Foreign made, foreign name brands vehicles I have owned before, I still
own one now, a 1976 made in Germany Hercules Moped, it has bicycle
pedals on it.
1957 BMW Isetta car, 1961 VW van, 1963 VW beetle car, and a 1970 VW van.
I still have the big thick operators manual that came with the 1957 BMW
Isetta car.
cuhulin

"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/24/09 10:34 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

Indeed. I had a g/f years ago, with an X1/9. She couldn't keep it
running for love or money. I spent a weekend going through that
drive train and rebuilt everything I could put my hands on.

Fired it up and took it out for some break-in driving.

VERY serious fun. Not too unlike that 914/6 I was driving at the
time.

I wouldn't mind owning one, myself, today.

The only thing I did to the car later on was remove the catalytic convertor and put some slightly larger
jets in the carb.

It was indeed a very fun car and I miss it like I miss my Dodge Dakota.



Ooohh...no doubt.

Damn near got killed in the Dakota on a Saturday afternoon just minding my own business.

Only two cars, well maybe three, I ever had totalled. My Opel GT was also totalled by a gal who was 'running
late'.



That's gotta hurt. I've only totalled one, myself. A '62
Studebaker GT Hawk. White over Riviera blue. 289 Quad/4 speed, floor
shift, and Twin-Trak Spicer (Dana) 44 rear axel. About 10 years ago.
I'd just finished the restoration. Like 24 hours before. Was driving
it to work when I was at CBS, and I got run into a bridge abutment
by a guy in a Tundra who ran me off the road on the Ohio feeder.

Screw yer crumple zones. That 900lb cast iron block/tranny damned
near wound up in my lap.

That's kinda what happened with the Opel! Wasn't going very fast, the gal I could see was looking right at me in
her station wagon, then suddenly pulled out from the stop sign. Nailed her right between the doors. Engine in the
Opel was coming up through the dash. And, she had I think two kids in the rear seat.

I had just had the car rebuilt.

On 11/24/09 10:34 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

Indeed. I had a g/f years ago, with an X1/9. She couldn't keep it
running for love or money. I spent a weekend going through that
drive train and rebuilt everything I could put my hands on.

Fired it up and took it out for some break-in driving.

VERY serious fun. Not too unlike that 914/6 I was driving at the
time.

I wouldn't mind owning one, myself, today.

The only thing I did to the car later on was remove the catalytic convertor and put some slightly larger
jets in the carb.

It was indeed a very fun car and I miss it like I miss my Dodge Dakota.



Ooohh...no doubt.

Damn near got killed in the Dakota on a Saturday afternoon just minding my own business.

Only two cars, well maybe three, I ever had totalled. My Opel GT was also totalled by a gal who was 'running
late'.



That's gotta hurt. I've only totalled one, myself. A '62
Studebaker GT Hawk. White over Riviera blue. 289 Quad/4 speed, floor
shift, and Twin-Trak Spicer (Dana) 44 rear axel. About 10 years ago.
I'd just finished the restoration. Like 24 hours before. Was driving
it to work when I was at CBS, and I got run into a bridge abutment
by a guy in a Tundra who ran me off the road on the Ohio feeder.

Screw yer crumple zones. That 900lb cast iron block/tranny damned
near wound up in my lap.

On 11/24/09 11:22 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/24/09 10:34 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

Indeed. I had a g/f years ago, with an X1/9. She
couldn't keep it running for love or money. I spent a
weekend going through that drive train and rebuilt
everything I could put my hands on.

Fired it up and took it out for some break-in driving.

VERY serious fun. Not too unlike that 914/6 I was
driving at the time.

I wouldn't mind owning one, myself, today.

The only thing I did to the car later on was remove the
catalytic convertor and put some slightly larger jets in
the carb.

It was indeed a very fun car and I miss it like I miss my
Dodge Dakota.



Ooohh...no doubt.

Damn near got killed in the Dakota on a Saturday afternoon
just minding my own business.

Only two cars, well maybe three, I ever had totalled. My Opel
GT was also totalled by a gal who was 'running late'.



That's gotta hurt. I've only totalled one, myself. A '62
Studebaker GT Hawk. White over Riviera blue. 289 Quad/4 speed,
floor shift, and Twin-Trak Spicer (Dana) 44 rear axel. About 10
years ago. I'd just finished the restoration. Like 24 hours
before. Was driving it to work when I was at CBS, and I got run
into a bridge abutment by a guy in a Tundra who ran me off the
road on the Ohio feeder.

Screw yer crumple zones. That 900lb cast iron block/tranny
damned near wound up in my lap.

That's kinda what happened with the Opel! Wasn't going very fast,
the gal I could see was looking right at me in her station wagon,
then suddenly pulled out from the stop sign. Nailed her right
between the doors. Engine in the Opel was coming up through the
dash. And, she had I think two kids in the rear seat.

I had just had the car rebuilt.



Oh, now that's just a crime.

D. Peter Maus wrote:
On 11/24/09 09:01 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/24/09 06:28 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/23/09 16:12 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/23/09 13:44 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/23/09 09:24 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/23/09 08:18 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/23/09 01:19 , Gregg wrote:
On Nov 22, 8:44 am, "D. Peter

wrote:
On 11/21/09 18:55 , Bill Baka wrote:

Has anyone seen any shortwave radios in cars lately? I
remember a few
from across the pond back in the 60's but it seems to
have died out as a
fad. I would like to put one in one of my cars rather
than a boom box
thing and be able to tune the world from wherever I find
myself.
The other advantage is that I can drive to a spot with
no power lines
for miles at night to listen relatively static free. I
could (in theory)
take a long wire on a fishing pole (28-32AWG?) and put
on a disposable
weight and toss it as far as possible into some high
trees. Once it is
stuck firmly just back the car up until the whole spool
is used up and
connect the car antenna to it.
Anybody tried it or anything like it?

Bill Baka

I have a Becker 2340 I used in my 308 for
years. That was the
last aftermarket radio I saw with SW. I've heard tell of
some
Sony's, but not being interested in anything from Sony, I
never
pursued them.

The Becker offered excellent SW performance on
the car's antenna.
A little ignition noise in deep fades, but not enough to
complain
about. The injectors on 18 wheelers were more of a
problem than
ignition noise. It has 40 or so memories. And exceptional
audio.

As for driving out into the weeds...we had a
member of this
group, living in Colorado, who used to drive out into
Wyoming and
about two miles outside of Jackson Hole would hook his
SW-2 up to
the guard rail and use that as a makeshift pseudo Beverage.

With dramatic results.

But attaching anything to your car radio
antenna will not get you
where you want to go.

A car antenna does not really operate as an
antenna. It's too
short for medium wave. It operates more like a capacitive
element,
and is trimmed at the input to optimize performance.
Attach a wire
to the car antenna, and you'll change it's capacitive
value, and
throw your input out of balance. You're also likely to
change that
whip into something that behaves more like a real antenna
and
seriously overload your front end. On some models this
can be
disastrous.

A better option would be to see if you can find
an in-dash on the
used market, or take something like an SW-8 with you,
mount it
underdash and enjoy it as a real shortwave receiver with
a separate
antenna system.

That was a great post Peter. I liked the guardrail story.:-)

My friend hooked onto the railroad tracks once before
keying up a lot
of wattage on his CB, he used the RR tracks as his
ground.shaking my
head

I really never thought about hooking to the RR tracks for
a shortwave
antenna, what do you think the results would be?

Not sure. That would be the fun of the experiment.
It may be
little different than the guard rail. It may be something
entirely
different. The results should be unexpected and dramatic.

What type of car were you refering to when you said
"308"?? Just
curious.

Think "Magnum PI."

Great car. As I recall it was a 308GTBI, or like that? I
went to the factory and
saw them built right along with my once loved FIAT X1/9 !!!


Magnum's was a 308 GTS. The 'B' was for the
Berlinetta, the hard
top, and 'I' was for injection. His was a GTS(pyder),
carbureted.

Mine was the 308 GTSI-QV. Mine was injected, 32 valve
on the same
3.0L V-8. It wasn't quick, but it was FAST. And serious fun
to drive.

You had an X1/9?

Yeah, metallic black, 1979 version as I recall, with the more
integrated bumpers. A
great car, put at least 170k plus on it from coast to coast.

That's actually pretty good for that engine. It wasn't
known for
longevity.

170k is a serious amount of driving fun. I'd say you got
your
money out of it. You got everybody's money out of it.

Nicely done.

Thanks. The car always started with just a click of the key.
Never a problem. It was the
undercarriage that failed.


Really. In what way?

If you recall the design it had a trunk in the front as well as
the rear. What happened to
mine was that moisture up under the front apparently rotted out
the area that supported the
front struts.



No kidding. Damn. You're lucky something didn't let go on the
road.

I was actually quite fortunate that it let go where it did in
Muskegon, MI. On a certain city
street there one has (or had) to cross four or five railroad tracks
in rather rapid succession,
at not a high rate of speed. It let go then.

Another two or three miles and I would have been on the highway to
home probably doing 70 MPH.
Had it all came apart then I might not be here now.

Yeah, probably would have turned you over.

Yeah. I did get a lot of use out of that car though! And, it still had
its original exhaust system on
it.

A poor man's Ferrari!



Indeed. I had a g/f years ago, with an X1/9. She couldn't keep it
running for love or money. I spent a weekend going through that drive
train and rebuilt everything I could put my hands on.

Fired it up and took it out for some break-in driving.

VERY serious fun. Not too unlike that 914/6 I was driving at the time.


I wouldn't mind owning one, myself, today.

Almost bought one when I bought the 3P. Kids were getting too big by
then so wasn't much use to the little woman as a shopping trolley. The
X19 really is a 2 seater, definitely not a 2 + 2

Krypsis

On 11/24/09 13:18 , Krypsis wrote:


Indeed. I had a g/f years ago, with an X1/9. She couldn't keep it
running for love or money. I spent a weekend going through that drive
train and rebuilt everything I could put my hands on.

Fired it up and took it out for some break-in driving.

VERY serious fun. Not too unlike that 914/6 I was driving at the time.


I wouldn't mind owning one, myself, today.

Almost bought one when I bought the 3P. Kids were getting too big by
then so wasn't much use to the little woman as a shopping trolley. The
X19 really is a 2 seater, definitely not a 2 + 2

Krypsis

Then the practical solution would be to let the wife take the
station wagon, and you take the X1/9.


When I was married, we had three cars. A 4 seater sedan, her MG
and my MG.

After I got divorced I had 7 cars. Lots of choices. Too much fun.

And a whole lot less maintenance.

"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/24/09 13:18 , Krypsis wrote:


Indeed. I had a g/f years ago, with an X1/9. She couldn't keep it
running for love or money. I spent a weekend going through that drive
train and rebuilt everything I could put my hands on.

Fired it up and took it out for some break-in driving.

VERY serious fun. Not too unlike that 914/6 I was driving at the time.


I wouldn't mind owning one, myself, today.

Almost bought one when I bought the 3P. Kids were getting too big by
then so wasn't much use to the little woman as a shopping trolley. The
X19 really is a 2 seater, definitely not a 2 + 2

Krypsis

Then the practical solution would be to let the wife take the
station wagon, and you take the X1/9.

When I was married, we had three cars. A 4 seater sedan, her MG
and my MG.

After I got divorced I had 7 cars. Lots of choices. Too much fun.

And a whole lot less maintenance.

I'm no longer limber enough to shoe-horn myself into a X1/9.

"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/24/09 15:09 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/24/09 13:18 , Krypsis wrote:


Indeed. I had a g/f years ago, with an X1/9. She couldn't keep it
running for love or money. I spent a weekend going through that drive
train and rebuilt everything I could put my hands on.

Fired it up and took it out for some break-in driving.

VERY serious fun. Not too unlike that 914/6 I was driving at the time.


I wouldn't mind owning one, myself, today.

Almost bought one when I bought the 3P. Kids were getting too big by
then so wasn't much use to the little woman as a shopping trolley. The
X19 really is a 2 seater, definitely not a 2 + 2

Krypsis

Then the practical solution would be to let the wife take the
station wagon, and you take the X1/9.

When I was married, we had three cars. A 4 seater sedan, her MG
and my MG.

After I got divorced I had 7 cars. Lots of choices. Too much fun.

And a whole lot less maintenance.

I'm no longer limber enough to shoe-horn myself into a X1/9.


That's a shame. How's that back doing, btw?

Not good.

On 11/24/09 15:09 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/24/09 13:18 , Krypsis wrote:


Indeed. I had a g/f years ago, with an X1/9. She couldn't keep it
running for love or money. I spent a weekend going through that drive
train and rebuilt everything I could put my hands on.

Fired it up and took it out for some break-in driving.

VERY serious fun. Not too unlike that 914/6 I was driving at the time.


I wouldn't mind owning one, myself, today.

Almost bought one when I bought the 3P. Kids were getting too big by
then so wasn't much use to the little woman as a shopping trolley. The
X19 really is a 2 seater, definitely not a 2 + 2

Krypsis

Then the practical solution would be to let the wife take the
station wagon, and you take the X1/9.

When I was married, we had three cars. A 4 seater sedan, her MG
and my MG.

After I got divorced I had 7 cars. Lots of choices. Too much fun.

And a whole lot less maintenance.

I'm no longer limber enough to shoe-horn myself into a X1/9.


That's a shame. How's that back doing, btw?

"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/24/09 15:20 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/24/09 15:09 , dxAce wrote:


"D. Peter Maus" wrote:

On 11/24/09 13:18 , Krypsis wrote:


Indeed. I had a g/f years ago, with an X1/9. She couldn't keep it
running for love or money. I spent a weekend going through that drive
train and rebuilt everything I could put my hands on.

Fired it up and took it out for some break-in driving.

VERY serious fun. Not too unlike that 914/6 I was driving at the time.


I wouldn't mind owning one, myself, today.

Almost bought one when I bought the 3P. Kids were getting too big by
then so wasn't much use to the little woman as a shopping trolley. The
X19 really is a 2 seater, definitely not a 2 + 2

Krypsis

Then the practical solution would be to let the wife take the
station wagon, and you take the X1/9.

When I was married, we had three cars. A 4 seater sedan, her MG
and my MG.

After I got divorced I had 7 cars. Lots of choices. Too much fun.

And a whole lot less maintenance.

I'm no longer limber enough to shoe-horn myself into a X1/9.


That's a shame. How's that back doing, btw?

Not good.


Gee, Steve, I'm sorry to hear that. Having broken mine, myself, I
understand how miserable that can be.

Yeah, I think most of my current problem may just be due to the weather. Kinda
damp it seems, and I'm sure that you as well as I will be getting some rain soon,
at least according to the radar picture.