Hyperglycol??? Lol, no, NASA stopped using using hypergolic fuels with the Titan rockets. They were used on Apollo and Space Shuttle boosters as reaction control fuels—they were not the primary propellant. Russia was another big user of hypergolic fuels like UDMH as a primary propellant and so was China for its…

GM didn’t do their research when they made the purchase. I’ve read accounts of the development of the NG900 and it’s clear they thought they were getting a Volvo or maybe even a BMW-type company. In reality, Saab was a small-time boutique manufacturer run by a bunch of engineers. They could barely keep up with demand…

Yeah, I had to laugh when I saw that. Olds was a strange arm of GM that offered up extremely boring but agreeable parts-bin transportation while also somehow getting a skunkworks budget. Literally the only interesting road vehicles Olds offered after the early ‘70s was the Aurora V8. Everything else was shared with…

Not extinct but even the German options below six figures are starting thin out dramatically aside from BMW. At Merc it’s just the CLE now, and once the TT is gone it’s just the A5 at Audi.

With a 91.4" wheelbase to work with you are probably not getting 300 miles of range. Just get a bigger EV.

No, please, let’s not go down that road. We already have enough Wranglers and 4Runners and Broncos mucking up the drive-thrus. Wanna save gas at Starbucks? That’s what the CC/RAV4 hybrids are for... and the Corolla Cross will get you 45 city!

The poster confused the 1zz with the 2zz, which is the rev-happy model that has a few reliability issues when pressed into track service. The 1zz, which was used on the 3rd gen MR2 (W30) that was pictured, as well as a whole host of other Toyotas, is a pretty robust powerplant as far as I know.

Good call. The list is very long... timing chain, main bearings, cooling, etc., etc.

Why do I keep seeing all this talk about the Iron Duke SD? It’s a racing engine ONLY. The Duke block in, say, a Fiero is not at all the same as an SD. Good luck making much more than 150 hp without significant issues.

It’s entirely a cost issue, which is why most of the value-branded EVs, like VW, Nissan, and GM don’t bother with it. They can do the cooling... look at other competitors like Hyundai/Kia or Mach-E that have a frunk (albeit small). Also a frunk is a void... not sure how that doesn’t help pedestrian crash tests.

It gets an adapter to charge with NACS. But, yeah, GM dragged its feet so long on joining the push for standardization that it’s going to take a couple of years before the platform ditches CCS. I’m not really sure why Honda bothered with this thing but the agreement with GM was probably signed back when it looked like…

1960s tax. Also nobody is seriously arguing the Mondial is anywhere near the looker a Dino is.

I don’t fault people for saying ND on an incomplete restoration, but showroom quality would make it $75K or more. Showroom quality of the later 2.4 is a six-figure deal, which makes the seller incorrect... the later cars fetch more I believe.

It seems there’s always a predecessor... the AMC Eagle paved the way for the XJ. And there’s a couple of others that slightly predate the Rancho: Subaru’s Leone/Brat and Lada’s Niva. Even in France there was the Mehari that comfortably predated the Rancho, as did VW’s Type 181. But the Rancho was a much more…

This is the correct take. Even Nissan itself is reluctant to recommend the Z for track use. This is despite offering a NISMO spec that ought to be track-ready.

Dealers try to gouge with that model because supply is so low. We only got about $1K off our CPO F31, and that was right before pandemic pricing went crazy.

It’s like a rule with the wagon. If the vehicle got a well-sorted, sporty chassis and drivetrain it also had to be a maintenance nightmare. I toyed with the idea once of a 535xi wagon with manual and ended up being glad I did not bother.

10-15 years ago Subaru was still dealing with some fairly serious quality and supply chain issues... not the case now and while yes we cry about the loss of true WRX spirit Subaru has given us an actual sports car and a pretty cool variety of soft-roaders. Most of them are quite ugly but let’s be honest that’s…

With regard to CVT-based system used in most Subarus now, it’s a 60:40 nominal split with an active (not reactive to slip) torque split. Multi-plate clutch at the center with open diffs at the ends. Older auto-trans setups were similar while the manual-trans is still, I believe, a 50:50 split.

It was too expensive, mainly. For the same money you could get a very nice Outback or an entry-level Ascent. And the car was poorly thought out.. the paltry cargo space in a regular Crosstrek was reduced even more in the hybrid version.