Liberal Gearheads/Automotive culture nuts: serious question...

would you be interested in a site for motobilia with a progressive slant?

I've been thinking, lately, that most of the car forums I visit are either overtly or covertly populated by RW types. But everytime I get into a rhubarb with one of the members in one of the non-automotive "lounge-type" rooms, I get a few PMs from other people saying "I agree with you about Bush, Iraq, whatever, but I don't want to get banned".

So I've been thinking about developing a non-RW gearhead forum...

It would be similar to many of the other sites in that it would have tech rooms, how-to rooms, racing forums, 4x4 rooms, a "lounge", etc,

Subcats would be such as follows:

Classic American Muscle
Late model domestic performance
Late model Japanese/Korean performance
domestic 4x4
import 4x4
domestic motercycles
import motorcycles
race results
electrical how-to
mechanical how-to
basic auto diagnosis/repair
extended trip preparation
marketing your car for sale
buying tips and ripoffs
Member's rides
tuning for economy
alternative fuels
carpool/rideshare post board
science and technology
automotive nostalgia and other links

I'd have tech rooms on biodiesel and other alternatve fuel development (including details and links to how to make your own diesel, etc)... and information on the political side of transportation...public transit forums, political/economic fuel/travel info, etc.

And, of course, this would be a moderated forum, and comments and usernames promoting overt sexism, racism, homophobia, pro-PNAC, and hatred would not be welcome. Also, promotion of illegal activities, such as street racing, would be unwelcome.

Ideally, this would be a free site, driven by advertising.

Do you think it's a good idea? Any suggestions on what to ad/remove from my (admittedly very) basic outline?

CA

There ain't many of them, but they do exist and guess what: they're fast. Really fast.

I'm secretly tearing all the Csaba Csere editorials out of his copies of Car & Driver and using them for TP, at this point, twenty-years tired of being told because fuel economy means something to me I'm 'trying to ruin fun and just a fuddy-duddy old liberal who doesn't understand.'

I hate Car & Driver. He's started hiding them from me because I dig through the letters and read him all the ones the editorial staff answers with pretty much the quote I typed out above. He knows eventually, if I see enough of them, I'm going to start dropping them in the wet bathtub.

S'anyway -- we both love auto technology, and we have a great nostalgia for muscle cars, though owning one isn't sensible for us. It would be nice to get the information without having to grin and bear the insinuation that we're commies because we think there are some people who buy SUVs who probably don't need them, and that Peak Oil may be a reality.

He's a huge gearhead, and a liberal. He might enjoy that.

He works on cars, has a cruising/show car, and drag races (the legal kind). He also likes to pick up project cars from time to time. Right now he thinks it would be fun to get an old rear-wheel-drive Datson (sp?) and put a 350 or larger Chevy engine in it.

For a buddy. Lots of work, required fitting in the (much wider) Ford gearbox, swapping in a custom front suspension (to bear the added weight), and cutting a hole in the hood.

It endfed up being too much torque for the rear end, and he went through a few axles before stripping the parts and giving up.

But, man, did that thing ever scream!

My dh loves talking about this kind of thing and I only know what I've learned by watching him, so I'm not a good source of conversation for him.

He put together a Dana 60 rear end for his last drag car so I imagine he'd have to do something similar for the Datsun, if he can find one in decent shape. We live in Michigan and it's hard to find older cars that aren't all rusty. I imagine you have the same problem in Canada. We'll probably end up going for a trip down south pretty soon.

they take for granted that anyone who likes internal cumbustion engines is a bushy and all liberals want to put a sail on thier roller skates.