Mustang S550! Is it a pony car or a sports car

[Ebm]

Probably a lot of truth in that. I am, or at least was, an engineer working structural or mechanical engineering problems out, eventually on a desktop computer. I'm now 73 and between company layoffs and eventual official retirement, 9 years out of my last day job. Phone distractions at work were just that - unwanted distractions from the necessary levels of concentration.



Yes, it is. The level of technology that I grew up with started with paper & pencils, slide rules and mechanical desktop calculators - I'm talking as a 1970 BSCE graduate here. Then came 4-function calculators, programmable pocket calculators, and eventually PCs. So I've seen technology move forward in ways that did benefit me personally. On the other hand, I don't need or want my refrigerator to be telling me or anybody else what it thinks I need, or have my house thermostat think it knows better than I do what I need at any given moment. I still see driving my cars as a way to get away from the rest of the world for a while - when I'm driving I forget all about the fact that there's a cell phone in my left front pants pocket. Methinks "me time" is vastly underrated these days.


Norm

I agree. A fridge having a tablet built into it that makes the cost go up ten fold. Or your washer or dryer connected to WiFi that's able to speak ten different languages and will push a notification to your phone when the lint trap is full. Just something else that will break and cost a fortune. Not to mention entirely unnecessary. There's no free lunch with technology. It can be great when it works... but you can count on it being expensive when it breaks. Not just the expensive part, but paying someone for the knowledge because it's so complex to fix.

Me time is definitely underrated in this day and age. I feel like physical (In-person) social interaction is underrated too.

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[shogun32]

I'd rather a computer not try to steer me back in my lane.

turn the volume up to 15 and yell, "Hey, wake up numbnuts and pay attention to your driving !!! followed by a blast of a loud siren" would be just fine in my book.

You are tracked everywhere you go. This isn't something you can escape from.

Never had that happen. But I have revoked all app permissions, don't use GPS except when absolutely necessary, don't use social media at all and never use an Apple product. My Android is v8.0.0 so that helps probably. If I can find one I'm going back to BB10 or at the least the locked-down Android from BlackBerry should I not be able to buy another Moto E5 play.

 

[Jimmy Dean]

It completely mystifies me for car instrumentation displays and controls to become more and more like outsized iPhones. Or today's overriding "I need to be connected to everything and everybody else 24/7/365 without letup", for that matter.


Norm

This is why I swapped to driving an '86 bronco for my daily driver, just me and the road and a radio again, albeit it is normally on pandora, but no flashy gizmos, no electrically controlled disconnects between me and the road. just simple, plain,

 

[Sivi70980]

As opposed to Capitol Hill?

Haven't been up north to that crazy in a minute. I like my Lacey/Yelm area where we can at least kind of spread out. HATE going to Olympia and Seattle. Wife went to school at Evergreen after getting out of the army and because I travel so much we got an apartment near campus. Was common when driving to work at 4am to see naked humans roaming the woods being "one with nature" and crap. Getting our dog was the best thing to happen to us, he was the catalyst to spur us into our house and away from Olympia. And even more so, he's an amazing little guy.

 

[Sivi70980]

I agree. A fridge having a tablet built into it that makes the cost go up ten fold. Or your washer or dryer connected to WiFi that's able to speak ten different languages and will push a notification to your phone when the lint trap is full. Just something else that will break and cost a fortune. Not to mention entirely unnecessary. There's no free lunch with technology. It can be great when it works... but you can count on it being expensive when it breaks. Not just the expensive part, but paying someone for the knowledge because it's so complex to fix.

Me time is definitely underrated in this day and age. I feel like physical (In-person) social interaction is underrated too.

Wait, is there a dryer that tells you when the lint trap is full? This seems like the most insanely lazy thing that's not remotely needed lol. I hope it was just a fun example.

 

[shogun32]

Wait, is there a dryer that tells you when the lint trap is full? This seems like the most insanely lazy thing that's not remotely needed lol. I hope it was just a fun example.

you haven't seen the cat litter box that texts you to tell you to remove the clumps?

 

[Sivi70980]

you haven't seen the cat litter box that texts you to tell you to remove the clumps?

Yep seen that. So dumb hahah!

 

[CJJon]

Haven't been up north to that crazy in a minute. I like my Lacey/Yelm area where we can at least kind of spread out. HATE going to Olympia and Seattle. Wife went to school at Evergreen after getting out of the army and because I travel so much we got an apartment near campus. Was common when driving to work at 4am to see naked humans roaming the woods being "one with nature" and crap. Getting our dog was the best thing to happen to us, he was the catalyst to spur us into our house and away from Olympia. And even more so, he's an amazing little guy.

The decline Seattle has experienced over the last...30 years almost...that I have been here is really shocking. It has actually become an open septic tank. The scale of human suffering that is allowed to continue unabated here is unimaginable to most. The citizens of the city, as a whole, are in stark denial. They have to be. You can't go anywhere in the city without seeing people living in their own filth. I can't count the times that I have seen people defecate on the sidewalk. I've watched three junkies sit-sleep at a bus stop shooting heroin for hours - and this was in one of the tony neighborhoods that all the travel brochures highlight. Hell, the cops are not allowed to take a junkies heroin away from them, let alone bust them for it. Lately they are talking about closing the King County courthouse in Seattle because of a homeless camp in a city park across the street. The bums assault people walking by and into the courthouse, jurors, witnesses, lawyers. Just the other day a creeper from the camp assaulted a woman in the bathroom in the building. It's been like that for years. Let that sink in...they are going to close a county courthouse because the city won't do anything about the abject human suffering going on just across the street.

Anyuway, I got my pup from a rescue. He was actually in the meat trade in Korea. Beautiful black lab-most likely purebred. He's the best! Got him right off the plane. He saved me for sure.

Oh, and you never want to go to Freemont on the solstice. Trust me on this!

 

[Mastermind46]

The decline Seattle has experienced over the last...30 years almost...

Oh, and you never want to go to Freemont on the solstice. Trust me on this!

I have noticed a major decline in just the past 3-5 years in Seattle. My sister lives in Capital Hill now but used to live near Freemont. We would walk everywhere with no concerns of others and didn't have to step over kids with needles in their arms. This last time I was out there, I did not want to walk around late. I used to take public transit from Long Beach to downtown LA through Watts and Compton and that felt safer and cleaner. Denver is also starting to get bad.

The whole wifi washer and dryer is actually amazing. I used to always forget about my laundry in the washer but not anymore!

If it touches a track ever I call it a racecar to piss off enthusiasts. In all seriousness, it does not matter what the car is labeled, I just really want one and hope to order one soon.

 

[Balr14]

Sports car has always meant 2 seater roadster to me. I'd prefer it doesn't weigh two tons, but that's becoming wishful thinking.

Glad I don't live in Seattle.

 

[boB]

Well this thread degenerated into something about Seattle and electronic devices, not that we don't need to vent about those but not in a discussion about what type of car we have.

Back to the thread: my Mustang was a pony car as I drove it down I-95 to Daytona, suspension set to soft, mufflers set to quiet, XM radio on Beatles channel. It became a muscle car as I launched it up an entrance ramp to merge at the 90 mph traffic pace. Arriving at Daytona it turned into a race car with suspension and exhaust set for Track, and (hell yes) auto rev-match.

On the way home (after the track event was called due to lightning and the subsequent deluge) it was again a pony car cruising home in 6th at under 2000 rpm with quiet exhaust. A Mustang can be what ever we want it to be but it is always fun!

 

[Farkel]

Keep in mind that opinions are like a**holes - everybody has one. Here's mine:
Not every car with muscle is a muscle car. Mustangs are pony cars; after all, they created the category. In recent years, they have also evolved into very decent Grand Touring cars. For us old-timers &/or purists, Mustangs are 'sporty', but definitely not sports cars.

Submitted as an example of a sports car, here are some faded old pics from 40+ years ago. My '56 Speedster. Two Recaro racing buckets on wooden frames, ragtop, no radio, no roll-up windows. It started life in red, but I personalized it by having the side mouldings removed, changing the badging from silver color to gold-plated, and getting it painted in black urethane (I hear the groans from the Porsche purists - black was not a factory color).

 

[CJJon]

Mustangs are pony cars; after all, they created the category.

The first pony car was a Plymouth Barracuda (which came out before the Mustang).

 

[Jimmy Dean]

The first pony car was a Plymouth Barracuda (which came out before the Mustang).

it wasn't called a pony car until the mustang came out though. it may have been out first, but the segment wasn't named until the Mustang's amazing release.

 

[Norm Peterson]

The first pony car was a Plymouth Barracuda (which came out before the Mustang).

Somehow, hanging a 'fishcar' label on that then-new category wouldn't have had the same ring. Or the staying power.


Norm

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