Are Old Cars the Best?

[darcane]

Originally Posted by freebeard

The first car with electronic fuel injection was the VW Type III. The temperature sensors are now unobtainium. Modifying Type II sensors was a possibility. As was swapping to carbs, which is what I did with mine.

I saw a Type III Fastback (an AZ car) with the fuel injection intact at a swap meet yesterday. The new owner is the eldest son in a VW family and he's determined to learn to keep it running.

Psst... Dodge had EFI on production cars a decade earlier. The "Electrojector"!

It worked well enough, but was fragile and expensive, so few people bought them.

Bosch bought the patents from Bendix who made the system Dodge used. They borrowed heavily from the Electrojector design but made it much more robust.




And to stay on topic:

While I love old cars and my hobby is tinkering on them... I'm really getting tired of repairing my worn out daily driver. While new cars are more difficult to work on... they normally require far less work. And that appeal may mean my next commuter will be a brand new car.

[hayden55]

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

This, I think. I get mpg in my Civic that I would struggle and try really hard to get in my old HX. Now I can get it with CC at 70 with the A/C on. Not to mention I have double the power.

This. Eventually I will swap the "proper ****box" civic for a Toyota Prius C when they depreciate out. But until then I guess the mediocre ac, no cruise is an okay trade off for not having to worry about messing up a car not worth anything. I just dream about getting 55mpg in a prius C with full crystalline window tint all the way around and AC that works versus suffering in the civ. haha

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by darcane

While I love old cars and my hobby is tinkering on them... I'm really getting tired of repairing my worn out daily driver. While new cars are more difficult to work on... they normally require far less work. And that appeal may mean my next commuter will be a brand new car.

My daily driver is still getting more and more fragile and expensive as time goes on. My Plan A is a 3-year warrantied electric tricycle that gets 320MPGe (the Arcimoto SRK). They are still on track to ship product in 2016. Plan B is a fenderless Volksrod with a Lexus electric rear axle.

But even if it's not fun anymore, your right to repair is under attack. Here's a Slashdot story where the potty-mouthed commenters hash out the two sides of the issue:

https://apple.slashdot.org/story/16/...to-repair-bill

As cars become more electronic, the problems from patents, DRM and user licensing will only snowball. Jack Rickard, at EVTV, has also raised the issue; not only because Tesla repair documents are only available to people [who claim to be] from Massachusetts, because it's the only state where it is required by law.

EVTV is dedicated to helping convert any old car (68 Camaro, Studebaker pickup) to magnetic drive with reverse-engineered OEM junkyard parts. Their most recent episode revealed v6.2 of their GEVCU controller (now with Bluetooth and GSM) and a new battery made to their exact specifications in China.

JRMichler -- Thanks, I'll tell that family.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Natalya

It seems like newer cars (2005+) usually have huge engines, all manner of bells and whistles, and their bodies just look absolutely ruined when you add any aeromods. Furthermore, they generally weigh more than older cars.

Apart from many bells and whistles being quite pointless and obviously a part of the weight penalty, it seems like some engines are not just bigger in displacement but also in the amount of cylinders.

Do we have to wait 10 years before it becomes cost effective to work on currently modern econoboxes?

I'm not so sure if the current penalty boxes are going to be as cost-effective to work around as their older counterparts. Maybe resorting to an aftermarket programmable EFI in order to be able to slap their engines into an older car is going to be easier...