If you want obsessive, try shooting 9 coats of lacquer with hand-flatting in between. Not having to rely on a clear coat provides a non-wet depth that’s hard to describe. Today’s catalyzed urethanes don’t compare - too “goopy”. Unfortunately, lacquer’s illegal in most areas. But Mexico’s paint shops beckon!

Dude, mentioning “Bangle” in the same sentence as the E31 is blasphemy!

I don’t know if you were being sarcastic, but if you weren’t, the V Rod was discontinued in 2017. A mistake, in my opinion. A little reluctant in the twisties, but boy could it go and stop like no other HD. And yes, it’s a sexy beast.

Amen. Let the crotch dudes and pirate grandpas duke it out over who’s best. We’ve got our own little party going on over here on the side and loving it.

The “continuous ignition” switch is on no doubt. Relights the engine on a flameout. Ordinarily the ignitors are switched off automatically once the engine starts.

I’ve got to disagree. The hard part of a thermonuke is compressing the secondary containing the fusion fuel. Nanoseconds after the primary detonates, the still-intact bomb enclosure briefly contains a dense “fog” of highly energetic X-rays that work to implode the secondary. The dynamics of that mechanism are highly…

Given the entire process has to occur in microseconds before the enclosure containing all that radiation blows apart, and that the secondary implosion mechanism has to be just “so”, I’m awaiting the experts to weigh in. It’s not like you just place a paint can full of LiD next to an atom bomb and go “boom”.

I wouldn’t call “personal luxury coupe” a fad - they’ve been around forever. The Porsche 928 or BMW 8 series were GTs. The Lincoln Mark whatever or Cadillac Eldorado certainly weren’t.

You do know that “autopilot” today means active navigation and not just altitude/heading/airspeed hold? Airlines punch the “autopilot” on after gear-up and off on short-final or DH. The rest of the time the FMS is running the show. I like Cadillac’s description as being more accurate as to its capabilities.

Yeah, I guess that’s my question. HD, these are supposed to replace the V-Rod. Uh, fail.

Classical automatic transmissions rely on a running engine to maintain system pressure. Some automakers (MB) have an electric oil pump running in tandem with the transmission’s input shaft-mounted pump during stop/start operations.

One of my favorite cars. Steering, brakes, and clutch are all insanely light and the induction roar from those 4 Webers is glorious.

Gandini styled both.

They did, kinda. You didn’t like it. It was called a Street-Rod. Apparently, HD folks are hydrophobic.

Wasn’t the Eldorado front wheel drive?

What’s with all the helicopters?

I just bypassed a AMG PPI based on the very complete dealer service records produced to me via PDF. You can see all the recommended service items the mechanics came across during routine maintenance and the attention paid by the diligent owner, right up to warranty expiration. Immediately thereafter, car’s up for sale!

Who boosted it from Bentley.

It certainly isn’t “heavy”. Actually too light with zero pedal travel making it difficult to modulate right off the bat. And if you think that’s weird, try the DIRAVI steering. Turn the wheel at a stop, let go, and watch it power its way back to straight-ahead. I know all this because I drove a Maserati Khamsin. Best…

I gotta take exception to your using “bespoke”. The only bespoke engine AMG produced was the M156/159 6.2 liter DOHC. Everything else was a Mercedes production engine hotted-up and hand assembled by AMG.