What's your dream car? Part deux!

1969 Corvette ZR1. Matching numbers engine. Lots of documentation proving provenance.

And not one of the known existing examples of a ZR1 Corvette. One of the missing cars (six or seven were built) that no one currently knows the fate of.

So, now that Ford has introduced the all-electric seventh generation Mustang... Oh wait! That's an alternate universe. Boy do I feel bad for the people in that universe. Let's try that again.

Ford unveils seventh generation all-gasoline/nothing-hybrid Mustang powered by a 480 horsepower V8 engine, a manual transmission, and rear wheel drive.

https://jalopnik.com/2024-ford-mustang-gt-ecoboost-manual-specs-photos-info-1849534613
https://caranddriver.com/news/a41200568/2024-ford-mustang-revealed/
https://fordauthority.com/fmc/ford/ford-mustang/2024-ford-mustang/


A brief message from Ford to people who drive a dainty little electric car (be sure to turn up the volume):

One of my girlfriends had a 'green 67 Barracuda that I just loved. Another had a red '67 Ford Mustang that was pretty cool. I had a green '63 Pontiac Strato Chief Not cool at all but I love older cars. I had it from 1983 - 1993 and could park that baby on a dime.

Maybe Ford's last Hurrah for the piston engine. Dodge bowed out I see.

Still love'n my B58 Bimmer, probably my last car.

I certainly hope it's not the last. It may not be a pushrod engine, but it checks all my other boxes. They even understand the vital importance of a manual transmission.

I'm not finding it now, but I saw somewhere in one of the Mustang articles, one of the Ford people said that they were going to keep making V8 Mustangs for as long as people keep buying them.

EDIT: Found it!
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2022/09/15/ford-mustang-2024-seventh-generation-detroit-auto-show/8004452001/



GM is going 100% electric too. Pretty dumb move IMO.

I know that progressive governments like California are mandating it, but the only thing that leftists ever achieve when they impose their idiotic nonsense on an economy is: empty store shelves and rolling blackouts.

We don't have the power generating capacity to run all of our cars on electricity along with everything else that we already use electricity for. And even if we did, we also don't have the power transmission infrastructure to convey that much electricity.

When GM and MOPAR go 100% electric, power bills will skyrocket because there won't be enough electricity to meet demand, and everyone will run to Ford to buy plug-in hybrids that have the option of running on gasoline.

people said somewhat the same thing about hansom cabs , conestoga wagons, travoix, and horses in general. itll take 2 generations for all the
I.C.E. lovrs to disappar. Im 72 and gonna buy a new battery gneration Audi next year. My veryday car is a'21 Explorer (Raush tuned) and 2Ford 350's Aluminum Bodied.

My last muscle car was a porsche speedster and I loved its suspension tricks, But, alas, I racked that up an grew up and lived a more useful life cause I wasnt James Dean Id love the silent stealth of e cars. They have the potential to outpwrform any ICE turdwagon.

10 yars ago a I had a boss Merc . I was more interested in the cars looks and the paint than in pformance alone. I used to do striping an air brush in college and was convinced that thos 1976 P.s O' **** were here to stay.
I so like the new body styles of the20+ corvettes. Ifyed make them iin aedrive, they would evoke an intrest

The '70s weren't that bad because Barack Obama hadn't murdered Pontiac yet.

Chevrolet gave up pretty quickly when GM started kicking them in the balls. In 1970 the Corvette had to drop from their big block 427 to a small block 350. In 1971 Corvette had to adopt low compression engines. By 1972 Chevrolet had stopped trying.

But every time GM kicked Pontiac in the balls, Pontiac said "Screw you! We're going to keep building muscle cars!"

When GM mandated low compression engines, Pontiac put 455 engines in the Trans Am. Possibly the only company to put a 7.5 liter engine in a pony car.

Chevrolet did the same thing with the Corvette in 1971 of course. But then after that they gave up. You could still get a Trans Am with 290 horsepower in 1974 even. (Keep in mind that the legendary Mopar HEMI made 350 horsepower, so 290 is actually respectable horsepower for a classic muscle car, and unheard of in 1974.)

Note: net horsepower of course

When emissions and fuel efficiency standards made 290 horsepower impossible, Pontiac kept the 455 engines and still managed to squeeze 200 HP out of them.

When emissions and fuel efficiency standards made the 455 impossible, Pontiac kept large displacement alive by building a 400 engine with 220 horsepower. And Burt Reynolds drove one in a certain movie that you may have heard of. (I still love that movie. I don't care about the silly plot, but I could watch that car all day long.)

Pontiac didn't stop their muscle car defiance until around 1980 when GM took away their ability to build their own engines, and by that time we had made it through the 1970s.

It was a long wait between the 1979 Trans Am and the 1985 Corvette though.



The "E-Ray" Corvette is coming. GM plans to go 100% electric.

If all of the nation starts powering all of our cars with electricity, who is going to generate all the additional electricity? What infrastructure is all this additional electricity going to be transmitted over?

we already enjoy about 10X the amount of potential lectricity for all projected future nees from sunlight alone.
e can use Nook powr as a transitional power system until we fully enjoy naturally ALL green E.

We have PLANNED an all farmStead E SYSTEM baSed on a 20 K Watt solar array. I hav the abiliy to gofully solar a community source with a 100K wATT SOLAR ARRAY.
oUR PROBLM IN E AUTOS IS SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION OF DEDICATED BATTERIES. lI ONLY HAS A SYSTEM LIFE OF ABOUT 7 YERS AT A 5O KMILES PER YEAR DRIVING AT PRESENT. HERES WHERE WE MAY BE MINING mARTIAN GEOLOGY FOR SUCH WATER DEPOSITED Li DEPOSITS ALONG SWVERL PLANA OR MARE. WEVE ALREADY DONE A LOT OF THE METALS SURVEYS VIA MULTI SPECTRAL SCANNING.

look up "EVAPORITE Li DEPOSTS IN ANCIENT lake and ocean beds on the planet MARS" Im not worriead as to a resource source and LI CAN BE re-refined from dead batteries

I don't see us transporting large quantities of materials from Mars to earth anytime soon.

It is likely that any colonists who land on Mars, will then spend the rest of their lives on Mars without ever coming home. Escaping Martian gravity is not like escaping Lunar gravity.

I recall hearing that we overthrew the leftist government of some country in Central America because of all their lithium deposits.

I'm not sure whether we retained control through the chaos of the first Trump Administration though. I've not heard much about it recently. I don't even remember which Central American country it is.

Bolivia, Argentina an d Chile have about 60% of the known reserves of Li. Its all in the "Salar de Atacama" region. Dry lake beds in those 3 counties. Im aur the Gulf of Kerabougas in theArab countries has aLi deposit in the salt beds.
Weve got a goodly upply but havent restarted any of our mines in Calif, or North/South Carolinas.
There are solid deposits of Lithium rocks called lepiolite or spodumen in the4Corners Statesbut not a much as vaporitic lake salt packs. e havent rally explored out Li.s possble hiding places. ven the Michigan Basin has alkali salts.

I havent worked with battery Li, only lithium mica for gems. My Argentina work was mostly for othr minrals in the Atacama and the Plur

we dont need a lot of Li to make car batteries for a few thousand cars a week, so mining Mars is doable, it just takes the same resolve an engineering ver applied to Antarctica. e need a whole new generation of travel menas, Like mag or nuke ships, as well as new mens of survival

I don't see it. We are not even going to be able to return human beings from Mars if we land them on the surface.

Maybe after hundreds of years of Mars colony development, if Earth batteries are even a priority for those future Martian colonists.

But not soon.

Mining asteroids would be more plausible.

BTW, there is no reason that wed be bringing Li ore trains from Mars. ed bring back already processed Li(OH)2. AS far as remaining on MArs, I se LiO temas spending a yar or more an rturning hom; Iy be no different than mining diamons in Canadian Arctic. .
I think we could set dates for colonial projcts and it woul be in the tens of yars. Of course battery technology will develop during the age of Lithium.

we are doing research into Sodium ion batteries which are apparently much safer than Li ion or Nano Li bolt batteries. The Earths supply of Na is unlimited so we may never need to mine Li since faster recharging, safer batteries are now undrgoing application designs.

Just like Nuke energy, Li is but a "Bridge" to future signs.

It is considerably different. You don't need to develop your own independent space program in order to be able to return from the arctic.

Mars gravity may be weaker than Earth gravity, but it is still substantial. No one is returning from the surface of Mars until the Martian colonists develop their own Martian NASA to carry them back to space.

And by that time, the Martian colonists may have their own uses for that lithium that doesn't involve Earth. Or since Mars will be their home, they may have strong environmental regulations that prevent large-scale mining projects.

I see all the lifting happening between Mars And the moon. As De Grasse TYson once said, All breakthrough space programs (and any kind of exploring, begins with Govt programs) only recently have we begun to realize what we can get in space. Now w e will gradually see private investment become involved.

I see going to the moon and setting up "Away" settlement for mfg of advanced rocket fuels like hydrazine or hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis of hydrate minerals or other connte water.

Ill bet will b in the buiness by 2050, then we will be be involved with even more xotic battris thn Lithium(Lithium can be ssomewhat dangerous)

There is zero chance that Mars colonists will have developed their own Martian NASA by 2050.

It remains to be seen whether there will even be Mars colonists in 2050.

I’m kind of surprised at the lack of power generation and distribution discussion too. CA already had their ‘don’t charge your car' moment.

But electric cars are the future (for those younger than I anyway). I consider myself lucky to have lived in the golden age of internal combustion engines. E cars may be faster, more efficient, and soon even cost less, but they have no life in them, they are just dead machines. Dodge adding sound effects to the electric Demon will not breathe life into it.

There is one scenario where I might buy an electric. If/when the days of gasoline rationing arrive, I might buy something like the Aptera, just to conserve my gas for flying. I’d go insane if it weren’t for that.

Plug in hybrids are the answer for non-performance cars. If electricity is expensive, they can run on gas, and do it with high efficiency. If gas is absurdly expensive, they can switch to electricity until gas prices drop.

As for performance, that Ford guy pretty much said that they will sell V8 Mustangs with manual transmissions for as long as people keep buying them.