When I was 27 years old, I was in really good cycling shape, but I couldn’t afford the ultra light racing bicycles. Now I’m 38 years old and I can afford ultra light racing bicycles. But getting down to my 27 year old racing weight would require an amputation.

That’s not what I said. The engine and gas tank are on PHEVs to allow it to drive a long distance beyond local driving. A BEV’s battery capacity that allows a range beyond 100 mi is to allow it to drive a long distance beyond local driving. That extra mass serves the same purpose. Both add considerable weight to the…

I think the issue was that early PHEVs didn’t add enough range to really move the needle. There were a bunch of 11-25 mi range PHEVs initially... or the longer range ones had usability problems (batteries taking up all the cargo space). As batteries shrink and the hybrid/battery system becomes more integrated into the…

Rav4 Hybrid: 41 city, 38 hwy, 40 combined

Your same criticisms of PHEVs can be leveled at 350mi range BEVs. Why take on an extra 800lbs of weight to have 350mi driving range when the average American commute is 32mi round trip. At the end of the day, both are dragging around a bunch of weight for things they don’t need most days.

It should probably be clarified that this isn’t Toyota going away from JIT production. This is applying an alpha value for risk to how they source their parts and how they control inventory. They likely looked at their tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers and realized that there was considerable risk in some of them so they…

I only rode a motorcycle for 2 years, but my commute was half country road and half 65mph 4 lane. When I had someone on my tail on the country road, my limited ability to corner at high speeds allowed aggressive drivers to close whatever gap I could open on the short straights. And, to be fair, I’m not going to dive…

I don’t think he literally meant building 1LE clones.  People that can afford an SS 1LE in the first place are going to buy the SS 1LE versus buying a V6 or base V8 and converting it. Getting an SS to 1LE performance level is probably easier and cheaper than getting a V6 there. 

You are looking at this from the perspective of someone who could afford an SS 1LE. That isn’t who he is talking about. Imagine you are 26 years old and you are stretching your AutoZone wages to get/build yourself a beastly new Camaro. Getting the cheapest one you can buy with the V8 and putting a cheap, stiff…

Very cool. I’m a former FR-S owner and enjoy the heck out of it on GT Sport. It also helps that I have a pedal, shifter, steering wheel to go along with PS VR and an FR-S seat in my cockpit. This will be nice to get a good heads up comparison between the two cars.

I had an FR-S with a young daughter for 4 years. The car was small enough that I could reach the door handles and the seatback lever from the driver seat for kindergarten dropoff and I made it work. But, my 4 door hatch is so much easier to live with.  I might get another sports coupe when she’s tall enough to ride in…

The HVAC buttons in a row like this aren’t a problem in my experience. My car is set up the same way and I almost never have to press the them because the auto climate control works really well. Having the heated seat buttons there could be annoying, though. That is something I often use when I first get in the car…

The slide on the presentation today says 175kw (235PS) for both the GR86 and BRZ. I highly doubt that the cars will come to the US with differing power levels from one another.  I expect both cars will make 228hp for the US release.  

That lawsuit is really something.  I’m no lawyer, but they seem to imply that cast wheels simply cannot handle the power that a vette is putting down.  

The 9-2x was a good car... but I’m not sure it was a success for GM considering that they sold very poorly until GM was giving 0% and GM family member discount to everyone on them.  I swear you could get the turbo version for $20k-$21k at that point.  

BRZ/FR-S/86 between Toyota and Subaru. Lightweight, RWD, cheap, just practical enough for a dad of 1, fun to drive.  

And there are probably 4 that have intact head gaskets. I was a Subaru fanatic back through the 00s. The Baja sucked.  

You aren’t fitting bikes in this bed.  Unless you have a mountain unicycle.  

I think that is what is so appealing about the MINI SE. It is cheap enough, (probably) fun enough, and practical enough that my 3 person family could get enough use out of it for all the running around town driving and commuting that it would justify the expense. It isn’t a good roadtrip vehicle for our family by…

My favorite vacation was when dad put a topper on his regular cab, 8' bed F150. My middle brother and I had an inflatable mattress in the bed while mom, dad, and our youngest brother were in the cab. This was the 80s and I was like 6 or 7. Completely insane in retrospect, but at the time it was awesome. Mom’s next…