Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A few things to know before stealing my 914

hagerty.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 428 posts

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#231

Post by mdoms »

tibbydudeza wrote: post #189

I am rather glad that modern cars late 90's are so depressingly reliable and lacking in "character" and just works when I turn the key and all they needs is fuel, oil change, filters and fluids at intervals. I would choose an Audi/BMW if I wanted that sort trepidation in my life.

I read your first sentence and was about to regale you with the reliability stories of my 2009 BMW 335i, but I see you have that covered in your second sentence. I mercifully sold that car just a few weeks ago and it's like having a weight off my back not seeing it in the driveway every day.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#232

Post by kelnos »

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 this guy's bona-fides are pretty solid, though:

> Norman Garrett was the Concept Engineer for the original Miata back in his days at Mazda’s Southern California Design Studio. He currently teaches automotive engineering classes at UNC-C’s Motorsports Engineering Department in Charlotte, North Carolina and curates his small collection of dysfunctional automobiles and motorcycles.

I imagine some of this was written tongue-in-cheek: the problems are probably not as bad as described, and/or the problems are things that have been wrong with the car at some point, but have mostly been fixed, and he's writing about it as if all the problems exist at once for entertainment value.

Or it's all true as it is, and that's just life, because people don't always have 100 spare hours to fix all the problems present on a car of that age. Maybe you do (how lucky for you!), but it's a bit uncharitable to throw shade at someone else.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#233

Post by mdoms »

orangepurple wrote: post #55

I used to bother with mechanical junk like this when I was younger. I bought 10 cars under $1000 and repaired everything from shattered valvetrain to clogged fuel filters. These days if I wanted to drive a junk car with a good brand I would LS swap it and call it a day. It's more important to treat cancer before it metastasizes unlike the hospice care this person is giving that car. It troubles me to see people suffe…

It troubles you that this person has an interest you don't share?

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#234

Post by [deleted] »

quadrifoliate wrote: post #24

> Depress the clutch as you would in any car, and pull the knob from its secure location out of first gear. Now you will become adrift in the zone known to early Porsche owners as “Neverland” and your quest will be to find second gear. Prepare yourself for a ten-second-or-so adventure. Do not go straight forward with the shift knob, as you will only find Reverse waiting there to mock you with a shriek of high-speed g…

[deleted]

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#235

Post by everybodyknows »

quadrifoliate wrote: post #24

> Depress the clutch as you would in any car, and pull the knob from its secure location out of first gear. Now you will become adrift in the zone known to early Porsche owners as “Neverland” and your quest will be to find second gear. Prepare yourself for a ten-second-or-so adventure. Do not go straight forward with the shift knob, as you will only find Reverse waiting there to mock you with a shriek of high-speed g…

The name "Neverland" is new to me, but I remember that place of limbo well. Assuming the tranny is in good order, there's a firm spring detent that generally saves the driver from 1->R upshift failures.

The 1->4 mistake OTOH, having drifted a little too far right in Neverland, was easily fallen into, and the shuddering deceleration that follows may have been the cause of a few rear-end collisions over the years.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#236

Post by pnathan »

tibbydudeza wrote: post #189

I am rather glad that modern cars late 90's are so depressingly reliable and lacking in "character" and just works when I turn the key and all they needs is fuel, oil change, filters and fluids at intervals. I would choose an Audi/BMW if I wanted that sort trepidation in my life.

that was my basic impression. I drove an '89? Izuzu and a '85? Mitsubishi as my first two cars in the mid '00s; they were pretty "just works" too, barring some repairs. Nothing this crotchety.

I now drive a '21 Camry and man, it's just nice. Things work. I mean, I don't mind pulling things apart, but it's like, do I really want to run Gentoo constantly if I don't budget 4-6 hours/mo to maintain it? (no)

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#237

Post by bombcar »

js2 wrote: post #106
bombcar wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old cars had an accessible amount of "troubleshooting" available which greatly helps learn tinkering skills. New cars are substantially more reliable, but that same troubleshooting can be helpful but somewhat harder to learn I feel.

Troubleshooting is a lot harder for a variety of reasons. Things are hidden away under plastic panels, the vehicles have a lot more electronics, and everything is fit into much tighter spaces. Still, between YouTube and enthusiast forums dedicated to whatever model car it is, you can usually do a lot. Typically if something goes wrong on your car, the same thing has gone wrong to a lot of other folks with the same ca…

Half the troubleshooting is being able to recognize and describe the problem in such a way that you can search for the solution. Knowing what "sluggish acceleration" is vs "RPM limited at 3k" vs "cold-start no power" is half the battle.

YouTube is substantially better than the old Chilton manuals and arguably some better than the manufacturer repair manuals (many of which assume you have an entire dealer shop's worth of tools). A number of videos (and even some of the Chilton manuals) will have variations on the process that either avoid the specialized tool (at perhaps a bit longer of a process) or a workaround that greatly simplifies the process.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#238

Post by mdoms »

avgcorrection wrote: post #45

This is an ad for “Insurance for people who love cars” (Hagerty).

No, this is automotive journalism from a company that also sells automotive insurance. They are an excellent automotive journalism outfit. If you had any actual interest in cars you would know this. If you don't - maybe move on and read something else.

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#239

Post by bombcar »

oliveshell wrote: post #148
bombcar wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Deuce and a Half has an even more interesting one, just when you think you've figured out the dog-leg you find the last two are reversed again. HN supports shift pattern unicode! Ⓡ②⑤ |–|–| ①③④

You’re not kidding! I first learned to drive stick in a deuce-and-a-half that my dad bought cheap at a surplus auction. I accidentally shifted from 1st straight into 5th quite a few times. The darn thing had so much torque that it wouldn’t even stall when you did that!

Fun fact: the torque converter was invented a few years before the automatic transmission - and some cars were sold with a manual transmission and a torque converter. With only two or three forward gears, they found most of the customers would leave the car in the top gear and just accelerate slowly ...

Re: A few things to know before stealing my 914

#240

Post by technothrasher »

fosk wrote: post #210
quadrifoliate wrote: post #24

> Depress the clutch as you would in any car, and pull the knob from its secure location out of first gear. Now you will become adrift in the zone known to early Porsche owners as “Neverland” and your quest will be to find second gear. Prepare yourself for a ten-second-or-so adventure. Do not go straight forward with the shift knob, as you will only find Reverse waiting there to mock you with a shriek of high-speed g…

It’s a better pattern for racing since you can more easily shift between 2nd and 3rd gear in a quicker way. Older Ferraris (I believe the Testarossa and the TR512, but maybe others too) also have the same pattern.

The Ferrari V6/V8 cars from the 206 Dino through the 328 have that pattern, but they switched to a standard shift pattern in the 348. You can't accidentally shift into reverse though, as the metal shift gate has a stop on it. You have to push down to get past the stop and into reverse.
Post reply on HN