Bass !!!!!!!!!!

MacLeod

Awesome! The Lightning is one of Fords best ever product. Killing it off would be as stupid as, say, GM killing off the Camaro! :mad:

AustinKP

I agree with ya there Mac. I think Chevrolet would have benefitted much more by redesigning the Camaro like Ford did to the Mustang, instead of completely killing it, with hopes of resurrecting it later...
Jstas, what color is your lightning? Any plans on getting the new one in '08?

Jstas

Black.



And no. No new Lightning in '08. At least there aren't any plans to. I have another project to finish plus two other ideas I want to work on. I also need to get myself a house and I'm working on that first. Next car I get is going to be a used Thunderbird from 94-95 with a 4.6L V8. I had a V6 model, infact, here it is:



That was the last vehicle I had before the Lightning. I want another one and I miss that one very much. It was like driving a Barcalounger down the road. It was fast enough, very quiet and extremely comfortable. It was a huge car too and I could fit 4 people comfortably, the 5th could sit in the back in the middle and be mildly agitated if need be. The trunk was massive and a simple shock change, urethane bushings with beefier anti-sway bars and the 245/50/HR17 BFG Comp T/A's on the forged aluminum Cragar 17"x8" SS/980 wheels and I was dogging BMW M3's on River Road up the eastern side of PA.

A ton of potential in that car and insanely comfortable. It was probably my most favorite ride yet. That and the fact that it was a Thunderbird just gave it this aura. Sure, it was fairly common but with the color shifting paint on the car, it got stares everywhere I went.

AustinKP

Originally posted by Jstas
I was dogging BMW M3's on River Road up the eastern side of PA.

Huh? M3's have like 330 hp, right? Did you have some engine mods as well? I'd guess the 94-95 thunderbird 4.6 had around 220hp?
I love the look of your truck though The wheels and the front fascia look great:cool:

Jstas

Power isn't everything. That Thunderbird was a V6 and had a weight balance of 52/48 front to rear. That is pretty good and adding the wheels, tires and suspension parts improved handling enough that I could take turns just as fast and sometimes faster than an M3. At least the few that tried to tangle with me. I had no power modifications at all, just a fairly well balanced car and enough guts to push the car to its limits. Yes, it was heavy and that was a drawback. If the car weighed maybe 800 pounds less, it would be a terror on the streets with just a more potent V6. It didn't weigh less though and that meant that the car had limits before all that weight would over-come the force of friction that is giving it the traction it needed to stay stuck to the road. That is what handling is about. Taking that limit and pushing it as far as you can and raising the bar.

If your car handles well and can take turns at high speed then there is less speed you have to drop to complete a turn. That is the point of a race. To get there first. If you want to get there first then you have to be the fastest. To be the fastest, you have to have the highest average speed from point a to point b. A well handling car will give you that because while your car only hits 140, it may not have to slow down to 70 in the turns. Meanwhile, the M3 will blow past at a buck, sixty but might have to slow down to 50 to take those same turns. Not only is there that 20-30 MPH difference but the M3 has to start slowing down sooner than 8you would and that increases the amount of tim spent on the track. More time at similar speeds means less overal average speed. That means the M3 loses. Of course that is just using the M3 as an example because that is what we were discussing.

There is alot more to a vehicle than engine and often times, you see a car with a ton of power that can't control it on the street. So many people put big power in the car and don't do anything to sort out the suspension and brakes. You get more bang for your buck from suspension mods than anything else. If they are done right that is. A well sorted out suspension lets you exploit your car's power to its fullest extent.

Look at the Lotus Elise. It has something like 170 horsepower and it will beat dowqn a Corvette. Two reasons, number one, it's very light and what weight it has is very well balanced . Number two, its suspension controls the movements of the car very well. My truck is an example in the other direction. I have considerably more power than an M3 but I am not nearly as fast because I am carrying well over a thousand pounds more weight than the M3. I also have a weight distribution somewhere in the 55/45 to 60/40 range front/rear. Not exactly conducive to go-kart like handling. The truck is also designed to carry alot more weight than the M3 or Elise.

Performance is not about power. Power is important but not nearly as important as being able to control all that power. Without control, to paraphrase, you are like a **** in the bouncy balls.

neomagus00

hehe... so you're saying that i shouldn't play in the bouncy balls?

oh, yeah, that was actually pretty informative, danke.