What's your dream car?

I don't know why it's even a thing on a dream car, must be an engineer thing.

Deactivation helps but you still got the frictional drag.
I never was a turbo guy before but I gotta say, I like the bottom & midrange guts of these things, feels like a big inch NA V8 there but still zings past 7000.

I recently bought a 2017 used Acura IXL with the technology package. It had less than 2000 miles on it, so I figure this car should last for the duration. My 2006 Acura TL lost a transmission, and it would have cost $4,000 for a $6,000 car, and didn't feel it was worth the investment. I sold it to the repair shop for $1,000. I'm feeling a wee bit uncomfortable, because I financed 64%, but plan to pay it off in six months or less at 1.9%. I'm happy with the car.

If fuel economy isn't an issue, then the latest Ferrari V12 won International Engine of the Year in the "4 liters and over" category:

http://ukimediaevents.com/engineoftheyear/results.php?id=91

The article is over on the "review" tab, but I can't link directly to that tab.

I think the link updates every year, so if anyone happens across this post in the distant future, the link might show a different car at that time.

years ago I bought a Porsche Speedster ( I always called it my RSK cause it looked like one without the annealed Al body) I bought it used at a great saving and it only cost under 3K to do some body restoration. (It was used for hill climbing by a Porsche Dealer in Upstate NJ. I I actually think, it was more a money laundering deal because of the price)
I had that sucker for many yars an then traded for a 80 TVR Tuscan with one of the old Ford 302 boss engines. Id love to have that Porsche back

ike an old MG

I still love my first, a 48 Chevy with the visor over the windshield. Floorboarded on the freeway it did 70. It had all original parts, was used on a farm before I got it for a $100.

I have to admit that the car I miss/think about most is a 1986 323, a bottom of the line economy car from Mazda. It was a total revelation of what a car could be. Prior to that car I had driven nothing but the truly horrible American cars of the 60s and 70s. The day I drove that car I knew that 'Detroit' (of that era) was doomed.

I will be happy if this M240 Bimmer gives me half as many good vibes as that old Mazda. It's doing pretty good so far though.

That is a fantastic engine, but of course it should be for the price. The rules preclude it winning but I'd vote for one of the Koenigsegg 'freevalve' engines if there were no rules.

I noticed that the judges did (properly) consider 'sound' as a scoring category. Bravo! I noticed that the winner had two 6 into 1 exhaust systems. The only thing that sounds better than a straight 6 is two straight 6s )

I don't know why I care about efficiency in general so much, it has almost nothing to do with either financial or environmental factors. I just get a thrill from a kick ass performance car that gets 33+ mpg. If I were king I'd put more emphasis on efficiency in all forms of racing as well as spending limits. Then I'd eliminate all but very basic rules about size of car & parts. I'd watch a lot more that way.

In the 1970's we team raced a mid 60's 2002 BMW "rallye"(or something 60's like that). We called it the Sunkiss Special cause of the orange color". It was ugly as hell but ran like a proper hill climber. All we did was install a new manifold and new big breath carbs double twins and had a balance job by the Pennske guys and a homemade twin strait pipe exhaust with a bernoulli kit from the Horst high performance Garage In Reading Pa. (At that time Reading was Pa Central for early NASCAR rigs, Road Racing and even figure 8 racing.
That car used to take its changing classes continuously at Hershey, Duryea, and "Giant's..." We had an unlimited supply of fatty "REGROOVED " wide tires that would last , waay less thanhalf a season an often would fail in the middle of the climb (We were all poor at the time and supported several cars by sweat and work). My job, besides driving an MG C was to be the body man and paint man. I did a pretty good job of fixing major dents using Bondo and duck tape.
Tooday I keep several dozen car lengths twixt me and the car Im following. I now drive like a proper geezer.

I remember and drove a lot of those regrooved tires in the poor boy days of the 60s. Didn't know it at the time but when I bought it, my used Z3 had regrooved tires. The car handled so wonderfully precise that I didn't haggle over the price, I was blown away. Six months later I was checking the tires and noticed the regrooving (some cord was showing through) so replaced them all. Since then the car has never handled as well as it did with the regrooves. Even Michelin SS's weren't as good.

Body work huh.. I can't get motivated to fix the Z3 quarter panel damage from the dog incident couple of years ago. Hate that stuff. Rather do an engine swap. Wish I didn't have the DIY gene, I'd take it somewhere.

theres an add in the Lancaster Pa paper Tues 11/13 for a brand new 2016 SLINGSHOT, 20 K , warranty intact .

Interested???

Naw, what I really wanted was a lightweight car like an Arial Atom or an X-Bow. I couldn’t get one at the time due to licensing regs. in US. The Slingshot was just a way to get something close to that. It was amazing for a 3 wheeled vehicle but I’d never go back after driving it with the 4 wheel setup.

They make street legal Atoms now but my abilities are on the decline so an Atom would now be pointless. Can’t even take the modified Slingshot to its limits but I still drive it like any asshole BMW driver should.

The very first car I owned was a used Ford back in the late 1950's that I bought while stationed at Walker AFB in New Mexico. I had plenty of time to work on the car, and made replacements by myself because everything under the hood was simple with very little electronics compared to today. My first new car was a Chevy when I lived in Chicago. Since then, I've owned a Cad, Toyota Corolla, Dodge Challenger, Lexus, and Acura TL that blew the transmission. I really like the Acura IXL I now own, because it has all the bells and whistles, and I'm hoping it'll be my last. It's comfortable enough, but a bit noisy on the freeway.

Probably because of government rules about the average fuel economy of an automaker's entire fleet of cars. I think automakers have to sell a bunch of high-efficiency cars for every gas guzzler they sell.

I think the cylinders only deactivate at moments when the engine doesn't need to produce a lot of power.

Why do the rules preclude it?

There are other categories too. The BMW i8 won for 2018 in the "1.4 to 1.8 liters" category:
http://www.ukimediaevents.com/engineoftheyear/results.php?id=86

Some kind of Porsche won for 2018 in the "1.8 to 2 liters" category:
http://www.ukimediaevents.com/engineoftheyear/results.php?id=87

And a different Ferrari engine (turbo, ugh) won for 2018 as best overall performance engine regardless of size:
http://www.ukimediaevents.com/engineoftheyear/results.php?id=95

but the Porsche designs have taken a definite turn for the greater ugly ever since they started making those Caymans, SUV's, and the "babybump" 911's.
Also, the more expensive they are, the more uncomfy they feel. I was in a 911 performance Carerra and its waay too spartan for a car that costs that much.
Porsche designs used to be intergral to function, now they seem to use "add ons" to outfit the damn things.

The Boxter, though, still remains a cute little car, sleek and , now that theyve removed that center pipe
cloaca" style tail pipe, its not a bad "walkin away" car.

Ill wup any performance cars ass wif my John Deere (so long as I can name the track)

1970 lamborghini muria

when AFM tech was introduced in the 2001 Cadillac(12 cyl) Northstar engines , it was an idea that needed another 10 or more years to "get it right". All the fuel savings you got at cruising could be lost ina few seconds when going back in to full cylinder load. The fuel loss coefficients and drag losses made it so that, overall, all these engins never really report out anything greater than 5-7% fuel economy improvements. New metallurgy tricks and carbon fibre have erased much of that gizmo introduction.
Its a mature technology so much that many tractor rigs (not Lamborghinis) have installed it on really big port diesels.

I must be getting old, because Im no longer impressed with many of these concept ideas that everybody parades out in Italy, Tokyo, or Las Vegas each year. I want a good sound system with a voice enhancer (I listen to a lot of BBC/CBC and Deustche radio on Sirius APP;)

Ive had so many friends that bought Accuras (they liked the "Understated opulence" unlike todays Lexii that look like preying mantids). Almost to a person however, theyve had some kind oftrouble with the trannies. Thats a problem with a car badge that gives you any color you want as long as its black.

Yeah, that's my point, when the engine is at typical (very low) loads, friction makes up a greater percentage of required power - ie, less efficient if you're dragging along a lot of dead cylinders.

The Koenigsegg 'Freevalve' engine was not eligible because it wasn't in a publicly available car.

Actually, between the Lexus and Acura, I like the Lexus better, but the ugly grill design turned me off. I couldn't live with that ugliness to remind me every day that I had a choice.