with icing on the cake. While it didn’t have a six-cylinder engine, it had a rear seat, and therefore, more utility. It was originally somewhat homely, but then the legendary AE86 generation came around, and it had totally ’80s styling, man.
Most teenage boys in the late 1970s and early 1980s really wanted to own a 1978 Celica notchback, like this. You can decide if they really wanted it that badly.
1982 Datsun Maxima: This is the precursor to the Nissan Maxima. It borrowed powertrain components from the 240Z, and was supposed to be a very fun car to drive.
1985 Toyota MR2: You can call it Mister Two. It was inspired by the then-fast Ferrari Testarossa. It was a break from the monotonous, boring cars Toyota had been cranking out…oh wait, they still are!
You can call it Mister 2.
1986 Honda Civic, CRX, and Prelude Si: The year 1986 was a good year for car people. Honda released the Si model for the Civic, CRX, and Prelude. It upped speed and handling prowess. These cars are still fast enough to keep up with a modern Porsche Cayman on a winding road or a race track. Plus, you can get them for very little money, as Honda made a lot of them!
This is the 1986 Civic Si, which was basically a four-seat CRX. It had more utility, but was slightly slower.

The 1986 Prelude Si was a sporty, yet very refined car. It had tuned port fuel injection, which was rare for the time. Yet, it was still affordable to the everyman.

This is the infamous 1986 Honda CRX Si. It’s still fast enough to keep up with a new Miata.
1988 Honda Prelude: Honda took the already-impressive Prelude Si, made all of it’s equipment standard, and then added four-wheel steering to it. It was a speedy little car.
1990 Mazda MX-5 Miata: It’s a sprightly Lotus-inspired roadster that is now the world’s favorite roadster out there. It took all of the fun charms that British and Italian roadsters had, and added bulletproof reliability to the mix. It’s also the world’s most popular race car. Need I say more? I really want one (hint, hint Zayzee)…
1991 Acura NSX: Acura’s NSX is still one of the most amazing supercars ever. It’s so reliable that you can daily drive it without having to worry about overheating it. It has a sleek aluminum body that looks fabulous in red (just to rub it in to Ferrari), and it’s 3.0-liter V6 revs to 8,000 RPM. It’s V6 has the original VTEC system, which is just a variable timing and lift valvetrain. VTEC comes from motorcycles, but it first appeared in 1989 with the Acura Integra GS-R for Japan only.
It’s 24 years old, yet it’s still incredibly fast, and has styling that is superb.
1994 Toyota Supra: The Supra finally matured in it’s fourth generation. It’s still one of the most legendary sports cars around. It’s twin-turbocharged 2JZ-GTE engine further catapulted the Supra into fame. Most have been tuned to within an inch of their life, so it’s rare to see a stock fourth-generation Supra.
1992 Mazda RX-7: The third, and final generation of the legendary Mazda RX-7 arrived in 1992 with sequential turbocharging, beautiful bodywork, and vastly improved handling. It’s been successful on the racing circuit, and is still winning awards in Formula Drift.
2000 Honda S2000: How does Honda celebrate their 50th birthday? By building an incredible successor to the S600, that’s how! The S2000 was powered by a 9,000 RPM 2.0-liter VTEC four-cylinder engine that screams to the heavens. It’s supposed to be one of the most visceral and engaging cars ever to come out of a factory’s doors.
2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII: It’s a cross between a road-racing machine and a rally car. It had massive Brembo brakes, Bilstein shocks with lots of travel that somehow allowed for perfect car control, and a massive, provocative carbon-fiber rear wing. It’s instantly recognizable.
2004 Mazda RX-8: The Mazda RX-8 was the last dying gasp for rotary engines. It had doors like an extended cab pickup truck, and a backseat. It drank fuel like a sailor, and ate oil like a long-haul trucker. If you started driving it before the engine was warm, you’d flood the engine. If you turned it off without letting it idle for a few minutes, you’d cook the rotors. Yet, people still love them.
2009 Nissan GT-R: Nissan took the GT-R to uncharted heights in terms of performance. It has a twin-turbo V6, AWD, and a video-game dashboard just for kicks. It’s performance is truly astonishing. It can grip like nothing else out there, and it’s acceleration is only rivaled by hypercars like the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder. And a garden-variety brand-new one costs about $100,000.
It’s Godzilla! The nickname came around after an automotive journalist looked at all of the races that the original GT-R had won, and proclaimed it “Godzilla.” It’s a fitting nickname.
2012 Lexus LFA: Lexus took a stab at the supercar market with the clunky and odd LFA. They brought a butterknife to a minigun fight. They built 500 LFA supercars that are somehow coveted right now. They aren’t fast by supercar standards, and they aren’t very much fun to drive. Their transmission can never replicate a shift, so you either get slammed back into your seat, or you don’t notice it shifting at all. There is no in between. That being said, it’s 4.8-liter V10 sounds spectacular, and revs to the heavens. Lexus likely lost money selling each LFA. Building supercars is an expensive, risky business.
2012 Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ/Toyota GT86: This might just be the best Subaru/Toyota pairing ever. It’s certainly an odd pairing – Toyota and Subaru are competitors, but their collaboration resulted in a really fun car. The Scion FR-S is a bit more loose, as it’s meant more for drifting, whereas the Subaru is a bit tighter, as it’s meant for canyon carving and track duty. They’re really affordable – a well-optioned one comes in about $30,000, and they have a lot to offer: RWD, fuel efficiency, fun-to-drive factor, reliability, standard manual transmission, etc.

Those are what I think to be more of the best Japanese sports cars ever made. I’d love to hear more of your stories about any of these cars, or which one is your favorite.

August 23, 2014 zoomvroom Car Culture

10 Cars that Could Make You a Millionaire!

We all like to make money. All of you like cars (me included!). Ten cars could (theoretically) allow you to make a cool $1,000,000 – most of them NOT by themselves. Anybody who has been buying/selling old cars knows that the classic car market has been taking a crash course on Wall Street. It’s either boom or bust. Bust happened in 1990 when a hyper-inflated Ferrari market crashed in the time frame of a year. In 2007-2008, the market for Mopars with Hemi engines crashed, with many cars losing 2/3 of their value within 18 months. The basic premise of this blog post is to tell you what cars you can buy for not too much money, and sell for a hefty profit. Well, there are a few exceptions to that rule, but I think you’ll agree with my decisions for those cars.

However, that’s not to say that the market is dead. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The market is globalized in a way it couldn’t have been just 10 years ago. Only 20% of Russia had internet access in 2007, but now almost 80% have access. Now that Russians have more money to spend, they are looking for ways other than cheap economy cars or an old Mercedes-Benz with 300,000 miles on the odometer to get around. Cars continue to be more accepted as investments among those who wouldn’t care about them otherwise. Sure, one could consider it a bubble, but until then, here are some cars, erm, investments, that I would buy with my tiny fortune.

1962-1965 Shelby Cobra. The original Shelby Cobras are what I am referring to (Shelby makes continuation Cobras). It’s quite possible that prices for the Cobra have already priced, as prices for these things are literally enough to make a Wall Street investor empty their bank account in a few short minutes. The MkI and MkII (260 and 289 cubic-inch V8 Cobras) will run you about $800,000. Forget buying a 427 Cobra – those are at least $1 million! For the small-block Cobras, prices are up from $500,000 just five years ago, and that was up from $150,000 in 2003. Yikes.
1970-1973 Datsun 240Z. Remember when you could buy a Datsun 240Z for $4,000 in 2004? Well, the average sale for 2013 was $19,000. People who wanted one when they were young now (hopefully) have the discretionary income to buy one. Plus, the Z looks timeless. It’s like a more mature, cheaper Toyota 2000GT. It’s great, easy and cheap to own, and a hoot to drive. That won’t change. What will likely change are the prices. If the Datsun 240Z is any indication of the rising market demand for 1970s Japanese sports cars, expect prices to rise dramatically in the next few years. If you want one, get it NOW!
1970-1971 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 Cabriolet. Nobody really thought that any regular-production, post-300SL Mercedes-Benz would be worth anything. I didn’t for a while. Nobody thought much of them because they were designed to last forever. How can a car become more valuable when it never changes? Then, three 280 SE 3.5 Cabriolets sold last August at the RM Monterey Auctions for a whopping average price of – brace yourselves – $265,833. In 2010, the average transaction price was a still-high $94,000. It’s hard to think that this extreme inflation will continue for much longer. But, it’s not showing any signs of stopping. Time to re-mortgage the house if you want one of these!
1976-1981 Ferrari 512BB. Most of the male readers of this blog likely had posters of this car on their bedroom walls. Combining absolutely timeless bedroom-wall-poster looks with the exotic, screaming power of the Berlinetta Boxer’s six-carburetor, vee-crank flat V12, you can’t go wrong. Prices haven’t changed much since 2007, with prices staying right about $140,000. However, you can still find one for under six digits. For about $95,000, you can buy one for the price of what a grey market car would have cost you 35 years ago. If that’s not a deal, I don’t know what else is. Buy two and wait patiently. Time to sell the house!
2009 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione. Alfa Romeo is back into the U.S. with the 4C. It’s a great car. It’s better looking than any new Ferrari, it’s faster than anything from Japan or America on a race track, and I want one. The 8C was an amazing one-year blip in Alfa Romeo’s 19-year absence from the American car market. The price now? Hard to tell, as they were about $250,000 new, and only 84 were ever sold in the U.S. Nobody is letting go of them, either, so yeah, good luck finding one. Most are being held in private collections, but it’s going to be a challenge to start a market for them if nobody sells them.
1972-1974 BMW 2002 tii. The BMW 2002 was a great car. All of the automotive magazines said it was better than any muscle car out there. It was nimble, light, and deceivingly fast. The most desirable 2002 is the fuel injected version, called the 2002tii. It was light, potent, reliable, and it favored fun over everything else. Like the Datsun 240Z, they weren’t worth much of anything for a very long time due to their abundance. In 2004, a nice 2002tii was carrying about $10,000. Now, prices have blown past $20,000, and people are really only beginning to appreciate them. Yeah, BMW only made 38,000 of the 2002tii, but an awful lot of them were used up. Even if you buy one and it doesn’t go up in prices, you’ve still got one helluva car. It’s a win-win situation. Basically, for the price of a smallish shapeless blob painted silver, you can get a reliable daily driver that will get you thumbs up all over the place, and a tidy look. Why not buy one?
1944-1986 Willys CJ. The Willys CJ is one of the record holding cars for being in production. It remained in production basically unchanged for 42 years. The older models are pretty cool. Parts are abundant for them, and there is a thriving after market for them. They look cool, can go literally anywhere, and are so reliable that it makes any Honda or Toyota’s reliability look like a joke. Plus, any old Willys CJ will be a barrel of fun. It may not make you a million bucks, but you can buy one for a relative song right now. Prices for these cool little vehicles that helped win WWII are cheap. You can buy a really nice one for about $15,000, but where’s the fun in something that’s been restored by somebody other than you? Get one that needs some work for about $7,500. If you want to get even more on the cool factor, get a genuine Willys military Jeep. That’s about $7,500.
1970-1974 Dodge Challenger: The Dodge Challenger was one of the cars that lost 2/3rds of its value in 2007-2008, but prices are once more on the rise. The R/T models with the 426 Hemi “Elephant” engine are the most desirable. If you can’t swing one with the 426, get one with the massive 440 cubic-inch V8 (that’s 7.2 liters!) Six Pack. That has six carburetor throats feeding gas and air into those wonderful sounding 440 cubic inches. Even the models with the 383 cubic-inch V8 are fun.
1955-1957 Chevrolet Bel Air: The Tri-Five Chevy’s are great cars. They are fun, beautiful, reliable, and the prices are always climbing. Now is the time to get one. My personal favorite is the 1957 Bel Air convertible. It looks like a Cadillac. If you want one to be a pro-touring car, a drag car, or a show queen, there is no shortage of parts availability for these cars. The 1956 models are the cheapest of the three years, but they are still pretty expensive. If you get one now, enjoy it, show it, do burnouts, and have fun with a priceless piece of Americana.
1970-1972 Chevrolet Chevelle SS454 LS6: This is probably one of the most iconic Chevrolet’s ever. It’s got a massive Chevrolet 454 cubic-inch V8 (7.4 liters) with the legendary LS6 code name. It makes a thundering 450 horsepower in LS6 form. In the lesser LS5 form, it makes a still-impressive 360 horsepower. If you can’t swing the climbing prices of the LS6 Chevelle, go for a still-mighty Chevelle SS396. It’s still going to be a lot of fun, and it will handle better, thanks to less weight on the front of the car. Plus, you can yank out the 396 and put a crate 454 underneath. If you want more power, you can put a 468 cubic-inch V8, a 489 cubic-inch V8, a 572 cubic-inch V8, a 598 cubic-inch V8, or a 632 cubic-inch V8. I would go for the 468 stroker motor, as it doesn’t add too much weight to the front, but it adds far more power. Nelson Racing Engines (nelsonracingengines.com) makes a 600-horsepower 468 that sounds just about right for a Chevelle…

That’s all that I have to offer you, but I’m sure that you have your own suggestions. Let me know in the comments section.

July 11, 2014 zoomvroom Car Culture

The Greatest American Turbocharged Cars

Many people think that turbochargers belong in heavily modified import cars. Well, that’s partially true. Europe has turned out some impressive turbocharged cars, as well as the US of A. Here are America’s greatest turbocharged cars.

Ford Mustang SVO: The 2015 Ford Mustang has a 2.3-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, just like the SVO Mustangs of the 1980’s. The first turbocharged Ford Mustang showed up in 1979 with a 135-horsepower, turbocharged, 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine. It was an alternative to the downsized 4.2-liter V8 found in the Mustang GT. But, it wasn’t until Ford’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO, now known as Special Vehicle Tuning or SVT) got their hands on one that it became anything noteworthy. It came with a factory-installed Hurst short-throw shifter, revolutionary Koni adjustable shocks, ABS disc brakes at all four corners, a limited-slip differential, and a screaming, turbocharged 205 horsepower. Drivers even had the cool option of flicking a dash-mounted switch that allowed the car to run on lower-grade fuel for a certain amount of time. When it ended it’s production run in the late 1980’s, it was something to be feared. It looked especially menacing in grey.
1965 Chevrolet Corvair: Believe it or not, the Corvair actually had a go-fast option. It had two, in fact. One was the Crown Corvair, which used a mid-mounted 283-cubic-inch Corvette V8, and the other was a turbocharger bolted onto the engine. From the factory. It made 150 horsepower initially, but by the time the Corvair died, it made 180 horsepower. Unlike many other turbocharged cars, the turbocharged Corvair did not use a wastegate, the internal exhaust flap that opens at higher engine speeds to prevent over-spinning the turbine. Instead, Chevy engineers simply built enough backpressure into the exhaust system to prevent overboost and serious engine damage. Very few Corvairs with the turbocharged engine were ever made.
Oldsmobile F85 Jetfire: Oldsmobile was one of the early adopters of turbocharging technology. It released the powerful F85 Jetfire in April of 1962, and the car was something of a small success. It took the fabled 3.5-liter high-compression “Rocket” V8, cranked up the boost, and let it rev. It made a screaming 215 horsepower, and it was easily quicker than many naturally aspirated cars of 1962. Plus, owners got an ashtray-sized boost gauge in front of the shifter. The engine had problems with detonation, which is the process where the hot air-fuel mixture under pressure spontaneously ignites before the spark plug has a chance to ignite it. So, the Turbo-Rocket engine was fed a mixture of methanol alcohol and water (the same stuff fed to dragsters). This allowed the mixture to not ignite as quickly and get a higher octane level. Today, water/alcohol injection is commonplace in high-performance tuner car applications, but isn’t it cool that F85 Jetfire owners had to periodically fill their “Turbo Rocket Fluid” reservoir?
Buick GNX: If there’s a poster-child for American turbocharged cars, the Buick GNX wins, hands-down. The all-black, tire-smoking, Ferrari Testarossa-beating, quarter-mile waltzing Buick GNX was and still is a force of nature. Buick initially started turbocharging it’s anemic 3.8-liter V6 in 1978 for the Regal and the LeSabre, introducing the fast Regal Grand National line in 1982. It culminated with 1987 with the GNX. Buick purposefully underrated the crank horsepower at 276 horsepower, but dyno tests showed that the car made at least 315 horsepower at the wheels. This means that the car made somewhere close to 360-370 horsepower at the crank. It even beat the twin-turbo Callaway Corvette that I featured on my blog a couple of months ago in the quarter mile. The GNX would go through the quarter mile in the low 13-second range at around 125-130 mph. Just 547 GNX’s were built in 1987, each specially massaged by AMC/McLaren. Today, the turbo Buick’s are something of a legend, and many go for upwards of $30,000. The car was so successful on the street the Buick entered a naturally-aspirated V8 version of the car in NASCAR’s Grand National series (now known as the Nationwide Series), where it was extremely competitive.
1989 Pontiac 20th Anniversary Turbo Trans Am: The all-white Pontiac Trans Am picked to be the pace car for the 73rd annual Indy 500 was completely different than the first turbocharged Trans Am, which was all mustache and no Burt. This 1989 force-fed pony car was something completely different. I liken it as the Pontiac storm trooper to the Buick GNX Darth Vader. Pontiac subcontracted an engineering firm to swap Buick GNX engines (made by Buick for Pontiac) into the Trans Am. But, the story doesn’t (and shouldn’t) end there. Anniversary-edition Trans Am’s got better-flowing heads than the GNX, stainless-steel headers, GNX-sized Eaton intercoolers, a cross-drilled Comp Cams crankshaft, and their own engine tuning higher up in the powerband. The net result was a car that officially produced 250 horsepower at the crank, but made closer to 320 horsepower at the crank. This marked a return to the horsepower-underrating days of the muscle car, started by, you guessed it, Pontiac. It was the fastest pace car ever in the history of the Indy 500, which is impressive, given the fact that many fast cars have been chosen since then.
Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe: The Beach Boys made the T-Bird famous with the line, “fun, fun, fun, until her daddy takes it away.” The T-Bird was fun until Daddy (the EPA) introduced emissions regulations that took the fun out of the T-Bird. By 1982, the T-Bird was a horrible, anemic shoebox of a car. Happily, 1983 saw the rising of the phoenix. It’s beak-like hood had twin nostrils that meant that there was a turbocharged engine underneath that pointy hood. Other than the amazingly 1980’s-FILA edition, the T-Bird Turbo Coupe was at it’s peak in 1987 and 1988. That was when stick-shifted version of the Fox-bodied T-Bird came equipped with a whistling 190 horsepower, four-wheel ABS disc brakes, and a limited-slip differential. Those nostrils on the hood, by the way, are functional, as they feed air directly to the top-mounted intercooler.
Shelby GLHS: It’s hard to find a car that has a shape that’s more square than the Dodge Omni. The blocky Omni had all of the sporting pretensions of a worn-out water shoe. Then, you hand the Omni over to Carroll Shelby. Early Omni GLH (unofficially Goes Like Hell) cars weren’t turbocharged, but by the mid-1980’s, America was becoming obsessed with the turbocharger. So, by the mid-1980’s, the Omni GLH had enough punch to beat any VW GTI of the era. For the 1986 model year only, 500 cars were further tweaked by Shelby to become the Omni GLHS (Goes Like Hell S’More), which was a 175-horsepower breadbox with more boost, better suspension, and factory options like a roll cage and heavy-duty oil cooler borrowed from the Ram 250 with the Cummins Diesel. Quite possibly the best part of the GLHS: The uprated top speed of the GLHS was too much for the regular 85 mph speedometer of the Omni, so Shelby simply added a sticker to the bottom of the gauge with increments up to 135 mph.
Shelby CSX-VNT: Another Shelby creation was the CSX-VNT, which was based off of the homely Plymouth Sundance and Dodge Shadow. Initially, the CSX-VNT packed 175 horsepower, and like the earlier GLHS, went like a bat out of hell. Shelby built a small run of 1,001 cars for the Thrifty rental car company with slightly less power. In the final year of CSX-VNT production, 1989, the CSX-VNT included some new, unique technology previously only seen on race cars – variable turbine geometry. Computer-controlled vanes moved to direct the hot exhaust gas stream to improve spool-up time. While it’s power rating remained the same at 175 horsepower, it had dramatically better response time in the low end, virtually eliminating turbo lag. The next time this technology would show up in the U.S. market would be in 2011, with the 997-generation Porsche 911 Turbo. That was more than 15 years later.
GMC Syclone: In 1990, Gale Banks Engineering cracked the 200-mph mark at the Bonneville Salt Flats in a compact GMC pickup truck with no turbocharger or supercharger. In 1991, the streetable version of that high-powered pickup showed up on dealer lots. It’s 4.3-liter Vortec V6 engine was turbocharged with the help of Gale Banks himself. It came standard with ABS and AWD, neither of which were options on the S15 Sonoma. You couldn’t haul much with the Syclone, unfortunately, as it was only rated to haul 500 pounds. Too bad, but you could still fill the bed with the egos of every single Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati driver on the road. This all-black, one-year-only mini-truck was the fastest-accelerating production vehicle in America for a few years, easily getting off of the line, thanks to the torque-rich engine and AWD. It got to 60 mph somewhere in the low 4-second range.
GMC Typhoon: A spin-off of the one-year-only Syclone, the Jimmy-bodied Typhoon was officially rated at 280 horsepower, though dyno tests showed that it made at least that at the wheels, meaning that it made somewhere around 320 horsepower at the crank. It could easily beat a Ferrari 348 off of the line and up to about 70 mph, when the 348 really got into the powerband. Just under 5,000 Typhoons were made between 1992-1993, and unlike the black-only Syclone, could be bought in a variety of colors. In fact, Clint Eastwood used to drive a Forest Green Typhoon around in his Dirty Harry days, where he would pull up to a stoplight and ask punks if they felt lucky. Most thought they were going to beat some middle-aged guy in his SUV with their Mustang or import car.
Dodge Neon SRT4: In 2003, Chrysler/Dodge’s Street Racing Technology (SRT) team got hold of the friendly-faced Neon subcompact car, and built what is still the car to beat for bang-for-your-buck performance. A frog-eyed four-door sedan with a functional front-mounted intercooler peeking out of the grille, the tiny Neon made mincemeat out of everything from a Porsche Boxster to a Nissan 350Z. Dodge claimed 230 horsepower, though dyno testing showed that the car made at least that much, if not more at the wheels. This means that the engine was making close to 280 horsepower at the crank. Something else that is cool about the Neon SRT4 is the fact that it doesn’t have a muffler on it. This allows it to have vastly better turbo flow. Resonators keep the volume semi-sane, but the Neon really makes a lot of noise when you give it some go-juice.
Chevrolet SS Turbocharged: Initially available only as a supercharged coupe, the Cobalt SS was always OK in performance testing, but it wasn’t going to set any records. Starting in 2009, the Cobalt SS came as either a sedan or coupe with a turbocharger bolted onto a small four-cylinder engine. It made 260 horsepower. Should you want a cool sleeper, if you aren’t afraid of the ignition recall, you can get a Cobalt SS, take the badges off, swap the big chrome rims for something more discreet (like the regular Cobalt rims), and you’d have the makings of a good sleeper. It had a no-lift-shift system – just keep your right foot floored so that you don’t loose boost – and you’ll see the quarter mile fly by in under 13 seconds, and will keep up with a Porsche 911 on a road course. Take it out to the twisties out on the road, and you’ll be able to keep up with a motorcycle, thanks to the tiny size of the Cobalt.