What Do You Drive?

[rojo]

Or what would you like to drive, if you could?

I have a Mazda Protégé, which is starting to get pretty beat up...

If you don`t drive, what is your prefered mode of transportation?

[Debbie]

I drive a Mitsubishi L200. Nothing fancy about it but I do live in the rural countryside and it is essential. Especially with the snow we having at the moment. Our other car is a beat up Renault Savannah. I am willing to bet that no one has even heard of this model of car?
If I had enough money I would love to own one of the new Land Rover Discovery's they are a fantastic car, well it was on the test drive but no way could I begin to afford that one.

[Krummhorn]

VW Jetta - the sporty GLS version with the 1.8LTurbo ... very economical around town - very comfy on long trips.

Debbie: Renault Savannah - is that the Diesel trubo version?

Kh

[giovannimusica]

2006 Mazda RX-8

I get lots of smiles-per-mile and 33 mpg to boot.

Regards!

Giovanni

[rojo]

Ooh la la! Nice looking vehicle as well..

[Krummhorn]

Gio ...

What color is the Mazda? I'm guessing either Red or Blue ... am I close?

Kh

[Gary Blanchard]

I drive a 2001 Hyundai Accent; a green 2-door w/hatchback and five-speed manual transmission. It has several Grateful Dead stickers, a Positive Path Recovery sticker, and a WFCR sticker, which is my local public radio/classical station.

[giovannimusica]

Aloha Br. Lars,

I'm afraid you're not even close. Mine is sunlight silver - here's a pic of the model I drive:

http://www.supercars.dk/images/produ...8-supercar.jpg


Regards!

Giovanni

[Krummhorn]

Aloha, Giovanni

Pretty snazzy looking wheels there ... I can see why the head-turning quotent is high for this going about the island there. Curious, what do you pay for gas there? We are edging really close to $3 here.

Best Regards,
Khorn

[Ouled Nails]

We affectionately call it "The brat." It's a Subaru Baja, one of those curious looking cars that doesn't have a trunk; just an open space in the back . But this little brat can take me in the most remote corners of Maine. Picture-perfect a few feet away from a lake at dusk Call me a lake brat!

[giovannimusica]

Aloha Br. Lars,

Thanx - what is so addictive about this car is that the engine itself, not the exhaust, has a sound very much like a gas-turbine. Of course, because of this sound I have a hankering to install a real turbine which would set me back $40,000 but todays turbines are so well made there's hardly any maintenance. The turbine will far outlive the chassis and bodywork. The main things to watch out for is foreign-object ingestion and oil-starved compressor and turbine bearings. The synthetic oil for the bearings is never involved in the combustion process so there are no carbon products fouling the oil.

The oil system for the bearings is a totally closed loop system. Foreign-object ingestion with a compressor spinning at up to 50,000 rpm is of course catastrophic. But today turbines come equipped with airfilters that eject particulate matter. Best thing with the turbine(Rolls-Royce 250-C40B) is that it can produce 750 hp - 700 ft/lbs. of torque and still get 33 mpg. Go figure! The reason being is that expanding hot exhaust gases are efficiently captured by the turbine blades and put to use. In a conventional motor that heat is lead away through the radiator.

At Costco I'm paying $3.00/gal. At other places they are paying $3.50/gal.

Regards!

Giovanni

p.s. the weight of the turbine installed is 280 lbs - my rotary is a stout 700 lbs!

[Krummhorn]

Interesting info on the turbine ... and the weight wouldn't be a huge problem either ... but that initial pricetag is pretty steep. Guess you will be playing the lottery now !! What would be the 0-60 time with the gas-turbine?

After my last gutless and underpowered piece of ... ... junk, any future car I bought would have to have lots of pep and loads of creature comforts, too. The only caveat is that I have to run the 91 octane fuel and use synthetic oil, in my '04 Jetta (because of the turbo-charger) but the trade-off is worth it, no questions asked.

[Albert]

Or what would you like to drive, if you could?

I have a Mazda Protégé, which is starting to get pretty beat up...

If you don`t drive, what is your prefered mode of transportation?

We drive a 2002 Toyota Tundra v-8 Access Cab with four wheel drive. As you might notice from the attached picture taken September 15th, 2006, there are a at least two reasons we use the Tundra.
1. Can't tow a fifth wheel trailer except with a pickup truck. We've owned the trailer since 1992. It's a classic! Well, it is over 25 years old.

2. At 1,300 m in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, we have a saying: "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes". Four wheel drive can be a definite asset.

3. Our last Toyota truck lasted us 12 years and 285,000 km towing this trailer and driving to work and back 35 km, in mountain weather of course.
4. By the way, this picture is about 40 km from our home. We had to pull the trailer up a 12% slope, in snow, driving around trees that the wet snow had broken down. We had to use low range, four wheel drive, and even then it was not fun! at the time.

Gas mileage is not a priority, obviously, although the truck can get thirsty if we push it too fast.

PS - we LOVE visitors.

[giovannimusica]

Aloha Lars,

The 0-60 time would be 3 seconds - Formula One territory. Of course, that type of power would necessitate a new differential and rear-end build up adding $10,000 to the price. What would go missing is the six-speed gearbox. A turbine does not thrive with a manual gearbox. You'd wind up at worst stalling the engine and make for a very uncomfortable ride. You don't do engine braking like you can on a piston or a rotary engine. So there are idiosyncracies present which one doesn't think about with the other engine types.

But on the plus side: Bearing oil change after one year, no radiator to screw around with, no sparkplugs to change - there are two igniter plugs but they'll only need changing after 5 years since they are only used during start-up. You'd wind up saving a bundle on engine maintenance costs since there are so few moving parts. Think about it - only a compressor and a turbine mounted on a common shaft, fuel pump, hydro pump for power steering and an alternator for the electrical. The fuel control is digital - it's *sorta-kinda* like a carburetor for the turbine, only that fuel is metered - no air mixing. FADEC is the term - Full Authority Digital Engine Control.

Ok, I'll stop boring you and everyone else with the details. Yes, I'm a motor and performance *junkie* besides my love for Classical music. Odd combination, eh?

Another thing: I don't understand people who buy big motors, plop them into the engine bay but don't consider the handling aspect. An old proverb goes like this: *Power ain't nothing without control*.

Regards!

Giovanni

[Krummhorn]

Hi Albert ...

Beautiful picture ... gosh, even with all the snow it looks like a wonderful place to be. My folks had a Komfort 28' (not a 5th wheel though) and traveled all over the US for many years ... those are really nice units.

Giovanni -

Let's see if I got this right: an obviously classy guy who drives a classy car and likes classical music ... no, not odd at all. The best of all worlds there .

Aloha