In India I watched them fix a fuel leak on an engine then we boarded and took off. Didn’t bother me much. The difference here is that this plane had an emergency landing due to control issues. You can’t check that repair without getting it airborne and doing it with passengers was probably not the best move. 

Was it test flown after the repair? I doubt it. 

Doesn’t excuse Lion from putting into the air a plane that had an emergency landing on its previous flight for controllability issues. They should have fixed the problem. 

Yeah, basically that is it. The car never met it sales targets lagging behind AMG and Ferrari. Nice car, but at the original price point, a very tough sell as configured.

As the owner of only driver collector cars, I believe we are the most vilified of all auto collectors. If I take my cars to a concours, noses go into the air, dudgeon is unpacked in high quantities. If I go to Cars and Coffee, I get lectured about “killing” my car because I drive it too much, and show fields are…

It was and is a beautiful car. The problem was that the suit failed to merge with the engineering under the hood, which was meager for the price point. That design promised great things. A $50k Corvette could kick its ass in every metric of performance. It failed to compete in the performance ballpark with any of its…

Thanks for this. My car is a little too new for these, but Vredestien is only making my size Classic tire in Summer only material at the moment making this another place to look.

The car they are driving is about a ‘71?? That is old, and my Alfa is a ‘67. Things changed a lot in the 1980s. Third brake lights were introduced, power boosted 4 wheel discs became standard, power steering became standard, cars got heavier, wipers got more competent. Your BMW is basically a modern enough car. The…

My Alfa could do 110 all day now, but when it rains the light weight, skinny tires mean that I have to slow down to 60 while other cars are doing 75. It also gets blown around by wind when they go past. Often older cars even with discs had longer stopping distances, smaller taillights. Its the little things that add…

Really nicely written. Learning to relax with your old car on the road, particularly the highway is a definite skill, and a hard one to master, and it can bite you in the ass.

That one. Loved my RX8

You’re dead right. 

Those glorified parking lots were required by law for about 40 years. I still drive with them fine since I grew up with them, but it must be hard for all you young-ens to adapt to. 

Buy Tesla stock. 

Love it! I am not a BMW fan, but that excludes the 70's when the company built the best bang for buck cars in the world. Make sure that the cooling hoses are in good shape before you take off. I would hate to see you roast the motor. Bon Voyage! 

I could do that, but I do like me some toxic chemicals … ummmmm, toxic. 

My family has always made fun of me for detailing my car to the enth degree, interior cleaning, windexing glass, plastic cleaning dashboards, saddle soaping leather, washing mats with Tide detergent, shapooing carpets, until the new car smell comes back as a massive waste of time. My response … if you sat in a chair…

Funny, that gets back to a post Tom had a little while ago about whether one should buy a “New” car with more than 5 or so miles on it. This one was the dealer test car. It had 73 miles on it when I bought it, for which I got about $2,100 off the purchase price of the car. Having been through the test route with it,…

Here, slamming on the brakes was an unintended consequence of trying to demonstrate the responsive handling through a blind chicane. Both did very well. It was a 1988 VW Jetta GLI. That car really did have a lot of bang for the buck. It was a little hard on the maintenance and repair side of the chart, but it was…

First time I ever test drove a car, salesman says, now hang back from this guy then take this a little fast, I want you to see how it handles. This was going through a railroad underpass so completely blind. I do as instructed and the guy is on the other side gingerly turning into a parking lot. I slam on the brakes…