My Favorite factory pink car was the Mercedes Benz 300SL and 190SL in Champagne Pink. Gorgeous color that was also offered on the early 70's 108 sedans for a year or two. I saw one once. Completely floored me.

This is a common complaint, but WD40 does something that other coatings don’t which is get into everything. I coated an assembled head, used cam shafts and all with it about 15 years ago, and it still looks perfect like the day I put it away. Other oils could have done that, but it is so easy to apply WD40. Sometimes…

The Element was a great car. I love them. 

Your mom is awesome.

You had me at sysiphaen. 

If by “bond” you mean have deep seated feelings of hate and worthlessness that I have taken into middle age then yes!

This might have helped when my fresh from repaint 1972 Mercedes was backed into by a work truck at 5 MPH with me slamming on my horn the whole way since other trucks had blocked me in. Then the “driver” who did not speak English literally ran away.

I was just going to make this point, but there is a reason that the McDonnell guys ended up head of the merged entity. They were constantly making the sale that Boeing never could then when the production model came out somehow the government had paid more than Boeing had bid by half again as much for a product that…

It is interesting seeing silicone valley sales tactics in the context of a tangible good of which we all have great experience buying and selling.

Yes, but only one Porsche. Corvairs were great cars in their day, but even taking into consideration their marketing, they were never performance cars. Porsche stands out in making a car with the rear engine over the rear axle into a performance vehicle. Normally we see rear mid-engine as the furthest an engine goes…

Thanks for writing this. For years I have been saying that you either drive cars or you drive Porsches because the driving dynamics are different. Brilliant cars, but very much their own thing. 

Neutral: I hate new cars. Too many electronic gew gaws and gimmicks. I just got a new to me 2006 model that just does what you tell it to while keeping you comfortable. What’s not to like? 

Because in the 1960s knee jerk compliance to regulation is all that mattered and no police department or legislature cared if it made sense. Watching the misapplication of dumb ass regulation was half my childhood in the 70s.

No idea if they are the same. I haven’t even gotten the car yet! It is still on a trailer coming up from Florida. It is a decent guess that the sensors are VW parts bin though. Audis used to eat coils like they were potato chips. I remember talking to a parts department to see if they could get one, and he clicked on…

The head gasket thing is real. I have talked with two owners who had it happen. And the car I have bought has had two sets of MAF sensors in the past three years. No idea what that was about other than a check engine light. I will get a better idea when I start looking at the car myself. 

Very cool story from the trenches. I used to be an art mover, and I have similar stuff from the fine art world. A friend of mine sold high end used stuff for a while. He had a few things to tell me like no one on the lot liked to move the F40 because the line between stalling it and having it freak out and throw…

Thanks for the post. I am starting to get into buyers remorse. The truck should be here on Tuesday. I am pretty nervous, but really excited to see it. 

Gorgeous car and the right color. I have purchased an ‘06 Arnage, which is dual turbo and apparently can have head gasket issues. So there’s that. I have low expectations for reliability, but I was happy to see that there is support for these cars on-line and parts outside the dealer network. Thanks for the post.

I am assuming that the Bavarian overlords hired folks slightly younger than septuagenarians, but either way the car is 100% a BMW product. It was not designed nor built by the old RR folks in England. Where it is physically built and what language people speak makes few odds as to me for it being an “English” car. The…