I really enjoy Tavarish's "buy this horrifically unreliable awesome for the price of a new boring". Occasionally, when the subject cars are not German, I don't even disagree with it so badly. But disagreement or not, I always read them.

I understand the moral argument, I'm just not sure how much insurance companies have to do with safety standards and 3000lbs cars. If it was strictly a matter of lobbying, you would expect to see that the situation would be the same in europe, and also car manufacturers lobby should balance out the insurance company…

Is there a reason to think that insurance companies do not lobby European governments?

Do you honestly believe that such vehicles would be allowed in the absence of insurance lobbying?

I confess I no longer know what your point is. Is it that making cars safer also cuts down on medical bills?

That doesn't ring true...

For a sedan maybe, but a small 2 seater roadster?

I'd like to see more sub 2000lbs cars.

That's silly. Most new car sales involve a trade in of some kind. It's fair to say that new car sales would drop a great deal if trade ins were no longer possible. Trade-ins are made possible by the existance of a used car market. So people who buy used cars help support the manufacturing of new cars.

Publicly owned companies don't have a nationality.

Investors would own GM, same as they do now. Large companies are chopped up into little pieces and owned by almost everyone with a retirement account.

I'm pretty sure the HD is the one with the lower CG. Dry sump, shorter engine, and everything is set low because no one designing these things cares about max lean angle. 1 minute of sitting on a busa and an HD should demonstrate that.

And they were the most awesome thing ever for the kids. I mean, how much fun is it to play on actual tanks. My childhood was spend climbing on old tanks, jets and helicopters (also looking for unexploded ww2 ordinance, but that's a different story). The local, stateside, part also has a tank, a jet and a helicopter.…

Yes, sort of. You can lower the pressure in any building by having a system that pulls air out, it doesn't need to be particularly powerful one. That will create a pressure differential, enough to pull air thru cracks, and can usually be felt when opening the front door (the low pressure is enough to produce a force…

You're certainly right that in order to simulate driving up the mountain properly, air would have to be sucked out of the room.

One thing they don't appear to be able to simulate is air pressure. Cooling an engine gets really difficult as the air gets thinner.

If you look at the fuel cap of most sport bikes, you'll see the bezel held on with 5 allen bolts, in a nice star pattern. Typically, only 3 of those bolts are real.

They get more money for setting shorter yellows. When have you known people to do the right thing when they are getting paid not to?

People can do whatever they can get away with. Police can get away with a great deal.

Without a doubt. The only modification more common than a slip on is the fender/turn signal delete.