Best of Oppositelock: August 6, 2013

"DasWauto" (DasWauto)
08/06/2013 at 17:20 • Filed to: Best of Oppositelock

Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people have put a good deal of effort into writing over the last 24 hours. Today it includes family appreciation, a mystery car stranger than the lost EV1s, what makes a cool car and more.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - BrownDogWelding

My folks are the hardest working people know. I'm the oldest of nine kids, and although we weren't rich, we never wanted for much. Mom raised the kids and even home-schooled a few of us until high school(I'm the only college dropout, and the youngest is heading to CCS in a few weeks). Dad worked as a sheet metal operator at Steelcase 40-60 hours a week. And outside of "work" he wasn't softball guy or bar guy or couch guy; he was(is) work-with-his-hands guy.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - Dunnik

I love cars - obviously, else why would I be here? But I've been car-less for almost a decade. As I've been living and working in downtown Toronto - which is more like Manhattan every day - and a car was a want, not a need.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - Axel-Ripper

In light of the post today about the mysterious EV1s that are scattered across campuses in this country, I bring you another mystery car from the depths of this country's higher educational system. This here used to reside in the basement of the Kettering University Academic Building. I say used to because the area that it was in was just renovated into a power electronics laboratory, and as far as I know it has now been scrapped, sadly.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - Boneyard Rendezvous

I think I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. In a flash flood/electrical storm. A little backstory is needed, I think, so you know where I'm at. I have a '96 Camaro. Its a v6. Bone stock. I bought the car from the first owner (elderly gent) when the car had just over 30k miles. I used this car extensively for road trips, usually from North Carolina to Iowa and back, or NC to Atlanta. I did a few trips to Texas, and one to Washington state. It now has 180k plus, and it runs like absolute garbage. So badly that I probably put 50 miles on it in the last 3 years.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - Henry Teverow

I was talking to a dear friend of mine recently. Although we’re separated by distance, we’re still very much a part of each other’s lives. I mentioned to her that a week or two ago, I had finally made a start on my goal of joining the auto journalism industry by writing here, in the hopes of getting noticed somewhere bigger. She was very happy for me, and asked me to send her some of my articles. Herein lies the problem. She’ll be bored shitless by any and all articles I write because she’s not interested in cars. Much of that disinterest stems from genuinely not caring, just like I don’t particularly want to read about gardening and whatnot, but another part of the disinterest comes from a prejudice.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - Dan Mosqueda

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The problem with all of the BRZ STI talk is that Subaru sells quite a few performance and cosmetic items for the BRZ and they can be dressed up quite nicely and mistaken for something new. As Travis pointed out in his piece "it's quite possible that we were blinded by desire for a faster BRZ that we didn't think that this might not actually be exactly what we wanted."

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - fractalfootwork

The coolest people in this world are the underdogs that climb out of a hopeless pit and make something great of themselves. In high school, the rich/beautiful clic might be popular and thought of as cool at first, but when a select few kids start making their name in sports by doing the above mentioned, they will become so much cooler than the established clic could ever hope to be.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - Gr1vleT

In case you missed it, I had an article posted to the front page of Jalopnik last week titled: #LOLFerrari - How I beat a 458 Italia in a Cobalt. Among the many interesting things that were derived from that article (including some intense, occasionally alcohol-fueled fanboyism from myself) was some interesting insight into Jalopniks audience.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - Boxerfanatic

Twin engined Bugatti 100P. Possibly the most gorgeous aircraft ever conceived. Twin mid-engined, with drive shafts to a mixing coaxial counter-rotating gearbox at the nose, to drive the front coaxial counter-rotating double props.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - TheSupremeLou

You guys are jerks. I’m sorry; I didn’t really mean that. It’s just, I can’t stop looking at Isuzu Vehicrosses. The three main arguments on this site seem to be how little people know/care about cars, manual v. PDK, and which cars will be future classics. Let’s please stop on the future classics. My wallet and I are begging you.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - Dusty Ventures

Rally Finland is the fastest event on the WRC calendar (in fact of the 10 WRC events with the highest average speed 8 of them are WRC Finland), for this reason (and the fact that it's absolutely littered with jumps) it tends to be a fan favorite. It's also a fun event from a fantasy perspective because it historically favors Scandinavian drivers (they made up half of this year's top 10 and have won 24 of the past 30 rallies) and there tend to be a fair number who rent WRC cars and come out just to run this event.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - TheDailyTurismo

As longtime fans of anything with wheels, and classic movies featuring wheeled vehicles, we here at the Daily Turismo get excited when real movie cars or even nice replicas come up for sale. Today's Toyota is not a real movie star but it's a pretty damn good replica of Marty McFly's prized 4x4.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - wisc47

Vintage Weekend at Road America has come and gone...about two weeks ago. Nonetheless, I was there to take as many pictures as I could, and because I'm such a stellar guy I thought I would share some Jaaaaaaag porn with you all.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - Satish Kondapavulur

Autocross events are among the few low-cost ways of racing. Go to some place with a lot of tarmac early in the morning, sit through a safety talk of some sort, know what work you're assigned to do, and then get 3-4 runs on a course that takes less than a minute to complete. And the best part is any car can take part! But there are some that shouldn't.

Car Spotting, Picture Threads

VincentPrice !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and spotted some cool rides. BJohnson11 !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and finished his 454 coffee table. AddMustard !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of his G35. Ricepuddin !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! with his Focus ST and some IAV Strykers. Audi for Life !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Audi style. Mr. IDK !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! at a Mopar show and got to sit in it.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - feather-throttle-not-hair

Every now and then, car manufacturers will come up with an engine that, for whatever reason is a bit more special. These engines often find their way into deserving chassis, resulting in great cars. Sometimes they even end up in multiple chassis, spreading their goodness far and wide. The last generation Celica for instance, wasn't a bad car, but it's engine went on to power the diminutive Elise, a car better able to exploit it's sky high redline and revvy nature.

As always, If I've missed something and you would like me to include it, let me know.

Fun Discussions

There were several posts that asked questions and sparked some good discussion over the last day. Take a peek and chime in on some of them listed below:

What's the Best Automotive Era?

The Least Clever Name Around

NPoCP.ph: For P400,000/$9,197, A Four-Door Dragster

Racing Tecnology: Trickle down vs trickle up?

How old is your DD?

What does Oppo think of the new Volt price?

Get Choosey: 2012 911 or 2006 V8 Vantage

To Buy or Not to Buy...

Your dumbest moment while working on your car

What is the best american car from the 90's?

Just the #tips

How To Kick Start A Crop Duster Airplane Using A Ford Truck