Nice purchase! I bought a 451 Cdi in the UK at the end of last year. Being a 2011 it’s got a roaring *54* horsepower and just shy of 100lb ft of torque, and a particulate filter which helped it meet the emissions regs at the time.

I’m not sure they were ever really competitors, so much as two different takes on the same roadster idea that had existed for decades. Hard to imagine anyone cross-shopping them anyway given how much more expensive the S2K was - $6k more (or around 25%) than even a Mazdaspeed Miata, let alone a standard Miata.

Your DS current lineup knowledge is a little behind Jason - the current DS range has none of the hatches mentioned above any more. It’s now a two-CUV range, DS3 Crossback and DS7 Crossback, with EV and plug-in hybrids available depending on the model.

The sudden success of the Zoe isn’t an enormous surprise. When it was released it had <100 miles of usable range. Now it has comfortably >200 miles. It’s relatively affordable by EV standards and people probably understand EVs a little better than they did in 2012. In other words it’s gone from being a niche product…

He’s on Instagram too https://www.instagram.com/david_shepherd_photo/

*Shepherd

And the twin-drift shot is Harris and Steve Sutcliffe (it says it in the tweet)

Some did. What the US calls minivans have always been called MPVs in Europe, whatever door layout they had. The Renault Espace always had regular doors, but Peugeot/Citroen/Fiat had sliding doors. Toyota Previa had sliding doors, Nissan Serena didn’t, Chrysler Voyager did, Ford Galaxy didn’t... and all were considered …

You sir get a star for that.

The usual reminder here that Renault has come out with plenty of great cars completely unrelated to any Nissan in the same period - umpteen Renault Sport Meganes, Clios and Twingos, the Alpine A110, crazy stuff like the Avantime and Clio V6. During Ghosn’s time at the top even Nissan itself has built occasionally inter…

So then, if Rey’s Dad—Sheev Jr., if you will—was born in 7 BBY, depending on the when of the Star Wars calendar, and making the assumption of a standard 9 month pregnancy, Rey was presumably either conceived that year or the latter half of 8 BBY. What was going on in the Galactic space around then?

Not really about trickle-down engineering, more about inspiring people - particularly kids - to take careers in STEM. A huge part of the Bloodhound project has involved the team going around schools in the UK showing what’s possible with an interest in science, mathematics etc.

Difficult to find completely up-to-date…

How much (if any) might this be offset by the albedo effect of the vapor trails and resulting clouds?

This comment deserves more stars.

FYI, that key-in-slot thing doesn’t appear to be the case in Europe. I’ve driven the A110 a couple of times and just put the key in its little leather pouch into that cubby ahead of the transmission selection buttons, and it’s started just fine.

Kia’s EV concept, for example, has 21 screens.

The Nissan GT-R’s door handles are flush too, albeit not power-operated, and that’s been around since 2007.

I guess the best way of putting it is that they’re narrow by modern-car standards, rather than narrow period. The current-gen car is the widest Smart so far (65.5in compared to 59.6in for the first-gen) but that’s the compromise they made to ensure it rode/handled better than previous ones.

They certainly make more sense in Europe, and particularly in European cities where pretty much the biggest issue is parking. Rome, Paris, Madrid etc are absolutely littered with Smarts - I think I recall hearing that Rome was the brand’s biggest market.

To be fair, Douglas said “inexpensive”, not “expensive”. I think you’re both on the same page with this one.

A good start even if the car isn’t getting a full livery would be a repaint/wrap in the same orange as the Range Stormer concept that appeared in a few Gran Turismo games (and inspired the original RR Sport). This was the vehicle I had in my head while reading this article (and I do remember going through a phase in…