Cars. What does the typical audiophile drive?

Kona guy-

yeah, the old-school CRXs arent' the last word in all-around cars, but for specific jobs they are hard to beat: going fast, handling well. the lightness is the key...nothing touches them, esp. new cars... even new hondas.... all big and porky. Yeah, $10k would easily build either of what I have now, probably with newer/faster parts... or, you could also build a pretty killer turbo miata for about the same $..(maybe a touch more). Whats' up with all these SCCA spec miata guys...$10k to go a little faster than a stock miata...how about $10k and keep the miata part, lose the spec part... (eg. add boost). what kind of SCCA stuff do you do with the Focus? Mostly a road-race guy myself (and instructor for BMWCCA, COMSCC, some other sports car clubs...)

Bikes - yes, those are damn fast...scary too...as said, even a lame bike will crush the fastest of cars.. I had a friend with a whipped 1970's 2-stroke Yamaha R5 that would outrun another friends Talon AWD turbo... at least up through highway speeds...

the ultimate fast wheeled toy I think is karts... 125cc or 250cc shifters...bike-fast but with car-caliber handling and then some. F1 guys use them to 'keep sharp' in the off-season. ;> That says something.

Damn. cars or audio - now that's a tough choice on what to blow money on.

KARTS are UNREAL. Thanks is almost too much abuse for me for any length of time though (depending on the techincality of the track). But talk about a rush!! Right on Ed!!

Gunbei and Bob Crump, you and my "Pop" can hang out and talk about cars. He used to have a 1969 red and black Charger R/T with a .060 over 440 / 4 speed in it. His previous car was a 1966 Coronet Convertible with a 426 wedge and a 4 speed. He was sorry that he sold the Coronet to get the Charger when all was said and done. I bet that the Coronet would be worth more money nowadays too.

As to where Bob fits in, my Dad loved his Jetta and supercharged Corrado. He dumped the Corrado for a Taurus SHO and was very sorry. The SHO had a great motor in it but was WAY too "boaty" in terms of the handling that he was used to. I told him that we needed to stuff that SHO motor into his Corrado : )

Personally, i've never been a Mopar fan. Some of their cars looked great ( Charger, Challenger, Cuda, etc... ) but i never dug their motors. I would have been REALLY happy if we could have gotten Ford's racing division hooked up with Chevy's "common sense" division. THEN we would really have something. Ford made the most factory racing parts and always had the best breathing intakes but could never figure out how to get the potato out of their exhaust ports. That's where Chevy's "common sense" approach would have come in handy.

I've always wanted to stuff a massively built Old's quad four into a worked Fiero GT. Talk about a "sleeper" : )

Oh well, just like audio, to each their own : ) Sean
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Had a '70 Hemi Roadrunner and both a '90 G-60 Corrado and a '92 VW Corrado VR-6.....I always liked cheap, mean and easy cars, just like my ex-wives.....

Sean, there two aural deserts in life besides a lovely women's voice that I love. One, is the sound of that lovely voice coming from my ever improving audio rig. And the other is the visceral experience of beautiful engine note.

I work on the west side of Los Angeles, not too far from Beverly Hills, Hollywood, etc...so I see a lot of expensive aluminum cans driving around. I can remember standing on a corner after lunch once and having my attention snatched away by the sound of an idling Ferrari 360 Modena, and the beautiful wail as it trailed away. I think that guy driving it was winding each gear out just for my enjoyment.

Then, there was the time when I was driving to school many years ago on the 405 freeway, and a gorgeous 1970 Dodge Charger in the same paint scheme as the one in Bullitt slowly edged passed me. Even 20 years after I can remember that awesome car and the beautiful sound of it's exhaust. The guy must have had a 4.10 or 4.70 rear axle to have it sound like that at 65mph.

And then, there was the time when I was cruising on the 91 freeway and an all original early 1970's Ferrari Daytona 365GTB Berlinetta cruised pass me in the same manner as the Charger. NOTHING sounds better than the song of a Ferrari V-12 motor. I love that ferocious melody so much, that there are times that I just sit and replay those moments of the movie Gumball Rally where the 365 is accelerating hard or even downshifting.

I had a blast revving the life out of the Integra GSR I once had, and the M3 I currently drive has a seductive, complex note from inside the cabin. Powerful and sexy. But nothing compares to those three moments I described. I wish I could own those on XRCD2!