Modern cars are very similar. Back in the 70's it was something to have a car and build it up to 300 horsepower and be able to get it up anywhere close to 120mph. It took tons of time and a lot of money on accessories... headers, intakes, carbs, gears, etc.... and you'd be extremely lucky to get 100K miles out of it before it was time for an engine rebuild. Even less for a performance engine.
Today, you can buy a used completely stock 2013 Impala LTZ for about $8000. It's 300hp stock, has a top speed of about 154, gets 30mpg on the highway, and will go 200,000 miles with just oil and air filter changes. My wife and I have an LS of the same year. We were driving up to the beach last night, just following traffic in Michigan on the 4 lane divided highway. Not paying attention, just driving along. I look down and all of us are going 90. YIKES! I could still see the wooly bears trying to cross the road. Good grief. I thought about how smooth the ride is. How much better the roads are. How all the cars are capable of just cruising along at those speeds and it doesn't even seem like the car was working. I was still getting 27mpg and only running about 2000rpm.
Sometimes I long for the good old days, and then, while I'm laying under my 93 Suburban, trying to bend new brake lines to match the rotten ones, and I think... maybe if I just had my hair back, I'd be satisfied.
That's got to be the best I've read here in a while! :thumbsup: On the other hand, the night I noticed that I was getting thin on top my younger brother was in the hospital having a quadruple bypass, while my cousin who is also 2 years younger was going through dialysis and waiting for a new kidney. I decided that I couldn't complain about losing a little hair.
