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bloke wrote:Nearly unique to Memphis (I've heard also Evansville, Indiana and one other town as well) were "Merrymobiles" in the 1960's.

You betcha we had 'em in Evansville! However, I don't remember ever buying an ice cream off of one. They were the worst traffic problem you can imagine. The darned things were as wide as a Cadillac and would totally block traffic on neighborhood streets. Yeah... just try to drive through while one of these 'monster magnets' were in the middle of the street! I think they disappeared while I was in the Navy from '64 to '68.

Golly, Joe--you had all the fun. I got my jollies by riding my bike in back of the mosquito abatement truck that was spraying DDT.

Probably explains a lot, huh?

I have never seen one of those things here in L.A.

I see these every day.



Come to think of it, I heard they have something like this in the West Hollywood parade.



Frankly, I'd like to see both of these vehicles creamed by a Hummer. You know, an H2.

MellowSmokeMan wrote:Frankly, I'd like to see both of these vehicles creamed by a Hummer. You know, an H2.

Make up you mind. Either it's a an H2 (H3)

Or it the real deal.


A honest to God HUMMWV

ThomasDodd wrote:

A honest to God HUMMWV

Always seemed to me to be the SUV version of the Kübelwagen:

I always liked the Schimwagen better...

Chuck(G) wrote:Always seemed to me to be the SUV version of the Kübelwagen:

Well you could always get the "Camper/RV" version if you want a different look.


It'll still climb a 60% (31 degree) grade, traverse a 40% 922 deg) slope, driver throug water 60" (5 ft) deep.

ThomasDodd wrote:[It'll still climb a 60% (31 degree) grade, traverse a 40% 922 deg) slope, driver throug water 60" (5 ft) deep.

WOW! EXACTLY the attributes required for city driving

TubaTinker wrote:

ThomasDodd wrote:[It'll still climb a 60% (31 degree) grade, traverse a 40% (22 deg) slope, driver throug water 60" (5 ft) deep.

WOW! EXACTLY the attributes required for city driving

Now that you mention it, ever been to San Francisco?
<img SRC="http://jimmysweblog.net/2004/01/lombard-street.jpg" width="600">

Could be helpfull

Chuck(G) wrote:
Always seemed to me to be the SUV version of the Kübelwagen:

Looks to me to take its aerodymaic stylings from this:

ThomasDodd wrote:Now that you mention it, ever been to San Francisco?
<img SRC="http://jimmysweblog.net/2004/01/lombard-street.jpg" width="600">
Could be helpfull

As far as I'm aware, Lombard Street isn't known so much for being steep as being curvy. I can't see where a HMMV would come in any handier than, say, a Toyota Corolla in that case.

Chuck(G) wrote: As far as I'm aware, Lombard Street isn't known so much for being steep as being curvy. I can't see where a HMMV would come in any handier than, say, a Toyota Corolla in that case.

Quickest picture I could find of a hill in SF. The other end is much steeper. And of course that part of Lombard is one way, down hill. The slope would be ~70% (45 deg), hence the curves. Filbert St is 31.5%, and 22nd St is 31.5% grade, bit I couldn't, quickly, find a picture.

ThomasDodd wrote:

Chuck(G) wrote: As far as I'm aware, Lombard Street isn't known so much for being steep as being curvy. I can't see where a HMMV would come in any handier than, say, a Toyota Corolla in that case.

Quickest picture I could find of a hill in SF. The other end is much steeper. And of course that part of Lombard is one way, down hill. The slope would be ~70% (45 deg), hence the curves. Filbert St is 31.5%, and 22nd St is 31.5% grade, bit I couldn't, quickly, find a picture.

My money's still on the Toyota Corolla, unless you plan to drive that behemoth through some of the paved cowpaths they jokingly refer to as streets in Chinatown...

bloke wrote:This...



oddly reminds me of this:

For those of you without Joe's cache of images, iwhat he's pointing at is an VW Acapulco Thing hardtop.

You can find the photo here:

http://myvolks.tripod.com/new_page_16.htm

I think the Thing has better styling than the HUMMV.

31.5% grade? That's a piece of cake compared to this road on my commute. I measured the grade once and I think it was 36% but I'm not sure. One time late at night I saw a Honda prelude loaded with rather large (probably drunk) guys drive up this hill. It got about 2/3 of the way up , then slowed as white smoke billowed from the spinning front tires. The Honda came to a stop and slid backward down the hill with the front tires still spinning. The driver started playing with the gas pedal at which point the tires hooked up and the car strained back up and over the top.



-Eric

a Subway manager in a commercial park I frequent drives a hummer... takes up 2 parking spaces. I have the urge to give a nice one-fingered salute to anybody I see driving one, seems such an arrogant vehicle to own.

I, for one, enjoyed reading this:
[quote]
There you were with your red, pouty lips. Gorgeous. Your friend with her long flowing blonde hair. Blasting your thumping system at noon on a Monday. You knew we were all looking at you two in your white, flawless Hummer. You were talking on your phone, laughing as you almost knocked over the messenger as you flew around the corner from Montgomery onto Sacramento. You showed him.

As you both looked around at us peons running around on this busy Monday, throwing your snide I-think-being-head-cheerleader-five-years-ago-still-makes-me-cool looks around, we all looked to you for some guidance as to how we too could actually be *such cunts* without speaking.

You almost killed the 90 year old Asian man as you pulled into the parking garage on Sacramento. We were all shocked at your actions, hoping that someday, a couple of bitches like yourselves would get what was coming.

I guess you were going a little too fast to see the “Maximum Height 7’â€

[quote="funkcicle"]a Subway manager in a commercial park I frequent drives a hummer... takes up 2 parking spaces. I have the urge to give a nice one-fingered salute to anybody I see driving one, seems such an arrogant vehicle to own.[./quote]

It's only arrogant to use it incorrectly. Hence my dislike for the H2 and, even more so, the H3.

[quote]
You almost killed the 90 year old Asian man as you pulled into the parking garage...

I guess you were going a little too fast to see the “Maximum Height 7’â€

Shockwave wrote:31.5% grade? That's a piece of cake compared to this road on my commute. I measured the grade once and I think it was 36% but I'm not sure. One time late at night I saw a Honda prelude loaded with rather large (probably drunk) guys drive up this hill. It got about 2/3 of the way up , then slowed as white smoke billowed from the spinning front tires. The Honda came to a stop and slid backward down the hill with the front tires still spinning. The driver started playing with the gas pedal at which point the tires hooked up and the car strained back up and over the top.



-Eric

Well, he shoulda known that front wheel drive goes up steep hills better backwards.

My new Subaru Forester has a strange-but-true feature on it: if you stop on a hill (facing upwards) with the clutch in and your foot on the brake, and you take your foot off the brake, it does not roll backwards. There is some auto-gizmo that keeps the brake on until you hit the gas. Weird feeling, like what do I do if I want to roll backwards? But it's a neat vehicle, and as of lunch time today it has 125 miles on it.

MA

MaryAnn wrote: My new Subaru Forester has a strange-but-true feature on it: if you stop on a hill (facing upwards) with the clutch in and your foot on the brake, and you take your foot off the brake, it does not roll backwards. There is some auto-gizmo that keeps the brake on until you hit the gas.

That's really neat! I thought of something like that when I was about 7 years old... damn shame I didn't have the resources to patent it!

MaryAnn wrote:
My new Subaru Forester has a strange-but-true feature on it: if you stop on a hill (facing upwards) with the clutch in and your foot on the brake, and you take your foot off the brake, it does not roll backwards. There is some auto-gizmo that keeps the brake on until you hit the gas.
MA

The German makes have had this feature for a few years. It is called "Hill Hold" or some nonsense, but it does work quite well. I just picked up a new Audi, but because I am not too sure of this feature, I opted to not worry about getting a car with that feature.