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Old 02-28-2014, 08:55 AM   #27 (permalink)
elhigh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee View Post
It's not impossible- the 50's and 60's were all about long and low. What goes around, comes around.
As I recall, the 50s and 60s were all about "longer, lower, wider!" and Dinah Shore singing about seeing the USA from your Chevrolet. What the 50s and 60s - and a great many other decades - were really about was planned obsolescence.

I can't think of many things more wasteful than a new car, especially when the old one is still working. What if we could make the essential upgrades for improved efficiency on our existing rides?

This is a mindset already in existence in some motoring circles. Honda fans will change engines faster than I change socks. VW aircooled enthusiasts can drop an engine out of a car in under an hour and have it back in in less than two. Knowing that contemporarily respectable numbers can be had from an otherwise stock VW with just a chassis tune and a new, purpose-built engine, why not avoid all the extra waste of a completely new car?

This is the part of the argument where everyone starts yelling about safety again. And again I tell you, you're going to die. If people weren't so reliant on built-in safety measures, maybe there'd be much more careful driving.

If you really want people to avoid rear-end collisions, install a six-inch spike to the center of the steering wheel. Following distances will increase dramatically.
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