Don’t have a WRX. Don’t have a Subaru. Don’t even own any Japanese cars at the moment. Do have two Japanese bikes, though. And a couple of Jags, one supercharged. The other soon to be running a turbo and 24psi of boost. And a big Powerstroke 7.3 turbo diesel truck that’s going to be getting some upgrades soon.
People have put Pilot Sport 2s on things like Chevelles. No, they don’t run 10s. In fact, they don’t even get much faster if the rest of the car is stock. They do hook up a little better, that’s about it. The rest of the suspension is so miserably set up that they can’t take advantage of the additional traction modern tires provide - you have to give someone like Hotchkiss a call to get it to do that.
Cars *had* weight loss. These days, most family sedans are back in the 3500-4500lb range thanks to mandated safety equipment and features. That Taurus SHO is over 4300lbs. A
1970 Chevelle SS 454 LS6 weighed in at.... 3390lbs. Don’t believe me, go look it up. So much for ‘weight loss.”
I never said that no cars could go that fast in the 60s and 70s. Just that the ones people were posting and claiming speeds for couldn’t possibly go as fast as claimed. The Cobra 427 could go over 160. It also got wildly unstable starting at around 150 so it was a really, really bad idea.
As for the old man thing... I have no problems with older people talking about their vehicles, just when they make ludicrous claims about what their vehicles would do back in the day. I had the great privilege of having a couple of conversations with Carroll Shelby about 8 years ago when I worked for his son. No problems with him or his cars because they actually did what he claimed.
Someone coming in here and claiming their (stock or otherwise) Buick Wildcat back in the Stoned Age would go 195? Oh, hell yes, I’ve got a problem with that.
I got to meet Carroll too, back in '84 when he was in New Orleans for an auto show. He was there with the Dodge guys for the debut of the Omni GLH. A buddy of mine who worked at a radio station (near my office) called and asked me if I could meet him for lunch, and when I got there Shelby was seated at the table too. Carroll was going to be an afternoon guest on the station's local talk-radio show, discussing his new cars.
My friend knew just enough about Shelby to know I'd be interested in meeting the guy, but sat there stunned when I asked Carroll how it felt to win Le Mans. No "bench racing" B.S. from that guy.