Here’a a trippy thing to do – and it doesn’t require getting high to do it. Imagine you have about $5,100 to spend on a new vehicle. Yeah, that’s pretty hard to imagine – without being pretty high. That sum might work as a good down payment on a new vehicle today.
But how about back in 1979?
For about that much, you could have bought yourself a brand-new Subaru BRAT – or Bi-drive Recreational Al Terrain Transporter. What that meant was a kind of truck (it had a bed) that was basically a car that had a part-time, driver-selectable AWD system.
Plus a pair of rear-facing jumpseats bolted to the bed.
In 1979, saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety didn’t come first. Fun did. More finely, people back then didn’t think that having fun was “unsafe,” as all-too-many do today. People understood there was a degree of risk riding in the bed of a pick-up but they routinely did it anyhow because while there was a degree of risk, it was slight and mostly hypothetical – in that while something bad might happen, probably it wouldn’t. People didn’t obsess about it, as they have been trained to do today.
And because most people thought that fun mattered – back then – Subaru was able to build a vehicle like the BRAT with a pair of rear-facing jumpseats bolted to its bed.
And they did have grab handles.
The BRAT also had a manual transmission – because that’s what most inexpensive vehicles came standard with back in 1979. An automatic transmission was typically extra cost (hence the working synonym, standard, that was once current to describe a manual transmission) in most cars that weren’t luxury cars, such as Cadillacs.
You could opt for an automatic if you wanted to pay extra for it. Imagine that.
The BRAT also came standard with a 1.6 liter four cylinder engine, which was considered tiny back then but today is on the “large” side. In much larger – much heavier – cars.
The 2025 Chevy Malibu I recently reviewed comes standard with a 1.5 liter engine and the Malibu weighs about 3,200 lbs. while a ’79 BRAT only weighed about 2,060 lbs. To state the obvious: A ’79 Brat had an engine appropriate to its size – and weight.
Most new vehicles no longer do.
The reason why is well-known to people who are “hip” and “with it” – as regards federal fuel efficiency and “emissions”(of the dread gas that does not cause pollution) regulations. These regs seem to have as their end-goal the winnowing down of engines to nonexistent, so as to make room for electric motors and batteries.
In ’79, that was still a far-off nightmare few would have taken seriously as something that could actually happen in America. Because back in 1979, it was still America. Trying to warn people alive back then of what lay ahead would have been like trying to tell a Roman citizen during the reign of Augustus that Caligula was coming … .
The BRAT’s little four wasn’t powerful. It made a wee 67 horsepower. But what more did you need to have some fun in a 2,060 lb. mini-truck-thing with a pair of bed-mounted rear-facing buckets and absolutely no “advanced driver assistance” or “safety” technology to thwart it?
Want to chirp the tires? Wind up the little four and dump the clutch. The little Soobie might not leave a lot of rubber, but you could get rubber – and that’s always a lot of fun. It is almost impossible to get rubber in a new vehicle – even in those that have four times as much power – because the traction control (or full-time AWD) won’t allow it. Most can’t be fully disabled. Many come back on as soon as you get going faster than about 25 MPH.
Nannies (and full-time AWD) excel at killing the fun.
There were zero airbags in the ’79 Brat and you rolled down the windows yourself, by hand. Just as you started the little four by inserting a key into the ignition and turning it. Such a chore it was, vs. pushing a “start” button.
But the BRAT did have a tachometer – and full array of gauges rather than idiot lights, which was something most inxepensive American cars of that time did not come standard with. The Japanese pioneered the standardization of full instrumentation in low-cost cars. It made them feel not-cheap back then. As opposed to the way LCD touchscreens in everything today make everything feel cheap, including six-figure luxury cars.
Eventually T-tops became available – which was a lot of fun of the sort you can’t find in a new anything anymore.
Astoundingly – if you aren’t old enough to remember the ’70s – the BRAT got 34 miles per gallon on the highway in spite of the fact that it did not have fuel injection, hybrid or automatic start-stop (ASS) “technology” or even an overdrive transmission. What it didn’t have – that enabled it to deliver better fuel economy than a 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz, which is something that looks kinda-sorta similar, was that it didn’t weigh almost two tons (the Santa Cruz’s curb weight is 3,779 lbs.) and didn’t come standard with six air bags and the structure needed to accommodate them or 18 inch wheels, which add both weight and rolling resistance.
The BRAT came standard with 13 inch steel wheels. These were not only light – and reduced rolling resistance. They also reduced the cost of replacing tires when they wore out. And because a 13 inch steel wheel (and tire) isn’t massive, you got a full-size spare – located under the hood.
You got a lot for about $5,100 ($23,826 in today’s debauched currency) back in 1979. As opposed to what you pay for today, when you buy something that sort-of looks a little like a BRAT, like the $28,750 ’25 Santa Cruz.
Which is about as fun as things get today.
. . .
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Tucker Carlson and Casey Putsch address the problem with new cars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfjhUyW7auY
Buncha guys I worked with in the mid-80s had these, mostly for commuting to and from, and beach running on weekends. While it was a neat vehicle, it was based on a car platform/chassis so it wouldn’t take much of a off road beating. Also, it suffered from two (2) major Soobie issues: a VERY weak center diff, and rusted like crazy. As a car based vehicle, it wasn’t too smart to put too much weight in the “bed”. HOWEVER, today, just as they were in that time, they’d sell “off the shelf” so fast Soobie couldn’t keep up, even if they cost $15K.
Thank you Joan Claybrook and spineless auto CEO’s…..
Disguise your Tesla as a Subaru to fool the vandals:
https://rense.com//1.mpicons/slider20200710/tesla-disguise.png
“Mass formation psychosis” is a term that was used on the Joe Rogan podcast by a formerly respected medical researcher, Robert Malone, M.D. He used it to describe what was happening in the United States and elsewhere in terms of people’s overwhelming acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccination.
Could it be that the Left (which is highly vaccinated and in denial of the effects) is under the control of “mob psychology” caused by their social media platforms, and irrationally attacking Tesla cars like programmed robots? It makes no sense that the Left is attacking it’s own Left base which drives Teslas. It is funny that they Left is using ICE car fuel, gasoline, to torch Teslas.
Gee, now we can drive our Tesla’s around covered in swastikas and just tell everybody “it was vandalized”..
Could it be that the Left is under the control of “mob psychology”
It’s much easier to explain than that. They are being paid.
‘Let them eat cake,’ declares
Marie Antoinettethe Tariff King:‘Asked what his recent message was to motor industry CEOs, and whether he had warned them against raising prices, Trump said,
“The message is congratulations, if you make your car in the United States, you’re going to make a lot of money. If you don’t, you’re going to have to probably come to the United States, because if you make your car in the United States, there is no tariff.”
When pressed whether he told CEOs not to raise prices, Trump added, “No, I never said that. I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American-made cars.”
Trump continued, “I couldn’t care less. I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are gonna buy American-made cars. We have plenty.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna198731
Donnie Fubar is d-u-n DONE. Kaput. He just pissed on Americans’ legs, and told them that it was raining gold. Him and his big mouf …
Tariffs schmariffs, just more money for more war.
War Pigs über alles!
Let them eat
cakebugs.Keep up with the times.
It’s all over but the crying.
Hey Donald, pig down, you stupid war pig.
Another stupid kakistocrat doing nothing, nothing new there.
Just to be contrary, on the dollars per pound metric, the Santa Fe is a better deal than the BRAT.
I’ll still take the BRAT
Partial list of reasons why you can’t have the BRAT you could have in 79’ even without the safety reg problems.
Lemon laws – 1st enacted in 82’. Drives prices up. Part of this cost is embedded in the cost of a Santa Cruz vs the inflation adjusted cost of the BRAT.
Rising & unrealistic customer expectations. Minor leakage (both wind noise and water leaks) of T-tops were accepted as part of the “cost” of the fun of having them. Modern customers are not tolerant of either. Warranty costs for wind noise and water leaks are not cheap.
Vanity. The 1st thing modern truck bro’s do is get rid of stock wheels in favor or something with too little offset pushing wheels out past the fenders. In order to not have tires rubbing, the vehicle has to be lifted to create clearance. Little boys raised watching Bigfoot crush cars in the Astrodome aren’t going to settle for a little BRAT.
There are now so many people that think they need 300 Hp minimum it’s ridiculous. Loosely related to vanity and unrealistic expectations. HP costs . . . Always has. . . Always will.
Maybe it is just me.. but I think this 1979 Subaru Brat is just SO MUCH nicer than any new car available today! I mean t-tops AWD full analog gauges rear facing jump seats and only weights 2060lbs! 34 mpg to boot!
OMG this Subaru is FUN.. fun makes you smile = happiness!
Remember happiness?
I would gladly pony up twice the MSRP for a clean good running example of this now classic machine (I always wanted one) and also think they would sell like hot-cakes at $20k if the exact car was available at the dealer today.
It is pretty obvious Govco does not want you or I to have fun.. fun leads to happiness and our modern slave owners prefer us to be as miserable as possible.
It’s not just you. The 1979 Subaru Brat is just SO MUCH nicer than any new car available today!
Screw your freedoms!
Screw your happiness!
Screw your liberty!
Screw your pursuit of it all!
Screw your life!
STFU, Arnold! STFU, Donnie! STFU, Elon! Three stooges right there.
You’re better off with not much, nothing is too much to bear, too much is not enough.
God given inalienable rights?
In your dreams.
The stakeholders are the decision makers.
Not you.
Subarus are or were great cars, so there.
I grew up in the 1970’s but I don’t remember this Subaru at all. However, I do remember the similar El Camino. I also remember riding in the back of one, sitting on the tool box with a friend as a kid and we were holding onto the chrome trim. We were about eight years old and the El Camino belonged to my friend’s mom. That ride was a blast for us, as her mom drove along a winding country road on a summer afternoon. Was it dangerous? Of course, but so were a lot of other things. I rode my bike all over the place with no helmet, and I’m still here…
I rode in the back of my friends Subaru once when we were in high school–on the bike rack that is. Big mistake!
‘hence the working synonym, standard, that was once current to describe a manual transmission’ — eric
Your junior high grammar teacher would call standard a metonym, just as purple hair can serve as a metonym for a leftist, a Democrat or a deviant (sorry for redundancy).
The FDA has set a standard for a lower nicotine level in tobacco, a new proposed rule.
Another compliance on the way.
Like the Chinese are going to stop using tobacco.
XXII, 22nd Century Corporation, is developing a low level nicotine strain.
Instant black market.
“Want to chirp the tires?”
No!
I’ve never understood this Merican’ obsession with the one wheel peel. I’ve done Autocross, I’ve done track days, I’ve road raced motorcycles.
If your tires are spinning, you’re going nowhere fast. Just a waste of rubber and dollars. Spin tires mid corner and not only are you losing lap time, now you’re trying to stabilize the vehicle too.
I grew up around the Nova, Chevrolet, GTO, 442, etc., crowd. I guess I was just never impressed by a car sitting still in a cloud of smoke while going absolutely nowhere.
Even drag racers try to minimize the wheel spin once it comes time to go down the strip.
Color me skeptical. Now we even have cars worn front brake line locking capability so that every no-skill driver can pull off a smokey burnout with zero effort. Find them on the road in a Mustang GT or their F150 Raptor and more than likely they are blocking the left lane doing 5 mph less than the posted speed limit.
Yeah – I’m weird. I just don’t get it.
‘Just a waste of rubber and dollars.’ — Burn It Down
To celebrate the last day of 11th grade, a guy named Rodney and I piled into his mom’s Buick, which had a big 455 c.i. V8 up front.
Rodney peeled rubber all over town, as we hooted and hollered like a couple of frat boy apes. We probably subtracted 30,000 miles of wear from his mom’s tires.
Smoking the tires was just sophomoric japery at someone else’s expense, though privately, I did think Rodney was taking it a little too far.
I know it’s only rock ‘n’ roll
But I like it, like it, yes, I do
— Rolling Stones, It’s Only Rock n’ Roll
I also grew up around the Nova, Chevrolet, GTO, 442, etc., crowd.
RE: “I’ve never understood this Merican’ obsession with the one wheel peel.”
I would suggest it’s because you had access to Autocross, track days, and a place to road race motorcycles. Plus, you had extra money.
None of that was readily available where I lived. Very few would have regularly had the extra money to do it, too. The closest most got to a race track was going onto the track circle after the smattering of stock car races were over. Or, they traveled 60 miles to the one and only drag strip around, but I never met anyone who had the extra money and time to go there.
The, “wheel peel” was fun. It was cheap -ish, and it was often all there was to do except drive 20 m.p.h. in circles for a few blocks around the downtown area American Graffiti style.
Helot, depends on how bad you wanted it. I was sr in college and made around 15-20K a year working long weekends and nights to buy my first used rr bike for 2k. I did not have a social life, or girlfriends. i got pretty good that first year, to attract some local sponsorship from a bike dealer, adn got my first engineering job, made 30K. I remember figuring it out, and 20K went to rr’ing, 10 to barely live. I lived in hovels (500-750/month) to be able to roadrace, while all my peers were living in nice apartments or buying their first house and new cars. This went on for years, and our little rr team got good enough to start competing nationally. We slept in the van, etc…. The time of my life. unfortunately it all ended in the wall at pocono raceway when a bike blew his engine in front of me, and the team (and me) were done. It was a great ride.
and to answer you access issue. We lived on the road. while pocono was our local track, it was only 1 race a year. Our ‘home’ track’ was in WV, and 3-4hrs away. We’d leave in the POS van right after work on friday, tent or sleep in the van, and get back very late sunday or early monday, and right back to work.
Most tracks were 6 to 12hrs away, one way. many weekends, I’d drive all night (with hopefully a backup driver), to arrive just in time for practice, weary eye’d and the race gas woke you up and off ya went.
today, there are more tracks (NJ, VA, etc.), which would have helped a lot, but always still long drives for rr’s that want to compete at a high level.
Question: Why did the long haired teenager bake the tires of his dads GTO?
Answer: Because he could
It’s childish, immature, and for some inexplicable reason fun. Also for those of us who grew up with underpowered stuff, a bit of a challenge. In my 49 Ford pickup with the 239 flathead V8, it was absurdly easy. Shove the crash 4 speed in granny low, floor it, and drop the clutch, and leave one streak of rubber all the way up the driveway. Dad was impressed, NOT favorably. In the 1500 Karmann Ghia, same process but a skinnier streak and not very long. In the Mercedes 190D, it could be done, but barely a chirp. And in Dads 79 Scout traveler diesel 72 raging horsepower in a 5000 lb tractor, it was an apex challenge, even with the granny low 4 speed.
Hey Burn it Down, when did you roadrace bikes?
I did from around 89 to 93, based out of PA and ran up and down the east coast for years.
Did a few Nationals against the big boys and we did pretty good (top 10’s, but never below 5th against the factory guys).
Also a funny, tried AutoX with a RWD 300 V8 (on oem tires haha) a few years back, and it was so funny with just the inside rear spinning and smoking the whole way around the track. The little crowd was laughing with me. So much fun. Since it was my first time, they put a top-dog in with you the first couple runs and he says “your tires are crap, and your car is a boat, I want to hear them crying all the way around this track” I obliged. did respectable, about mid-pack against mostly civic-r’s.
Mostly club racing around Midwest via WERA and the local club that was called Great Lakes Road Racing GLRRA at local tracks and occasionally out to Nelson Ledges where they literally put orange cones in the potholes – LOL. Once at Mid-Ohio club racing.
The comments about having money and access are funny because like you ChrisIN, I was doing it on a shoestring and everything else in my life was measured by how many sets of tires that money might buy.
As a kid I didn’t have access to any of that and still thought the one wheel peel was stupid! As stated, mostly kids abusing the parents car or trying to act manly when many couldn’t even change their own oil.
Good stiff BID. OH was about the furthest west we went. A few Nationals at mid-ohio sports car course. And a few at Nelson, which never ended well for me. We would only go to Nelson when there was yamaha or honda money. 1000 to win, so we went. I had some very bad experiences there. First was I hit a guy in practice pretty bad after he turned hard left at a very early braking marker as I was going to brake much later, and was told yelling “This is practice, you shouldn’t be going that fast!!!” Not kidding.
Then I got blacked flagged once for jumping the start, until I demanded they tape the start (vcr back then, haha), and it was proven I was not jumping. I just was good at it. How do ya get back a black flag? ya don’t.
Then the last straw was when we were trying to take $3K home with 3 wins, and I won the first 2, but the 3rd race was superbike and I was on a supersport, so I knew what I had to do. There was a local on superbike that was fast. My team and I figured out that if I could get a 30 bikes + at the start on him, I could win. And I did, but he caught me at the start of the last lap, and i knew that last carousel right turn before the back straight was the key for my superbike against a superbike, so I came into that carousel hot and there was a fricken harley 883 (just allowed to race in the 600 class, stupid), and he was going to be at the apex right when I was going to be there. So as I approached I had to decide in or out. I went inside with my knee dragging in the grass. my foot peg clicked on the harley and a few seconds later i looked back and both the harley and the superbike where in the air. I won.
Not so fast they said “you are too aggressive and sent 2 riders to the hospital” and they pulled my prior 2 wins, for zero race money. We searched for anyone that had taped the accident, and sure enough, as I suspected, the superbike went out, and when I went buy at double the harley’s speed, the harley guy got scared and stood up, right into the path of the superbike. The footpeg did was it was supposed to do and folded, zero impact on the harley. Showed the tape to the track brass, and they didn’t care about the proof. We never went back to Nelson.
Sorry for the long story.
What years did you race there?
Would have been 2001-2004.
Nelson Ledges is always a fiasco whether it be in a car or on a bike.
Good stories and none of them surprise me. LOL.
My time there was 10yrs prior. I guess it didn’t change.
Their biggest issues to me was they put slow and fast bikes together, not smart, especially on a short track.
I understand the black flag, happened before to me, and I started going to the officials before the races to please tape the starts. I was not cheating, just was able to read the starter, and knew how to get a bike going (at the expense of the clutch). And why most racing uses starting lights now.
Thanks for writing such words.
Hi Drumpfish, I just re-read it, sorry it was so poorly written with many mistakes. I knew it was going to be long and was trying to improvise my thoughts.
You need to drink/get out more.
Early 70s and summers between HS years. Friend got a ‘57 Chev wagon from his grandma. Pulled the auto trans, got a four speed and the clutch claptrap (pedal assy, pivots, links etc) from a wrecking yard. In a few days back on the road. He had put stereo speaker cutouts in the rear wheel wells but was two paychecks from the new 8 track. “Jack, light it up!” Great burnout, we were laughing like banshees as smoke filled the interior via the cutouts with missing speakers.
Burnouts inspired by the drag racers. Why don’t we try a bleach burnout? Hey your driveway is smooth concrete! Great fun until his dad got home, we spent hours cleaning black burnouts off his driveway.
Chirp the tires? No no, man up for a candy cane! Best result with a posi rear end.
Roll backwards downhill, 1st gear clutch in. At the right moment rev the V8 and dump the clutch, if done with right technique (gas and steering) you’ll get two nice “J” marks thus the “candy cane burnout”.
Thought it was the Candye Kane burnout?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candye_Kane
Either way, fun, fun, fun till her daddy takes the T-bird away.
This guys technique needs work (whimpy backroll) but this is the general idea:
https://youtu.be/F-PJOzFsYHg?feature=shared
Hill – don’t need no stinking hill.
Chevy Monza V8 with manual.
Pull handbrake – swing U-turn. Clutch in rolling backwards, clutch in. Revs up, 1st gear, drop clutch. Lots of smoke then when tires finally grip you drive back through the cloud of smoke.
Takes a lot more skill than a stationary one wheel peel burnout.
Still kinda stupid – especially when a u-joint lets loose and then your stuck there while all the neighborhood porch lights start turning on.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done plenty of stupid. I still don’t get the appeal of the new wheel peel.
In high school, they decided to put in speed bumps in the parking lot because people were driving their hotrods too fast I guess. Big mistake. We would line up our front tires on the speed bump and roast the rear tires. I imagine more than a few people around town thought the high school was burning down.
Stupid, yes. Bad ass? Oh yeah.
Down the street in front of my neighbor’s house there’s much wavy rubber marks in front of his driveway. This tells me they have a kid who was probably given his car and the tires to go with it for free from his parents-so he doesn’t understand their value.
Smoking the tires is as American as apple pie. It’s the same impulse that caused us to commence and win the Revolutionary War. It’s a smokey way of saying FU to the world.
I remember in the summer of 2020 when the “Covid” shit had reached its zenith. Everybody around me was in dread fear with masks. Nobody would extend any pleasantries or have eye contact. My own friend of about 20 years even refused to shake my hand. At the depths of my depression over society committing seppuku, I found myself in an intersection at a redlight. I looked over to my right and there was a Jaguar XJ8 with an LS swap. The hood was missing and the exhaust was loud. I looked at the 20-something mask-less kid and gestured for him to spin the tire. He gave me a giant smile and gladly obliged, doing a beautiful smokey, brakestand burnout, passing me as if drag racing.
I swear to you, that sole event caused my faith in humanity to be restored. Never underestimate the power of a burnout.
Ahhh the 1970’s.. it was a simpler time, the dollar was strong
Well it was, until the first of March 1973, when the Bundesbank made its final $1.7 billion purchase of dollars in a vain attempt to prop it up. On March 2, floating exchange rates arrived with a bang, as the dollar sank like the Hindenburg.
Da Bugz (meaning gold and silver stackers) went wild, cackling over their (then) hard currencies such as D-marks and Swissies. A somewhat shady author named Paul Erdman cashed in big time on the dollar’s dive. As the NYT dryly recalls in its April 25, 2007 obit:
‘Paul E. Erdman, a writer of best-selling novels of financial intrigue who began his literary career in the comfort of a Swiss jail, died on Monday at his ranch in Healdsburg, Calif. He was 74.
‘In 1970, Mr. Erdman’s bank collapsed because of unauthorized speculation in cocoa and silver futures. Losses were reported in the tens of millions of dollars. Mr. Erdman, the bank’s president, was dispatched to a Swiss jail — a 17th-century dungeon in Basel — to await charges.
‘It was by all accounts a very nice dungeon. Room service, complete with fine wines, was provided (at Mr. Erdman’s expense) by the best local restaurants. The wine would come in handy later, as he discovered.
‘Mr. Erdman also had a portable Olivetti, and to pass the time, he decided to write a nonfiction book about economics. But the one thing the dungeon lacked was a research library, so he turned the book into a novel.
‘Writing was a struggle at first. But help arrived in the form of a new inmate, a Frenchman reputed to be the finest safecracker in Europe.
“I sent him over a couple of bottles of wine, and in exchange he told me a way for an amateur to crack a safe rather easily with ordinary equipment,” Mr. Erdman told the NYT in 1981. “That became the first scene in the first chapter in my first novel.” The novel, The Billion Dollar Sure Thing, won an Edgar Award from Mystery Writers of America in 1974.
‘After eight months in jail, Mr. Erdman posted $133,000 bail and moved back to the US. In 1973, a Swiss court convicted him in absentia of fraud and sentenced him to nine years’ imprisonment. He declined to return to Switzerland.
‘Reflecting on his time in jail, Mr. Erdman concluded that from a business standpoint, at least, it had been of considerable benefit. As he told The American Banker in 1996, “It was what you call a successful career change.”’
Trump is the new Nixon.
The late ’80’s ‘gas wars’ … gasoline stations competing with each other to see who could offer the lowest price gas that day. Was it 99 Cents per gallon? Then, 79 Cents per gallon?
A great time to own a gas-hog v-8, or a motorcycle.
No more fun for you, you little brat.
More fubar on its way!
Fun for Trump is making a mad dash to the porcelain throne before it is too late.
When snot-nosed Bibi says squat, it is time.
Don’t want to do a Biden.
Let’s also not forget the Brat came with honest metal bumpers so that if you hit something at a low speed you didn’t leave behind a pile of broken plastic.
While Henry Ford understand the benefits of selling a car to the masses do you really believe our puppet leaders and those that back them want us to have freedom of mobility?
Remember when the plaque hit years ago and some countries said the unjabbed couldn’t travel and the unjabbed just drove where they wanted to go? The motherweffers get wet dream about locking down your new car and restricting you to a bicycle or shanks mare whenever they feel like it.
After spending a few days in Richmond….
It’s way worse than I imagined……everywhere I go here all I see is support for trans, LBGQ etc. and how evil white people are……this city is lost. Interacting with people still responds to kindness and respect but the messaging is just ubiquitous. It really makes me appreciate living in the rural South…..the youth are spiking their futures but it’s their world and they will have to live in the results……by the time some of these individuals figure out the gameplan they will have no means of travel, no food and no future…..oh well, the breakup of the empire will probably lead to a better outcome eventually…..and to relate this to the Brat….the demise of it and similar fun cars is the result of the attitude that having fun in an unapproved manner cannot be allowed…..these folks are the reincarnation of Puritan world view…..
RE: “the attitude that having fun in an unapproved manner cannot be allowed…..these folks are the reincarnation of Puritan world view…..”
I was thinking just the opposite. People not believing in any type of after-life or god live for the safest moment & do everything to avoid death, because it’s The End.
They only rely upon themselves or .gov to look out for them. That’s all they have, and so they are fearful. Fearfulness looks just like a Puritan world view.
Correction: – With few exceptions – That’s all they have, and so they are fearful.
Perhaps, it’s because those exceptions have truth within them? They are not completely blind to truth, as so many others are. Idk.
In addition to the pricing and having to “overbuy” most vehicles today, consider the inflated, but largely useless horsepower increase.
Watching MotorWeek retro road tests, in the Brat era, anything that went 0-60 under 10 seconds was considered quick for the time. When a n/a 2.5L barely made 100hp while today, can easily produce double that.
That 8.0 second Malibu is now considered slow, but what about the roads on which it operates?
Speed limits have only increased from 55 to 65/70 (75-85 in more modern states), despite all the advancements in safety, hp and tire technology.
No inflation there.
Hi Flip:
Lets not forget if your county’s roads are rutted, potholed and littered with junkies wandering in a haze does it matter if your car an go from zero to sixty in 2.3 seconds? Under those conditions an old, dented square body with skid plates might be your best bet.
Libtard state, the worse the roads.
Here in WA Interstate 90 is a deteriorated embarrassment. As is most of the freeway system here. I loathe driving from central WA to the “west side”. Road bed was worn out 20 years ago, you’re driving on 2” aggregate as the upper layers are long gone. All the bridge decks are spalling, holes not uncommon.
Now the push is on to raise the gas tax and implement a per mile tax.
Hi Sparkey,
I live in Vancouver WA. Same-same down here, roads are falling apart but the libtards are spending money like no tomorrow. The Marxists are installing in my neighborhood “traffic calming” safety bumps. (I never knew traffic needed a valium) These safety bumps are so high that the clearance is zero for fire trucks and rips out their air brake actuators. Too bad if your house is on fire. All the while the roads are potholed and doing the job of “traffic calming”. Oh, but they are spending money on the roads…every sidewalk is being ripped up and new ramps and truncated domes are going in all over Vancouver. God save us from ourselves. As for the asphalt…not for you and your carbon emitting devices.
You guys are going to be paying for along with us the new I-5 bridge replacement…starting at a front-loaded price of $4B, to be back loaded at $9B. I could build a new bridge a leave that one in place for less than $1B from Ridgefield to Oregon Hwy 30. Ironically, this was the plan 30 years ago with land acquisitioned for the purpose but….never mind.
Ahh WA! State motto should be “pay large, get little”
The 2nd bridge at the Tacoma Narrows cost around 1.1 billion including the bridge at 700 million plus, and the revisions to the approaches & the existing bridge for approx 400 million. For this we got 4 travel lanes. 1.1 billion
I was in S. Carolina Charleston area 2003 as the Arthur Ravenel Bridge was under construction, what a sight! The support towers were going up, massive. Intrigued I did some research – EIGHT lanes plus one more for bikes/walkers. Total length 2.5 miles. The cable stayed section longest done at that time. Less than four years to build, 632 million.
Way to go WA! Half the capacity nearly double the cost, similar early/mid decade build dates. See also SR520 Lake Washington floating bridge replacement for another over costly boondoggle.
Wasn’t Tacoma Narrows original bridge the famous Galloping Gertie which collapsed due to winds/harmonics? Maybe that is part of the cost, special conditions for the location.
I would suspect though that like most communist states, the cost comes due to corruption, family related companies, cost plus union contracts, etc.
Yes, the State considers the newest additional 4 lane bridge as #3. The original made it from July ‘40 to November ‘40. Wind set up a flutter/rolling condition in the deck that progressed to total failure. I believe lessons learned got applied to the Golden Gate suspension bridge. And of course the replacement for “galloping Gertie” completed 1950.
Yes for the conditions it lives in. However, the Arthur Ravenal was designed for 300 mph winds and was done for not much more than half the cost.
They blow thru money on “studies” and “mitigation issues” like water. If l recall the latest Lake WA floating bridge was $250 million plus on “studies” even though the bridge went in the same location as the old “obsolete” bridge.
haha Sparkey, drive that region often. No offense, but it’s still a dream compared to the rust belt from around NJ-NY to IL. It’s pretty common in the spring to see 3-4 low-profile tired cars on the side of the road every few miles. And if you happen to ship freight through that region, it better be packaged very well, or it’s guaranteed to be damaged.
I will say though that recently they are figuring out how to deal with it, at big costs, to just skim coat, overnight, large sections of interstate, and it’s working pretty well.
I’d go insane. People I worked with from “back east” (Chicago boys got mad when I included Chicago as “back east”) their stories about winter and roads during any season wow.
Great point. That’s the exact reason I purchased a Tacoma TRD Off Road – to drive ON road. The 16″ tires (with cushy 70 series sidewalls), skidplates and Bilstien shocks turn today’s modern, moonscape boulevards into a joy to traverse.
Hi Flip,
Yup. What is the point of having all this power when most people drive as if they were driving an ’85 Aries K car?