From what I can see in the pictures (second picture, he says the first was after assembly)... he didn’t completely undo the stake in the stake nut. I can see witness marks where it looks like he tried and he claims he did, but it doesn’t look to me like it’s completely clear of the threads.

These have the update, turns out the particulate filter burn-out operation was a bit too aggressive.

Beats me, but it’s happening. Apparently my manager’s wife managed to do it not too long ago; thankfully without incident.

Excursion: “Allow me to judge your choice in SUV because I have absolutely no use for one.”

Any automatic I’ve ever driven was this way. The shifter order was P-R-N-D....

So if I understand right, to put it in park you have to push the shifter all the way forward and then hold it there for a moment? If that’s true, I can understand how people may mistakenly put the vehicle in reverse if they’re in a hurry and not paying attention. It would seem they should have added one additional…

I do in my manual transmission car, but not in any of our automatic transmission vehicles unless they’re on an incline. Where I live is largely flat so the the parking pawl in the transmission is more than enough... see as how the vehicle is unlikely to move even if the pawl was not engaged. Otherwise on inclines I…

Pretty much my thought: Why does anyone care what he has to say in this regard?

Maybe he’s confusing NOx for particulates and incomplete combustion?

I believe you have that backwards. Keeping your foot on the throttle will make the car want to nose up due to the torque it takes to accelerate the tires (same reaction force that causes a car to squat the rear and nose up the front on acceleration). Lifting off the throttle will cause the car to nose down as the…

If GM did it there would be a congressional hearing and the NHTSA would be involved.

Ditto, at a size 13 shoe there just isn’t room for me to heel toe. Might also be due to the length of my legs as typically trying to heel toe throws my knee into the steering wheel. Toe-toe has worked fantastically (and also was how Senna drove!).

It’s OK. Food service was quick, food was actually pretty damn good, service was great, but the table I sat at had a notable tilt, torn bench seat and no one had the sense to turn off the interior music while a band played outside; with the doors open.

Ah, ok, I didn’t read it that way to begin with. Thanks for the clarification!

Well, since fuel economy does not directly correlate to NOx emissions... I disagree. Now if you want to talk about CO2 emissions, yes, fuel economy does have a direct correlation. However, then the question becomes what was reported to EPA and whether everything was within limits after-the-fact.

Last I checked, the discussion was about the price of the car. If you want to count safety gear, fuel, lodging, meals, etc a race can be much more. In my case amongst four drivers, I contributed $400 towards the car, then spent another $1100 on gear, fuel to travel from Kansas to Houston, lodging, food, etc.

Including safety, new tires, brakes, etc... starting around $1200 and up to I’m not sure what, but gut instinct says $2500 or so. It really depends the car and team goals, but $10k is a bit excessive.

Unrestricted diesel emissions? Better tell the heavy equipment industry that, they’ve been wasting money on emissions devices for years!

That battery has to go somewhere. Guess what’s under the rear console...

Yeah, I’d agree. This one is fairly difficult to confirm one way or the other. I wouldn’t say VW was a gross polluter by any means; not like it was the equivalent of a bro truck hauling down the road.