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A few things to know before stealing my 914

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Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#221

Post by technothrasher »

rootsudo wrote: post #141
gkoberger wrote: post #42

This is one of my favorite styles of writing. I have absolutely no clue what this person is talking about and have no interest in cars, yet I read every single word. I love when people have such a deep knowledge of something that they can write an essay as unique and thoughtful as this. It reminds me of Kitchen Confidential, Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman!, or any rant about British politics by David Mitchell.

It's quite fun, but anyone can pick it up in a few days if you join a few great Car forums that remain, or, ick, facebook groups and reddit groups. The discord groups are more of casual conversation and making fun of each other/new people who are trying to DIY. The BMW car forum is good, bimmerforums.com. Pelicanpart forum is good. BMW/Porsche GrassrootMotorsports is good. General racing, falls back to bmw/porsche/co…

This is all true, but one needs to be aware that these forums are also chock full of "forum folklore". You'll get all kinds of advice and lecturing which is driven by what has been posted before rather than what matches reality.

Mixing DOT-5 brake fluid with DOT-3/4 is always a fun one. Folklore is that it will poison children and kill puppies. Reality is that they are, by law, compatible and mixing won't do anything more than create a fluid with unknown boiling points, but this is true of mixing any two brake fluids (and it is true DOT-5 is not compatible with ABS brake systems, but that's a separate point).

Pretty much anything to do with turbos is another fun one, as many folks have no idea how turbos work but have lots of opinions on tuning them.

Anyway, the point is that the comradery is great on these forums, they're a lot of fun, and you can find good info, but don't take any info on them as gospel.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#222

Post by chernevik »

cpfohl wrote: post #190
skeeter2020 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you love this style and want something intentionally ridiculous check out the various writings at https://www.mcsweeneys.net/

This also reminded me of this delightful piece of writing: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/why-the-police-dont-pat... I can't find the original, but the copy there is exactly what I remembered.

"'It's just a bunny', they all say" -- Tim the Wizard

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#223

Post by hollander »

gambiting wrote: post #166
EastSmith wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the electric conversion still a thing? I want an eclectic car with no monitors, no software updates, no surveillance (none of the new electric car offers that - they are calling home for updates and god knows why way too often, and they have bigger monitors than my 14" work laptop).

>>none of the new electric car offers that Eh? I literally got a brand new electric VW e-Up last week, it's exactly that. It even still has analog dials, and VW provides a mount for your phone instead of an "infotainment" system. The height of sophistication is DAB radio and heated front window and seats. I highly recommend it, it's a hoot - and with 150 miles range and rapid charging capability it's more than enough…

That's a nice car. The range is a bit limited, but I could see myself buying it. Thanks for this info!

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#224

Post by rozap »

danboarder wrote: post #142

I regularly drive a 1973 VW westy (bus camper van) and it has these same type of quirks! For me they are all second nature after having the vehicle for over 10 years. I one had to leave it in a parking lot and later have it towed while I was at work. The tow truck driver could not figure out how to get it started even with me walking him through it on the phone! The ignition is 'wiggly' where it won't start until you…

I have a 74. My wife used it to go camping and I guess I didn't explain the starting procedure well enough because it was second nature. She ended up having to get a jump after flooding it and killing the battery. Oops.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#225

Post by cpfohl »

hallway_monitor wrote: post #209
cpfohl wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This also reminded me of this delightful piece of writing: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/why-the-police-dont-pat... I can't find the original, but the copy there is exactly what I remembered.

That was some of the best storytelling I have ever read. Wow.

Reading this out loud is incredibly difficult. Discovered it in my Sophomore year of College, and it took my two roommates and I about 45 minutes to read through the whole thing out loud because we were laughing so hard.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#226

Post by fhood »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #220
theluketaylor wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, I know a ton about cars and actually own a german sports car of roughly this vintage and this rings incredibly true (and also hilarious). My car can't be locked due to fear of it never opening again, starting the engine requires a delicate balance of the right amount of throttle and prayers the battery has enough charge, and selecting first is a preposterous mixture of a delicate ballet and sledgeha…

On the actual flip side, there are plenty of people who properly maintain vintage sports cars instead of just talking about how much they know about them. I get that door handles and lock cylinders are often made of easily-broken pot metal, but most owner communities have figured out solutions, or just live a little and recognize that a locksmith can easily get you into almost any vintage car if necessary. The starti…

Hahaha, even on old muscle cars with good parts availability, and only 4 moving parts in the first place, something is virtually always broken. Keeping a german car of this era functioning is a sisyphean task.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#227

Post by mdoms »

bluetomcat wrote: post #116

Almost any 30+ year-old vehicle is full of these special quirks requiring special "rituals". The annoying thing is that they are hard to fix and often require rare parts which are not easily available. I have a '95 Rover 216 Coupe which is mechanically very solid (Honda engine and running gear) and very well maintained, but the rest of the car is full of quirks caused by age deterioration. The numerous "rituals" incl…

I have a '88 Ford Falcon ute which is mercifully easy to fix and parts are plentiful. I absolutely recommend old cars to everyone, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread they build character. But I mostly recommend the ones with lots of parts. Not just factory but cars that had a strong aftermarket in their day.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#228

Post by winrid »

everybodyknows wrote: post #216

> The dual Webers don’t have chokes and you’ll be squirting fuel down the barrels with the accelerator pumps for the necessary priming regime. The engineering Puritan will want to know that the Webers are a retrofit, a hack for escape from the factory's refractory -- but cutting edge tech in the 70s! -- VW electronic fuel injection. The EFI "brain" was a box the size of a small modern laptop, stuffed with individual…

I had to diagnose an issue with said brain on a car from 1982.

Previous owners could not figure out the issue. The car's engine would rev "bounce" at idle like it had a big cam, but it didn't go away when driving, making driving not very fun. So I got the Scirocco for dirt cheap.

I realized on day that if you opened and closed the hood a couple times, the issue would fix it self, and it was very repeatable.

I realized the computer is mounted next to the hood hinge!

I got lucky and just blindly resoldering all the joints in the computer fixed it.

We later swapped that 400k mile motor setup to a modern turbo motor with a sequential gearbox, and it's a rally car now. :)

(not super important to story but the "ECU" from 1982 was a bit more modern, Jetronic as it was called was "only" roughly the size of a few old TI-82s).

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#229

Post by The-Bus »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #220
theluketaylor wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, I know a ton about cars and actually own a german sports car of roughly this vintage and this rings incredibly true (and also hilarious). My car can't be locked due to fear of it never opening again, starting the engine requires a delicate balance of the right amount of throttle and prayers the battery has enough charge, and selecting first is a preposterous mixture of a delicate ballet and sledgeha…

On the actual flip side, there are plenty of people who properly maintain vintage sports cars instead of just talking about how much they know about them. I get that door handles and lock cylinders are often made of easily-broken pot metal, but most owner communities have figured out solutions, or just live a little and recognize that a locksmith can easily get you into almost any vintage car if necessary. The starti…

I think a faculty at a Motorsports Engineering School probably knows how to maintain vintage sports cars. Just because they own the car does not mean they need to maintain it.

This is also a humor article.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#230

Post by throwaway0a5e »

js2 wrote: post #75
fabioborellini wrote: post #22

So, apparently there is no mandatory vehicle inspection in the US. Of course there isn't, it would violate the freedom to drive with an unroadworthy car.

Yes there is, it varies by state. Author is in NC, same as me. There is a state-wide safety inspection but vehicles older than 30 years are exempt: https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/title-registration/emissions-safet... There's also an emissions inspection that varies by county, but vehicles older than 20 years are exempt. https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/title-registration/emissions-safet... Does it make any sense to exempt older…

Beyond 30yr the people driving them are doing it for fun and aren't going to generally be running bald tires down the highway in the rain and when they do they are doing it full well knowing that they have to be super careful. Basically they know what they're getting into and don't need the state to tell them why working lights are good and brake pads shouldn't make metal noises.
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