luvflyin
Touchdown! Greaser!
How to build your own convertible.
The Topless Thread (hope I don't get banned again)
- Thread starter mscard88
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2014
- Messages
- 9,771
- Location
- Broken Arrow, OK
- Display Name
Display name:
SoonerAviator
Thanks! We had a blast at our wedding and had been together for 7 years prior to that, so we had most of the anxiety worked out by then! The downside was that the fuse for the running lights was blown, so I drove the 20 miles to the hotel at night with one foot on the brake (lightly) to illuminate the taillights lol.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
NoHeat
Final Approach
I rented a red 2016 Mustang convertible from National, in San Jose CA. I just loved it!
It was an absolute delight to drive it down Hwy 1, listening to the waves crashing and smelling the salt air.
It looked mostly like this, except the rental car was not the GT version, which has a V8. If I lived in CA or FL, I'd drive one all the time.
It was an absolute delight to drive it down Hwy 1, listening to the waves crashing and smelling the salt air.
It looked mostly like this, except the rental car was not the GT version, which has a V8. If I lived in CA or FL, I'd drive one all the time.
- Joined
- May 18, 2007
- Messages
- 6,809
- Display Name
Display name:
jsstevens
If I could sit in either the Miata or the S-2000 with the top up I'd probably have one now. I tried them both (along with a Porsche Boxster, BMW Z-4) and couldn't fit. I have a long torso and "sit tall".
TR-4, TR-6, MGB, MG Midget, nothing (to me) feels more like a sports car to sit in than those classic British sports cars. My Mini is the Cooper S 2006 which is the last year of the British designed Mini. Built by BMW but designed by British Leyland just before BMW bought them. So it feels right.
TR-4, TR-6, MGB, MG Midget, nothing (to me) feels more like a sports car to sit in than those classic British sports cars. My Mini is the Cooper S 2006 which is the last year of the British designed Mini. Built by BMW but designed by British Leyland just before BMW bought them. So it feels right.
mscard88
Touchdown! Greaser!
I fit liked a glove when I had a TR-6. Just felt good. The Honda S2000 was comfortable for me too. Used to have a Sprite & MG Midget, no way I'd fit in them now, let alone trying to even get in them. Not flexible enough now lol.
mscard88
Touchdown! Greaser!
I rented a red 2016 Mustang convertible from National, in San Jose CA. I just loved it!
It was an absolute delight to drive it down Hwy 1, listening to the waves crashing and smelling the salt air.
It looked mostly like this, except the rental car was not the GT version, which has a V8. If I lived in CA or FL, I'd drive one all the time.
We can drive with the top down most of the year here in Alabama, probably 8-9 months a year. And then on those Indian Summer days we get in winter too.
Matthew K
Line Up and Wait
Forget the car, I'll take the helicopter!!
FormerHangie
En-Route
I'm not much on convertibles, but I love the looks of this one: (Jaguar D-Type)
The Lotus/Caterham Seven has always appealed to me, though never enough to go out and buy one:
I never really had an opportunity to get a toy car, since I spent most of my young adulthood racing, which definitely precludes having an extra street car.
In hang gliding, most gliders have a kingpost with wires:
The kingpost is the tube sticking up out of the top. But the highest performance ones have a cantilever wing support without the kingpost and wires:
This is a Wills Wing T2C, like the one that Dustin Martin used to set the hang gliding world record distance flight of 472 miles. It's my favorite flying topless.
The Lotus/Caterham Seven has always appealed to me, though never enough to go out and buy one:
I never really had an opportunity to get a toy car, since I spent most of my young adulthood racing, which definitely precludes having an extra street car.
In hang gliding, most gliders have a kingpost with wires:
The kingpost is the tube sticking up out of the top. But the highest performance ones have a cantilever wing support without the kingpost and wires:
This is a Wills Wing T2C, like the one that Dustin Martin used to set the hang gliding world record distance flight of 472 miles. It's my favorite flying topless.
luvflyin
Touchdown! Greaser!
Don't forget the Austin Healey 3000. When I had my MGA's I always did feel like a wanna be. Damn, now I'm googling them to see what they are going for.
paflyer
Final Approach
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2015
- Messages
- 9,306
- Display Name
Display name:
Aztec Flyer
With Fiats it was always a race to fix the stuff that broke so you could at least get a few more miles out of it before it rusted away completely.
Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
- Messages
- 30,006
- Display Name
Display name:
iFlyNothing
I test drove a Boxster once - fit in it surprisingly well, but it was too slow for me and some of the maintenance-related items I read were rather terrifying. I still want to own a rear-engined Porsche someday... but that day is not today.
BigBadLou
Final Approach
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2014
- Messages
- 5,173
- Location
- TX - the friendliest state
- Display Name
Display name:
Lou
I normally caption these with:
I like to drive the way I fly: FAST.
I like to drive the way I fly: FAST.
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2013
- Messages
- 4,266
- Location
- Live from the Grill-o-mat
- Display Name
Display name:
Mantis Toboggan, MD
The sporty now-single-seat version:
Nauga,
and the black-and-yellow handhold
Nauga,
and the black-and-yellow handhold
John221us
En-Route
Based on what empirical data? I have owned two of them without those issues. I have also had Fiat mechanics tell me otherwise.
Hm, bucket seats and upper A-arms in the front suspension but no "7" in the grill... must be a late 80's or early 90's car? Does it have a de Dion?
I see you have a thing for Minilites.
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2015
- Messages
- 9,306
- Display Name
Display name:
Aztec Flyer
Based on all the obviously observable ones that littered the shoulders of the highways of America in the 1970s...until the Chevy Vega came along and
de-throned Fiat from that singular distinction.
P.S. Try not to take every PoA post so seriously.
wrbix
Pattern Altitude
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2013
- Messages
- 2,398
- Display Name
Display name:
Pilot Lite
Good eye.Hm, bucket seats and upper A-arms in the front suspension but no "7" in the grill... must be a late 80's or early 90's car? Does it have a de Dion?
I see you have a thing for Minilites.
Yeah, built the Seven in the early 90's. deDion. 1700 crossflow w dual DCOE40's. Intake sound almost surpasses the exhaust note.
Little more Brit than Minilites.
Well I've got one from the late 70's (bench seats, metal toggle switches, Smiths gauges, solid rear axle) so I've had practice looking.
I would post, but all the pics I have handy are embarrassingly bad. I need to take it out for some beauty shots this weekend.
mscard88
Touchdown! Greaser!
The 3000 was my dream car. Had to be BRG. Wire wheels. Beautiful car. They're expensive now for a good one, over $50-60K. I see a couple every fall when the local British Sports Car Club has a show. Hmm let's see, Cherokee or Healey...
Last edited:
mscard88
Touchdown! Greaser!
Bugeye! Always was find of those. Yours looks sweet.
steingar
Taxi to Parking
Back in the day my brother had a 128 and an X19. The 128 was a great car, fun to drive, comfortable to sit in, big trunk, good mileage. When it worked, which wasn't all that often. The X19 was neat, and probably would have been lot of fun when it worked, which was never. Cars don't get these reputations out of nowhere.
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2008
- Messages
- 16,022
- Location
- DXO124009
- Display Name
Display name:
Light and Sporty Guy
Yea, and you could squeeze a small block V8 into it - real easy to work on with that long skinny bonnet...The 3000 was my dream car. Had to be BRG. Wire wheels. Beautiful car. They're expensive now for a good one, over $50-60K. I see a couple every fall when the local British Sports Car Club has a show. Hmm let's see, Cherokee or Healey...
mscard88
Touchdown! Greaser!
Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
- Messages
- 30,006
- Display Name
Display name:
iFlyNothing
Friend of mine who was a retired Ford exec (and had been heavily involved in the Merkurs with the turbo 2.3) had a 7 that he built (or paid someone to build, I forget) with a turbo 2.3 in it. Forget how much power he had out of it, but it was a whole lot for that little thing. Sadly I never got to ride in it.
mscard88
Touchdown! Greaser!
Flew some for Bill Elliot out of his private airport. I was at his race shop west of Dawsonville one day (runway there too). There sat a Cobra-type body (not sure but along those lines) with a NASCAR Ford racing engine stuffed into it, and the widest tires. His bro-in-law told me Bill took him for a ride in the N. Ga mountains and scared the crap out of him. He had some cool toys needless to say.
wrbix
Pattern Altitude
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2013
- Messages
- 2,398
- Display Name
Display name:
Pilot Lite
I'm of the "it's more fun to drive a slow car fast, etc etc " school of thought.
- Joined
- May 18, 2007
- Messages
- 6,809
- Display Name
Display name:
jsstevens
Oh yeah. And the Sprite, but that was just a rebadged midget. But the Bugeye Sprite and the 3000 were real lookers.
- Joined
- May 18, 2007
- Messages
- 6,809
- Display Name
Display name:
jsstevens
Peter Egan did a column on that for Road & Track. He drove an Austin Healey 3000 in SCCA races which topped out around 110 MPH, and at those speed was a real handful. It never impressed people at parties when they asked the inevitable question "How fast does it go?" Then he switched to a formula Ford which topped out around 140 MPH but was much easier to drive. 140 is enough to impress people. (Or was in those days.)
He titled the column the "The Low Velocity High Speed Car" or something like that.
John
John221us
En-Route
I am not sure when back in the day was, but I am guessing the 80's when there were a bunch of these around (I owned my 79 back then). People bought them cheap and didn't really take care of them. They just ran them and junked them. I lot of them were shipped back to Italy (my 79 was. A guy payed cash for it.). 79 was the first year of the 2 liter and this was a much better engine. The valves didn't go through the case, if you lost your timing belt. In 1980, they started fuel injecting them. My mechanic back then said the engines would easily do 200,000 miles without cracking the case and if you take care of them, they are reliable. I paid $2,000 for my 79 (back around 88) and there was a lot of junk on the market back then, but mine was in good shape. The junky ones could be had for $1,000 or less and people bought them as cheap toys. They are worth quite a bit more now (north of $10K), so I do regular maintenance and replace worn parts, when they need it (bushings, wheel bearings, etc.) and I use it as a driver when the weather is good. It starts and runs well and does not leave me stranded.
Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
- Messages
- 30,006
- Display Name
Display name:
iFlyNothing
I agree to a point. Certainly if racing, that's true. I like having a lot of excess power (especially at low RPM) as a safety feature when driving on the highway. As I don't own (and never have owned) a dedicated track car, they're all daily drivers. That's a lot of why I like my E55 AMG. I rarely use its full 469 HP (rated), and it rarely goes above 2,500 RPM when I'm driving it. But, I like having that power on hand.
ktup-flyer
En-Route
Pagani Cinque Roadster
ktup-flyer
En-Route
I just drive a somewhat fast (430hp, but feels slow) car fast. My mom says I “race to the speed limit”. She won’t ride with me lol
Last edited:
mscard88
Touchdown! Greaser!
When my mother rode with me she thought there was a brake pedal on the passenger side! Sometimes I swore she would put her foot thru the floorboard. I'd laugh at her and then she'd be ****ed at me.
Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
- Messages
- 30,006
- Display Name
Display name:
iFlyNothing
When my mother rode with me she thought there was a brake pedal on the passenger side! Sometimes I swore she would put her foot thru the floorboard. I'd laugh at her and then she'd be ****ed at me.
Reminds me of back when I was 19 or so and still had my first car - a 1982 Jaguar XJ-S V12 that I'd put a 5-speed manual in and generally hopped up pretty well. I was at the annual Jag-Lovers Picnic in New Jersey and a friend of mine from the forums wanted a ride. I tossed him the keys. After he drove it for a bit he said "Ok, now I want you to drive, because I can't beat on your car like you can beat on your car." Alright man, make sure the 4 point harnesses are cinched out tight.
Dumped the clutch from 4,000 RPM and drove out of the parking lot sideways, tore through the gears. Said "Let me know if you want me to slow down" and with a giant grin on his face he said "Do you see me hitting the brake pedal?"
I miss that car.
Joey4420
Pre-takeoff checklist
I will never knock building one, but for the price; just like with an Experimental aircraft you can get a better deal after someone else has built it. I paid less for my West Coast Cobra already built with a SVO 460 under the hood than I could buy just the rolling chassis from the manufacture. I have seen FFR's selling for as low at $18k, but a good one is around $25 or so with almost no mileage.
Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
- Messages
- 30,006
- Display Name
Display name:
iFlyNothing
Somerville, just south of the 78/287 interchange. I was living in NYC at the time, and there were a bunch of old Jaguar owners there who had a "First Tuesday" meeting on the first Tuesday of every month, and then the annual picnic in June. It was a really excellent group, not unlike the group here.