When #972 was delivered to the Smithsonian, it flew a speed record from the west to the east coast as a final salute to the plane’s incredible performance. In the planning stages for this trip, there was discussion about bypassing some of the established limits attempting to go as fast a Mach 3.5. In the end, the…

One of the things they’d do on their missions was deliberately get detected by as many Soviet air defense systems as possible, so they could record how they were being detected and from where, thereby mapping out the locations and tracking capabilities of the Soviet air defense systems.

It’s a bit of a nitpick, but the SR-71 was not a spy plane (it was a reconnaissance plane). Spying is illegally capturing information in a covert manner. The SR-71 operated only in legal airspace, in a relatively overt manner.

I just can’t understand why this is so hard for people to understand.

It is trash, and far inferior to the original, manual design. Way to make it worse and more costly.

From what I’ve read, straight gears have about the same efficiency as helical cut. The advantage comes from the fact that helical gears transmit axial loads, which can weaken the case.

So named for the dog “ears” that protrude from the gears, dog box transmissions are straight cut (as in the photo above), not helical (spiral cut) as in street transmissions. This allows the driver to jam the car from gear to gear, and they are bigger and beefier. Look at how big and beefy those dog ears are.

That’s, um, kinda hot!

Other examples? Horses. Hot tubs. Boats. Light aircraft. Harleys.... add to the list as needed.

So, how come there is no insurance discount for manual cars?

Because it hates us.

Pools are stupid,

I have nothing to say...

Obviously my response was meant to convey a lack of disbelief that Mazda could eek a measly 181hp out of a 2 liter over 2 decades after Honda did it first/better.

Honda NA 2.0 in 1999: 240hp
Mazda NA 2.0 in 2018: 181hp

Another fun fact is that, in terms of sheer miles per gallon, an SR-71 moved so fast that it got better mileage the faster it flew.

hen most folks talk about certified pre-owned often called CPO for short, they are referencing vehicles that, according to the manufacturer, meet a certain standard and qualify for an extension of the new car warranty.

That’s one benefit of buying manual cars in the US. They are never rental cars (barring exotics).

Bigger wheels and tires on my Miata. Going up to 15" wheels and 200TW tires made driving that car too much fun.

Just pay an army of peasants to tend to such things. Its much easier.