Actually, I DON'T "drive a Vette". If you are asking why I CHOSE a Vette as my performace car choice, to be honest, it wasn't my first choice. First choice would have been a 1st gen Z-28 Camaro. But I didn't and don't have $70,000+ to spend on a car. Most of the decent performance cars of the 60s have climbed into the "collector item" catagory, and thanks to Barret-Jackson and other nutball TV shows, everyone who owns one thinks he has a huge bar of gold in the garage. The Vette was chosen mainly because it was immune to rust...a problem for old cars where I used to live (Illinois). It was also quite reasonably priced at $22,000. Body is in perfect condition and it was equipped with a 454 and automatic. That meant a pretty heavy duty suspension. But I NEVER had any intention of doing any street driving with it. The engine and trans have been yanked out and sold, and current plans (which are on hold till I get a garage built) are a 302 Z-28 engine and 4-speed trans with the rear axle converted to a solid 9 inch Ford. My daily driver is a Chevy pickup truck. It gets around 18 MPG, and I'm retired, so I don't worry one bit about mileage
I bought the truck for practicality. It has a heavy duty tow package and it also works great to haul all kinds of stuff around in.
Think about this....if the opposition has the exact same car and mods, except his is set up for strip-only use and has gone through a weight reduction plan, do you really think you can beat him? I don't. It's a fact that the easiest, cheapest way to make ANY car go faster is to remove/reduce weight.
I'm glad to hear you don't street race. Best thing I've heard all day
I understand the concept that "it's all about the children". That seems to be the accepted/popular thinking of the day. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. I'm certainly not making any personal comments about how you raise your children. That's YOUR business. But you DID put it out there for everyone to see that you have a rolling entertainment center in your vehicle and it's there to keep your children quiet and occupied. I simply said I disagreed with that concept. It's a no-brainer concept that the auto industry and aftermarket merchandise industry came up with to keep kids quiet for long trips. What in the world did parents do on long trips BEFORE DVD players and monitor screens???? Simple. They figured out other ways to keep kids occupied. Games like license plate spotting and game travel packs.
But since the idiot box became portable, we now have kids glued in front of it 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It's a handy babysitter and the kid's brain lays dormant while he stares at a screen that does all the thinking for him. Wonderful. Parents cave in to a screaming/crying kid and give them ANYTHING to keep them quiet. Again, not saying this is you, just making a comment about the present situation in the world. I see it every day everywhere I go where there are kids.
I apologize if any of my previous comments were taken the wrong way. I'm just unhappy with the way things are going with kids in this country. I spent 22 years on the job seeing kids in trouble every day and in almost every instance it was because of poor parenting or lack of parenting. After a while you start to wonder WTF has changed to explain this. I point the finger at society and it's "spare the rod/spoil the child" mentatlity. Plus the idiot box addiction.
Just curious...but why did you have to bring the 9 month old infant along? And how did a DVD monitor help to keep her quiet. That's kinda early to get her addicted to TV viewing. Couldn't the wife just stay home with her?
Dep