tallman Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 Bill, your first pic covered both best and worst. Twin, The K 12 in red is an all time best looking motorcycle. no ifsandorbuts... Link to comment
roadscholar Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 Bill, your first pic covered both best and worst. Correct, I just posted the second one because I got to race one of those at Road Atlanta : ) Link to comment
Alfred02 Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 The top picture If that is a VW little station wagon, then you would be incorrect as they were bullet proof. Couldn't kill the dam things (at least in Germany) Bottom picture That's an east German Trabant, which had 2 stroke engines in them. I would not count East Germany (DDR) as part of Germany and their technology was a good 50 years behind. You could not compare them with West Germany where the VW/BMW/Mercedes Benz etc comes from since WW2. Link to comment
roadscholar Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 You could not compare them with West Germany where the VW/BMW/Mercedes Benz etc comes from since WW2. Correct, that was the point. There must be a few but I couldn't think of any really bad ones off the top of my head and I'm pretty familiar with German cars since the war. Maybe a Borgward or NSU but they really weren't that bad. Now France, that's a different story : ) Link to comment
Twinsig Posted March 12, 2016 Author Share Posted March 12, 2016 Yeah! Bill is on it! TM, Saban-ites love this bike! Scolar, the Plymouth Reliant (engine) is on the top 10 worst for french! What a POS! Just took a leisurely "cruise" to brothers house and returned the carbon back to the earth! No sense in letting it sit there on the pistons. .. Link to comment
Marty Hill Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 Bill, your first pic covered both best and worst. Correct, I just posted the second one because I got to race one of those at Road Atlanta : ) Wow! That is really something! Good on you. Link to comment
Glenn Reed Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 I started to get my back up a little when I saw the VW Squareback in the top picture, and figured it would be in the running for "wurst". That was one of the first two cars I ever drove, and for many miles after that. As someone else said, you couldn't kill the damn things, and as a 16 year old I certainly gave it my best shot! At least ours was black with a red interior, not that hideous color! Link to comment
roadscholar Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 Bill, your first pic covered both best and worst. Correct, I just posted the second one because I got to race one of those at Road Atlanta : ) Wow! That is really something! Good on you. Well it was a vintage race, still fun/scary. Those things weighed 1900 lbs and had 700+ hp and I knew Road Atlanta's back straight (not straight nor flat) was notorious for flying a few cars. Hurley Haywood and George Follmer flipped Porsche CanAm cars in the early 70's practicing/testing, then later a couple prototypes flipped during Petit Lemans'. After a lap or so getting familiar I pulled the pin coming out of 90* turn 7, cresting the hill at 8 it was probably around 140 in third (they had a 4-speed) the front felt like it was coming off the ground so I let off and regrouped. The rest were approached with a little more caution then when I got back to the pits I asked the owner wtf? He said yeah it gets a little light but no one's flown one yet. Link to comment
Danny caddyshack Noonan Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 Zee volksvagon. Warped block? No problem, show me to the oven in your parents house. Link to comment
Guest Kakugo Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 German engineering at its best: German engineering at its worst: Link to comment
Marty Hill Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 Remember the "DIP"? I've seen a few go airborne there. I've enjoyed 911's, Corvettes and my 1LE Firehawk Camero at RA. Miss those days. Link to comment
Twinsig Posted March 13, 2016 Author Share Posted March 13, 2016 My first car was a bug. Link to comment
roadscholar Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 Remember the "DIP"? I've seen a few go airborne there. I've enjoyed 911's, Corvettes and my 1LE Firehawk Camero at RA. Miss those days. Sure do, frightening and exhilarating at once. After they took it out I remember Hurley saying, it's what separated the men from the boys. Cliche but pretty accurate. I miss it too, RA was easily the best road course in the East, had some great battles there. Link to comment
longjohn Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 My first car was a bug. Ha, mee too. I prolly still have the idiots guide to vw maint somewhere around here. Link to comment
Bud Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 2 bugs, 2 vans, one fastback, one square back, one ghia! Now about the POS Fiat 124 Sports Coupe. Link to comment
Danny caddyshack Noonan Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Now about the POS Fiat 124 Sports Coupe. dopeslap dopeslap dopeslap Not a Magneti Marelli fan I presume? Link to comment
EffBee Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Fiat 850. Those were popular when I was in high school. Everyone wanted them because you could put the top down and girls would literally jump in. More than one fair maiden walked home after the little buggers broke down. One guy had one that didn't break and wouldn't break. It was what that car was supposed to be. He sold it to another student for top dollar. It broke within a month or two. Of course, these were not German. Now returning you to your previously scheduled programming. [/italianPOS] Link to comment
Bud Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Loved the look. Darn thing just kept breaking. But would run like snot when it ran! Link to comment
Guest Kakugo Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 If we want to get back to the issue of German engineering: Given the relatively small production run, I don't know how many got to the US but chances are someone here drove or even owned one. In a way it's the symbol to one of the main drawbacks in German engineering: sometimes it's too clever for its own good. The Ro 80 was very advanced for its times, probably too much: apart from the problems common with Wankel engines which were only sorted by Mazda, NSU did their homework far too well and built an engine which really liked to rev... but with no rev limiter. Link to comment
beemerboy Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 I think that a few here are familiar with this issue.... Link to comment
roadscholar Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Not long after I moved to Jacksonville in 1980 I went to a brick-in at Brumos, the local Mercedes/Porsche-Audi dealer. I'd never heard of it either and it certainly wasn't a love-in : ) The idea was to have employees, friends and other car dealers show up in the back lot Friday after work and donate 10 or 12 basically unsellable but good running cars to the cause. Then everyone would bet on which car would run the longest in neutral or park with a brick on the accelerator, i.e. wide open. You have to keep in mind most big-time car dealers had/have more money than they know what to do with so it was just an excuse for a party, with some fireworks thrown in. There were Ford's, Chevy's, a nice looking Mark III Lincoln, a brown Audi 100, maybe an old Yoda, and some Italian POS. But sadly no old MB diesels, and am happy to report no BMW's, Porsche's, or Ferrari's for that matter. Most of the cars would run for 5 or 10 minutes, a few for 15 or so before throwing pistons, valves, and rods out the top or bottom along with flames and small explosions, more or less turning it all into external combustion. There was much cheering from the crowd when each one seized or exploded. One car outlasted the others by a mile, it ran and ran, I think for 40 minutes or so at what seemed like ridiculous RPM's (no electronic limiters in those days). No one believed it, a few said wth and were ready to leave. Finally it started clanking and seized up. The Audi 4-banger was king, embarrassing the rest, and a big surprise to everyone especially me. It's one of the last ones I'd have bet on : ) Link to comment
Steve1962 Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 If we want to get back to the issue of German engineering: Given the relatively small production run, I don't know how many got to the US but chances are someone here drove or even owned one. In a way it's the symbol to one of the main drawbacks in German engineering: sometimes it's too clever for its own good. The Ro 80 was very advanced for its times, probably too much: apart from the problems common with Wankel engines which were only sorted by Mazda, NSU did their homework far too well and built an engine which really liked to rev... but with no rev limiter. I remember seeing those on the roads when I lived in Belgium and Germany late 60's/early 70's - as a kid I loved the look of them, and still do. Link to comment
Steve1962 Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 How can you possibly tell that the young lady is german........................ Link to comment
roadscholar Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 How can you possibly tell that the young lady is german........................ That was good.. Link to comment
Guest Kakugo Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 How can you possibly tell that the young lady is german........................ My first girlfriend was German. Give me a couple minutes with her. Link to comment
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