[DML] Re: Lowering (and speeding in Toronto)

[Shannon Larratt <toys@xxxx>]

At 01/03/2000 12:51 PM -0500, you wrote:
> > Anyway, what I meant to say is that over the Delorean handles
> > so poorly that this doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference.
>
>Shannon, once again I find myself questioning the conditon of your
>DeLorean. I must admit that when I first acquired mine it handled very
>poorly, but I thought crummy handling was just the way the DeLorean was
>designed.

I've driven a number of Deloreans over the past few years of looking
for one; the one that I bought is the best of the ones that I looked
at and as far as I can tell is in really great shape. Perhaps I'm
overly critical -- my other "daily driver" is a 2000 Audi TT Quattro
which of course has truly superior handling. I've never owned a
normal car, but I have rented them occasionally for business and
outside of a Hyundai Excel which was truly horrible, all them would
outhandle the Delorean (I realize that's it's not fair to compare
1970s technology to a 2000 model car, and I'm not really complaining,
I still love driving the Delorean).


>Now my DeLorean handles about the same as my wife's Porsche. Due to its
>wider stance, the DeLorean corners a bit better than the Porsche on a
>curvy country road. 

I had to do a highspeed evasive turn (some idiot backed his pickup truck
into me out of a laneway) and was quite please with how it responded.

>Also, I believe that smaller Jeeps do have a very tight low-speed
>turning radius. They are supposed to be that way. A CJ has a turning
>radius about as small as they come at 16' 11", while a typical car has a
>32'+ turning radius. I believe the DeLorean's turning radius is
>somewhere around 20', and I am not surprised that a Jeep turns tighter.

I don't think you have your numbers right on a "typical car"... The
road I live on is four lanes wide, and the Delorean will just barely
do a U-turn in it. Cars I've recently driven/owned include a VW Beetle,
a Taurus, and Intrepid, a Grand Cherokee, a Jeep YJ, a 77 Corvette,
the Audi TT, a Ford Ranger, an RX-7, and a variety of kit cars. Every
one of the turned tighter than the Delorean. And there's nothing wrong
with my Delorean's rack -- I checked to make sure, and that's as far
as the tires can physically move. So I doubt anything can improve it...

Shannon


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Shannon Larratt toys@xxxx
Exotic Kit Cars http://www.PriceOfHisToys.com/