Jake Wrote:The new Civic is a textbook example of "tragic overstyling" in every trim level.

.RJ Wrote:

Jake Wrote:The new Civic is a textbook example of "tragic overstyling" in every trim level.

This. Want to like it to please my inner honda fanboi, but no way.

ScottyB Wrote:i'm also honestly amazed that what looks like standard Hoosier slicks will hold together at nearly 300mph. i remember they veyron had to run some insane one-off michelins to withstand any time at those top speeds.

Quote:Fordlandia, however, moved to rhythms set not by suppy and demand but rather by the ups and downs of American life, which Henry Ford pledged to reform. Ford's frustrations with domestic politics and culture were legion: war, unions, Wall Street, energy monopolies, Jews, modern dance, cow's milk, the Roosevelts, cigarettes, alcohol, and creeping governemnt intervention.

SlimKlim Wrote:Anyway, the author of that book briefly quotes an Op Ed by EB White in the New Yorker in 1936 mourning the disappearance of Model T's from daily life.http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1936/05/16/farewell-my-lovely

• 2.3 seconds to 60 mph
  
• 9.65 second 1/4 mile @ 140mph
  
• 840 horsepower

SlimKlim Wrote:This isn't really "news", I just can't think of a better thread for it.

I had like, a lot of time to kill last month, the vast majority of my responsibilities at my old job had been shut down or moved to other teams but I still had like a month to kill before my exit date.

So I read, a lot. One of the books was about "Fordlandia" a company town Henry Ford built deep in the Amazon jungle in Brazil in an ill-fated attempted to produce his own natural rubber to control cost and supply. It's a pretty fascinating glimpse into the brilliant yet completely delusional mind of one of the most powerful men in history. My favorite quote from the prologue summarizes his worldview pretty well.

Quote:Fordlandia, however, moved to rhythms set not by suppy and demand but rather by the ups and downs of American life, which Henry Ford pledged to reform. Ford's frustrations with domestic politics and culture were legion: war, unions, Wall Street, energy monopolies, Jews, modern dance, cow's milk, the Roosevelts, cigarettes, alcohol, and creeping governemnt intervention.

Anyway, the author of that book briefly quotes an Op Ed by EB White in the New Yorker in 1936 mourning the disappearance of Model T's from daily life. It was so well written I had to go find the rest of the article. Its a quick read and describes the origin of car enthusiasts. I hesitate to pull an interesting excerpt out because it's hard to say any one paragraph of it is better than the rest.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1936/05/16/farewell-my-lovely

ScottyB Wrote:

SlimKlim Wrote:Anyway, the author of that book briefly quotes an Op Ed by EB White in the New Yorker in 1936 mourning the disappearance of Model T's from daily life.http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1936/05/16/farewell-my-lovely

that was wonderful. its hard to believe people of all kinds used to travel that way, and you were simply supposed to know how to attend to a car like that like a living animal. nowadays my mother in law won't even get in a car if the AC doesn't get it frigidly cold inside of a minute :lol: i'm sure in another 100 years people will be complaining about all the buttons you have to push to get your teleporter to warm up properly.

i've heard some similarly unique "T" stories, like what he says about the Number One bearing...something about people had to climb the very steepest hills in reverse, because not only the bearing issue but the fuel tank would starve past a certain grade angle. just bizarre stuff that only people involved in the pioneer ages of something like that would ever experience.

SlimKlim Wrote:Then you set the handbrake, which also engages neutral, most of the time.