Hotrodders typically push beyond the norm, striving for modifications that separate their cars from others by being unique/innovative. I could see in the future (presently in some cases) this may be a real thing, time will tell. I'll stick with internal combustion, fossil fueled cars, as long as I can still buy it, which I'm sure will last thru my lifetime at least.
RAM pickups have announced a deal with ***mins for a new GAS 6.7 L engine for their 2500-3500 pickups. I don’t this would be happening if they didn’t know about a problem with diesel. Ford has a 7.3 gas that’s quite popular and is being hopped up as we speak…
Recently the government has been pushing a "green" agenda with a huge emphasis on electric vehicles. A couple of the large manufactures have signed on to be all electric in a ridiculous short amount of time (GM and Ford) but very interesting the two largest (Toyota and Volkswagen) refused to sign on. They think the internal combustion engine has quite a long life yet and are investing in some new factories for their production. Maybe someday all electric will make sense but NOT NOW, as has been said, follow the science! ****, squeeze, bang, blow still works for me and makes all the right noises to make me happy. Having a car that is like an electric Black and Decker drill (pull trigger - on - let go of trigger - off - ) is not of any interest for me. Just my two cents! Mark
Definitely not traditional but food for thought. Maybe not in our time but if people in the future want to enjoy cl***ic cars it may very well be the wave of the future, with gas being 4 dollars plus now where will it go in the next ten years? HRP WHETHER we like it or not, electric vehicles are going to play a big part in the future of transportation, but driving an electric car doesn’t necessarily mean you have to give up old-school style. We’ve seen old cars converted to electric vehicles before, but this is the latest one: Evie, the electric ’57 Ford Fairlane built by one of NZ’s biggest electricity companies, Mercury. The Fairlane started out with V8 power, before all of its running gear was stripped out to make way for a Siemens electric motor out of a German bus. The motor is powered by 218 battery cells weighing around 400kg, which provide 50kWh of capacity – enough for around 120km of silent electric drive. While its range might not be nearly as good as a modern electric car like a Tesla with a range of over 500km, it only takes two hours for a full charge, and the car has a conventional automatic gearbox and rear-wheel drive. The electric motor is positioned where the old petrol engine sat, and the gearbox is in roughly its normal position too. Kiwi engineer Scott Osbourne set up the motor with his own custom-built AC motor controller and gearbox control software to make Evie drive like a normal car; the motor even continues to idle when the throttle isn’t pressed.
You know... I don't intend to own an electric vehicle in my lifetime so long as gas pumps exist. To put my thoughts in perspective, I'd point some things out. When I grew up in the 80's in the metro Detroit area, most cars on the road where I live were Ford, GM or Chrysler. When there wasn't snow on the ground there was a car show somewhere every weekend - often more than one. Any weeknight there was a cruise night somewhere and often it was hard to find parking. So when I went to college in Florida in 1990 it was a bit of a culture shock to see the majority of cars being imports, there were fewer car shows, fewer cars at them. Overall I think the point is I grew up in metro Detroit and to me it really was the motor city. Which I say to give the next point context: Even though I still live in metro Detroit, my kids don't care a lot about cars. When my generation is gone, they aren't going to feel the way I do about gas powered engines. So if the art and beauty of these historic body styles stays alive another generation by converting them to electric - I'm okay with that. I won't participate. But I won't be rolling over in my grave either. But I'm sure by the time I head there, they'll probably use something electric to haul me there.
I have nothing against the idea of electric vehicles. I would not consider buying one though until they offer the same or better range of a comparable internal combustion powered vehicle, and can be fully recharged in the time it takes to fill a gas tank. Having said that, I don't understand the attraction of refitting cl***ic vehicles with electric motors. Part of the allure of vintage cars is the internal combustion engine under the hood, with all the ***ociated noises and smells that go with it. Take that away, and it's just not the same anymore.
Simplicity, reliability, power, novelty? And if nothing else, it seems completely within the original spirit of hotrodding what you have with whatever latest auto tech gets you from A to B faster than the other guy.
No doubt those are all benefits of an electric swap, with the exception of novelty, as that's not always a benefit. If it were all about the benefits gained, hot rodders would be all over 4-door sedans with their greatly improved back seat access. That's where the smiles per gallon factor comes in. Some kid in a honda will drive circles around most of our beloved high-powered relics. The question is which would you rather drive? Swapping engines in pursuit of more power and reliability is great, but in the end the car still has to be fun to drive. Most of my time spent driving my old Ford is with the radio off. Nothing on the radio can compare with the song being sung under the hood.
I feel the same as you guys. But you know I live in the big city. See more and more EVs is daunting. Eventual some rules will get put into place to obsolete ICE vehicles. I think they will drive the gas price up to get more cars off the road. But not that in Japan and Europe gas is much closer to 9.00-11.00 a gallon. I think the way this will all play out is getting all the LS conversion guys to start going even and the rest of the pack will follow.
The whole thing is artificial and intended to impose their "Green New Deal" without them having to p*** it through Congress, which would never happen. Electric vehicles aren't ready for use on the scale they're imposing and neither is the grid. This is turning into a royal clusterf*ck.
I don't see EVs as a threat to traditional ICE cl***ics any more than outboard motors were a threat to sailboats. There's probably more sailboats (and canoes and kayaks) out there now than there ever were before the advent of power. I suspect the real threat to our cars are the generations coming up behind us that have lost interest in our cars.
EVs aren't the threat. The threat is the current crop of politicians deliberately drying up the fossil fuels we use in our cars.
You mean drying up by pumping near record amounts of crude oil out of the ground right now? https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCRFPUS2&f=W
It was all over the news -- https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/13/oil-gas-producers-first-quarter-2022-profits
Perhaps I should reword this. If we are pumping record amounts of oil then we should have record low fuel prices. That's the way capitalism works unless it's being interfered with, mainly by politicians. Yes, demand is up after the pandemic but that doesn't account for all of the high prices.
Capitalism works by charging what the market will bear. I don't know why people have such a hard time making the connection between oil companies doubling and tripling their profits in the course of a year, and the sudden doubling of gas prices during that same year.
Agreed. I remember when gas was under $1.00 and I said "I'm not going to buy gas again until it goes back down". I then said that at $2 and again at $3... The point being, as long as we keep buying the oil companies will keep raising the price
And this isn't anything new. There's 120 years of history of this, and anyone not familiar should do a Google search on Standard Oil, Teddy Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller, and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
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