After actually following the link.... this is even more awesome than I thought. Also seeing as it's drag car, torsional rigidity is pointless anyways. Still I think stooping around step 6 for a track car would be epic.

Isn't a large amount of torsional rigidity in a car provided by the A/B/C pillars being attached to the roof? It seems like that should have been left on....?

What if it's a 4-cylinder hybrid system, and they charge a couple grand more than a standard 911. They can claim 80% of the performance, 30% or whatever better fuel efficiency, while also having more torque, as well as more constant torque.

No no no. Porsche charges MORE for stripped out cars, remember!

The 911 is $80k base. Unless they're building all new car there's no way that a 4-cylinder 911 is dropping down $30+k. I think the idea that if that car has a 4-cylinder, that it's a hybrid system, is much more likely. They've already got hybrid panameras and cayenne's.

Assuming it's a 4, that's the only thing that makes sense to me.

The only problem is that the base 911 starts at I think $80k. Even if they gave it a $20k price drop, it'd still be twice that $30k figure. :(

If that's a 4-cylinder I doubt it would be an engine meant for the boxster/cayman....

I'm not sure about other cars.... but Re:#7, you can set that in your Audi. To mess with my SO once I set it to 35, so any time you drove anywhere but in a neighborhood it'd start bonging.

I feel so cool that I heard about this a couple weeks ago on the smoking tire podcast, where Matt told him that "worlds fastest edition" sounded cheesy as hell and not to do it(If I recall correctly).

Yeah, they are. They just look extremely british. Either way they're really cool looking cars, and top gear gave it a pretty favorable review.

That's actually a Weisman MF4 or MF5. Still incredibly awesome "british" cars.

Just noticed the wikipedia article also now lists the BRZ/FRS/GT86 as a car with the AZ6.

Regardless of freeway or city streets, or speed, more gears means you can keep your engine operating at it's most efficient speed more often. Obviously you could just tac on 2 taller gears to a 6-speed and it would be the same ratios for anything but highway speeds. You could instead(as is more common) have more…

That shift knobs looks like would feel amazing in your hand.Plus, DBS.

Since BMW announced the 228i @ ~$33k, and it comes in a stick, I've been keeping an eye on that. They've recently started hitting dealerships, but at least according to auto trader there are 2 in the entire US right now. Unfortunately I'm not sure (with those current numbers) there will be any used manual 228i's in…

Real world fuel economy, the latest generation of autos will always win. If for no other reason than because your Manual doesn't have 7, or 8, or 9 gears like a lot of the ZF and dual clutch boxes out there. (Not to mention most of them have a 'auto' mode which keeps the revs low and incentives you not to use gas).

Yeah, came to say the same thing. The manual is more and more becoming a "no cost option".

Re:Neutral