My new desktop backgound... with a bit of grayscaling and bloom effect-ing

Quote from pasibrzuch :

Sorry to hear. You must know more 'strange' drivers than me. Could you describe some of those accidents

I also would like to know how it is that he knows so many people who have crashed when the pulled the handbrake too hard. The only reason for this that I can think of is if he is referring to people who were trying to drift, slide, or otherwise have "fun" with their cars, and went over the limit - in which case that does not at all apply to this argument.

And if they were all legitimate "emergency" uses of the handbrake, I have to wonder WHAT THE HELL GOES ON WITH THE CARS WHERE YOU LIVE?!?!?!

Quote from tristancliffe :

I wouldn't. They're awesome machines.

If you want to be an over-the-top pacifist then ban the bombs but not the bombers.

Yeah - but Tristan - do you have any idea how bad for the environment one of these bombers is - and all the other stuff that needs to be built/produced to restore and maintain it? Are you SURE you want to support this???



Awesome machine. It's just so big and wide when you see it in the air

Quote from SamH :

They're FAKE!? Seriously??

I know it's obvious they're fake, but it just seems as if Ford went to extra lengths to MAKE SURE that nobody mistakes them for real intakes... that's all.

Quote from Osco :

the same as the rest of the tires, I wouldn't drive two different sets on left/right..

He wants to get four new tires, so they don't have to necessarily be the same brand. He just want's to know what people recommend.

Quote from March Hare :

I would check the wheels too for damage. Also you might want to check the alignment.

Yeah. He's going to be doing all of that.

Quote from DHRammstein :

Hey do you know much about stangs, I noticed your name and figure maybe ya do, anyways if you do I have a question I can't find an answer to. Since I don't really like these inserts, especially the fake hood scoop, I was wondering if a shaker hood and upper intake from a Mach 1 of the same year would fit, cause it would still resemble the 35th anny, but would be functional and actually serve a purpose.

Lol, I guess the name is a bit misleading. I don't really know much at all in detail about them.

I have to say, I wouldn't mind the air intakes so much if they didn't actually LOOK so fake from up close. I hate that honeycomb insert that is so obviously solid and not mesh. You should replace them with something that actually lets the air through (or looks like it does) then I wouldn't mind. I mean - my Subaru has a non-functional air scoop on the hood, but they weren't stupid enough to put a black plastic insert right at the front to make it LOOK fake.

Agreed. If there's a version with 4 Gb for a lower price, you may as well drop it and put some of it towards maybe a nice sound card? 8 Gb is absolutely overkill.

I always miss all the excitement. I just got back to college after an 8 hour drive yesterday, and I get a call from my dad this morning saying that he hit an unexpected pothole that was the result of the floods yesterday, and popped BOTH his right tires. He said he might just be able to remount them, but he drove a good mile or two extra to get home so they might be damaged. If he can't, he's going to need to get new tires, and he wanted me to help him. He wants really good all-season tires. He's got a 2005 Audi A6 3.2 Quattro. He's looking for the best handling tires for rain/snow/dry ground that he can get without spending a fortune. We've noticed many cars with Continental ContiProContact tires... so maybe those? If not - any suggestions?

Last edited by Stang70Fastback, Mon 10 Mar 2008, 12:42.

Quote from DHRammstein :

And they're not air intakes, it's a Magnaflow racing exhaust, how can I drag race a car with a stock exhaust?

I think he was talking about the air-intakes behind the doors ahead of the rear wheels.

Quote from STROBE :

This might be of help you.

I don't think you quite understand - I don't want my car to flip over, take on 3 feet of water, and split in half as soon as I get into more than two inches of water .

Funny episode though. FinalGear.com all the way!

So, I'm in New Jersey, and we just had an enormous amount of rainfall in the past 24 hours. All the roads got flooded and then we lost power, which has yet to come back on. There is debris ALL over the road (I felt like I was in a Bridgestone commercial tonight) and it's just a complete mess.

Anyway, earlier today, when everything was flooded. I went out driving to "inspect" the problems. First, I got to the end of my street to find the road flooded. Last time that happened, I put two tires up on the curb to get an extra bit of height and forded it. This time, as I drove, it got to the point where the water was probably at least over the top of the bumper on the left and likely 8+ inches up the door sill. So I decided to slowly back out and wait. Another SUV got stuck in the middle and the cops came to block the road off. When that finally cleared, I went to another road with a small one-lane bridge, and sure enough the river was going AROUND the bridge. Everyone was turning around, but I went through that (about a foot of water.) I went through a few more flooded roads up to probably a foot and a half at worst - it was pretty exciting. I love my Outback.

Anyway, this brings me to my question. When I get a new car, one of the things I'd like to to is bring the car to someone and have done whatever has to be done to make it "waterproof" up to a certain depth (most likely the hood scoop.) Obviously the air intake is the main concern, but I'm certain there are other things that need to be done to a car to ensure there won't be any problems in deeper water. Just curious if anyone here has a Jeep or something that they've done that to, and what they had to do and how much it costs to do something like that. I also wonder if anything special has to be done to keep things like the engine block from cracking, or if that won't happen as long as you don't plow into the water. Thanks!

Lol. I remember about 6 months ago, before I correctly wired my car, I had the wires to the outdoor PA speakers mounted in the car running under the dash right next to all sorts of stuff, and I could turn on the speakers and get all kinds of awesome sound effects as I revved the engine due to the interference. Sometimes it just sounded like a huge turbo, and sometimes it sounded like the Batmobile. It was pretty funny.

My friends Honda Civic Coupe can easily lock the rears by jerking the handbrake. He has a lot of fun doing small "drifts" whenever he can, lol.

My car on the other hand. No way in hell you can do anything dangerous with the thing. Just today - and I haven't done this in ages - it took me a few seconds to realize why the car was acting a bit sluggish when I was leaving a parking lot... and that happened three times today - I had left the parking brake up. I'm losing my mind.

Quote from Bob Smith :

Classic. So why didn't you just tell the guy the truth?

Because he paid for the first axle replacement, when that wasn't actually the trouble to begin with... right?

How about we call it a Hand-Emergency Brake and be done with it.

Hand-E Brake... Handy Brake!!! AHAHAHAHA!

Proper English: OMG! They're gunna need their BIG fire engine to put out that there fire!

Quote from tristancliffe :

german box of crap (Audi)

Yes! Another "Tristan opinion" with which to carry out an argument about! Who shall go first?

Now see, that's EXACTLY the kind of design I hate. I'm a minimalist person. I HATE useless things sticking out all over (and even if I did - I still wouldn't consider that case attractive.)

Compare that to what I have now - chosen partly for its minimalist look (though there is a window on the other side:

Quote from Dennisjr13 :

Even if it is directly connected to the rear, wouldn't it be indirectly connected to the front as well through the drive train?

Yeah. That's I think partly why it lacks the power to lock the wheels while driving. The front tires on the ground simply overpower the brakes.

Quote from Dennisjr13 :

Stang, does your handbrake on the outback lock all 4 wheels? I have the same car and was wondering if it was just connected to the rear wheels as it is AWD. I haven't tested it but I always figured it only locked the rear wheels as it would be too complicated to include all four wheels. Does the center differential disengage when the handbrake is pulled?

Honestly - I'm in the same boat as you. I have no idea. What I always figured was that it went to the rear wheels, and that if you engage it while you're driving, it simply lacks the power to lock the wheels. It's up on jacks in the garage now, so after I finish my bagel with lox and cream cheese, I'll go take a quick peek and see if I can figure it out. It's always squeaked a little and it SOUNDS like it only goes to the rear.

EDIT: wOOt! 1,000 POSTS!

Last edited by Stang70Fastback, Wed 5 Mar 2008, 17:40.

Ok, without doing any research, here's what I think.

I honestly don't know whether the brake is called the handbrake or the emergency brake, but what I do know is that they are designed to be used in both cases. I dislike your argument that if it was designed as as an emergancy brake, it wouldn't lock the rear wheels, but the fact remains that you can lock all FOUR wheels of your car with the normal brakes...

Also, to be used as a handbrake on a steep incline, it NEEDS to be powerful. So that's why. I think they just assume that people are not going to be morons and yank the brake. Even more - they assume that their brake systems won't totally fail and so that will rarely be necessary.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Sounds like a rash decision to me - one that was made in the heat of the moment with little regard for what was clever or sensible.

If you'd yanked on the handbrake, heaved on the steering, jumped on the brakes, locked up the rears, spun across two lanes and killed a family? Hint: Never apply the handbrake in that situation - you were given a middle pedal for slowing down, and the liklihood of that EVER failing completely is thousands, if not millions, to one.

Tristan - First off, JUMPING on the brakes with the engine shut off does in no way lead to HEAVY, DANGEROUS braking. Second, I'm not an idiot, and about to YANK the handbrake, lock the tires and cause a 7-car pileup. I DID yank the handbrake, knowing full well that the handbrake on my car is not at all powerful enough to lock the tires, or even come close to that (I think it might have been done on purpose, since it's an all-wheel-drive car.) Third, when I said I HEAVED the steering wheel over, you seem to immediately picture me swerving across 5 lanes, tires screeching, etc. That was not the case. I used the word HEAVED to identify that I had lost power steering and therefor needed to use more force than usually to take the exit at a normal speed. The whole maneuver was very safe and well within the limits of my abilities and the car's.

And yes, I am enjoying this discussion Your turn Tristan :P

Last edited by Stang70Fastback, Wed 5 Mar 2008, 15:02.

Quote from tristancliffe :

The brakes on a modern (last 30 years) are fail safe in 99.9% of cases. If you lose engine vaccum then you're brakes will still work without assistance. Yes you have to press harder, but it's not that bad! I wouldn't make a habit of replacing servo assistance with the handbrake - one day it'll catch you out!!! And the few seconds you saved with the engine off wouldn't have made any difference to the engine temps or damage anyway - if you noticed by looking at the gauge then you've got a bit of safety margin, and if you noticed because steam obscured your vision then a bit more warping doesn't make much difference. Do be careful - cars can be very dangerous, and just making rash decisions like you did might not always work out for you.

It wasn't a rash decision. If you want the whole story, here's what happened. I was driving on the highway on a relatively foggy day. Car was riding fine - and was on cruise control. Had I been off cruise control, I guess I might have noticed that the engine was losing power (hilly terrain) but I didn't. I had the music on and was enjoying myself at the time. Suddenly I noticed that the car seemed to be getting cold, and I felt the air vents and noticed that the heat (it was winter) wasn't hot. I glanced at the temperature gauge and saw that the needle was pinned. I had no idea how long it had been like that, and I decided right then and there to shut it off. It was not a rash decision. It was a decision done to hopefully keep the engine from seizing, or any damage from occurring if any hadn't yet been done. That's when I pulled into the exit lane which I was next to at the time. Yanked the handbrake, put on the hazards and stepped on the brake as hard as possible.

Turned out the head-gasket had blown. No damage, amazingly was done to the engine (other than a temp sensor which died a month later after it was repaired.) I know it's very unlikely, but for all I know - keeping the engine running for 10 extra seconds might have warped/cracked the cylinder heads or done other damage.

As for the steam. I looked in my mirror when I pulled into the shoulder, and only now that I knew what was wrong, did I notice the trail of steam through the fog.

Quote from tristancliffe :

You'd rather spin over the edge of a cliff backwards because your rear wheels locked at 50mph than damage a few panels?

Maybe your Audi has some modern gimmick that limits handbrake engagement at speed - most cars don't, and they are certainly not intended for emergencies.

Do you drive Stang, or are you speaking from lack of experience?

With regards to the Audi (my DAD'S car, not mine lol) you are correct. It applies MAXIMUM braking force without locking the wheels. When driving, that button is basically the equivalent to the eject button on a fighter jet - a last resort that you should never use unless all else fails.

And I do drive - I have for three years. I've never had my brakes fail completely on me, but I have used the e-brake to help me stop when I had to shut down the engine on the highway. You have to realize there is a whole slew of scenarios where engine braking won't be possible... namely - if the engine stalls or is shut off for some reason. My car had overheated. And yes, I would have simply applied the normal brakes - but I was trying to slow the car for an exit off the highway while going downhill which I was about 500 feet from when I noticed the engine temperature. So I pulled up the handbrake AND gripped the steering wheel and pulled myself onto the brake pedal (no power assist) and then had to LUG the wheel to get the car to turn. Kind of exhilarating, but at the same time - a bit scary.

And then there's also those times when you need to use the handbrake to be stealthy at night so that people don't see your car when the brake lights come on - but that's another topic