Van Halen and the Shelby GT500

[vanhalen1r2]

So back in October I bought a 2012 Shelby GT500.

First thing I did was let my son who was 18 at the time get in and fire it up when we went to get her.

Next thing I did put in Fair Warning and played Mean Street followed by Unchained as I drove her for the first time I was in heaven, this was back in October, now every time I drive I play some Van Halen usually VH 2 I just cannot get enough of Light Up The Sky and DOA.

I swear its like being 17 again.



http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af56/powerade9/gt5003.jpg

Long Live Classic Van Halen

[qikgts]

Yessir!!! 550 hp and 510 ft lbs of tq should do that to ya!!! That there Mustang is pretty damn close to a time machine and it seems like you're feeling the effects. I'd love to be in that drivers seat!

[gbranton]

I love your car! I have been a Mustang guy since.....well......maybe 1965. I rode home from the hospital after being born in a brand new 1965 coupe. I have owned numerous Mustangs over the years including a 1995 Cobra, a 2001 Bullitt and I 2003 Mach 1. I currectly have a 1986 GT with t-tops and a 1993 SSP coupe and am currently saving up for a Shelby.

I know qikgts above from a Mustang forum devoted to 79-86 Mustangs.

[VAiN]

That is a bad ride! Well done! I'll be picking up a 2012 GT myself here in the next couple of months. Beautiful cars!

[vanhalen1r2]

Thanks guys, Classic VH makes for some fun times.

[qikgts]

Thanks guys, Classic VH makes for some fun times.

And Mustangs make for fun rides!!!

[sadaist]

FORD sucks!

Camaros & Vettes baby! Fuck you all!



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[sadaist]

I own 180 Corvettes....swear to God I do. In fact, I'll prove it to you all. Here's photographic evidence of Sadaists Corvettes.

Suck it FORD lovers!


http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa214/sadaist/vette1.jpg

[VAiN]

FORD sucks!

Camaros & Vettes baby! Fuck you all!



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Sorry man, I'm gonna disagree here.. the GM interior aesthetic leaves a lot to be desired. Plastic and AC/Delco..

[sadaist]

Sorry man, I'm gonna disagree here.. the GM interior aesthetic leaves a lot to be desired. Plastic and AC/Delco..


To be 100% honest, my grandpa owned a Chevrolet dealership as I grew up. I spent a lot of days there fucking around in my youth. I worked there starting at 15. my older brother worked there from 15. My Dad ran the place for many years. We all drove Chevys. That was it. So I was born into it.

But that old sticker "I'd rather push a (blank) than drive a (blank)"

Fuck that. I'd rather drive a fucking Le Car than push either a Ford or Chevy. Pushing sucks.



*But yeah. I secretly do dig the old Mustangs from the 60's. Sshhh.

[gbranton]

Sorry man, I'm gonna disagree here.. the GM interior aesthetic leaves a lot to be desired. Plastic and AC/Delco..

I'll have a new Camaro with the touch screen nav....... oh wait, you can't get one with that.

The Camaro had an outdated interior the day it was introduced.

I did find where Chevy got the idea for the rear end styling for the new Camaro:

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff11/gbranton/uhaul.jpg

[sadaist]

Well, as far as Chevys I've always had SUV's. I have never owned a sports car sadly. So I can't really say about the aesthetics.


Damn dudes. Remember way back when the only cup holders we had were cheap plastic things we bought at 7-11 & they hung from our door window? LOL

[vanhalen1r2]

FORD sucks!

Camaros & Vettes baby! Fuck you all!



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!


Here are a couple shots of my old 71 Camaro

http://s993.photobucket.com/albums/af56/powerade9/?action=view&current=jwcars_00011HHHHH.jpg

http://s993.photobucket.com/albums/af56/powerade9/?action=view&current=car201_00451car.jpg

http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af56/powerade9/car202_00031vfrew.jpg

[vanhalen1r2]

http://i993.photobucket.com/albums/af56/powerade9/car201_00451car.jpg

[gbranton]

Here are a couple shots of my old 71 Camaro

That was a nice looking car. I like to talk a little smack but I owned a '78 and a '73 Trans Am back in the day.

[SNIPER]

I had a Mustang that fell apart on me. Bought a Corvette that was 20 years older and is a better car by far. Gotta go with Chevy..

[vanhalen1r2]

I had a Mustang that fell apart on me. Bought a Corvette that was 20 years older and is a better car by far. Gotta go with Chevy..

I'm thinking about 2013 Z06, I almost pulled the trigger on an 11. I like to race all my old cars have been SBC powered 2nd gen 1970-1972 Camaros this Shelby is very much like an old school muscle car. I will be installing a Whipple 2.9 W/tune and kook headers I will be at the track 4-7-2012, I will post up how it does.

Cannot say enough good things about today's Camaros Challengers and "Rustsangs" The vette is completely different car.

Great song for the track is Everybody Wants Some.

[chefcraig]

I had a Mustang that fell apart on me. Bought a Corvette that was 20 years older and is a better car by far. Gotta go with Chevy..

I had a 1986 Mustang, as it was the second year of fuel injection and I figured Ford would have figured out all of the kinks. I was sadly mistaken. The engine was dubiously called a 5.0, which disguised the fact that all it was was a bored out 289. It used the same frame as the Mustang II abortion from the mid-seventies, a design lifted lock, stock and barrel from a fucking Pinto of all things. It even had the Pinto's combustibility issues, since the bumper was apparently made of flint and would have exploded in a rear end collision except Ford came up with a gas flow shut-off switch. I found this out the hard way after being involved in an accident in which a truck nailed my car in the ass, and I couldn't get it started again. I had to call a friend to find out where the switch was located.

And for some bizarre reason, the only tires that fit the peculiar sized rimes were Goodyear Eagles, at the time costing around 300-400 bucks each, which was a hell of a lot of money back then. I said fuck that, went to Hubcap Heaven and replaced them with the rims from a 1986 Thunderbird. Pretty soon, just about everyone else that owned a Mustang was doing the same thing.

The part about the car falling apart is sooo true. I literally drove mine into the ground, as sooner or later just about everything (from the tranny synchros to the driver's side mirror) either broke, stopped working or just plain fell off.

[Nitro Express]

I couldn't get my Range Rover started and after going through everything and pulling the fuel line and getting no pressure I finally tracked the problem down to the inertia fuel shutoff switch. Land Rover put it under the driver's seat and it's this little red plunger and you pull it up to engage the switch and you push it down to shut off the fuel pump. My kids were playing in the car and say this red plunger and pushed it down and shut down the fuel pump.

So if your car doesn't start that's one thing you want to check.

[chefcraig]

Yep, Ford even put one in my Ranger, for cryin' out loud. What a pain in the neck. If you overloaded it with drywall, the switch would close and you had to dig up the carpet on the passenger's side to find it and reset it.

[Nitro Express]

I had a Mustang that fell apart on me. Bought a Corvette that was 20 years older and is a better car by far. Gotta go with Chevy..

My daughter's boyfriend drives a 89 Corvette. I was helping him work on it and they are real easy cars to work on. Real easy access to everything. He needs a new top for it and they want crazy money for those but then it seems like trim and body type parts are always expensive.

[Nitro Express]

FORD sucks!

Camaros & Vettes baby! Fuck you all!




HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
What's funny is I have never owned a modern Ford vehicle. All mine are from the 30's and 20's. I have a model T, a model A, a model B, and a 34 deluxe coupe with a flathead V8 in it. All restored and all run. They were the bang for the buck cars in the day. Good steel, good brakes for the day, and good running gear. The flathead V8 blows head gaskets easy. All the trucks I have ever owned have been the bow tie. Really, I never had that many problems with Chevy's.

[ashstralia]

you guys know those new camaros are based on a platform developed and built here by holden in australia, right?
i think we're still exporting police cars over there as 'pontiacs' too.
you're welcome :)

[Nitro Express]

Yep, Ford even put one in my Ranger, for cryin' out loud. What a pain in the neck. If you overloaded it with drywall, the switch would close and you had to dig up the carpet on the passenger's side to find it and reset it.

The reason that switch is there is to stop the fuel pump if you get in an accident in case a fuel line breaks and you don't have fuel spraying all over the place. It's a safety feature. Land Rover has it where you just move the seat forward and reset it. You could always rewire the switch to where it's in an easier location to get to and even put in a new switch if the one you have is tripping off too easy.

I actually use it as a anti-theft device. Sometimes I go back packing and the car is just parked out in the boondocks for a few days. I figure most people aren't going to know about that switch so I disengage it before I head off.

[Nitro Express]

you guys know those new camaros are based on a platform developed and built here by holden in australia, right?
i think we're still exporting police cars over there as 'pontiacs' too.
you're welcome :)

I just bought a bunch of Aussi made shocks, springs, and brake pads. You guys make good stuff.

The Pontiac line has been discontinued. There is no Pontiac anymore.

[ashstralia]

aah, discontinued.

"Built by GM’s Australian subsidiary Holden, the G8 sedan first arrived in the U.S. as a 2009 model. While never a strong seller, the rear-wheel drive G8 offered performance rivaling that of some expensive imported sedans for a fraction of the cost. Consumer Reports was one of many media outlets to praise the G8 as something of a performance bargain. (See our Pontiac G8 road test, available to online subscribers.) But GM pulled the plug on the G8, along with the rest of the Pontiac line when the carmaker reorganized following bankruptcy."

[Nitro Express]

The father of the Mustang himself. I wish we had CEO's like him now.

[gbranton]

Man, I own a 1986 GT, where to start?


I had a 1986 Mustang, as it was the second year of fuel injection and I figured Ford would have figured out all of the kinks. I was sadly mistaken.

California only cars had a throttle body injection system starting in 1984 while other V-8 cars had a carb. The 1986 GT was the first year for sequential multi-port fuel injection for Federal cars. My car still has all the FI stuff intact from the factory and runs like a top.


The engine was dubiously called a 5.0, which disguised the fact that all it was was a bored out 289.

Uh, well the small block Ford came in displacements of 221, 260, 289, 302 and 351, all sharing a common 4.380" bore spacing. The 298s and 302s both have the same 4.000" bore. The 289 has a 2.870" stroke, whereas the 302 is a 3.000".


It used the same frame as the Mustang II abortion from the mid-seventies, a design lifted lock, stock and barrel from a fucking Pinto of all things. It even had the Pinto's combustibility issues, since the bumper was apparently made of flint and would have exploded in a rear end collision except Ford came up with a gas flow shut-off switch.\.

Pure fiction. The Mustang II was built from 1974-1978 on a modified Pinto chassis, the next generation Mustang was based on an all new platform, called the Fox platform, which first appeared in 1978 as a Fairmont/Zephyr/LTD. It shared nothing with the Pinto chassis and I have never heard of any fuel tank issues with Fox chassis cars.


And for some bizarre reason, the only tires that fit the peculiar sized rimes were Goodyear Eagles, at the time costing around 300-400 bucks each, which was a hell of a lot of money back then. I said fuck that, went to Hubcap Heaven and replaced them with the rims from a 1986 Thunderbird. Pretty soon, just about everyone else that owned a Mustang was doing the same thing.

I'll give you this one. I remember the wheels you are talking about, I had them on my 1984 GT. The TRX wheels were 390mm or 15.35" in diameter, so nether 15" nor 16" tires would fit on them. They first appeared on the 1979 Pace Car edition but Ford shit canned that bad idea before the 1985 model year. Only Goodyear and Michelin made tires to fit them, nobody stocked them and they were horrifically expensive.

[clarathecarrot]

Man, I own a 1986 GT, where to start?



California only cars had a throttle body injection system starting in 1984 while other V-8 cars had a carb. The 1986 GT was the first year for sequential multi-port fuel injection for Federal cars. My car still has all the FI stuff intact from the factory and runs like a top.



Uh, well the small block Ford came in displacements of 221, 260, 289, 302 and 351, all sharing a common 4.380" bore spacing. The 298s and 302s both have the same 4.000" bore. The 289 has a 2.870" stroke, whereas the 302 is a 3.000".



Pure fiction. The Mustang II was built from 1974-1978 on a modified Pinto chassis, the next generation Mustang was based on an all new platform, called the Fox platform, which first appeared in 1978 as a Fairmont/Zephyr/LTD. It shared nothing with the Pinto chassis and I have never heard of any fuel tank issues with Fox chassis cars.



I'll give you this one. I remember the wheels you are talking about, I had them on my 1984 GT. The TRX wheels were 390mm or 15.35" in diameter, so nether 15" nor 16" tires would fit on them. They first appeared on the 1979 Pace Car edition but Ford shit canned that bad idea before the 1985 model year. Only Goodyear and Michelin made tires to fit them, nobody stocked them and they were horrifically expensive.


So, I am like rolling with this 82 Berlinetta and this 85 YZ and the place is crawling with chicks.

and...it was like after rehabe in 86....and I am like any of you pussys who hit it up in rehab(insert cr thingy) ..well...suck it.

[VAiN]

Wow, lots of Mustang hate flowing here...

I've owned a '90.5 5.0 hatch and two '96 4V Cobras and have never had problems with any of them and trust me - I drove the fuck out of them. Every car was modified and driven hard.. The chevy equivalent car was no better, that's for sure.

[ashstralia]

no hate here vain... the holden (gm) vs ford debate has raged here for 40 years +. the hemi blokes just laugh at us. one thing i've always thought was brilliant was having the dizzy at the front, not the back of the engine.

and windsors are far superior to clevelands imho. :)

[sadaist]

So, I am like rolling with this 82 Berlinetta


OMFG!

My Mom had a Berlinetta around...oh, 1987 or so? Anyways, went out middle of night with the girlfriend in it, put in Megadeth, and gunned it to see how fast we could get. Digital speedometer.

116

DAMN!

I slowed down & was scared to death but fun! Fastest I have ever driven. Was scary. Felt like we would fly right off the top of this small mountain we were going up.

Man, that thing was cool. VRRRROOOOOOOOOM!!!

Did I mention I went 116? That's miles per hour fellas. FAST!!!!

[Coyote]

Only thing I still can't understand about some US cars is the persistent use of the live rear axle...

[vanhalen1r2]

Only thing I still can't understand about some US cars is the persistent use of the live rear axle...

FORD Rustang tried the IRS deal for a little while 1999-2003/4 cobras they did wheel hop in the ones I drove, the new slowmaro and the unreleased ZL1 have an independent rear suspensions.

Now back in the day the Rustang the Slowmaro and the rest of the pony cars had solid axle rears.

[gbranton]

Only thing I still can't understand about some US cars is the persistent use of the live rear axle...

The new Boss 302 is proof that IRS isn't really necessary for great handling. Euro mags like Top Gear were prepared to trash it, yet they loved it and voted it one of their top cars.

Irs is heavy and in drag racing applications it's not durable. Many of the 2003 - 2004 Cobra guys have swapped their IRS rears for a traditional axle.

[gbranton]

Cannot say enough good things about today's Camaros Challengers and "Rustsangs" The vette is completely different car.

I just saw that, my best friend has a 2012 Challenger SRT-8. Black on black with a six speed, it is a REALLY cool car.

[vanhalen1r2]

I just saw that, my best friend has a 2012 Challenger SRT-8. Black on black with a six speed, it is a REALLY cool car.

They look great and damn if we aren't lucky to be in the middle of HP war between Chevy, Dodge and Ford.

[Hardrock69]

Not getting into details as I am no expert on the current "re-imagined" muscle cars, but I prefer the way the Camaros look. They just look like if you turn your back on them they will attack you and eat you alive, lol.

I almost owned a 1968 Mustang when I was 14 in 1975. My Dad bought it for 700 bucks, and was making payments. He said if I could pay 20 bucks a week on it and pay half of the total (350) it would be mine.

I had a shitty paper route...and the fucking thing would not even make 20 bucks a week, so he ended up selling it.

I could have been one of the coolest kids in high school.....instead I had no fucking car.

When I was 22, I owned a 4-door 1976 Torino with a police package. I loved that motherfucker. 351 Windsor, power windows, leather interior. I ended up junking it after driving it into the ground. If I had been smarter and had the cash, I could have kept it running, but I was an idiot in my younger 20s.

In 1995, I bought a 1986 Grand Prix, financed through a dealership where a friend worked....for 3 grand. Drove it for 2 years, and the interior began to fall apart, and I began to think of selling it. Then one day I drove by the dealership where I bought it, and lo and behold, there was a 1975 Torino sitting there for sale for $1200. I had only paid off the Grand Prix a couple of months before, but I stopped RIGHT FUCKING THERE and talked to the salesman I knew: "Hey, I just paid 3 grand for this Grand Prix....I will trade you straight across for the Torino". He thought about it for a moment and said "Deal".

I drove that fucker for 3 years. Ran great. Had a 351 Modified in it. Same color (blue). 25 mpg on the highway, amazingly enough. I ended up selling it for 300 bucks before I moved to Gnashville, as I could only bring one vehicle, and I chose my Chevy van.

Wish I had a mid-70s Torino now, but the only ones I see for sale are rustbuckets for 300 bucks that need new engines or trannys, or pristine garage cars that are 15 grand.

So those are my only experiences with Fords. Oh, I learned to drive in my Dad's 1943 Ford Army Jeep. Everyone should learn to drive in one of those, lol.

[Nitro Express]

I think all the remaked classic muscle cars look great. You can still see the classic lines in them. It's refreshing to see today when most cars look like a bar of soap.

[VAiN]

no hate here vain... the holden (gm) vs ford debate has raged here for 40 years +. the hemi blokes just laugh at us. one thing i've always thought was brilliant was having the dizzy at the front, not the back of the engine.

and windsors are far superior to clevelands imho. :)

I've been out of this debate for a few years, but I can't wait to get back into it this summer.
I think Ford has it all over the other 2 with their continued use and development of DOHC V8's.. Being able to spin a V8 to 7000rpm is a great feeling! They've come a long way and the new 32v 5.0 is a beast of a motor!

[vanhalen1r2]

I've been out of this debate for a few years, but I can't wait to get back into it this summer.
I think Ford has it all over the other 2 with their continued use and development of DOHC V8's.. Being able to spin a V8 to 7000rpm is a great feeling! They've come a long way and the new 32v 5.0 is a beast of a motor!

The new 5.0 coyote platform is cool engine in the GT and Boss 302, the Shelby 5.4 2007-10 iron block 2011-12 aluminum block and the new larger bore 5.8 aluminum block for 2013 are good engines the issue with the platform is its over square, larger stroke vs bore they develop lots of piston speed at high RPM.

You can with a few simple mods make some huge power.

[qikgts]

Fun thread!!! Great contributions all!!!

[chefcraig]

Pure fiction. The Mustang II was built from 1974-1978 on a modified Pinto chassis, the next generation Mustang was based on an all new platform, called the Fox platform, which first appeared in 1978 as a Fairmont/Zephyr/LTD. It shared nothing with the Pinto chassis and I have never heard of any fuel tank issues with Fox chassis cars.


Uh-huh, because you have never encountered something in your life, it can not exist, right? This is not "pure fiction", as you put it. The fact is, a great deal of automobiles have a tendency to go up in flames from rear end collisions, including the Ford Crown Victoria (once widely used here for police vehicles). Having spent 17 years driving a truck in the tri-county area, I can vividly attest to witnessing countless car fires resulting from rear end collisions, including the Mustangs with Fox chassis you seem to never have heard of. If such a thing wasn't a problem, then why would Ford install the shut off switch in the first place? Hell, for a while there, GM designed it's cars to allow the rear end to fold downward in a rear end collision, to avoid gas tank fires.

While I appreciate the effort expended in going through my post and refuting as much as possible in an alleged scholarly fashion, I never intended to come off as some sort of expert in the first place. I was merely relating some vague and (more than likely) tarnished memories. The fact is, if you can recall with vivid detail everything that took place through the late seventies/mid-1980s, you simply were not there.

Again, thank you for setting the record straight, Mr. Fucking Haynes Manual. :nanana:

[gbranton]

Uh-huh, because you have never encountered something in your life, it can not exist, right? This is not "pure fiction", as you put it. The fact is, a great deal of automobiles have a tendency to go up in flames from rear end collisions, including the Ford Crown Victoria (once widely used here for police vehicles). Having spent 17 years driving a truck in the tri-county area, I can vividly attest to witnessing countless car fires resulting from rear end collisions, including the Mustangs with Fox chassis you seem to never have heard of. If such a thing wasn't a problem, then why would Ford install the shut off switch in the first place? Hell, for a while there, GM designed it's cars to allow the rear end to fold downward in a rear end collision, to avoid gas tank fires.

While I appreciate the effort expended in going through my post and refuting as much as possible in an alleged scholarly fashion, I never intended to come off as some sort of expert in the first place. I was merely relating some vague and (more than likely) tarnished memories. The fact is, if you can recall with vivid detail everything that took place through the late seventies/mid-1980s, you simply were not there.

Again, thank you for setting the record straight, Mr. Fucking Haynes Manual. :nanana:

LOL, you are welcome. The truth is ANY vehicle can suffer a rupture fuel tank if struck hard enough (or by an 80,000 pound semi) and I don't doubt you saw some bad accidents. I'm not saying the Mustang is a paradigm of safety by any means but it has substantial differences in design (such as shielding which protects the tank) from a Pinto and that was my point. The "problem" with the Pinto was supposedly in the area wher the filler neck joined the tank and that the unshielded tank could be pierced by the differential. After the recall a later study by The Rutgers Law Review examining actual incident data that concluded the Pinto was as safe as, or safer than, other cars in its class.


http://www.pointoflaw.com/articles/The_Myth_of_the_Ford_Pinto_Case.pdf

Although there is no specific requirement from the NHTSA for it, fuel shutoffs of some type are installed on most cars sold in the United States today.

And thanks for calling me "scholarly" in addition to beating off to classic Van Halen, I beat off on these old cars as well.

[Nitro Express]

I remember riding in a VW bus in Bolivia that caught fire. If you don't replace the fuel lines when they start to get old they will break and send fuel into the ignition system and then you are on fire. Of course they had no fire extinguisher on board so we stood on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and watched our transportation burn. You gotta love Latin America. Nothing like going along a mountain road on an overloaded bus with old tires with no tread left. You either shit your pants or get religious in a hurry traveling in the Andes.

[gbranton]

I remember riding in a VW bus in Bolivia that caught fire. If you don't replace the fuel lines when they start to get old they will break and send fuel into the ignition system and then you are on fire. Of course they had no fire extinguisher on board so we stood on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and watched our transportation burn. You gotta love Latin America. Nothing like going along a mountain road on an overloaded bus with old tires with no tread left. You either shit your pants or get religious in a hurry traveling in the Andes.

All good reasons to stay home and ride in vehicles I build or maintain.

What a shame, some hipster here in America would spend $30K to restore that old VW bus.

[Nitro Express]

There was a time in my life I did a lot of traveling. We always want to see what's over the next hill and in that process we learn something about ourselves and the world. I have pretty much learned everyone wants to get laid and have something good to eat. People everywhere like cars and it's everyone's dream to own one. Just look at China now, they copied all our car problems. We really at the end of the day are the same. Then you have these assholes called politicians that try to divide us fighting about our differences so they can manipulate the situation for their own gain. Then you have the small percentage of assholes that just go crazy for no reason at all. It's all the same. Everywhere. There just seems to be that elusive sweet spot between where people are in abject poverty being used and abused and the spot where people have been spoiled silly and have no gusto left. There is a sweet spot in the the middle where the action is and it's so damn rare.

It's not that I so much want to travel anymore. It's gotten to be more of a pain actually. I want to find that sweet spot. That's what I'm looking for and seeking.

[chefcraig]

What a shame, some hipster here in America would spend $30K to restore that old VW bus.

Or worse yet, re-invent the damned thing with all sorts of age-inappropriate doodads (including an earthquake sound system), lower it so the bumpers drag the street, then install rims and tires that look like something only a child could appreciate. Just like on that ghastly and unwatchable Pimp My Ride show from a few years ago.

[Coyote]

Just like on that ghastly and unwatchable Pimp My Ride show from a few years ago.

Please, don't remind me. I still haven't gotten over that episode with the '81 Turbo Trans Am...
How dare they put the wrong bird on the hood?! First they tried to slap on a '79 10th Anniversary hoodbird, and finally they settled on a smaller one. (I think it was a '73)