ydeardorff said:
Hi, Yaughn,
It's been fun having you on the list. You've been generating a bunch of good discussions. Very nice!
Regarding handling, I can hapilly report that I have had absolutely no problems with any wandering or 'lightness' to the front end at speed. I just recently drove to a car show that was about an hour-and-a-half away from my house. Most of the trip was at typical "modern" highway speeds of 65 to 75, and the car felt very comfortable at those speeds. I think the fastest I've had mine is a quick burst up to 90 MPH and everything still felt great. I shut it down only for legal reasons.
The negative thing I notice the most about the handling of my Sterling is a phenomenon called bump steer. This is a potential problem with any Bug or Bug-based kit, but it is even a little worse in my car because I have slightly wider front wheels than stock (thus they stick out a little further from the pivot point and therefore have more leverage against the steering box.) What this amounts to is that, when you hit a bump, it tugs on the steering wheel a little. Sometimes a lot. It certainly isn't enough to make the car dangerous or unfun to drive, but it does serve as a reminder that the front suspension isn't up to modern specifications.
As for brakes, if you just simply add aftermarket disc brakes, you will want for nothing. They will stop the car on a dime. There is no vacuum assist, of course, so you need a little more pedal pressure than we're all used to in modern cars. But the brakes are not a serious limitation at all, mainly because our cars ar so light.
As for other aspects of "daily driving" experience, the main thing that stands out is the limited visibility, which boils down more to the low stance of the car than to any inherrant deficiencies with the windows/pillars/etc. You have to drive a Sterling with enhanced caution because you're so terribly low. You can't see around ANYTHING in front of you. I think we've all had the experience of feeling a little blind when we get stuck behind a big truck while driving our normal cars. Well, in a Sterling, driving behind any car is a little like driving behind an 18 wheeler. It's not a terrible thing, but it takes some getting used to. The limited visibility makes it just a little harder to park...and to back up...and to pull out at an intersection, and to merge onto a highway, etc. Added into this is the fact that you can't be annonymous in a Sterling; people will be rubber-necking and watching you all the time, which isn't necessarily a good thing when trying to pull into a parking lot, or while parallel parking, or when merging, etc.
I know you've asked several times in several ways what it would take to make the Sterling a true daily driver. That's a great question, and it's hard to put a finger on all the nuances to an answer to that. A Sterling will never have any storage space and will always have the visibility issues as listed above. Also, it will always drawl TOO much attention, even when you want to be a little annonymous, and will always be a little awkward to drive. All of those aspects are a given. They are at the essence of Sterling-dom and cannot be changed.
But I think the BIG reason that most owners can't or won't use Sterlings and their kin as a daily driver is simply a matter of comfort and/or reliability. With even the cheapest, crapiest modern cars, we have grown accustomed to having a wonderfully reliable engine, heater, defroster, windshield wipers, A/C, etc. We're used to an engine that starts reliably even when it's very hot or cold. These things seem trivial, but, when they aren't as refined as they could be, they can greatly influence the "daily drivability" of a car.
There are days when I avoid my Sterling because it looks like it might rain. My Sterling doesn't leak too badly, but it leaks a little. And the single windshield wiper clears the TOP of the window very nicely, but by its design it doesn't extend down onto the lower 20% of the windshield (due to the geometry of the arc) which is where you need it to be clear the most. And, like most of us, I don't have a windshield washer/sprayer like should be on any modern car. So, in total, if I looks like it might rain, I just leave it at home to avoid the aggravation of these otherwise fairly trivial things.
But these are things that could be improved upon. Sure, I have plans to rework the wiper so that it clears that lower 20% and to install a sprayer and spruce up the weather-stripping, etc. But my car, like all of our cars, is a work in progress. Those are the sorts of things that are boring and thus never get done. But they are the things that would make the car more of a daily driver.
In my opinion, the biggest things a builder can do to make the car a truly reliable driver is to concentrate on these seemingly mundane details. Spend time making your engine reliable. Get your side mirrors just right. Get you wipers, lights, hydraulics, and wiring just right. Keep refining the car until you know it will start, stop, run, and function normally in ANY normal environmental conditions you're going to encounter. At that point, you're very close to having a Sterling that meets those "daily driver" criteria. It's not so much about the big things. The devil is in the details. Add sound-dampening materials. Seal all holes through the internal body tub. Use Nylocks and little daubs of RTV to batten down anything that could possible shake or chaffe or vibrate. Tweak the pedals, switches, armrests, and... everything... until it fits you just perfectly. And in doing so you automaticaly create one of the better "daily driver" Sterlings around. Way too few of us take the time or effort to get all the way down through our "to do" lists like that. I certainly am not all the way down through my list by any stretch of the imagination.
You also hinted at doing a mid-engine confuration...
With regard to the big modifications, like doing a mid-engine build of the car, I am always very impressed by the creativity and enthusiasm in such monster projects. If done correctly, the result would be amazing. But like Rick said in another post, we've seen way too many builders get bogged down in a project where they got into more than they were expecting in terms of time or money even if they have skills and creativity. I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying that you should resonably expect to not be able to drive that car until 2019 or beyond. I personally would LOVE to build a mid-engine Sterling. But I'm not going to (at least not any time soon) because I now know that that's more of a 10 year project, and I can get a lot more from my time investment by trying to really, really refine a slightly more conventional Sterling (and yet still end up with very respoectable performance, etc.)
As for my own personal wish list regarding chassis and handling...
I'm starting to think that the Bug front suspension and steering system will never be able to do what I want it to. I am seriously considering making a hybrid chassis that retains the rear engine configuration and Bug rear but has a Mustang II front (or equivalent) just to get rid of my bump steer and inherrant sloppiness of the worm gear steering box. Doing so would vastly improve the car and yet is still a whole lot easier than setting up a mid-engine config.
Also regarding the mid-engine option, don't overlook the fact that the Sterling body simply wasn't made with a mid-engine set-up in mind. The rear wheel position is a few inches too far forward to make it a slick or easy modification (like in a Kelmark, etc.), and access to the engine mounted mid ship in a Sterling is difficult. It definitely can be done, but it usually takes up so much room that you loose about 6 to 10 inches of very critical cabin space. Also, there is a lot of important structural fiberglass work happening in the area above where the stock Bug transaxle sits. If you attempt a mid-engine set-up, you need to commit to significantly reworking some of that, too, or else you loose a lot of strength to the monocoupe rear. None of these things are insurmountable, but in the end, I'm still just not totally convinced it's worth it. In my opinion, you almost have to do one, more conventional Sterling first before you could begin to answer the question, for yourself, of whether you'd want to do a mid engine one. If you had one for a while and played with it, you'd see what I mean.
Alternatively, you could build (or buy from Dave) a tube chassis or reinforced Bug for rear-engine configuration and then go balls-out with every go-fast modification you can think of for that configuration. Beefed transaxle (or Porsche transaxle). Beefed CV joints and diagonal arms. Modern, light-wieght, hight output 4- or 6- cyclinder engine. High quality worksmanship all around. High quality wiring. Monster cooling, etc. What you'd end up with would be not much short of a supercar...even in rear engine configuration. Think Porsche. A Porsche doesn't need a mid-mount big block V8 to be fun and impressive. A little, light car with a high output rear mount engine can be a real screamer!
I'm not dissing mid-engine layouts. I just don't want to ever see any of the newer enthusiasts get caught in the trap of thinking that "mid-"er is always better. In any event, I'm definitely NOT trying to shoot down ideas. I love it when builders get excited about cool and sometimes extreme modifications. It would make me 100% happy to see a builder successfully do a mid-mount Sterling.
Summarized another way...
You were asking about drivability and about mods to enhance drivability. Well...I've often left my Sterling at home because I felt it was too hot (without A/C) or too rainy, etc. But I have never once avoided driving my Sterling on a given day because it was "too rear-engined".
My point again: For things that will influence the daily drivability the most, the devil is in the details.
It's funny how a persons' thoughts change over time. I used to be just universally impressed by anything having to do with Sterlings (and still am, in many ways). Then for a while I went through a phase where I was most impressed by any of the highly customized projects and alternative engines. Now -- it's funny -- but after owning a few Sterlings, I'm most impressed by the cars that people took (or are taking) the time to refine, be they stock or modified. It would really impress me to see a windshield washer sprayer on a Sterling. How sad is that?! *laugh* Do you know what would impress me even more? A Sterling with a good A/C and defroster. Things like that seems silly, but they aren't if you're striving for that elusive 'daily driver.'
These are ways to make or cars as close to daily drivers as they can be.
That said, keep in mind that a Sterling simply isn't the right tool for all jobs. I tend to always be running errands on my commute and buying crap for whatever the project-of-the-day is. Hell, just give me my Subaru station wagon for that! I can't very well strap 8 2x4x12-footers to the roof of the Sterling. And another name for a Sterling in snow is "toboggan." My point: a Sterling can only be your daily driver if your daily driving needs only ever include one to two people, NO packages, driving relatively short distances through easy traffic on days without heavy rain or even one flake of snow.
When it comes right down to it, a Sterling is a very fun toy that mainly gets played with on a few sunny weekends per year.
