There’s another regional Houston-area C&C, at a smallish commercial development in the Towne Lake community, that pulled the plug last month after the video loons tempted enough people into doing The Stupid that they ended up with property damage when a (stock) Tahoe fishtailed, climbed a curb, and took out a bunch of…

Hands down, the coolest car my parents owned during my lifetime was the ‘64-1/2 Mustang coupe, D-code 289 4bbl, 3-speed manual, Caspian Blue with blue interior, air conditioning, power brakes, Exterior Decor Group (deleted the fake chrome scoops, added a pinstripe and rocker panel moldings), and the wire wheel covers.…

That makes sense. The outer “shell” of, say, a wheel spoke, does the bulk of the work in terms of handling stress, while the inside core is sort of along for the ride. Think of how little difference in stiffness there is between a hollow sway bar, for example, and a solid one. Once you figure out how much wall you…

My main objection to the use of the Mustang name on this is... it’s not a Mustang. The Mustang wasn’t called the “Falcon Mustang” when it debuted, despite most definitely being an offshoot of the Falcon. It was just “Mustang”, and it created a niche that became a market segment of its own, named for the car: “ponycars”…

No problems where we are, but the neighborhood housing the school my wife works in was about 80% underwater. It’s *in* the Addicks Reservoir, so not really a surprise there. Harvey was the 3rd major flood in the neighborhood in 2 years.

That would be nice, IMO.

Maybe they’ll be joined by a current DC-area resident who already has the Russian mob connections...

Oh, yeah. I live in Houston, where despite the lack of zoning in Harris County, they’re finally (and very belatedly) starting to pay attention to storm-related structural concerns. Not just wind damage, but flooding, since rainfall (and in some parts of the area, surge) create far more problems than the wind.

That…

Oh, I’m sure their tickets have been pulled, but I’m referring more to legal consequences than professional ones, though the latter are also appropriate.

With any luck, there are a number of people who are now out of the engineering business entirely, as in “might as well move to Key West and open a T-shirt shop on Duval Street, ‘cause no one in engineering will touch you with a 10-meter cattle prod now” out.

And I hope they’re individually sued for wrongful death and…

I sat in the bleachers on the exit of Turn 2 for that race. The Penskes, especially Al Jr’s car, were getting wheelspin on the exit of 2 during the race. Like “making elevensies” grade wheelspin. Al told me at a meet-and-greet some years later that the car didn’t handle all that great (the chassis had been designed…

Follow-up: How many customer GT500s there for the Hennessey “treatment” will be sitting with missing parts robbed to replace the stuff they broke working on the press car?

The bad news is we’re almost out of gas.

The good news is we’re ALMOST out of gas.

Came here to say this. Satisfied that it’s been said.

Pre-computer, probably diesel (as it can handle a wider variety of fuels). So older Land Cruiser would work, or an old 6.9L F250, or anything with a 12-valve Cummins ISD variant, or any number of old M-B diesels up to and including the Unimog.

Speed wouldn’t be the issue, so aim more for rough/no road capability,…

Late to the party (hey, I was busy this weekend!), but a thought: IIRC, the traction control on that engine makes use of a secondary throttle blade that’s servo-controlled in the throttle body. Normally open, when the TC activates, it closes a bit to cut power. That could be the source of the fault that lights both…

That photo does make it look rather askew, but the pic 3 clicks to the left shows a straight-on shot of the wagon’s mighty rump, and you can see that the taillamp and trim are at jaunty angles, while the badges are (basically, within the realm of lens-induced distortion) level with the ground plane... but even then I…

Yes, yes, Oh Mighty Picker Of Nits. There are costs associated with such an adventure. But it’s an Adventure, or could be made into one. What price fun? Honestly, with a bit of fare-sale work, it could be done, even following my personal “No dive hotels” rule, for less than the cost of enclosed transport. And it would…

All the other CPO E63 wagons listed nationwide were well north of $70k, with several in the six-digit range, so yeah. This one is a bit of a reach beyond the $50k budget, but I figure within 10% is reasonable.

The obvious answer (and possibly already mentioned because I haven’t bothered to read all the replies) is the Nissan Versa, with the Hyundai Accent/Kia Rio running a close second in hair-shirt-ness. Basically, any B-class car is not something you want to rent on vacation, on business, or any other time. It may be…