There is probably no more iconic automotive airflow device than the 911 whale tail. Can you think of another that’s even more so?
Last Call indicates the end of Hooniverse’s broadcast day. It’s meant to be an open forum for anyone and anything. Thread jacking is not only accepted, it’s encouraged.
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Last Call: Whale of a Tale Edition
About
57 responses to “Last Call: Whale of a Tale Edition”
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/end thread
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Even more beautiful in person.
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And in a similar, but more symmetric, vein:
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Don’t blow the welds on the intake manifold!
[mixing metaphors]
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NACA ducts. Always NACA ducts.
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The Autech Stelvio Zagato says “maybe not always”
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–F0vqdb_r–/18s3rrwn6sj3mjpg.jpg-
My aesthetic tastes when it comes to cars aren’t exactly orthodox, and the Stelvio is a good example of that. Wheels and grille aside, I actually like the way that they look.
On a related note, the Alfa-Romeo SZ has a similar appeal to me. Zagato was clearly working to certain themes around this time.
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“Airflow device” is fairly ambiguous.
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Yes. And usefully so.
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T tops, popout rear glass, and Astro Ventilation.
http://www.volvette.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/1968-corvette-2.jpg -
Volvo did believe in good airflow under their cars for quite some time.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TL0MBGORP2c/hqdefault.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/09/4e/2a/094e2ad4b396cc513f21af6c996bd078.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f6/8e/e6/f68ee6e70c6824b4325044883cd329b4.jpg-
P1800s love to fly!
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Another rear spoiler that’s memorable. The Lancia Thema 8.32. When parked it looks like your trunk has a sunroof. Then when you need it, up it comes.
http://www.geocities.ws/clublanciathema/spoiler2b.jpg
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At the time these were released, these, (or copies) seemed to be fitted to everything as well as Mustangs.
And yes, usually angled the wrong way.
http://image.mustangmonthly.com/f/9210037/mump_0605_04z+1969_ford_mustang_mach_1+rear_spoiler.jpg-
…they wanted their heavy cars to get just a bit lighter, I presume?
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Improves steering feel at speed.
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Right up from American iron to hovercraft.
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If you google Lambo Countach, more than half the images have that rear spoiler. Even though it takes 15 mph off top speed, the car looked faster.
http://media.caranddriver.com/images/media/267321/1983-lamborghini-countach-5000s-road-test-review-car-and-driver-photo-522800-s-429×262.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5216/5385177584_847346eebe_o.jpg-
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I’ve never really understood the connection between scarcily clad women and cars. Yes, men tend to like both. But men also like beer and steak. Why not have beer and steak on that spoiler table instead? Grr.
/Former scientific employee of the local center for Gender Studies-
“Former scientific employee of the local center for Gender Studies”
That is a sentence never heard outside of Scandinavia. -
Beer and steak are relatively attainable.
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Mercedes 190 EVO
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“Hans, the new rear spoiler blocks the view out the rear window!”
Hans fits a shade over part of the rear window, making it impossible to see the rear spoiler
“Hans, you’re a genius!”
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So I just bought a Red 02 BMW E46 vert. I’m thinking of painting the calipers red. I’m not exactly a teenager, or even a millenial. Is that just childs play or does the hoonitariat approve of such a move?
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I always ask myself: How does my valuable time spend actually improve what when I do this? Will it go faster, brake better, be more convertibly splendtastic? No strong opinions here, but I wouldn’t do it with my car. But if you like it on yours…try it!.
Also: Congrats! Photos? -
Don’t do it. Two main reasons for this:
– Aesthetically speaking, it never looks good because nobody doing this ever goes to the trouble or expense to have the parts in question powdercoated or enamelled; it’s always a spray-can job and ends up looking like it.
– From the personal experience (and thus bias) department: of the approximately five vehicles I’ve bought where calipers and/or drums have been spray-painted a colour intended to draw attention to their presence, these have turned out to be the vehicles needing the greatest amount of long-term care and attention in order to remain mobile under their own power. This has also resulted in the formulation of another car-buying inspection item for me, which roughly reads as follows: “if the owner put in the effort to do this, what other, more critical maintenance item(s) did that remove effort from?”
Ultimately, it’s your car and you can do as you please with it – but it is the equivalent of horsepower through stickers for your brakes’ friction-inducing components, and may hurt more than it helps when it comes time to sell the car.-
Good points. My version would have been “if everything else is fixed and fine – go ahead. But not with light rattle can colors, black would be ok.”
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Pshaw, painting calipers is for ninnies. Real car guys paint the entire rotor! http://image.gmhightechperformance.com/f/editorials/painted-brake-rotors-the-whole-thing-/16823606/yellow-painted-brake-calipers.jpg
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Somebody followed our advice and didn’t paint the calipers.
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I assume it doesn’t have to be street legal to count?
http://www.pontiacsonline.com/TG%20Chaparral.jpg-
OH god loves you. taken me down memory lane. thanks
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The grille on the original iteration of the Ford Fiesta had (and someone please correct me on this if I’m wrong) thermostatically-operated slats that would close when the engine was cold in order to aid warming-up times, then open once operating temperature was reached.
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Fascinating! What a weird feature on a budget car. That said, I have a neighbour who just bought a new petrol SUV because her two year old Opel was so efficient on diesel, it wouldn’t warm up at all on her commute.
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Funnily enough, I once had a similar problem to your neighbour but with a 4.0-litre Cherokee.
The basic issue was the same: in Winter, after it had spent the night sitting in sub-freezing temperatures, the roughly 4.5-mile commute that I had wasn’t long enough to let the engine get usefully warmed-up in the amount of time that it took for me to reach my destination; this process was then repeated on the way home in the evening. Fuel consumption was horrible as a result, and I was extremely glad that the original owner had sprung for the optional seat heaters since the cabin heater could never get up to a useful temperature.
Ultimately, both problems were solved with a block heater and an outdoor electrical outlet timer.
As an aside: I’d taken to going out and plugging the Jeep in a couple of hours before I had to leave work. Certain of my coworkers just didn’t understand this, one of them going so far as to once make a snide comment about how we weren’t living in Alaska. That all stopped the day that one of them had their car’s battery crap out and I gave him a lift to the local auto parts store after work – as soon as the story of how we had full-blast heat within 90 seconds of starting the engine and getting moving had made the rounds, the comments from the peanut gallery ceased.-
Oh, what a delightful feeling that must have been! Electric block heaters were pretty much standard in Norway for decades. Particularly interesting because electricity (90+% hydropower) used to be basically free, with four people households at one time averaging 22000kwh annual usage. I used one with a timer on my ’71 Volvo. But nowadays, there are few cars which have plugs sticking out of their grille, if any.
Still, 4.5 miles is about the first chunk of my commute, to kindergarten. All cars I’ve owned in that phase of my life were warm by then. Is it the sheer volume and size of a 4.0 that gets in the way here?-
The granite that those 4.0 blocks are hewn from transfers heat poorly.
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Yep, everyone I’ve ever talked to who used theirs in real Winter weather has said exactly the same thing. It actually threw me for a bit of a loop when I first experienced it since I’d moved from desert to three feet of snow in the Winter; only ever turning the heater on when it’s 50degF outside doesn’t really give you much of a point of reference for how it does when it’s 5degF out.
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Even though mine was in “fine fettle” it rattled like a diesel until it warmed up on really cold days. I put it down to generous tolerances.
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That would be entirely within spec.
Dammit. Now I’m really missing having an XJ.
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I probably should have been clearer about the warmup time – by the time I’d get to work, the engine would be warm and heat would finally be coming out of the vents. But it wouldn’t have had long enough to really soak the heat in, so by the time I left in the evening the engine would be back to being nearly as cold as it was in the morning.
4.0s like to run a little on the warm side – with a 195degF thermostat, they’ll sit at anywhere around 190 and 210degF when running; it’s just characteristic of their design. But couple this with an iron block and head (which take some time to get a good heat soak) and warmup times in Winter can be pretty long. We had a couple of months that year where temperatures were consistently in the -10degC to -18degC range at night and rarely above freezing during the day, so getting to the point of being able to effectively heat soak the engine itself was only doable on longer runs.
Frankly, it was less the cold cabin that bothered me (I know how to wear a coat) and more the lousy fuel economy. I’d normally see 16-18mpg from it in warm weather, but in the winter it could go down as low as 8-9mpg from not being able to warm up quickly enough. Once it was warm it was fine and everything went back to normal, but if I had to run a bunch of short errands it could get expensive quickly.
The block heater on that one was a factory-optional item, but that Jeep didn’t have it originally. I want to say it ran around $35 from the dealer for the kit, which included the heater and cord with plug. Which reminds me that I should probably order one for the VW in the next couple of months, before the Winter rush sets in…
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Two years old, and no electrical auxiliary heater in a (my guess: turbo) diesel? Geez GM, that’s established since 20 years for turbo diesels, from the top of my head. Smart CDI have it.
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It was a Meriva. She was particularly annoyed having to wait in a cold car with her kid when there was some traffic management due to landslide road work, after just two minutes or so of driving. Now she drives a Hyundai Tucson.
What a great looking car.
The grille didn’t have any moving parts. It was a variant of Ford’s European ‘Aero grille’ in which the horizontal slats have an approximate Aerofoil shape in cross section. At low speeds most air enters between the slats as normal, but at high speed a high pressure area builds up ahead of the car encouraging airflow over the bonnet. Also seen on the Mk3 Capri, Mk5 Cortina, Mk2 RS2000 Escort Mk2 Granada and XD Falcon, (and others) acting as Ford’s 1980s corporate ‘face’
http://www.simplyeighties.com/resources/Ford_Capri_S_coupe_(2010-12-28).jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/02/19/article-2281210-17AD49CC000005DC-156_634x419.jpg
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3353/3230394004_c7e94a640c_z.jpg?zz=1
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Ford_Granada_MkII_pre_facelift_ca_1980.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/1980_Ford_Falcon_(XD)_GL_sedan,_with_S_Pack_(23396975089).jpg
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Appreciate the correction. I had a Mk. 3 Capri and knew that that one was fixed in place, but had been labouring under the misapprehension that the Fiesta’s grille was for some reason capable of actuating the slats.
That begs the question: which car am I thinking of that did that, or am I simply smoking the crack rock today? Could’ve sworn it was something in the Ford stable, but my memory’s obviously suspect on this one.-
A patent search yields two US answers, the first from Aug. 28, 1928. Patent No.1682716 A
So someone has probably used it since then.
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US1682716-0.png -
I don’t know of a car that did it, but a I know of a few tractors that had manual shutters behind the grille, like my dad’s Allis Chalmers Model B.
(not my pictures)
http://i495.photobucket.com/albums/rr319/LONND17/P1110550.jpg
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzY4WDEwMjQ=/z/jegAAOSwgQ9V46n-/$_1.JPG
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BMW M1 Procar
Some tail from last weekend..
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I’ve often enjoyed catching some tail in the weekends.
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Sure, you could have some tail, but that Saab 95 has an impressive boot(y).
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