SAmadei

Trying to explain your way out of it, huh? From thefreedictionary.com: Skid - 1. To slide sideways while moving because of loss if traction. 2. To slide without revolving. Understeer - To turn less sharply than the operator would expect. There is no correlation between a skid and understeer. I checked 3 or 4 reputable sources to be sure. A skid can occur from either an oversteer or understeer situation. If you jump on the gas in a RWD car exhibiting understeer, it negates your attempts to steer into the slide and puts you into the ditch faster. Oversteer is when you can countersteer, pile on the throttle and do a big smoky powerslide. Again, your backwards. FWD cars love to understeer... they are difficult to get them to oversteer... which is why you have things like the Scandinavian Flick. Stability control is usually heavy handed and does not make the FWD driving experience into a RWD driving experience. You can say skid, slide, spin... all are symptoms of loss of control. That is not my gripe, neither is your oft repeated "people believe FWD has better traction". My gripe is that you are saying people with FWD do not need to turn into the {spin|skid|slide}. But if you want to open the scope here a bit, it is my belief that people are not as fooled by the FWD myth anymore... nothing else explains why BMW and Mercedes cars have been so popular in the northeast for 2 decades. The FWD myth only existed when people had to choose between weak FWD offerings that could not overpower the front wheel traction on dry pavement and weak RWD offerings that couldn't overpower the rear wheel traction on dry pavement, either. Yeah, when your only slinging 135hp, it doesn't matter (to the average person) which wheels are powered until you're in the snow.

Again, trying to spread misinformation. When recovering control from a spin in either a FWD or RWD car, you STILL have to turn into the spin.

Agreed. I'd look at soda blasting first.

38K is not bad for a totally new car with NO marketing whatsoever. And keep in mind, even that number is limited, as Holden only had so much spare capacity. GM doesn't provide net profits per unit, so we can only guessimate that. Camaro will NOT continue to stay at 100K per year, so I guess that's as good as gone. Better not tell Chrysler about that. 50% of their car lines are RWD... more when the Viper comes back. In the era of mandatory traction control, the RWD vs FWD battle is basically over. People buying a large car want good ride and premium driving dynamics... RWD delivers that. G8 vs GTO federalization costs are not able to be compared. The GTO had the gas tank behind the rear end. The G8 always had the gas tank under the rear seats. What new Chevy RWD? On Alpha? You think GM is going to build an Alpha Chevy sedan if the target is only 10K? You're insane if you think GM won't pay a small price to bring the Holden here, but will engineer a whole new car for the same lousy 10K volume.

Smart car is $12K. I doubt the Spark will undercut that. Adding a faux backseat does not make the Spark a better deal... in fact, city car to city car, smaller is better.

90%?!? More like 99%... the other 1% are upside down in a snow-filled ditch. I never see ANY thing less than real trucks go off road. Having a dirt driveway is not considered off road... which is as far off-pavement I've seen a Equinox/Terrain so far.

If you think a Smart is less roomy, you are sadly mistaken and should check out a Smart sometime. I have. The Smart is roomier than the Mini Cooper. And while the Smart is a bit narrow, at least you don't have have a huge console between the seats, like many other offerings. The Smart is an impressive piece of engineering, unfortunately lambasted because the US version got that awful Mitsu engine and the gruesomely awful transmission. I highly doubt, after adding a set of rear doors and rear seats that the Spark will have more front seat room than the Mini Cooper, as the Mini is impressive in its own right. I will gladly try out a Spark once one is available, but I will require some volunteers with the Jaws of Life on standby. It will likely be as big of a disaster as trying out the Solstice Coupe was. Actually, I think the predecessor looked better. Its cute like the original Neon and has a non-gimmicky set of doors that I would venture many people (not me) could use. The new Spark was better as a coupe. At least a coupe goes with the aggressive front. The aggressive front on this car promises things it can't deliver... but that is a sin many other cars also suffer from, but in lessor quantities. Speaking of those big lights... I think the big lights contribute to making the car look stubbier than it really is. The Mini doesn't need those gimmicky lights. Of course, now Daewoo needs to get its tail in gear and make a car to compete with the Tata Nano... which, honestly, I find more attractive and more practical than the Spark, even if I can't fit/drive in either.

I just want a rear wheel drive car I can stretch out in comfortably that does not require jungle-gym practice to climb in and out of. The Vega, Chevette and Smart fit this better than the Spark.

Oh, really? GM sold 38,159 G8s in roughly 13 months with virtually no marketing in a plummeting market. Do you REALLY think GM is going to throttle a market like that to 10K per year? The CAFE excuse don't fly here when you consider most were V6s and got virtually the same MPG as other GM cars. 38K G8s represents about 1.1 billion dollars. That's a lot of money. It certainly didn't cost that much to federalize them. After all, GM seems to have federalized the Caprice for low, low sales volume to law enforcement agencies. I say "seems" because these cars WILL end up in the hands of the public secondhand and because the EPA and safety crazies would have a field day if we had our "boys in blue" in polluting, unsafe vehicles. In the meantime, GM brings us the Spark... a answer to a question nobody is asking. They federalized that. How many of those are realistically going to sell? Smart numbers? Of course not... because GM will probably bring in 60K+ of these regardless if they have to give them away or not. Personally, its my feeling that GMNA is still playing the "not made here" card. The G8/Caprice will likely eat the sales of the Impala, and possibly steal some Malibu or LaCrosse sales. GM would sell more cars overall... but the GM's puppetmasters, the UAW, don't want to lose 1 car built under their control, even it if means 50000 more get sold.

More CPU power the system has, the less capable and more distracted the driver gets. It must be a lot of fun trying to drive while a Gears of War 3 Deathmatch is going on with the car next to you.

I don't think it gets cross shopped with the Smart, Fiat or Mini... its not a coupe and its not unique. It looks like ripped off Asian styling and too many doors. Who, besides Wee-Man and/or Kate Moss is going to get into those back doors? And how reassuring is it to sit up against the back of a vehicle... you can look out the rear window and look eye to eye at the SUV bumper a foot away.

I'm sure GM will have something bigger for you to drive. Of course, it will be 5 foot long, 4 foot wide, 30 feet tall, 7000 pounds and will have a 3 cyl. (The 4 cyls will be for the fullsize trucks.) EPA will rate its 570 cubic foot interior as full size. Enjoy!

Probably more like 10-15% of the market in 10 years, I suspect.. I doubt we'll see 10% in 10 years... maybe 7%. But anything with less than a 10% take rate GM axes... RWD, coupes, wagons, manuals. So GM will likely kill it if it don't make it to 20%.

Its like Cuba shortly after the embargo.

I know who you are talking about now, but I had to Google the bejesus out of it, so I'll withhold the info, giving someone else a shot at it... but I still came back to the same roadblock that eliminated the driver in the first place... that record at Talladega appears to have been broken twice. I can't find anything that makes it particularly unique that it cannot be broken again. Same with the Indy wreck... I see what makes it unique, but not so unique it cannot happen again.

Hmmm...Wikipedia says the Super Turbine 300 aka Jetaway was a 2 speed. http://en.wikipedia....per_Turbine_300 Didn't know GM had 4 speed autos before the '90s. Sorry, I should have specified the FIRST Jetaway, not the second. The first came out in '56 as the "Controlled Coupling Hydramatic" or "dual-coupling Hydramatic"... the second Jetaway came about in '64 and indeed had 2 speeds. I hate 2 speed automatics. GM's 4 speed trannies resumed in 1980 with the hugely underestimated 200-4R

Document, document, document. If you have lots of documentation, take it to the labor board. To my knowledge, that wouldn't fly here in NJ, but I don't know KY. It sounds very suspect. Of course, if you squawk to the law, look for a backup job, as they will likely terminate you... which, if you don't give them an excuse, could turn into a nasty lawsuit for them. No you don't. Smoking only makes you think your relieving stress... just like drinking alcohol makes people think they drive slightly better. Drop the smokes and start doing yoga or breathing exercises. Well, there are ways to stop the mileage from racking up... but it breaks your ABS/TC and becomes a federal issue if you sell the car. A performance meeting should count towards your hourly rate unless your salary. Easier said than done. Even a degree does not ensure you will have work. I know people with (granted, IMHO useless) degrees that have not had decent work in 20 years. And other times, factors beyond your control can stop you from ending up in a hole. Been there, got the T-shirt... then had it ripped off my back.

It was the Roto Hydramatic tranny... nicknamed the "Slim Jim". It shifted different than the typical Turbo-Hydro and was less durable. Phased out after 1964, I think Balthy is indicating that it was a standard item in the Catalina. Someone want to write up something about this? I've never heard of it before and I'd like to know the tech and history behind it. New thread. Actually, it would likely be useful to broaden the scope to include all of GM's automatics between '40 and '64, when many of them were as unrelated as the engines were. Its not my strength, and Wikipedia is a bit too dry on the subjects... but the trivia is killer... I can't believe GM's Jetaway was a 4 speed! Talk about 30~40 years ahead of its time.

The NHTSA 1981 VIN standard is based on the ISO 1979/1980 standard, which most of the world seems to follow now, in slight variations. All VINs should be in on the dash below the windshield, regardless of country of origin.

Don't joke about crappy toasters. I already killed someone over breaking my good toaster and replacing it with a cheap Walmart POS that refused to work properly. In all seriousness, I have a box of spare keyboards and mice because I've Roger Daltrey'd so many in the past. The solution for flaky, cheap hardware is to snap it in half and stop wasting valuable IT time.

But isn't the Ute a RHD model? I'm assuming the wrecked G8 could have given its LHD dash? Could it be a Middle East Ute (are they LHD)? I'm sure that the G8 and Ute bodies were both designed to be RHD or LHD. Or they could have grafted rear of the B pillars. 36K ain't nothing. If you want something like this, you have to pay for its rarity... or pay to build it. I doubt one could build one for less than 31K, counting the G8 donor and the shipping of the Ute body to North America.

To my knowledge, Bill Elliott holds the record at Talledega in a NASCAR prepped T-bird. Nobody, MC or not, has beat it since due to the restrictor plates. However, to my knowledge, Bill Elliott didn't do the other things... for example, Bill is from Georgia, not Ohio. OTOH, I want to answer Bobby Rahal, as I know he's from Ohio and matches your description closer. I can't answer the bit about Indy, as Rahal's Indy career is not something I'm steeped with. Edit: Rahal can't be the answer... I didn't realize you specified that his DIDN'T win the Indy 500. I know of no other Ohio drivers.

edited by Oldsmoboi: I changed this to a spoiler so other people who would like to take a guess can have a swing at it without seeing the answer first.

It was the Roto Hydramatic tranny... nicknamed the "Slim Jim". It shifted different than the typical Turbo-Hydro and was less durable. Phased out after 1964, I think Balthy is indicating that it was a standard item in the Catalina.

Nice price, too. If I had the cash laying around I'd hop on that.