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Post by the light works on Jan 19, 2014 5:05:04 GMT
Movie: Terminator 2 & 3 You have two machines from the future who go back in time and spend a lot of time fighting each other. Since they are both from cyberdyne, wouldn't they have basic designs and specs for the other in their database's? Instead they spend large amount of time, beating and shooting each other to no effect. You would think they would know that shooting the other would be useless, same with punching and throwing each other around. After much expended time, ammo, and effort, there is no victory. Wouldn't they know what the critical systems are and focus on that instead of useless hitting and shooting? it's like that silly-but-entertaining robot boxing show they did - it took half the season before the kids stopped going for head shots and started thinking about targeting exposed actuators.
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Post by silverdragon on Jan 19, 2014 11:28:50 GMT
If you have the ability to time travel, this is the paradox.
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Post by the light works on Jan 19, 2014 14:34:46 GMT
Let's take a moment to consider the trans-eurasian runway from Fast & Furious 6.
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Post by wvengineer on Jan 19, 2014 19:35:02 GMT
Let's take a moment to consider the trans-eurasian runway from Fast & Furious 6. Can you describe it for those of use who have not seen it and have no plans to buy the bluray? I don't think it has hit Netflix streaming yet.
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Post by the light works on Jan 19, 2014 22:29:51 GMT
Let's take a moment to consider the trans-eurasian runway from Fast & Furious 6. Can you describe it for those of use who have not seen it and have no plans to buy the bluray? I don't think it has hit Netflix streaming yet. 20-30 minutes of the movie were on a runway with a Russian cargo plane accelerating to takeoff speed. - for the whole 20-30 minutes. (and it may be on streaming, it just hit their disc by mail lineup)
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Post by silverdragon on Jan 20, 2014 7:22:57 GMT
Th Blue ford Escort mk 1 in that movie was "Restored" in Manchester... Before it was fully trashed in the making of that movie. I have seen photographs of it "Before and after" the restoration... The photographs of pieces after filming make you wanna cry.
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Post by the light works on Jan 20, 2014 14:34:13 GMT
Th Blue ford Escort mk 1 in that movie was "Restored" in Manchester... Before it was fully trashed in the making of that movie. I have seen photographs of it "Before and after" the restoration... The photographs of pieces after filming make you wanna cry. Americans have a completely different opinion of the Ford Escort. we think of them the same way you might think of a Vauxhall. they were like Pintos that didn't even give you the satisfaction of exploding.
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Post by mrfatso on Jan 20, 2014 16:40:54 GMT
According to the BBC, if calculation are correct the runway is about 18-26 miles long, depending on the exact speed of the car. The longest paved runway in the world is 3.5 .
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Post by the light works on Jan 20, 2014 17:14:35 GMT
Th Blue ford Escort mk 1 in that movie was "Restored" in Manchester... Before it was fully trashed in the making of that movie. I have seen photographs of it "Before and after" the restoration... The photographs of pieces after filming make you wanna cry. to be specific, in the consumer reports used car buyer's guide, the second year of release of the Ford Escort listed a full page of recalls. the first year just had a note that said, "there were too many recalls to list." which is still better than another much reviled import whose summary was "this car is comparable to a Yugo."
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Post by silverdragon on Jan 21, 2014 7:21:12 GMT
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Post by the light works on Jan 21, 2014 14:37:15 GMT
yes. our first Escort model year was 1981. "Though Ford used hemispherical combustion chambers and an aluminum head and intake manifold, the engine managed only 65 horsepower and early production engines were not known for their longevity. In spite of huge development costs, the early Escorts had a number of recalls and build-quality problems that made constant refinements mandatory. A four-speed manual transmission was standard, and a power-sapping three-speed automatic was optional. " keep in mind this is in a car that weighed comfortably over a ton.
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Post by silverdragon on Jan 22, 2014 8:09:24 GMT
By the 1980's we were into Mk3's... Aluminium "Hemi" engines?... no, we had good ol' Cast Iron lumps..... 65 horses?... PHWATT?..... thats low. I think we may have been getting just over the 100 mark?... If I remember right.... Or rather thats what WE were getting, noting that we had slightly better kit than "Standard", and opted for the slightly better engine anyway..... 1.6, 1.8, 2ltre, 2litre injection varieties by the 80's.... and that was just the petrol, they also fitted a 1.8 diesel. 0-60 in under 8 seconds for the diesel... pretty good in those days....
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Post by the light works on Jan 22, 2014 14:57:13 GMT
By the 1980's we were into Mk3's... Aluminium "Hemi" engines?... no, we had good ol' Cast Iron lumps..... 65 horses?... PHWATT?..... thats low. I think we may have been getting just over the 100 mark?... If I remember right.... Or rather thats what WE were getting, noting that we had slightly better kit than "Standard", and opted for the slightly better engine anyway..... 1.6, 1.8, 2ltre, 2litre injection varieties by the 80's.... and that was just the petrol, they also fitted a 1.8 diesel. 0-60 in under 8 seconds for the diesel... pretty good in those days.... Rumor had it that it was an aluminum head on the same block casting they used for the Model A. it was definitely the same casting from the Pinto. if you got it even a little bit too warm, the head and block would expand at different rates; resulting in a warped head. if you never took it over 45 MPH, it would last forever. I had a girlfriend who had the pinnacle of bad engineering - a 4 door with an automatic and air conditioning. you couldn't use the air conditioning without overheating it, and it strained to maintain 65 MPH, otherwise. this was the same engine they put in the Ford Ranger small pickup at the time - coupled with a 3 speed transmission. This was at the same time the foreigners were putting 2.2-2.4 liter OHC engines on 5 speed overdrive transmissions.
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Post by silverdragon on Jan 23, 2014 6:18:09 GMT
Couldn't maintain 65?.... Ok, the one pictured, was a Mk1 "Mexico", the stripes are a dead give-away, it was built to do a rally down Mexico way, and the rules stated they could only run what was on general release at the time, so Anyone could buy the Mk1 Mexico, with exactly the same kit.... It took off. All Escorts after that came with a better engine, could all manage at leat 70, could hold that all day, up hill if needs be, and most could manage 100 with ease... although no one admitted that in front of the police?...
So in this Model, you are saying, we had better more powerful cars than you Yanks had?...
I had a Mk3, 1980's build, 1.8 disease-al oil burning engine, it was clocked at 130 mph on the flat, (Track day run what you brung...) and that was "standard" tune.... Ok, standard but slightly fettled to give its best performance. The same engine could be found in the Mk3 Van that could haul a ton in weight in the back. The petrol 1.8 could do a bit better..... but not with that weight. The Mk1 that I drove had been well tuned, and was 150mph race tune, roll cage, lightened body Fibreglass bonnet and boot etc. It also had a 2-litre EFI in it, which I am sure wasnt available at the time of build?... I have drove a Mk1 in standard tune, I estimated about 100 horses under its bonnet, it wasn't any race car, but it wasnt the type of slug you describe?....
Who Knew.....
BTW, I never drove an Escort Automatic, we just didnt have Automatics in the 70s in "Normal" road cars, maybe less than 1 in 100, maybe 1 in 1,000?...
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Post by Cybermortis on Jan 23, 2014 13:41:25 GMT
In the mid 1970's the British car industry became rather well known for producing a run of badly designed cars (usually Rover).
The Stag was known to overheat to the point of catching fire - in fairness a lot of this had to do with the owner needing the sort of mechanical skills you'd normally find from someone called Montgomery Scott to keep the car in good condition. Along with telepathic abilities that would put Charles Xavier to shame in order to know what you needed to keep an eye on - Rover rather helpfully neglected to mention exactly what design flaws existed to anyone, including their own dealers.
The Spitfire was similar, in that I know of at least two cases where they overheated to the point the engine caught fire.
Cars also seem to have been made from low quality materials, especially the flooring. In at least two cars from this period I remember being driven around in you could not only see the road through the floor, but could have put your feet through the gap with room to spare. The old Mini I used to drive was (at the time I was driving) around the same age and a much older design than these cars. But at no point was I worried about loosing my foot if it slipped off the brake pedal.
Automatics don't seem to have ever been popular in the UK, other than on buses and coaches. I can only recall ever being in two automatic cars in my life. I'm guessing that the situation in the US is probably the reverse to this for many people.
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Post by the light works on Jan 23, 2014 15:25:55 GMT
Couldn't maintain 65?.... Ok, the one pictured, was a Mk1 "Mexico", the stripes are a dead give-away, it was built to do a rally down Mexico way, and the rules stated they could only run what was on general release at the time, so Anyone could buy the Mk1 Mexico, with exactly the same kit.... It took off. All Escorts after that came with a better engine, could all manage at leat 70, could hold that all day, up hill if needs be, and most could manage 100 with ease... although no one admitted that in front of the police?... So in this Model, you are saying, we had better more powerful cars than you Yanks had?... I had a Mk3, 1980's build, 1.8 disease-al oil burning engine, it was clocked at 130 mph on the flat, (Track day run what you brung...) and that was "standard" tune.... Ok, standard but slightly fettled to give its best performance. The same engine could be found in the Mk3 Van that could haul a ton in weight in the back. The petrol 1.8 could do a bit better..... but not with that weight. The Mk1 that I drove had been well tuned, and was 150mph race tune, roll cage, lightened body Fibreglass bonnet and boot etc. It also had a 2-litre EFI in it, which I am sure wasnt available at the time of build?... I have drove a Mk1 in standard tune, I estimated about 100 horses under its bonnet, it wasn't any race car, but it wasnt the type of slug you describe?.... Who Knew..... BTW, I never drove an Escort Automatic, we just didnt have Automatics in the 70s in "Normal" road cars, maybe less than 1 in 100, maybe 1 in 1,000?... most gutless car I have ridden in (besides those that the engines were past their prime) was an escort wagon. got a ride home from college with a friend - trucks were passing us on the upgrades. LOADED trucks. I think the issue was that America was still addicted to iron. in the 70s, when we had the gas crisis, the carmakers simply put smaller engines in the same size car; and when they started making the cars smaller, they just put the iron closer together. up until the 90s, any Ford car built for the 'murican market could go through a 5 MPH "bumper basher" test with no damage. the average customer wouldn't even consider a car unless it outweighed everyone else. (and we still have some of those throwbacks running around)
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Post by the light works on Jan 23, 2014 15:33:31 GMT
In the mid 1970's the British car industry became rather well known for producing a run of badly designed cars (usually Rover). The Stag was known to overheat to the point of catching fire - in fairness a lot of this had to do with the owner needing the sort of mechanical skills you'd normally find from someone called Montgomery Scott to keep the car in good condition. Along with telepathic abilities that would put Charles Xavier to shame in order to know what you needed to keep an eye on - Rover rather helpfully neglected to mention exactly what design flaws existed to anyone, including their own dealers. The Spitfire was similar, in that I know of at least two cases where they overheated to the point the engine caught fire. Cars also seem to have been made from low quality materials, especially the flooring. In at least two cars from this period I remember being driven around in you could not only see the road through the floor, but could have put your feet through the gap with room to spare. The old Mini I used to drive was (at the time I was driving) around the same age and a much older design than these cars. But at no point was I worried about loosing my foot if it slipped off the brake pedal. Automatics don't seem to have ever been popular in the UK, other than on buses and coaches. I can only recall ever being in two automatic cars in my life. I'm guessing that the situation in the US is probably the reverse to this for many people. we had two factors involved in our preponderance of automatic transmissions (semi-auto by your standards) the first was the prejudice that women were too frail to operate a manual transmission. the second was that our luxury car mentality was that in a luxury car, the car would do all the work. that means that a luxury car was required to have power steering, power bakes, power windows, power adjusting seats, self shifting, and the radio antenna needed to extend and retract all by itself. case in point: when my college girlfriend's parents got her her first car, her mother's shopping list was: 4 doors, power steering, power brakes, automatic transmission and air conditioning.
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Post by Cybermortis on Jan 23, 2014 15:42:26 GMT
Yeah, I've long since had the impression that US customers are somewhat 'lazy' in regards what they want in cars. Power steering and brakes make sense - especially in larger and heavier vehicles. But a lot of the 'standard' equipment that is take for granted could be removed without really affecting the driver beyond forcing them to do a little extra work. (I mean, seriously, exactly why are power-windows all that important? Air conditioning I can understand given the conditions in some parts of the US, and including that in all US vehicles is a lot easier than trying to create two different types of car for different states.)
All these features do is add to the cost (and weight) of the car to provide something you could do just as easily manually.
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Post by the light works on Jan 23, 2014 16:02:00 GMT
Yeah, I've long since had the impression that US customers are somewhat 'lazy' in regards what they want in cars. Power steering and brakes make sense - especially in larger and heavier vehicles. But a lot of the 'standard' equipment that is take for granted could be removed without really affecting the driver beyond forcing them to do a little extra work. (I mean, seriously, exactly why are power-windows all that important? Air conditioning I can understand given the conditions in some parts of the US, and including that in all US vehicles is a lot easier than trying to create two different types of car for different states.) All these features do is add to the cost (and weight) of the car to provide something you could do just as easily manually. air conditioning makes the windows defog faster, too. as for power windows I would guess that it is from the era when it was often a half day's walk to the window crank for the other side of the car. actually, it is from the mindset that rich people don't do things for themselves. America has gone from the land of ambition, to the land of petulant spoiled brats.
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Post by wvengineer on Jan 24, 2014 1:23:03 GMT
For me at least with Power windows are a deal breaker for a car. Where I work, I am constantly rolling the window down to badge in at gates. I had manual window cars for several years working here and cranking the window gets old.
For me, my requirement list for a car is cruse control, power windows, power mirrors, keyless entry, and I prefer a sport shift automatic. The rest depends on what I am getting the car for.
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