Flat slide carbs are an evolution of SUs, which were standard fare in Europe for over half a century. They gave awesome response too, and they’re essentially WW2 tech. Also, what about Webers? DCOE, IDA, lots of models to choose from, all awesome. Tons of these (or similar designs) were fitted as original equipment.

No wrecks, no tragic events whatsoever. At 300k, the shell gave out. The structural damage WAS the car falling apart.

Here’s the deal. The unibody twisted. We put a laser on the back and it was off by over a half an inch up by the windshield. That means the body was already critically weakened and wouldn't hold shape under load. Waaaaaay beyond seam sealer at that point.

Ugh... Have you seen a modern unibody? Your car is made of soda cans too... The point is metal fatigue. It is when steel or aluminum exceeds it’s capacity and deforms. You can’t just put it back and weld ‘er up. The soda can is an easy example. Paper clips work too. See how much work it is to try and pull that piece…

With enough money you can knit a car out of steel wool, but I think that isn’t *exactly* what the question is about. The ‘60 Conti in the original post wouldn't be there if it cost a million bucks to restore.

Take an empty soda can, twist it, and then try to pull it back to it's original shape. Let me know how that goes.

I see Falcons pretty regularly. Ditto the Metropolitan. Not Chevy II’s. It's a matter of the original design intent. If you don't use 2lbs of metal where 1lb will do, it ain't built for the ages. The push for lightness really screws immortality.

Thank you. These are all the points people are glossing over. You can’t just throw money at the problem when the parts don’t exist. Even if you find an unobtanium NOS part in the future, it still sucks and breaks because they all sucked and broke. I’ve toyed with 3D printing. It better come a looooooooooooooooooooong…

I don’t know man. I just searched Autotrader and didn’t see anything near those miles. I mean, I do 90% highway and I’ll be shocked if my Ford doesn’t make it past 200K. That part is easy these days. I just don’t think it will be restorable at that point like an older metal car.

That’s exactly what it looks like to me. I hauled a Bolbo motor home in my Fusion a month ago. Shoulda posted pictures of my “swap”

Did you just call Subaru one of the most reliable ever? I gotta go. I hear a leaking head gasket.

It was leaking water through the roof where the seam was opening up. An extremely good body shop tried three times to fix it, no dice. Hard to use a car as practical transport when it's caged. Besides the fact that the cage wouldn't stop the leaking.

Why is it any different than its contemporaries?

I don't know. So much of it will come down to parts support. It's hard to fabricate things like plastic bumpers or goofy dashboards. To say nothing of the weird electronics. Could you realisticly fabricate an even halfway correct looking 80s digital dash?

I don’t think it will be easy. Sometime around the 70s, manufacturers stopped designing their cars to be rebuilt. On my old 240, everything came apart and was obviously meant to be serviced. On newer stuff it was never meant to live more than one lifetime. I retired a Civic that died of metal fatigue in the unibody. I…

I thought they drag raced Beetles everywhere. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't find quibbling about fuel economy for your third vehicle to be obvious. Are you worried about conspicuous consumption? Hasn't that gold plated boat already sailed?

How do you halve an average of 18 by adding a 12?

Half your average of 18mpg by adding a vehicle that gets 12? How does that work?

High end Ferraris are more or less sold by invitation. You can do whatever you want with “your” car, but they’ll cut you off for future models. #firstworldproblems