HMC- New- 500 Twinair

[wuvvum]

Chevy Astro - the Van that Can.

[eddyramrod]

The Astro seats look like a lovely place to sleep!

[HMC]

Works car park. Odd one out 

[Cookiesouwest]

3 minutes ago, HMC said:

Works car park. Odd one out 

Always be last in. The keeners who get in early ain't going anywhere, if they want to leave

[Rocket88]

On 11/24/2020 at 12:40 AM, Zelandeth said:

Still remember just standing by the tailpipe of this thing when it was running at the FotU and enjoying the lazy "Blub, blub, blub" idle.  Sounded like it was idling at about 200rpm which seems to be the norm for their stuff.

I really quite enjoy American cars which aren't trying to pretend to be anything else.  I *really* wanted to bring back the Chevy Astro that we had as a runaround back in 2014.  It was the "low end" version over there (rather than the day vans you tend to see), but it was just so, so, so comfy a thing to waft around in and I've never been in something that was just so easy to drive.

It was hilarious though looking under the bonnet.  Over here it would be a 2.0TD if you were lucky...No, V6 petrol here - all 4.6 litres of it. 

It had such a long stroke because of that that the torque was absolutely ridiculous...It pulled like a train from idle, and the gargling exhaust note was just hilarious.  Not quite as hilarious as how the thing would stand on its tail end and take off like it had been fired out of a cannon if you did floor it was though.

Sadly it was going to cost well north of five grand to get it shipped back though (plus the purchase price!), so I just couldn't make it make sense.

Even though this is a very "bread and butter" vehicle, it's just so very American...and that means COMFY and EASY where motoring is concerned.

V6 Vortec is a brilliant engine.............as with most Amerikun engines, vast amount of capacity for silly 'orsepower.........

[ETCHY]

Old yank barges are lovely things. 

I once knew a bloke who had a Chevy Caprice having previously owned a rather nice  Rolls Royce  Silver  Shadow. He always maintained the Chevy was smoother and more comfortable.

[sutty2006]

5 hours ago, HMC said:

Works car park. Odd one out 

Best colour too! 

[Mrs6C]

7 hours ago, HMC said:

Works car park. Odd one out 

Older American cars always used to be so big in comparison to their British and European cousins. Now it seems that modern British and European cars are just as big...

[Rod/b]

17 hours ago, HMC said:

Works car park. Odd one out 

Oh I dunno, early Rav 4 and is that a convertible PT Cruiser too? (Bottom left)

[HMC]

4 hours ago, Rod/b said:

Oh I dunno, early Rav 4 and is that a convertible PT Cruiser too? (Bottom left)

Yes on the rav4, but that other one is a mini convertible, alas.

[HMC]

I’ve got hold of a used LTI400 taxi meter so I can now drive about and pretend to charge myself for exciting trips to the supermarket.

Im going to blame lockdown for my behaviour.

[hairnet]

brown and beige advertising down the side obvs

autoflight

 

[High Jetter]

Make sure you get a receipt. Ker-ching, every trip!

[PhilA]

Re: Exhaust notes- A lot of people have it in their head that a large engine is naturally unstable and that all big American cars with big engines in (>4.0) lope amd pop and bang and sit at the traffic lights PRAC-PACKA-TACKAPAP-BRUB-PACKA-BRUBBA-POP

Nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, you can make a big eight lope and fart and idle lumpy but most American engines idle smoothly with only the occasional pop of a misfire.

Reason being is the market wanted something smooth, easy to drive but with enough grunt to get out of the way of it's own shadow when needed. So, big and lazy with a big hump of torque south of 2500rpm is where they're tuned. 

The pops and bangs and high stall torque converters are aftermarket only in most cases.

Even the 6.4 in my Challenger idles without missing a beat at 650rpm.

 

Phil

 

[danthecapriman]

8 hours ago, PhilA said:

Re: Exhaust notes- A lot of people have it in their head that a large engine is naturally unstable and that all big American cars with big engines in (>4.0) lope amd pop and bang and sit at the traffic lights PRAC-PACKA-TACKAPAP-BRUB-PACKA-BRUBBA-POP

Nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, you can make a big eight lope and fart and idle lumpy but most American engines idle smoothly with only the occasional pop of a misfire.

Reason being is the market wanted something smooth, easy to drive but with enough grunt to get out of the way of it's own shadow when needed. So, big and lazy with a big hump of torque south of 2500rpm is where they're tuned. 

The pops and bangs and high stall torque converters are aftermarket only in most cases.

Even the 6.4 in my Challenger idles without missing a beat at 650rpm.

 

Phil

 

This!

Mine doesn’t fart and burp constantly. You can clearly tell it’s a big V8 from the exhaust note, but it’s pretty smooth and refined really for such an old car. You can drive around in it and it’s pretty quiet most of the time (other than the usual old car rattling and road noises). If you watch the original tv commercials for mine they tried to emulate European luxury standards of comfort, quiet and refinement, something they did pretty well imho.

Saying that, if you start giving it some stick it soon wakes up and you do get that big block V8 noise easy enough! Doing it in tunnels or between walls etc is particularly sweet! It’s far from excessive or annoying though.

[wuvvum]

I've had a few American V8s over the years and I was always disappointed with how refined they sounded.  I was hoping they'd sound like the muscle car soundtrack you get in films, which they seem to play for every car from a Plymouth Roadrunner to a Geo Metro.

Probably the best-sounding American engine I ever had was the 3.8 V6 in the Mustang.

[HMC]

The crown vic fires up and idles so smoothly sometimes I wonder if it’s stalled (no rev counter doesn’t help) it’s pretty subdued but make a nice But low key noise on part throttle acceleration. Rocking of the car on its springs is available if you blip it when at a standstill and decide to be childish. 

[danthecapriman]

I think most yanks can be made to sound farting and burping but it’s usually fitting straight through pipes, big carbs (with the wrong jetting!), full flow air filters etc etc that does it. If the cars just a normal non muscle car type of car without all that crap then they generally sound a bit more muted.

Theres a guy round here with a 90’s Pontiac firebird and it is insanely loud and throaty, even just cruising down the road at 30 it’s loud. But that’s because he’s done loads to it to make it like that. It’s not my cup of tea, or should I say coffee & donuts, tbh! My cars got a bigger engine than his but doesn’t sound even half as loud or throaty, even when I give mine a shoeing it’s nowhere near as loud as his. I like to think of myself as to classy to be lowering myself to all that!!

 

[danthecapriman]

A bit more relevant!

 

[Fumbler]

The lazy but powerful engine in yank cars is really appealing to me- closest I've got to one was the V8 in the LandCruiser and that was a really smooth engine. Nothing like the real thing though!

[danthecapriman]

1 minute ago, Fumbler said:

The lazy but powerful engine in yank cars is really appealing to me- closest I've got to one was the V8 in the LandCruiser and that was a really smooth engine. Nothing like the real thing though!

Just my opinion...

But, there’s loads of V8’s from loads of countries. All are good. But they’re all just playing at it compared to the real American McCoy!

[PhilA]

6.4 in the Challenger, given a little beans in neutral.

Challenger.m4a

Standard factory exhaust.

Phil

[HMC]

Fleet news.

The 206 needed a new battery. It was quite overdue a cambelt and probably a rear wheelbearing and the odd tyre. I was just about to order one when I decided to acquire a recent battery attached to a thoroughly serviced Volvo S60 D5 manual. I did a deal with the vendor so he’s got the 206 and I’ve got a WBOD

 

Ive never had a Volvo newer than a 700/900 series so it’s a bit unfamiliar but seems like a well put together solid old thing. It’s got a 5 cylinder turbodiesel so makes quite a nice noise. I’m hoping it will be a good all rounder when I’m not in the mood for an American land yacht or a London taxi. 

[wuvvum]

Nice motors those S60s.

[Marm Toastsmith]

Yeah nice.

[gadgetgricey]

that looks lovely. What happened to the Audi Quattro, as was thinking about one myself?

[bezzabsa]

wonder if you can get any cash back from Zoom, state that as it's in a new area it'll attract more internet views LOL

[Cord Fourteener]

That's lovely, and very sensible.

[rickvw72]

Excellent machines these D5s, Had a V70 with one for a while. It was very nice indeed. 

[Ghosty]

Manual D5 is a great find, most are auto and they're not the best autoboxes.