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Thread: What's the slowest car you've ever owned and ever driven!

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    Uber Mirage alex16's Avatar
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    What's the slowest car you've ever owned and ever driven!

    My desire for a 1.0 in North America brought warning of the lower power but I say bring it on! I am no stranger to slow cars and my 1.2 doesn't even make the top 5 slowest cars I've owned.

    I'll start this off with my slowest I've owned.

    I used to own a 1986 Toyota Corolla SR5 coupe that had a 4AC 1.6L sohc 8 valve engine with a 2 barrel carburetor.

    Toyota claimed these numbers,
    Engine
    1.6L 74 hp I4
    Power 74 hp @ 4,800 RPM
    Torque 86 lb-ft @ 2,800 RPM
    Approx 2300lbs (2400 with my subs, amps, misc tools ect.)


    This dyno was done on a "Dyno day". I was in the running for the lowest hp car of the day when a 1981 civic ran with a/c on and pulled a 48whp run, I asked for a rematch and the guy in charge of the dyno machine (owner of the civic) agreed to run me with no a/c and pulled a 51 whp run giving me a nice victory. With a/c on which it was 70% of the time in Houston I had between 44-46whp. This car had a 4 speed automatic ,120k miles and a cat back 2'' exhaust with a high flow muffler, fresh ngk plugs/wires, new carburetor, plus a very good AF reading for a carbed car from the wideband o2 sensor.









    With 49whp or less and 2300+lbs I was still easily able to accelerate into traffic on the highway (you had to use it to its full potential of course during getting onto a freeway from a dead stop or going uphill onto a interstate) I had no problem cruising at 80mph in this car, it took a bit but I was able to get it to 110mph on a 3 mile stretch of empty highway. It was so funny by the time it reaches the redline (6,000 rpm) the valves are floating so bad and the cylinder head is so inefficient that its producing less than 20whp.

    I'm pretty sure I would be perfectly fine with a 1.0

    Still the slowest vehicle I've ever driven was a 1986 C70 Chevrolet boom truck, right at 24,000lbs with a 366 big block 800CFM holly 4 barrel. I forget what type of transmission (Some kinda borg warner likely) but it was a 5 speed with a shifter controlled two speed rear axle (10 different gear choices). It was horrible, you had to make sure nobody was in sight before you pulled out or they would need to hit their brakes. At first I thought a 1987 C70 with a detroit diesel 8.2L/alison automatic 14ft box truck was the slowest but when we raced them (easy to race these things on the street, nobody knows your racing... they just think your holding up traffic!) the non turbo diesel slowly pulled away while I jammed through the gears as fast as I could, once past 50mph the big block chevy would catch up and pull away to its limited 55mph speed as the detroit diesel was limited to 50mph.



    This is what the 86 C70 looked like (those 2 piece wheels!)

    and below is what bed it had on it



    I know ecomodders would want to burn this truck to the ground, the school district kept records of gallons used (at their personal fueling station via a fuel chip key with mileage input every fill up) and lifetime avg since they started the fuel chip key in 1995 was less than 3 mpg.

    I found a video clip of it back when I worked at the school district, this was taken about 4 years ago.




    Last edited by alex16; 02-01-2015 at 06:51 AM.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 44.8 mpg (US) ... 19.1 km/L ... 5.2 L/100 km ... 53.9 mpg (Imp)


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    Administrator Daox's Avatar
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    I've never really driven any large vehicles, so my current car is probably the slowest. I daily drive a 99 Chevy Metro with the 1.0L 3 cylinder. Despite its meager 55 hp output, it really has plenty of power to get from point A to B.
    Custom Mirage products: Cruise control kit, Glove box light, MAF sensor housing, Rear sway bar, Upper grill block

    Current project: DIY Nitrous oxide setup for ~$100

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage DE 1.2 manual: 47.2 mpg (US) ... 20.1 km/L ... 5.0 L/100 km ... 56.7 mpg (Imp)


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    Hmm, for me... I'd have to think about it.

    I had a 1979 Honda Civic wagon, and I think it had some sort of carburetor problem. It would roar right up to speed, and stop at 55 mph floored. Easing off the gas would allow it to get to 70 if you gave it a long flat road. I didn't have it long before the rust and decay caused the front end to let go.

    My 1988 Isuzu Trooper wasn't a speed demon, but it spent most of it's time broken down in the driveway anyhow.

    I had two trucks at different times - a 1981 F100, and a 1995 F150. Both had a 300 I-6. The '81 had a three speed on the column, and the first gear was so low, and getting into second was such a pain, that it would almost roll to a halt before you could get it in 2nd. It's top speed was right around 75 MPH. The 1995 F150 had a better transmission (5 speed) but it still wasn't fast. I think the 0-60 and the quarter mile time were the same. One of the first things I noticed when I brought my metro home and got it running, was that it was quite a bit faster than that F150.

    My brother has a Suzuki Samurai with crawler gears in the transfer case, lockers, 30" tires, and 8" lift. I think THAT one takes the cake for slowest vehicle.

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    Senior Member Cani Lupine's Avatar
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    I'd have to say my slowest car was my '96 Ford Aspire. 64 horses at the flywheel. Had it up to 105 once, and only once, on I5 in California a bit north of Weed. This was around dawn with the freeway empty. Elevation roughly 3000 feet, and I'm not sure what the conversion math is for sea level.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage DE 1.2 manual: 49.2 mpg (US) ... 20.9 km/L ... 4.8 L/100 km ... 59.1 mpg (Imp)


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    Senior Member Alpha_One's Avatar
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        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2012 Mirage GLS 1.2 manual: 33.3 mpg (US) ... 14.1 km/L ... 7.1 L/100 km ... 40.0 mpg (Imp)


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    Senior Member grsupercity's Avatar
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    My Montero sport 4x4 with 300K miles seemed pretty slow compared to my gsx's and vr4's lol

  9. #7
    Funny thread!

    My #1 slowest car was my Geo Metro converted to 48 volt electric drive:

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    48 volts times 400 amps max current = ~26 peak horsepower in a car that weighed 2070 lbs, post conversion. More info: ForkenSwift.com.

    Acceleration 0-30 mph / 50 kph took about 21 seconds going flat out (although 0-15 mph was a much faster pace than the last 15 mph).

    Top speed was effectively about 55 km/h / 34 mph. It would go faster than that, eventually, but it took so long to accelerate past 50 km/h that top speed was pretty much moot - you always had to turn or brake before it got much faster than that! I once saw 72 km/h / 45 mph in it.

    In the small, quiet, mostly flat city where I live, that was acceptable on the side roads I drove it on (I avoided the busy roads out of consideration for other drivers). And in 6 years of driving it, I never got honked at once.

    Still, it was a very cool car to drive. One of my favourites, which is why I named it in the thread: Is there a car that you used to own that you miss badly?

    My 2nd slowest car is my current 1998 Pontiac Firefly (Canadian market Chevy Metro clone).

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    1.0L 3 banger, detuned from 55 hp to ~49 hp with an "economy cam". And the gearing has been increased: I replaced the final drive to reduce cruising RPM, which improves fuel economy but slows acceleration. 0-60 Acceleration? Stock, I think it was around 12 seconds or so. It's probably around 15 seconds now.

    A lot of my cars were older, small, low powered fun things: Like old MK1 VW Rabbits/Golfs, 3rd gen Civic, 80's Nissan Sentra, Toyota Tercel. All these cars are perfectly acceptable in normal driving, and compared to them, the Mirage is far more than adequate.

    People who complain that the Mirage is slow ("dangerously slow", I've read from too many commenters) are simply used to more powerful vehicles. Drive a Tesla Model S for a week, and every normal car will feel "dangerously slow" afterward.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 63.2 mpg (US) ... 26.9 km/L ... 3.7 L/100 km ... 75.9 mpg (Imp)


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    Uber Mirage alex16's Avatar
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    I agree 100 percent and yes the tesla s is my dream car I saw one in person when I lived in Houston. I've seen two in the wild when traveling through new jersey. There is no better car out there than the tesla.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 44.8 mpg (US) ... 19.1 km/L ... 5.2 L/100 km ... 53.9 mpg (Imp)


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    @alex 16:
    Mine is a 1.0L and in practical terms you can't tell much difference between the 1.0 and the 1.2[/I] Probably most folks wouldn't notice any difference.

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    Senior Member Alpha_One's Avatar
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    I've never owned the following vehicles, but these would definitely be the slowest that I've driven.

    First off, say hello to the Trabant! 26 horsepower, but at a measly 600kg it's actually a rather fun car to drive around. Pictured below is the actual car that I drove.

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    Then here's the Toyota Tamaraw, a classic Southeast Asian workhorse. I think it had 64hp new, and weighed 1200kg. Except the one I drove had its original engine replaced with a forklift diesel in it, making the thing even slower. The slogan in the brochure pictured below translates to "Quick as a car, tough as a truck."

    Tough? Oh yeah, after 40 years they're still an occasional sight in rural towns. Quick? Well, not very, even by the standard of the 1970s!

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    Last edited by Alpha_One; 02-04-2015 at 07:21 AM.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2012 Mirage GLS 1.2 manual: 33.3 mpg (US) ... 14.1 km/L ... 7.1 L/100 km ... 40.0 mpg (Imp)


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