OT: Why do cars slope inwards at the sides?

[James Wilkinson Sword]

What's wider, your waist or your shoulders?

No, because it looks like cheap shit.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

My friend had one back when they came out. He said it was bloody good offroad.

[gfretwell]

NASCAR is the same way as are most races I imagine. Those "stock cars" you see on TV are actually purpose built machines made from the ground up, not really sharing anything with the production car they roughly resemble. There are uniform requirements on the engines and just about everything else. The thought is with very equal cars, they are really testing the driver. The reality is even working within the rules some cars are significantly faster or handle better than others. They can dial in features that enhance some of these factors, usually taking away another factor.

[rbowman]

You want flat sides get a Scion xB, the one that looks like it should have 'United States Postal Service' stenciled on it.

[Dean Hoffman]

Honda had one the looked like it was drawn by a 5 year old. I don't remember what it was called.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

The race is more interesting when some cars corner better and some accelerate better, making more overtakes. Mind you Nascar isn't exactly a proper track, you just go round and round.

[Clare Snyder]

The "Element"

[gfretwell]

"Rubbin" (bumping into the other cars) is legal in NASCAR and I think people just tune it to see when a rub turns into a 200 MPH crash.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

The bumper is too tall, it looks retarded.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Looks like a butch version of the CRV I had. Which either had broken or shit automatic 4WD. It was supposed to engage the rear wheels when it felt slippage, but didn't manage at all. A slightly muddy field made it spin ONE single wheel, at the front. No diff lock on it either, pathetic.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

I'd prefer a race with all sorts of different cars with lots of corners and slippery bits and NO RULES!

[rbowman]

I was trying to think of that one. I remembered Honda had an entry in the race to ugly. Was that the one with the plastic interior so when your buds puked all over it you could drive through the car wash with the doors open?

[rbowman]

I never got into NASCAR. I grew up with outlaw quarter mile dirt tracks. They were more about balls than finding a million dollar sponsor. iirc, the closest NASCAR track was in Langhorne PA and a few guys would go down to run there but it mostly was a different world, northern rednecks versus southern rednecks.

[rbowman]

Oh, a figure eight race. There are a few rules though.

I like this pair

1. Any car deemed to be on fire by an Official will be black flagged.

1. Anyone deemed ignoring the BLACK FLAG will be suspended per JC discretion and the race will be red flagged.

[Clare Snyder]

Yup - just hose it down. Butt ugly, particularly the first couple years with the grey plastic fenders.

[alan_m]

When you side-swipe pedestrians the sloping sides mean that they fly over the top of the car rather than damaging the roof.

[Dean Hoffman]

Add Nissan Cube to the square list. For the ugly or odd list there is the Pontiac Aztec. A local radio station had a yellow one. It stood out. And Dodge had a more station wagon like buggy that looked more like a hearse than anything. AMC had a couple ugly vehicles. One was the Pacer. There's a Pacer for sale on Ebay now. Someone rebuilt one. One of the changes is the 350 Chevy engine. Only $39,900.

[rbowman]

I drove a rental Pacer. It was truly an unique design. When driving through rain puddles it didn't drown nearby pedestrians; it managed to throw all the water on the windshield.

Then there was the Gremlin... I prefer hatchback designs -- except for that one.

The Javelin was a winner. I had a rental that reduced the travel time from Minneapolis to Morris MN to an acceptable amount. It was a little shy on headroom. I managed to contact the roof with my head going over a little hump in the road.

[gfretwell]

I had a 71 Gremlin, I didn't buy it, it was somewhere between abandoned and a gift but it did not turn out to be that bad a car., It convinced me hatch backs with a fold down rear seat were the way to go and I have had one ever since. It did share that fouled #5 plug problem that plagued all AMCs of that era. I just cleaned the fouled one and ran in a spare. It was real easy to get to and I could swap one at a long light.

[rbowman]

I don't know why they aren't more popular in the US. I traded a '80 Camaro on a '82 Firebird when they came out with a hatchback design. I could carry 4x8 sheets of plywood in the Firebird. They might not have designed it to be a pickup but in my hands it became one.