oh noez!!! cheby cobalt FAIL.........

[Homeslice]

Originally Posted by Apoc

My uncle had one, mind you he had a stage 3 supercharger kit on it. It was fast, handled well in smooth, tight turns, but rougher than a rodeo bull.

Reminds me of pontiac sunfire.....think its the same chassis. Rear end kept kicking out over bumpy turns. Just a solid beam axle basically.

[Avatard]

For the record, my first car was a fully manual '70 Chevelle Malibu [zero-option stripper, orig with 307, and a 'glide]. The 'glide was DOA, so the build was on.

I assembled it (on a kid's budget, mostly used parts) to have:

Manual steering [with a 14" Grant wheel, no less!], Hurst Competition Plus shifted M-20 Muncie w/low 1st gear [yes, I cut a hole in the floor, and hung pedals], and fully manual brakes [gasp! DRUMS all corners!]. The mechanical secondary Holley quad 650 [on a single plane Edelbrock intake] had a huge fucking return spring on it too, as did the 3800Lb. clutch. Stock open 10 bolt [held up for a while in the back, was later replaced with a 12 bolt], a solid cam [sic], and some Blackjack headers, and the little 307 smallblock woke up nicely. The stock 2-bolt cast bottom end held up to everything, even though the powerband [with the solid stick and single plane] was high as balls, and the motor routinely saw 7000 RPMs as a result.

The thing was a fucking animal to drive.

I got to the point that I could actually drive that car, and eat a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke...but I wouldn't recommend it.

Once you learn to drive on that shit, though, anything else is cake. Thus I can say that I agree driver training could be a lot better - clearly not everyone should learn like I did, but evidently training helps. I would say I feel more prepared than most behind the wheel based on emergency driving situations I've experienced since, I feel, by my "training" in a challenging car.

How challenging was this thing [my first car] to drive?

Not ONCE in the 5 years or so that I had that fucking beast, did I ever have it successfully valet parked, and I used to drive to NYC often (LOL!). I got to walk around in a lot of NYC parking garages with the attendant as my guide. I used to try and park on the street as much as possible, as a result. Not like anyone could drive it to steal it...lol.

It didn't even have a security system (if they existed back then, I couldn't have afforded it).

[smileyman]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

'cept fly by wire is the direction all sportbikes are eventually going...

And to their credit they dont seem to be suffering any big setbacks. I remembered how shocked and appalled I was when I first heard of Yamaha's Fly by wire throttle. I was having issues with my Chevy T blazers linear potentiometer throttle at tha time.

[goof2]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

'cept fly by wire is the direction all sportbikes are eventually going...

More like all vehicles.

[Homeslice]

Originally Posted by Avatard

For the record, my first car was a fully manual '70 Chevelle Malibu [zero-option stripper, orig with 307, and a 'glide]. The 'glide was DOA, so the build was on.

I assembled it (on a kid's budget, mostly used parts) to have:

Manual steering [with a 14" Grant wheel, no less!], Hurst Competition Plus shifted M-20 Muncie w/low 1st gear [yes, I cut a hole in the floor, and hung pedals], and fully manual brakes [gasp! DRUMS all corners!]. The mechanical secondary Holley quad 650 [on a single plane Edelbrock intake] had a huge fucking return spring on it too, as did the 3800Lb. clutch. Stock open 10 bolt [held up for a while in the back, was later replaced with a 12 bolt], a solid cam [sic], and some Blackjack headers, and the little 307 smallblock woke up nicely. The stock 2-bolt cast bottom end held up to everything, even though the powerband [with the solid stick and single plane] was high as balls, and the motor routinely saw 7000 RPMs as a result.

The thing was a fucking animal to drive.

I got to the point that I could actually drive that car, and eat a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke...but I wouldn't recommend it.

Once you learn to drive on that shit, though, anything else is cake. Thus I can say that I agree driver training could be a lot better - clearly not everyone should learn like I did, but evidently training helps. I would say I feel more prepared than most behind the wheel based on emergency driving situations I've experienced since, I feel, by my "training" in a challenging car.

How challenging was this thing [my first car] to drive?

Not ONCE in the 5 years or so that I had that fucking beast, did I ever have it successfully valet parked, and I used to drive to NYC often (LOL!). I got to walk around in a lot of NYC parking garages with the attendant as my guide. I used to try and park on the street as much as possible, as a result. Not like anyone could drive it to steal it...lol.

It didn't even have a security system (if they existed back then, I couldn't have afforded it).

Just curious, what was the point of having manual steering on a car that size? Sure, power steering robs a little power, but I can't see it being a noticeable amount on a car like that.

[Avatard]

18 year old kid, limited funds. I started with a 307 Malibu stripper. If it didn't make the car go faster, it came off the car. The car came with no power anything, and I clearly made it worse (in terms of effort to operate)...but just a wee tad faster.

[Rangerscott]

There's a difference between a non power gear box and a power gear box that lost pressure.

When power steering goes out you're manually pushing fluid back and forth, so yes it does get stiff unlike just a regular old gear box like whats on my vehicle that has no pressure or anything to fight against other than friction.

[Avatard]

This is definitely true, and I was gonna bring it up if no one else did...but I will say this much about that:

I still argue that if you HAVE driven a manual steering car, you are still more likely to wrench it hard for control if the assist goes out. How do I know this? How do I know that an assisted steering that goes out is even harder than a plain manual? I've lost power in an assisted car before (my next Chevelle had PS)...but I'm still here, and I could still steer when it went down. It was just hard as balls, but I kept my composure, and pulled my ass off the seat turning the bitch, but it turned.

I guess if you never tried steering a car with no assist, you might just assume total failure, and not pull for your life. Recently, a fucking CHP cop died in his "out-of-control accelerating Lexus [Toyota]". The guy had time to call it in on his cell phone, but apparently couldn't stop the fucking car. I'm sorry but, WTF? We don't even teach cops how to drive now?

[Homeslice]

^ that guy died because he was too stupid to put it into neutral.

OR, he could have brought the car to a stop using the brakes, had he tried hard enough. Pretty much any modern car is capable of doing so, even if the gas pedal is stuck to the ground.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

^ that guy died because he was too stupid to put it into neutral.

OR, he could have brought the car to a stop using the brakes, had he tried hard enough. Pretty much any modern car is capable of doing so, even if the gas pedal is stuck to the ground.

that guy wanted to die. Period. That test c&d did proves he didnt make any serious attempt to stop that car