For sure, Tesla’s argument that it does not have dealers and therefore cannot violate the franchise laws makes sense. However, I do see the potential slippery slope here. What would prevent an established automaker with franchises from starting a new car company sell particular cars under a direct sales model?

Wait. They told you to not cover the brake? That makes no sense whatsoever! What is their rationale? The only guess I can even make is that someone may inadvertently ride the brake lever and prematurely wear out the front brakes, but that seems pretty remote. About the only time I don’t have at least my index and…

I was given a Challenger as a rental at Long Beach airport. I’m not sure what engine it had, but Hellcat it was not. Like most (all?) of you, I prefer to be as close to highway speed when merging as possible. This was not possible in So. Cal. traffic. Once I had the room, I floored it to accelerate to highway…

I agree, and part of my point is that the plaintiff appears to be purposely conflating the regen and normal modes of operation. On the one hand, they say that the emissions levels are really high for a portion of the driving time, which implies regen. The plaintiff goes on to state that the truck didn’t throw any…

A couple of things bother me:

My first motorcycle was an early 90's Suzuki GS500 that was probably good for about 35 horsepower at the rear wheel. In a tuck at wide open throttle, you could probably see 90 MPH on it. This isn’t a story about that motorcycle though.

Instead of making PI reviewable, how about adding an additional ref who is in a better position to make such a call. The bothersome PI calls are almost always on the deep routes along the sideline where the line judge is (1) trying to keep up with the receiver and defender and (2) stay on the sideline to judge when a…

People do propose taking guns away. Characterizing the problem as a “massive gun problem” as Drew does implies that reducing the number of guns (i.e., taking them away) is the solution.

Sorry to piss in the cornflakes fun of the Funbag, but there isn’t a “massive gun problem” in this country. The Congressional Research Service estimates that there were roughly 310 million firearms in the U.S. in 2009 (and has probably only grown since then). According to the Centers for Disease Control and…

It looks like the extra linkage makes the engine really tall - the crankshaft would be a lot higher than in a normal engine. Two questions: (1) dry sump? (2) I wonder why they wouldn’t or couldn’t place the linkage assembly next to the engines to make it wider and not as tall.

A couple of thoughts:

That doesn’t look like 2-3 meters...

I have the same problems alluded to in the article about student athletes not being paid in these highly lucrative collegiate sports. However, I don’t have a problem with a highly paid strength and conditioning coach. All of these athletes are hoping their “free” collegiate days will lead to a lucrative pro career. My…

Up and to the left. Every car that I’ve driven with this arrangement either has a lever on the shaft that has to be pulled or the shifter has to be depressed to get into reverse, so accidentally shifting into reverse is nearly impossible. I like the up and to the left because it makes transitioning between reverse and…

I am curious on everyone’s opinion on using a pressure washer on a car. Generally, before I use a sponge to manually wash the car, I use a pressure washer to remove as much dirt, grit, bug parts, etc. as possible. Are there any significant CONs to doing this?

Clearly a Fiero with a body kit.

Can part of his penalty be that he is only allowed to drive a Nissan Versa for the next five years?

Generally good article, especially the technique instruction in the video. One correction - the sport was premised on privilege. Yes, the equipment is obscenely expensive new. However, the well-funded collegiate teams buy new boats every year and the gently-used equipment filters down to high school teams. It really…

There are additional opportunities here beyond simply replacing mirrors with cameras/displays. For example, add signal processing that identifies cars (or kids or pets) in the images and highlights the identified objects in the displayed images.

The games haven’t been as close as the scores suggest.