Classic American Muscle: Counting the V8 Tanks On the Road

[wolram]

How many americans still drive thoughs old V8 tanks ??

 

[mattmns]

thoughs? You have some interesting English wolram! You mean "those" right?

Most Americans, imo, care more about image than practicality.

 

[Andy]

I want a gas guzzler. I won't a big old 5 liter V8 with a couple of superchargers to blow those greenpeace yuppies away.

 

[wolram]

How about one like this :!)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We have an old farm truck with a 396, but it rarely gets used. However, it would still leave any pathetic little 5 Liter engine in the dust.

 

[Integral]

During my recent trip to Ireland I was discussing this very topic. Many of the people I work with commute by themselves in large (F250 Ford or equivalent Chey or Dodge) pickups. These things as a rule have huge V8 or some are even V10s they get 8 to 10 mpg on a good day with a tail wind. I don't like them, they are so high that in the night the headlights line up with my rear view mirror, blinding me, in a parking lot they take up way more room then any single vehicle should... The locals then asked me what I drove, when I said a Ford Probe with a small 2.5L V6, they laughed! It seems that to them small and 2.5L were not compatible ideas!

So yes we still drive around with way more engine then we can justify in the current energy climate. We are so accustomed to large displacement engines that our view of what is large or small is skewed.

 

[wolram]

My car is a 1000cc diesel, i guess an average car in the uk is 1600cc, i think
the average milage is 12000 a year, how does that compare to the us ?

 

[motai]

The locals then asked me what I drove, when I said a Ford Probe with a small 2.5L V6, they laughed! It seems that to them small and 2.5L were not compatible ideas!

Interesting that they laughed... I'm surprised, considering that my automobile is only a 4 cylinder manual, and is probably one of the most fuel efficient gasoline cars around short of a hybrid. Can't accelerate too well, but I don't mind. At least I'm not paying $40-50 USD for a full tank.

Still, a V6 is larger than mine, so in comparison, your engine is large from my point of view...

 

[russ_watters]

2.4l 4cyl. I got it instead of the optional v6 for reasons of fuel economy, but have been disappointed in what I've been getting.

 

[wolram]

2.4l 4cyl. I got it instead of the optional v6 for reasons of fuel economy, but have been disappointed in what I've been getting.

Is that an auto or stick shift ?

 

[Integral]

2.4l 4cyl. I got it instead of the optional v6 for reasons of fuel economy, but have been disappointed in what I've been getting.

Is that the Ford 2.4L 4 ? I have a old Ranger (it is an automatic) with one of those that only gets about 18mpg! Very disappointing, I was hoping for something in the mid 20s.

I get 25 - 26mpg with my Probe. It does not take very many hard accelerations to noticeably bring down the mpg.

I think 12000mi, or about 20,000 km is considered average. I have been putting about 1/2 that on the Probe, its a 94 and has less then 100k miles. On the other hand the 98 Pink Pontiac my wife drives has ~150k miles!

 

[Townsend]

We have an old farm truck with a 396, but it rarely gets used. However, it would still leave any pathetic little 5 Liter engine in the dust.

You do realize they are getting about a 100 hp/liter on naturally aspirated production vehicles these days?

 

[russ_watters]

Is that an auto or stick shift ?

Auto what? No, I only drive stick.

Is that the Ford 2.4L 4 ? I have a old Ranger (it is an automatic) with one of those that only gets about 18mpg! Very disappointing, I was hoping for something in the mid 20s.

[Mazda 6, for those who don't know] No, I'm pretty sure the 4 is a Mazda engine and the 6 is the Ford engine. I had a 626 in high school that got 34mpg, though it was considerably smaller than the 6. I'm getting about 27 highway, 24 city, when the advertised is 28-32 highway (can't remember what the city is). I've seen a fair number of complaints online from people who aren't getting the advertised fuel economy/performance out of their cars (apparently, there was a lawsuit about it a few years ago) -also about Mazda "tuning" the exhaust to an aesthetically pleasing frequency. I noticed it wasn't right right away. I'm not sure how much performance you lose due to that, but it's an idiotic reflection of current car-buying culture.

 

[motai]

also about Mazda "tuning" the exhaust to an aesthetically pleasing frequency. I noticed it wasn't right right away. I'm not sure how much performance you lose due to that, but it's an idiotic reflection of current car-buying culture.

Engine sounds can only get so aesthetically pleasing... Sure we've all heard really ugly sounding engines, but trying to make an engine sound good at the cost of performance/fuel efficiency?

 

[loseyourname]

I don't have a car (I did have a 1.4L V4 previously that got mileage in the mid 30s). When I do drive, I use my roommate/girlfriend's car. She drives an Expedition. It's a V8, but I don't know the displacement, and probably gets about 10-12 MPG. A full tank costs in excess of 80 USD. She inherited it from her mother and has been begging her parents for a hybrid for about eight months now, but her dad keeps telling her to wait another year because the selection right now isn't very good.

 

[wolram]

Would you still drive a V8 with these prices ?
ountry
PRICE move/mth PRICE move/mth
Austria 75 -0.2 69.8 +0.1
Belguim 95 +6.2 78.2 +4.7
Czech Rep 71.5 +0.8 71.5 +1.3
Denmark 92.2 -0.4 80.8 -2.0
Eire 74.5 -0.3 74 -0.8
Finland 89.4 +6.6 69.2 +2.9
France 85.2 -1.5 85.2 +9.1
Germany 90 +3.3 77.4 +1.3
Greece 65.7 +1.9 64.7 +2.0
Netherlands 100.3 +1.2 77.1 +2.3
Hungary 83.5 +3.7 79.8 -3.2
Italy 87.2 +7.2 79.4 -0.8
Luxembourg 76.5 +4.2 63.7 +1.3
Norway 94.8 -2.0 88.7 -1.1
Poland 79.5 +0.7 72.2 +4.3
Portugal 85.8 +2.0 69.2 -0.4
Spain 66.4 -4.9 66.5 0
Sweden 82.1 -6.7 82.1 +0.8
Switzerland 72.1 +0.6 77.1 +1.1
United Kingdom(Av) 96.5 +6.9 94.8 +2.3
USA 37.5 +2.1 38.2 +0.3

 

[Danger]

My Roadrunner is still out of commission, and will be until I have the $40,000 or so required to restore it. The engine in it is a 446ci (440 w/ .030 overbore). My daily car, the El Camino, has an Olds 455.

 

[wolram]

My Roadrunner is still out of commission, and will be until I have the $40,000 or so required to restore it. The engine in it is a 446ci (440 w/ .030 overbore). My daily car, the El Camino, has an Olds 455.

$40,000 what is it iron oxide, no matter how much you spend it still won't go round a bend.

 

[Danger]

Body work and uphostery alone will be over $30,000, and I want to redo the engine. It actually sticks to curves reasonably well. Nothing like a Porsche, naturally, but a lot better than you'd expect from something meant for 1/4 mile. It's that left-over NASCAR engineering from the first Roadrunner (the Superbird).