What do you drive?

[2002p51]

This is part of our "fleet":

The hot rod is a '28 Ford Model A, lakes modified. (Not a T-bucket, and not a track T like most people think it is)

The Mustang is an '02 that I bought new when I worked at a Ford dealership. It's my fair weather car.

The '47 Mercury coupe is the car my wife usually drives to shows and on runs, etc. It's definitely a long term work in progress.

My wife also has an '04 Focus that's her daily driver. We don't have any photos of it.

And then here is the workhorse:

It's a '95 F-250, with the 7.3 turbo diesel, getting real close to 180,000 miles now.

It pulls the trailer, obviously, when we take the hot rod to out-of-town shows. But it's also my daily driver in crappy weather, the Home Depot, Evergreen Nursery, and anything else hauler. It rarely gets washed, gets minimum service, and just keeps on getting down the road. And comfortable. I have driven this truck for as long as 14 hours at time when driving cross-country. Great truck!

Thought it was time for an update.

The '04 Focus mentioned above is gone. It's been replaced with a slightly newer Mercury Milan. The Milan is easily the single most boring, dull, ill handling, non-descript, uninteresting car I've ever driven. Just an awful car. It came to us along with my wife's mom because, at 87, she can no longer drive it. We can't wait until we can replace it.

I've also added this:

It's a '62 Falcon Sport Futura, six cylinder, four-speed. Currently it's in the garage. I re-wired it and have done a cosmetic clean up of the engine, etc.

Hope to have it back on the road in another month or so.

[Harry P.]

Cuz we ALL KNOW... those EPA figures are undisputable and right on the money, 100%, every time...

In fact EPA mileage estimates used to be very "over-optimistic"... so much so that they finally changed the way they run the testing, so that they would get a more realistic estimate.

Back in '94 when the Pontiac's 15 city/24 highway rating came out, the actual MPG you could expect was a lot less than what the EPA told you you'd get. So the fact is, a '94 Pontiac would be even LESS likely to get anywhere close to 30 MPG, unless you shut down the engine and coasted downhill with the wind at your back...

[Trae]

Our weekend car is the '76 Vette in my avatar.

My daily driver is the '03 Dakota that sneaked into the 2nd pic.

Edited April 14, 2011 by Trae

[Dr. Cranky]

Hum . . . who could possibly be the rider of this one:

[walt francis]

Hum . . . who could possibly be the rider of this one:

Why does this NOT ! I repeat NOT surprise me....LOL...Nice.

[Roadkill2525]

[RyanSilva]

My 1993 notchback. Bought it about 5 years ago, drove it the first year till the 2.3 and the auto transmission decided to lose compression and blow reverse (not simultaneously)

Sat at work for a year and a half baking in the sun (i know bad idea)Then I brought it to my fathers shop where it sat under a tree, getting pinged with acorns till last week were I tore out the engine getting ready for a restoration.

Body wise it doesnt need much, just some basic body repairs. Although I plan to buy or make my own panel covers for the engine bay to cover up the holes. debating to carb it or go efi.

Getting a 302 transplant, t-5, 5 lug cobra brake swap, rear disks. I got lucky,all it needs is a drivers front floor, other than that its only surface rust and some dings. I have a lot of body parts luckly from all the years being involved with fox body mustangs.

The lincoln mark viii is getting parted out. Was bought for only 300 bucks, it needs some mechanical work, great car but to much money to put into. Its worth more in parts than it is whole.

dohc 4.6 is going in my fathers 94 mustang hard top, cutting down the aluminum driveshaft for my red notch, getting the electric fan to, gonna pull the pumpkin and brakes while im at it.

[stewart]

A man at my church said that he bought a used 70 chrysler 300 with a 440 and went on a long trip with it. He said that a ways down the freeway, he noticed that the gas gauge was not going down very fast. He figured it was broken so he stopped for a refill. The gauge was right on the money and he still had over a half a tank left. He estimated that the car got well over 30 mpg on the freeway. He concluded that it was probably fitted with a chrysler experimental carburetor system and it hadn't been removed.

Just an interesting story.

STewart

[Harry P.]

Harry: First, the 3.4 "Twin Dual Cam" GM engine was the hot-rod motor in that vintage GP. I thought it was mentioned that his car had the pedestrian pushrod 3.1? The 3.1 was rated at 19/30 on the original sticker (using the EPA "convert it to a 2011 test" is a lower 17/27) with the 4 speed automatic. It was 19/27 with the 3-speed automatic which was much more popular (17/25 2011 eq) so it IS possible...

My Mazdaspeed 3s (I'm on the third one) company cars are rated at 18/25 and I drive to Las Vegas almost every weekend. I have yet to have one trip (other than one that had a 8 hour traffic jam) that wound up with mileage (dividing gallons in/miles driven...not trusting the MPG computer) under 30. I also got nearly 30 on average driving the last one from LA to Chicago and back at Christmas. I think it got just over 28 there, and 29.4 on the way back. The inclement weather (rain/sleet/snow) and bitter cold didn't help any.

If you've ever driven the 15 from LA to Vegas, median traffic speed is about 80, and there are several "choke points" where it comes to a stop going both ways, too.

I have no idea how the EPA came up with a figure of 25 for the car on the highway. Again, the MPG claims I'm making aren't freak one-offs...this is over dozens of mostly-highway trips in 3 different cars.

1994 Pontiac Grand Prix 6 cyl, 3.1 L, Automatic 4-spd, Regular Gasoline

17 City

20 Combined

26Highway

$2843per year

1994 Pontiac Grand Prix 6 cyl, 3.4 L, Automatic 4-spd, Regular Gasoline

15 City

18 Combined

24Highway

Source: www.fueleconomy.gov

[tabsscale1]

Nobody drives freeway miles exclusively.

All but 4 miles of the 42 I drive to work everyday is freeway miles. Round trip is 84 and minus the 8 makes that 76 freeway miles everyday.

[tabsscale1]

In fact EPA mileage estimates used to be very "over-optimistic"... so much so that they finally changed the way they run the testing, so that they would get a more realistic estimate.

Back in '94 when the Pontiac's 15 city/24 highway rating came out, the actual MPG you could expect was a lot less than what the EPA told you you'd get. So the fact is, a '94 Pontiac would be even LESS likely to get anywhere close to 30 MPG, unless you shut down the engine and coasted downhill with the wind at your back...

It consistantly got 30 mpg going to work every week drove it for 6 months then gave it to my daughter

[tabsscale1]

I have a 97 Cutlass supreme that consistently runs in the 28 MPG range and it has the 3.1 in it also. That car right now has over 250000 miles on it.

[Rob Hall]

My Jeep consistently got 18 mpg in mixed freeway/city/suburbia commute for the last 2 years...now it consistently gets 16 mpg in an all-city commute.

[Chuck Most]

I've had my eye on this one for a few months...

'71 Ford F-250 Camper Special, 390, auto, 2WD, 155k, a few rust holes in the typical spots but not too bad overall, $1700.

Wonder if he'd take my '94 as a trade?

[Danno]

Here's ours ~ ~ ~

Anniversary present to ourselves in 2007; unrestored original with 29k miles. Looked showroom new. Put new rubber on her, new shocks, suspension bushings, etc., synthetic oil, then drove it to Denver & back. She got 23.3 mpg on the trip, including mountain driving at highway speeds and maybe a little above (90+) with A/C on (July). Wonderful car!!

She had been stored in a collection when we found her. Took her for first emissions test and she failed; needed tune-up. Chevy dealer's "carburetor guy" was on vacation, so had to wait a week to get her dialed in. (None of their other techs knew carbs!)

Once adjusted, she hardly registered on state's E test, and she has maintained every year about 5-10 times cleaner than the 'fuel-efficient' and environmentally engineered '07 Taurus company car I drove ... and its mileage wasn't as good (it only got 22.9 mpg measured, with more conservative driving).

And, she's a lot more fun to drive than the Taurus!

[Jon Cole]

All but 4 miles of the 42 I drive to work everyday is freeway miles. Round trip is 84 and minus the 8 makes that 76 freeway miles everyday.

So in other words, you don't drive all freeway miles

[2whl]

Some of my "drivers". With a handle of 2whl, I usually ride, not drive. The Duc doesn't get riden very much because it's very low mileage and I want to keep it that way.

[Harry P.]

Got mine from the same place, Harry...check the link

Old and new MPG estimates/1993 Grand Prix

Like it says... new EPA testing is more realistic. That 30 MPG rating was very unlikely (if not downright impossible) to achieve in real-world driving.

[Boreham]

Paul Cadwell the Ducati is a thins of beauty...

I've never seen one before..is it the predecessor to the 851 ?

class retro racer..

[Harold]

So I topped the tank off yesterday. I'd gone 189.4 miles and used 8.5 gallons of gas. This was mostly city driving this time with a few quick bursts on the freeway (maybe 20 miles tops). I do tend to have a heavy foot, and I'm ususally the first one away from the light (see you, you non- driving, cell- phone talking bozos). Since my car is a '96, what are the EPA numbers for the 3.1 for that year? I do know one thing- that K&N filter was the best picture of Grant I ever spent on a car part.

[Chuck Most]

Back on page 4, you saw my '46 Chevy dumper. I got rid of it, but its new owner had it out and about tonight...

That's the new owner, Gary, in the second photo, and my buddy Chad in the third. Location... out front of Ghost Town Saloon in beautiful downtown Elwell, Michigan.

[jbwelda]

ok, i think we can all agree: rat rod!!!

and kool rat rod too! i like those duals on the back and the different tread patterns on the tires! that thing is bad! red brakes peeking out look great too.

so how come you havent made a model of it yet or did ya and i just didnt see it?

[charlie8575]

I'll second Mike's comments.

Our Clebrity and Cutlass Cruiser were both very good on gas, the Celebrity with the 173/2.8 and a 3100 in the Cruiser. The Celebrity regularly got 32-33 miles a gallon on the highway; the Olds was about the same.

As to the efficiency increase with mileage, it sounds like a take on the old-fashioned Knight Sleeve Valve engine, in which as the carbon deposits increased, the engine's compression, and as a result, its gas economy.

Whether it worked well or not is a matter of debate.

Charlie Larkin

[Chuck Most]

so how come you havent made a model of it yet or did ya and i just didnt see it?

Well, I built a model of how I thought I'd build it when I owned it, using the Revell cab. It's around somewhere...

This version- not being able to find a set of wheels like that are about the only thing stopping me!

[Deckerz]

Im driving a triumph stag now, may be a classic but i love it, not really any problems so far suprisingly, all the guages read normal. Have no pictures of it right now and don't fancy going out at 12 at night to take some pictures haha but heres a few pics of the car and roughly what mine looks like, was edited quickly. Oh btw its not running the standard v8 its running a rover v8, i was expecting insurance to shoot right up when i did the swap but i asked just before i did the swap and its only gone up by £50 a year.

I wanted to give it a more modern look but still keep it looking and sounding like a classic, my wheels are like these except flat black centers not gloss black.