My high school Freshman science teacher had a Ghia notchback, until she traded it in for a Fiat X1/9. Talk about going from the frying pan into the fire, LOL! ... View more

I miss Rodney Dangerfield! That's his joke you stole! ... View more

It's not just that leaking Electrolytic capacitors damage the circuit board, although they do, but that the failed capacitor's value is now much lower than before it failed. This can severely degrade the circuit's operation, even rendering it inoperable. As the capacitor ages, the electrolyte evaporates. Eventually there isn't enough electrolyte left to allow the capacitor to store energy. In addition, the conducting aluminum foil plates can grow dendrites, crystal spikes that eventually contact the other plate, shorting out the capacitor. Not good. That's what killed a lot of computer motherboards in the early 1990's, the older motherboard's caps had failed. When high reliability is required, tantalum capacitors can be used in place of aluminum caps, but that's not a straightforward substitution, extensive design work is required to make it work. Tantalum caps are also much more expensive and take up more room on the circuit board, so those are potential limiting factors.   I spent twenty-five years as an Electrical Engineer designing power supplies for electronics, where I used aluminum electrolytic capacitors extensively in my power supplies. If you want some cheap entertainment, apply a large voltage to an aluminum electrolytic capacitor far above its rated voltage and stand back! If you're lucky, it will screech like an eagle and blow up like a balloon! If not, it will explode like a firecracker! Wear safety glasses when you do this, the electrolyte is a highly corrosive acid! Tantalum caps don't blow up, they just burst into flames when their voltage limits are exceeded! Don't ask me how I know this, LOL! If you look at the top of an aluminum electrolytic capacitor, you will see lines cut into the top, like score marks made with a knife blade. Those are designed to tear open to allow the electrolyte to vent out of the case during an over voltage event, to prevent the capacitor from exploding as the electrolyte boils away due to the excess voltage applied.  ... View more

Brand new, not rebuilt brake calipers for any Miata! The dealer parts counter only offers "remanufactured" parts, not brand new units! The rear caliper's parking brake assembly have a nasty habit of seizing up. When they do, they drag the pads on the rotor, destroying both in short order. Brand new, factory fresh units on the car at birth last about five (5) years before corrosion sets in, but "remanufactured" units only seem to last between twelve (12) and eighteen (18) months before the calipers die, killing the rear brakes in the process! I've been through this with my 1993 Miata, and my 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata. I replaced all four calipers on my 2013 MX-5 Miata Grand Touring PRHT with Power Spec parts from Rock Auto at 60k miles, we'll see how long they last. ... View more

I like the Simpson Design and Exocet the most, followed by the Tipo 184, with the others trailing far behind. The Chrome Spaceship leaves me cold, too steampunk looking, and probably heavy to boot. The Blackwell SPR1 turns a convertible into a coupe, that's the wrong direction IMHO. I've owned three (3) Miatas. The first is a 1993 black and tan that is awaiting conversion into a kit after it was rear-ended by a Dodge Durango and totaled. Next was a 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata that I sold after accident damage that was poorly repaired began rusting out. My current ride is a 2013 Grand Touring PRHT, with 80k miles on it, bought new in June, 2013, I'm the original owner. The kit choices for the donor 1993 are between a Lotus 7 replica or an MGTG Sports MG TF Replica. ... View more

This is not quite in the same vein, but I always wondered why Ford didn't fit the Independent Rear Suspension (IRS) from the 2004-11 Ford Explorer on the Panther platform cars (Ford Crown Victoria/Police Interceptor, Mercury Marquis/Marauder, and Lincoln Town Car)? Cost may have been an issue, but it sure would have made for a sweet handling ride, just the thing for police pursuit duty! Since the 2004-11 Ford Explorers were still body-on-frame architecture, with the IRS components installed that were already in-use on the Ford T-Bird and Mercury Cougar of that era. It was all parts bin engineering, almost no special components required! Pre 2004 Explorers used live axles in the back, and the Explorer became a uni-body architecture in 2012, so the conversion would have been harder to do with the newer Explorer parts after 2011. Maybe the fact that the Panther platform was soon to be discontinued in 2012 may have had something to do with it, I don't know. Ah, what might have been! ... View more

You are correct sir! As I recall it was a 260 V8. Changing the back spark plugs was a real pain, though. If I remember correctly, you had to unbolt the V8 engine from its mounts and jack up the engine slightly to change the back two (2) plugs! ... View more

How about the Subaru BRZ and the Scion/Toyota DR 86 twins? Toyota showed a convertible version as a show car about one (1) year after they debuted, but it never saw production. I like those cars, but you can't even get a factory sunroof in one, let alone a convertible! ... View more

That's where the Manta had an edge. You could take the spare tire out of the spare tire well and remove a rubber drain plug at the bottom of the well. Now fill the well with ice cubes and canned or bottled beer, and you're off! Our personal go-to brand of beer, being broke college students, was something called Red, White and Blue beer, $2.99/case! ... View more

I always thought that the Opel GT was a three quarter scale C3 Corvette, like someone had run a Corvette through a car wash and it shrank! LOL!  ... View more

My brother's 1974 Manta Rallye was the last year for the carbureted cars. He swapped out the Solex factory carburetor, with the water-heated choke, for a Weber carburetor with a manual choke, when we couldn't get the carburetor vacuum leaks to stop after rebuilding the stock carburetor. There was a factory space in the dash for a manual choke knob, used on European cars, that we installed the choke cable into. American cars were fitted with an automatic choke, thanks to the EPA, to meet U.S. exhaust emissions rules at the time. ... View more

My Mom used to carpool with one of her colleagues at work. He was an engineer who called Opels "Hitler's Revenge" due to electrical gremlins! The 1900/Manta had a bad design flaw, also a potential electrical disaster. The battery was placed next to the firewall, in the left rear corner of the engine compartment, in front of the steering column (for LHD cars) directly over the mounting location for the fuse box, under the dashboard! Acid vapors and hydrogen gas venting from the battery would corrode the sheet metal underneath the battery, rusting holes in the metal. Water draining from the drip rail for the hood opening (the hood was hinged at the front of the car) would drain onto the same location, adding to the rust and corrosion. Eventually, the water would drip through the holes in the sheet metal directly onto the fuse box, corroding all of the wires inside the fuse box. It was a race to see whether the circuit failures would start to happen before the resulting electrical fire would consume the car! Great driving cars hampered by serious design flaws that hopefully, wouldn't see the light of day today! ... View more

Our family had two (2) Opels when I was in college in the late 1970's and early 1980's. I drove a green 1972 Opel 1900, with a four-speed stick and dealer-installed air conditioning. My younger brother drove a 1974 Opel Manta Rallye. Two (2) friends each owned an Opel GT at that time as well. Finally, I would argue that your comments about the Mercury Cougar could apply just as well to its corporate cousin, the Ford T-Bird from the same era. Both shared a platform with the Lincoln Mark VIII and used engines from the same family, Ford's "Modular" engine family. The T-Bird and Cougar got the 16-Valve version of the 4.6L, while the more upscale Mark VIII got the 32-Valve version of the same motor. ... View more

Bravo Zulu for the comments about replacing the stock single-circuit master cylinder with a dual-circuit part. Originality be damned, I want redundancy wherever possible when it comes to critical safety systems like brakes and steering. Also, adding things like alternators, electronic ignition and electronic fuel injection strongly suggests that you need to upgrade six-volt electrical systems to twelve-volts. That goes double for positive ground systems, like those found on many post-WWII British vehicles. Twelve-volt, negative-ground electrical systems became the standard in the mid-1950's, and converting an older system to the modern standard simplifies maintenance, as electrical parts, such as radios, lightbulbs, gages and ignition coils are much easier to find and much cheaper as well. ... View more

How about the 1971 Maserati Quattroporte AM 121 versus the 1972 through 1975 Opel 1900 and Manta, especially the front clip? Discuss. ... View more

My favorite wasn't on the list for one simple reason: it wasn't really a car ad. It was a parody of the VW ads that appeared in the National Lampoon magazine. Copying the VW ad typeface, with a black and white picture of a VW Beetle floating in the water, the caption read: "If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today!" This is, of course, a reference to the late U.S. Senator Edward Moore Kennedy's plunge off of the Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island in a car containing Mary Jo Kopechne on Friday, 18 July, 1969, in his mother's Oldsmobile Delta 88. The parody caused such an uproar that VW sued the Lampoon (The case was settled out of court). ... View more

Throttle-Body Fuel Injection (TBI) is a nice upgrade if your old carburetor gives out. There are kits from Edelbrock, Holley, FiTech and Atomic for most four-barrel applications, at about a 20-30% price premium over a new carburetor. They also interface with their manufacturer's electronic ignition kits, to provide a total electronic engine control solution. Holley also makes kits for one and two-barrel applications.   If you want to go crazy, Edelbrock and Holley both offer port-type fuel injection kits for most classic American V8 engines for about $4k. The kits come complete with electronic ignition, intake manifolds, and wiring harnesses. Holley also makes a universal port injection kit that can be retrofitted to an existing intake manifold, but you need to have a machine shop drill and tap the intake manifold for the injector bungs.   One more modification I consider essential on pre-1967 vehicles is replacing the single-circuit master cylinder with a dual-circuit master cylinder, even if you retain the the stock drum brakes. With the dual-circuit master cylinder, a blown brake hose or wheel cylinder won't leave you with total brake failure. Cheap insurance at ten times the price. ... View more

John Z. DeLorean deserves mention, for his "Trophy 4" and OHC "Sprint 6" designs. He wasn't just an engine designer, his rear-mounted transaxle with "rope-drive" driveshaft in the 1961-63 Pontiac Tempest also is worthy of note. ... View more

What about the GPZ550's little brother, the GPZ305? If memory serves, this was Kawasaki's first belt-drive motorcycle, using a Gates Aramid-Fiber-Reinforced final drive belt. ... View more

What about the 1967-69 T-Bird? Full Disclosure: My Mom owned a 1967 T-Bird, which still ranks as my favorite car my family owned while I was growing up. By 1970, the hidden headlights disappeared when the T-Bird grew the "Bunkie Beak" so despised by T-Bird lovers everywhere. ... View more