I don’t want to let Forkner off the hook, but there’s one problem which is systemic, rather than blaming a single person, and we need to bear this in mind: When somebody is working in a “gatekeeper” role, for instance providing safety signoff for a big engineering project, it’s easy to get a kind of “Stockholm syndrome…

Sinpar made a 4x4 version. It looked like a strange French proto-Unimog.

I love the look of both of them, and I would 100% buy the pickup if it was legally available where I live. Hopefully soon...

Removable seats, for a picnic.

Why would you settle for an electric Ford Ranger when you could have an electric 70-series Toyota Land Cruiser? They’ve been working on mining & civil engineering sites for a few years...

It depends on your personality. I’m a recluse; I would have no problem with spending a week in a truck on some long route, but other people would hate the solitude.

Have you heard of the Gates Foundation?

Construction trucks/vehicles are generally never shut off. School busses and city busses generally stay on all day long.

In my experience, people who need to drink on a short-haul flight are a disgrace, at best. Keeping them off the bottle is the best outcome for everybody, but especially for other people seated nearby. However, if it’s a long-haul flight then damn right I’ll have a wine with dinner. How else do you get sleep and reset…

Oh, no, we’re just a humble billion-euro high-tech sportscar maker. We can’t go electric, because that requires R&D. We can’t do R&D, sorry.

There is a charming humility about Lotus; the last time I was at a track a guy with an Evora was there and apologized for having a Lotus and I was like, you know, not only stop apologizing but take some pride. You have a Lotus!

The fashion police don’t have jurisdiction in Louisiana.

I went out cycling today. (No engine; a real pedal cycle). I stopped at a red light in a touristy town, behind a Harley Davidson. The Harley made the obligatory loud, uneven, irritating blub-blub-bub noises. Whilst waiting at the red light he revved it from time to time, for some reason that was vitally important to…

What about the business and strategy and management side? We need a good Sergio Marchionne biopic.

Toyota 70-series. It’s like a Hilux but even more rugged.

Good point! Making electric cars is just like making diesel cars was (or self-driving, or the sudden fashion for CUVs, or 1970s emission controls, &c). You can win by being first to market, or you can win by learning from rivals’ mistakes and making an improved product.

We all say we want diesel manual wagons, but nobody actually buys them.

Safety regulation is always retrospective. After the Titanic sank, we wrote rules requiring more lifeboats on ships; but because nobody on the Titanic burnt to death, ships were still knowingly built with flammable interiors for another few decades, until a liner caught fire.

Most pickups are too tall. Buyers like the idea of hauling a tonne of hardwood, but that’s not so easy when the bed is above eye level.