Dashcam Georgia (DGA)

"Driving in Cobb County, Georgia -- 9" posted Thursday morning...


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My Dad bought a Buick Regal Sport Coupe new (1978 3.8 liter, turbo, the first Buick I think with that engine); he special ordered it. It even had factory CB radio. :) Anyway, it was a great car for a few years and then it seemed to just self destruct. Structural integrity sucked, as did the 1986 Mustang GT that I owned; I vowed never to own another T-Top car.

So you were the one that bought an '86 "Mustang?". :p:D:p:D:p:D
 
I see what you did there, but I treated it as such; took this picture just before I sold it in 2005...
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That's quite a change to go from a car like that to a mini cooper!
I traded my BMW M3 for a Mini Cooper. Lost over 200bhp in the process, but the Mini proved to be more fun to drive. Not as thrilling, but more agile, wieldy & fun. Plus a big reduction in bills for tyres, fuel, servicing, insurance, road tax, etc.
 
That's quite a change to go from a car like that to a mini cooper!
Yes, but actually, there were two more Mustang GTs ('02 and '09) in between selling the '86 and acquiring the previously owned '05 MINI. Going from the '09 to the MINI was an even bigger change. I enjoyed the '02 the best; I eventually decided the '09 was just too big. Hence, the MINI. :)
 
I traded my BMW M3 for a Mini Cooper. Lost over 200bhp in the process, but the Mini proved to be more fun to drive. Not as thrilling, but more agile, wieldy & fun. Plus a big reduction in bills for tyres, fuel, servicing, insurance, road tax, etc.

What year is your MINI? I've definitely had more fun with the MINI than I did with all three 'stangs combined. I do miss the V8, but the supercharger more than makes up for it. And, speaking of V8's, I've had at least one V8 at my disposal from the time I started driving (1972, '72 Nova, originally the family car, that I drove back and forth to school) up until I sold the '09 Mustang in 2012.
 
What year is your MINI?

It was a 2007 R56. Bought it in '08 & kept it until last October. Looking for a successor, I test drove Audi A1, A3 & TT, VW Polo & Golf, Honda Civic & Mazda 3. Didn't like any of 'em. Then I test drove the current generation F56 Cooper. Turned out to be very different to the R56. Loved it, bought it.

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"Volcanic Orange (aka Mac & Cheese Yellow)"!! My wife loves that color, and to tell you the truth, it's kind of grown on me over the past year. She drives a 2012 R56 S automatic, Spice Orange (named it "Punkin"), but I'll pick the R53 over hers almost any day. I say "almost any day", because the R53 has issues with heavy rain; it's stalled on me twice. :( The R53 was actually hers until she developed knee problems; hence the R56 automatic. It looks like you kept real good care of your older Cooper.
 
... I'll pick the R53 over hers almost any day.
I've never driven an R53, but I think it's the best looking of the 3 generations of New MINI. The F56 isn't so 'mini' any more, being 7.5 inches longer than the R53. Sold the R56 to a friend, so I still see it around. Wish he'd clean it more often :rolleyes:
 
I've never driven an R53, but I think it's the best looking of the 3 generations of New MINI. The F56 isn't so 'mini' any more, being 7.5 inches longer than the R53. Sold the R56 to a friend, so I still see it around. Wish he'd clean it more often :rolleyes:
:) I like the front-end styling of the R56 and rear styling of the R53 (not a fan of the larger tailights on R56 & F56). The R53 taillights are flush with the contour of the body, and there isn't an exterior bezel/frame; the proportion is perfect IMO. Yeah, I don't know what it is about auto makers; they always want to make the smaller cars larger (Ford Mustang '65 --> '71; Toyota RAV4 '01 --> '06), ruining the original concept. My daughter has our '05 RAV; we bought a '12 RAV to replace it. The '12 RAV is huge in comparison, approaching the size of the original Highlander I think.
 
My daughter has our '05 RAV; we bought a '12 RAV to replace it. The '12 RAV is huge in comparison, approaching the size of the original Highlander I think.
some of it is safety regulations - they have to pack more crash protection into the vehicles, which necessitates them being larger. our 08 highlander is significantly larger than my dad's 05, but it's not quite approaching sequoia territory yet. ;) camry and corolla have done the same thing. current corolla is larger than the first gen camry, and current camry just feels bloated.

another side effect i'm not a fan of - high door sills for crash protection. in a convertible especially. compared to the 1st gen, the 2nd gen solara felt like you're riding in a bathtub - your arm ends up above your shoulder if you want to rest your arm on the window frame. i'm not short - pretty average at 5' 9", but the gen2 solara made me feel short.
 
Yep, and same for the Tacoma. Govt crash requirements have driven (no pun intended) the design of MINIs from model year 2007 and on. I suppose there was govt influence on the '01 - '06 MINIs as well, but BMW/MINI had more design freedom on that range. About the door sills: High sills have been around much longer than crash protection requirements; it's the most effective means by which designers can stiffen the chassis of a convertible. Unfortunately, an open channel is only slightly stiffer (torsional wise) than a flat plate. :)
 
Yep, and same for the Tacoma. Govt crash requirements have driven (no pun intended) the design of MINIs from model year 2007 and on. I suppose there was govt influence on the '01 - '06 MINIs as well, but BMW/MINI had more design freedom on that range. About the door sills: High sills have been around much longer than crash protection requirements; it's the most effective means by which designers can stiffen the chassis of a convertible. Unfortunately, an open channel is only slightly stiffer (torsional wise) than a flat plate. :)
my (first gen) miata has low window sills, yet it's one of the stiffest convertibles i've ever driven, since it was designed as a convertible from the ground up, with lots of bracing underneath, instead of taking a normal sedan and just chopping the roof off. probably one of the worst was an 80s vw rabbit. you could see the windshield wobbling all over the place in that one. i have no idea how the top stayed attached to the windshield when it was closed, it flexed so much!
 
Another bad one was the 80's Mustangs; mine had t-tops, which was bad enough, but I test drove an '86 convertible circa 1990 and it was an abysmal rattle trap. Mustangs got better into the early 2000's, even though they still rode on the same basic chassis as the 1979. Comparing the sheet metal below the door sills, it appears that the '94 and up Mustangs used a thicker gauge. Still, torsional stiffness for the 2003 Mustang convertible is way below that of the coupe (4800 Nm/degree convertible vs 16000 for the coupe; I found those numbers online). The 2002 Mustang GT that I owned was a very big improvement over the '86. Short wheel base and small door opening (since it's a 2-seater), and like you say, being designed from the ground up as a convertible, all help the Miata.
 
"Driving in Cobb County, Georgia -- 10" posted this afternoon.


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"Driving in Cobb County, Georgia -- 11" posted this afternoon.


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"Driving in Cobb County, Georgia -- 13" posted this morning after a 5-month hiatus...


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"Driving in Cobb County, Georgia -- 14 posted this evening. Includes a near miss.


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What happened to #12 ?
 
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