No More Punch Buggy After 2019

In my case it was Junior High, art teacher and vestibule between inner and outer doors.

 

I tell you what. The old MG's the little ones... they are such a joy.

The closest I can get to them is a Mini Cooper GT two door which is a hardtop coupe with the snorting 4 cylinder and essentially a unlimited redline with a tach that goes way high up in the thousands of RPM, I think redline is 8000 actually on a 10K range. Yellow is into the 9's

Ive handled coopers before in ADESA at the auction house. The one thing the staff never did let me do is get ahold of them to transport to Little Rock. (They know me... ha...)

It is a very real possibility I might find a used Cooper if I needed to replace my old truck. Those Coopers when running well is not only a joy but with the manual, all you have to do is think you want to go here and you are there. No effort at all. Nothing too fancy mind you. When you get above 140 and have a gear to go, there is no shimmy in the rear (Short wheel base is a problem at speed) and there is no front end pivot feeling where you sneeze and end up spinning to your death.) I don't know if those cars have a governor, nanny or top end speed but it's probably if I had to guess in the area of 155 to 170 or so. Not much more than that. They are still 4 cylinders.

If you want another example of a small car that can race, I point to the Fiero with the special 4 cylinder engine made from Iron with the really tall pistons. I raced one with my old Ford 351 Mod Winsdor V8 which is optimized for top end and frankly Im shocked that little thing not only stayed with me but started to display a set of lungs to pull away at top end when I ran out of mine at redline.

I think those have fire issues with fuel pump or engine manifolds, Not sure. It's been so long. But the older MG's if you can find one from the late 60's you must drive it. It's such a joy at least once in this lifetime.

 

If I remember right, the fuel tank has a hole in the left and front of the tank facing forwards. If you put her into gear and moved out, the fuel sloshed and piled up in the back of the tank denying any chance to fill the fuel line to the engine.

I consider myself pretty smart on those old colts. I wish they still make them to this day, but they don't People don't want those little things now. They prefer SUV's etc.

Lets try not to make cars really small. I had one some years ago that would fit into the back of my dodge pickup being so small. It's outrageous.

 

If a Formula or NASCAR engineer gets fired from his job and wants that payback so bad, he will design a Dodge Omni.

I had a dear friend as a teenager, he was not much in life but he could drive way better than I could. (Did ten miles during a raging ice storm with my car once... thank god I had Michelins. And I curse that the tires have to be French.)

He drove his Daddy's Omni in what passes for a road course (A single lane paved back road next to a beaufiful wide State Highway) while I ran on that State Road next to him with my ford. He not only beat me out of town (Don't ask where... not sure of the local lawmen there. they would not be happy with noise violations, disturbing peace and excessive speed) he beat me at the 5 mile mark (Next town) and at the 10 mile he was long gone.

I tell you this. Has to be a racing engineer that dreamed up those devil Omnis. I never minded them 4 bangers being particularly fast in those days, but man.. was I schooled in my overweight American V8...

 

Daddy had a Datsun. That was so much fun.

People cannot be bothered today on the showroom floor to buy a Datsun. (He he he)

Believe it or not, that engine compartment holds a little touch of Datsun... I worked for a Nissan Dealership in the old 300Z, 240Z and Pulsar and Maxima days. (You learned what a true steaming pile of #### those Sonatas and vans really were in those days)

Some of the Nissans they make today are really outrageous. Imagine what I can do with one of them with a sufficiently large enough RPM gauge.

 

Time to die. The "slug bugs" died along time ago. The recent beetles were a joke.