Funnest car you've owned....

[Holton 345]

u're a BFG guy eh? i feel bad for u

On the jeep they are great. On other vehicles I do not see the point. The BFGs I use are still very highly rated for off-road use, and the All-Terrains are very good in snow and rain. I'm not into bling or rice on my jeep - just functionality, man. HAHAHA!!!

My old TJ has some very good axles with solid-AF lockers and hardened alloy shafts, upgraded U joints, big brakes, etc. The front is off a 1998 MJ so it is high pinion Dana 30, which is stronger and has more clearance and when set up correctly is better in many ways than the fake Dana 44 made for the Rubicon.

I have only had to winch myself out of any messes due to tires in thick, soupy mud, and that was with the AT tires. I have never once been stuck in anything with the MT tires. May not be sexy, but hella good performers.

 

[rezwerd]

'91 Mazda 323 hatchback. It made about 80 horsepower, but also weighed less than a ton. No matter how much I wailed on it, it wouldn't get less than 30mpg. I was way too ambitious and tried to make my own interior panels and headlights, with varying degrees of success. In the end it succumbed to frame rust (the mount for the rear trailing arm was completely gone) and my brother and I rallied it around the farm and woods until it overheated and died.

I also had way more fun than I should have with my '95 Grand Marquis, but the open diff made it get stuck in places the Mazda thrived. I think I'm kind of over V8s after four years with that car.

 

[T.$.Racing]

'91 Mazda 323 hatchback. It made about 80 horsepower, but also weighed less than a ton. No matter how much I wailed on it, it wouldn't get less than 30mpg. I was way too ambitious and tried to make my own interior panels and headlights, with varying degrees of success. In the end it succumbed to frame rust (the mount for the rear trailing arm was completely gone) and my brother and I rallied it around the farm and woods until it overheated and died.

I also had way more fun than I should have with my '95 Grand Marquis, but the open diff made it get stuck in places the Mazda thrived. I think I'm kind of over V8s after four years with that car.

Don't let the gutless FoMoCo 4.6 ruin V8's for you. I'm a firm believer in real push rod, cam-in-block V8's and the torque they make, but those 2 valve SOHC 4.6's are damn near useless power wise without forced induction.That being said, they are definitely one durable/reliable family of motors.

 

[DarkSideAccord]

On the jeep they are great. On other vehicles I do not see the point. The BFGs I use are still very highly rated for off-road use, and the All-Terrains are very good in snow and rain. I'm not into bling or rice on my jeep - just functionality, man. HAHAHA!!!

My old TJ has some very good axles with solid-AF lockers and hardened alloy shafts, upgraded U joints, big brakes, etc. The front is off a 1998 MJ so it is high pinion Dana 30, which is stronger and has more clearance and when set up correctly is better in many ways than the fake Dana 44 made for the Rubicon.

I have only had to winch myself out of any messes due to tires in thick, soupy mud, and that was with the AT tires. I have never once been stuck in anything with the MT tires. May not be sexy, but hella good performers.

Toyo guys need to pull out the BFG guys who get stuck in the mud

 

[Holton 345]

Toyo guys need to pull out the BFG guys who get stuck in the mud

Not around here. I have winched out a lot of folks, and they all had different tires, with Toyo being in the mix. Tires help. Skill rules, though. Skill always wins. And skill comes with experience. Skill does not come with tires. HAHAHA!!!

 

[rezwerd]

Don't let the gutless FoMoCo 4.6 ruin V8's for you. I'm a firm believer in real push rod, cam-in-block V8's and the torque they make, but those 2 valve SOHC 4.6's are damn near useless power wise without forced induction.That being said, they are definitely one durable/reliable family of motors.

I cannot disagree with any of this. The only other V8 I've had was a Ford 390 in a '79 F250, which was awesome when it wasn't eating mechanical fuel pumps for breakfast. The two qualifications I had in mind when buying the Mercury was that it had to be bigger and more comfortable than the Mazda and it had to last more than a year, so the reliability worked out better than expected for a clapped-out sub-$1000 junker.

 

[T.$.Racing]

I cannot disagree with any of this. The only other V8 I've had was a Ford 390 in a '79 F250, which was awesome when it wasn't eating mechanical fuel pumps for breakfast. The two qualifications I had in mind when buying the Mercury was that it had to be bigger and more comfortable than the Mazda and it had to last more than a year, so the reliability worked out better than expected for a clapped-out sub-$1000 junker.

They really are the last of a kind, last car to ride on a full frame. Definitely a tremendous value for the money. Had an '04 former railroad police Vic I bought with 197k on the odometer and sold with 246k on it. Thing was an absolute tank and the dual spotlights were a hoot.

 

[rezwerd]

They really are the last of a kind, last car to ride on a full frame. Definitely a tremendous value for the money. Had an '04 former railroad police Vic I bought with 197k on the odometer and sold with 246k on it. Thing was an absolute tank and the dual spotlights were a hoot.

I did consider another Vic/Marq as a replacement, since there's loads of them on CL for cheap with lots of life left in them, but I wanted something better on gas, with a manual trans, and easier to push out of the driveway if I have to. My Accord has half the displacement and gets about 10 MPG better in the city, but I do have to admit I miss the "chug-a-lug" noises that V8 made when cruising at low RPM.

 

[T.$.Racing]

I did consider another Vic/Marq as a replacement, since there's loads of them on CL for cheap with lots of life left in them, but I wanted something better on gas, with a manual trans, and easier to push out of the driveway if I have to. My Accord has half the displacement and gets about 10 MPG better in the city, but I do have to admit I miss the "chug-a-lug" noises that V8 made when cruising at low RPM.

I hear ya. As much as I loved my time with mine, if/when I do pick up another ex-squad it'll probably be a Charger with the 5.7 Although every now and then I see a clean forest green or navy blue metallic P71 Vic I wouldn't mind having. Hard to believe the newest ones are 8 years old now

 

[rezwerd]

I hear ya. As much as I loved my time with mine, if/when I do pick up another ex-squad it'll probably be a Charger with the 5.7 Although every now and then I see a clean forest green or navy blue metallic P71 Vic I wouldn't mind having. Hard to believe the newest ones are 8 years old now

A few years ago I went to NYC and had hoped to ride in a Vic taxi while I was there. Unfortunately they've been largely phased out and replaced by Priuses, but I still feel like I got the essence of the taxi experience. (I suppose I spent enough time in taxis in the junkyard pulling blue interior parts for my old car anyway.)

I have to say, now that I'm getting used to driving stick again, the Accord is pretty zippy. It's quickly bumping the Merc to third place in my funnest car list (still after the Mazda). It felt boring at first driving around town because I was shifting around 2500-3000 RPM, but after driving it a bit I realized the F23A seems to respond well to revving higher than that. Once it warms up I've been waiting until around 3.5-4K before shifting. I'd be curious to see a power/rpm graph for this car to see if my intuition is correct.

The most fun car I've ever driven beats my most fun car I've owned by a long shot. My brother used to have a '95 GTI with the VR6 engine, and that thing was all go. The vibrato engine note still gives me goosebumps. He and I had a lot of fun hooning that thing on the country roads where we lived.