An audiophile and petrolhead's musings: in the hi-fidelity, first class, traveling set - Page 11

I don't like the "millions of doors" approach - have you seen the original Tomb Raider, or Iron Man? That style garage makes more sense imho - less heat loss, more secure, etc, just don't crash your cars into each other (that's a BAD insurance phone call to make - expect gails of laughter).

Additionally some considerations:

- Those right angle style things (like the first picture) majorly suck. Especially if you get ice/snow (if you had under-heating it might not be so terrible). Or have long cars/vehicles or if they have a lot of off-tracking. I wouldn't build one like that (I've never been in a garage/shop with this arrangement that isn't a nightmare at some point - I should note that most of your cars are TINY compared to my frame of reference, so take that into account).

- If you don't have height requirements on the building, I'd go with a large bay garage door - like 12-14ft opening (so you can take real trucks in ), maybe double-wide too (again, real trucks), again just don't crash into your cars ().

Some internal goodies I'd add:

- Some sort of facility to wash/clean the cars while they're garaged.
- Heating (if you live somewhere that freezes), or cooling (if you live somewhere that roasts, and you intend to work in your garage as a shop (but if you're building a real toy-shop, I'd just convert the house's attached garage (which is likely heated and cooled) for workshop purpose unless you're building a whole machine shop in which case idk). This doesn't have to be tapped from the main HVAC - just having a dragon or chiller that you can roll out is probably fine.
- Good lighting.

I suspect the major issue with a single door is turning radius. The building has to be wide enough to allow you to pull the cars in out of their slots, and that space is all dead floor space.

Sounds like an awesome shop. Take pics or post renders lol.

Would only fit like four trucks though - needs more bigger!
Edited by obobskivich - 9/10/12 at 1:05pm

Weird... on one hand I feel like I just found this thread.  OTOH, I get the strangest feeling that I've been here before.  It's like deja vu - but with a lot of doubt thrown in.

Haha.

The movie imagery you're mixing there is also great.

Too bad you gave your wife's Neon away - you could have mounted it on the top of the garage as a weathervane!

 

Or a headphone listening area...  

I think that's my favorite era for Rolls - big and ostentatious. I could definitely picture myself rolling down a beach street in Miami lighting cigars with $100 bills and asking one of the 3 sweeties with me to mix me another drink from the built-in bar.

Gotta love HOAs. This is why I would buy "ranch land" and you can do whatever you want as long as it doesn't attract federal attention (e.g. no HUGE explosions).

Regarding trucks - you're killing me smalls! Actually I just went to look at a big truck the other day, it was appropriately named "Tonka." Tonka started life as an F-650 and was converted into a monstertruck (with "Tonka" written on it), stacks through the bed, huge lift, custom exhaust and bumpers, etc. The downside is that all of this was done to Tonka by an owner, and not a real customizer, so it had various issues like turning radius, handling, braking, etc. But the idea of an 11' tall (I kid you not) truck certainly is cool beans - for anyone who isn't quite sure what I'm talking about, these kinds of trucks:
(I have no idea where this image is from, but the guy gives you some scale idea - Tonka was not quite that large but I had to "hop" to see inside it, and I'm 6' 3" - it's not a truck unless you gotta climb into it ).

Forget the Wrangler EZ-Roll, get a real truck.

In bad weather the best vehicles I've ever driven are honestly not compact SUVs (stuff like the Wrangler and Samurai are horrible on ice), they're either very large cars/wagons, or large van/SUV type rigs with traction control (wheel slip is the issue, not torque delivery).

Also the whole "it'll hold 20 cars" - how big are the cars we're talking about? My car is 23' long and it was the baby in my extended family until gas prices went SKY HIGH and 6mpg got real.

That's actually worse than my first Volvo (which had, ahem, a mere 480,000 miles). Gonna die if you tell me that car had <250k on it too.

I've actually never gotten straight talk on maintenance for a Rolls, most of my extreme gear-head/mechanic buddies (and myself) will split along two lines:

- Rolls-Royce makes very expensive cars that have no resale value (we'll get to that), so obviously they have a flaw. They are also British cars, and British cars suck.

or

- Rolls-Royce makes some of the best aviation and marine engines in the world, and had for nearly a century, so there's no way their automotive engines can be *that* bad, but cosmetic/bodywork is probably hilariously expensive.


Regarding the $25k thing - that's actually pretty normal. Even in good shape! They just don't hold their quarter-million dollar pricetag worth anything. The depreciation is downright nutty. I don't know why this is, but it is not at all out of the question to expect a 1970s, 1980s, or even early 1990s Rolls-Royce sedan for $10,000-$20,000 with under 50k and pristine cosmetics. The Corniche that you pictured is a little bit higher end and (because?) they're much rarer (afiak every single production run is a numbered and limited affair, and they tend to cost more than the sedans from the factory). But $25,000 does not really sound insane for that car. Also you have all sorts of uses for it, including:

- Showing up the neighbors (seriously if you get the Aston, the M5, the Rolls, the MG, and that other one you were looking at, and the F-650, put them all out in front of your place like Ricky Bobby at least once - just to show everyone how you do)
- Impressing the ladies (or just your lady; heck give her the RR, it's not only an automatic, it's probably a very smooth automatic - I know they ride very, very well (nothing rides like a Lincoln, and Rolls-Royce is even better))
- Enjoying a drop-head in the spring/fall
- Making your own rap music video (between that, the Aston, and the M5, you've seriously got the set of like every rap video made in the last five years)
- Parade marshaling
- And generally being a boss (what billybob was talking about)

I'm not saying buy it, I'm just saying it has a plethora of uses.

Oh I should add:

All of the above insane vehicles are not something I would consider reasonable as a daily commuter - get something that does double digit fuel economy at the bare minimum if you gotta drive it 20-30-40 miles one way to work. But since I assume we're well into the realm of "toys" I figure anything is fair game.
Edited by obobskivich - 9/11/12 at 12:55pm

If you are going to shoot a rap video, you need to put some 22" spinners on that Rolls...