Is it unique and cool in some way? Sure. Is it remotely reasonable to consider as a reliable, relatively affordable year-round daily driver? Not a chance.

If he just wants a cool hobby car to start conversation and drive to the airport once in a while, great, but that’s not at all what he asked for.

I mean, couldn’t *one* of you have given him a reasonable answer?  The only non-troll answer is the Acadia, and he literally said he had no use for an SUV.  I get that there’s a comedy element, but I thought there were supposed to be a few helpful suggestions?

Fine, but Red Bull actually sells a shitload of that gorilla sweat, and there are like 20 places within a mile of my home in Texas that I could acquire some. Last I checked, there were like 20 bars in the entire U.S that carried Rich Energy (and like maybe 100 in their home, the UK), and even that may be a stretch.

It’s because the whole thing is some kind of bizarro-world alternate reality.  How the hell does an “energy drink company” that sells basically zero product get a bunch of backers and enough $$ and credibility to back an F1 team?  Seems interesting to me.

Because every car+driver combo gets weighed at the end of the race, and they’re very carefully engineered to be super close to the minimum allowable weight.  If they can even pick up one pound worth of weight at the end, it gives them just a bit more cushion in case someone messed up a calculation or they burned more…

They always drive over all the marbles and rubber junk on their cooldown lap to pick up as much weight as they can, and it melts to the hot tires. The tires didn’t look like that during the race.

And what about the tray table?  If I’ve opened my laptop on my tray table, and then someone reclines and crushes it, who’s operating outside the designed bounds?  My whole point is that it’s on the person exercising their option to recline to make sure it won’t damage the person behind them before doing so.  It’s not…

I could counter with “who says the seat bounds are defined as the reclined position?” There’s no one clear definition of course, but I think it makes more sense to be in the upright, default position of the seat. Reclining is an option, not the standard position.

I think this is where it started? WTF1 has a pretty big following amongst memey youngsters, so I imagine it is.

I seem to recall some YouTube video about him/his apartment, and there being only milk in the fridge or something? I might have that all wrong though.

I think he just really likes milk?

Yeah, uh, no, guy.  The defined seat bounds are the seat in the default position.

I see the parallel you’re trying to draw, but it’s a false equivalency. The armrest delineates the seat width-if you can’t fit within it, your beef is with the airline and/or yourself. Armrests are not really optional IMO-they should always be down once everyone is seated.

Even though I am tall, I am still within my…

If there was enough overhead space left that I didn’t have to put a bag under the seat in front of me, sure.  However, since I’m a human being, I’m not terribly comfortable sitting in the exact same position for 3 hours straight...so sometimes I’d prefer to sit upright with my knees bent, like a normal person.  But…

That’s 100% fuckin false, dude.  I’m 6'4", and my knees are *definitely* above the hinge point while my feet are firmly flat on the floor...and they definitely get crushed when someone aggressively reclines before I can react and adjust.

I’ll definitely be out at COTA plenty this year myself.  Good luck to you!  You’ll have a Parshtreon contribution coming your way shortly too haha.

Damn, a beater run through central Europe culminating in a ‘Ring run sounds like heaven. Re: your second paragraph, it seems there’s plenty of drama surrounding the (seemingly fake at this point?) Austin “Donk” contest, should you care to dive into some crazy shenanigans. The Ireland based “PR guy” just quit, and it…

Yep, I’m with Chronoso. If you need something, please ask! I’m sure some cool opportunity will come around before you know it. Are you still abroad (I think you were going to Germany?), or back living in the US?

Don’t like reading the “garbage life” thing, Stef-everything OK?  I’ve always enjoyed your work over the years, though I know that’s little consolation in such a difficult industry in its’ current state.

You very well may be right, but everyone learns a lesson one way or another, right?  Hopefully a possible expensive tire bill and her expensive gas bills will be enough to push into looking for more affordable options.  She’s young and might be a little naive-not sure she’s fully deserving of our scorn just yet.