@BMW_DOWN_SHIFT: Yes, function is totally something BMW does well. idrive is one of the dumbest things ever put into a car. How could anyone at BMW think it was a good idea. Granted I have only driven the first generation and I heard they have improved it, but it is amazing how poorly it is thought out. How many…

@BullittFan_Førds4Life: Reløaded: I know when I was in school, the school would allow people to park in some of the lots for free during certain events. These lots were marked as private property and "no unathorized parking". I agree that technically they should be towed, but it is not really their fault they were…

@Sensei Hikaru: Sure, some people like Beer and some people like wine.

@Sensei Hikaru: So its like an LS7, but 100lbs heavier, bigger, and probably close to twice the price. I guess that is better.

@Lead_Head: Its not the bullets that damage the engine, its the parts already installed.

@evoCS-Hench-Minion to the stars: McLaren did not NEED to build road cars.

Great ski rack or greatest ski rack?

@MechE Hokie: I believe the Balsa is a bit cheaper than the kevlar (more likely nomex, but both are amrid fibers so lets attempt to stay on topic, but I am tempted by more parenthesis) , but more expensive than the original planned foam core. During the C5 development the weight savings of the balsa core was…

@rocco.butterscotch: The 3.4l V8 is probably just the engine from the LMP racecar, same displacement and same power. Remember the V10 in the Carrera GT was a development of the 5.5l V10 engine for a stillborn LMP racecar.

@F1Mørgäikkönen: No problem, just understand that hp/l is a terrible metric to use to judge an engine.

@F1Mørgan: But the hp/valve ratio is awesome. See I can make arbitrary and meaningless ratios also. I would hope someone that claims to be an engineer would understand that. When designing an engine you would lay out a set of requirements in terms of weight, power, fuel consumption, cost, etc. Why would you…

@F1Mørgan: The UK never got the full works cars. I do not believe that anyone will accuse the Penske Camaros of not handling.

@maximum-sienna: You are totally missing this. Less energy is inputted, because LEDs convert more of that energy into light than heat than a regular incandescent bulb.

@maximum-sienna: That is true, if you consider the visible light generated as "waste heat".

The first flight, when it happens will be streamed on www.newairplane.com. Right now there are just some videos of some of the development right now and some other neat stuff.

@Littell: Carbon-Carbon rotors have been around much longer than carbon ceramic rotors. Carbon-carbon rotors were used in aerospace I believe in 60s and first used commercially on the Concorde. Carbon ceramic are much newer and designed for road cars. Carbon ceramic rotors have a higher co-efficient of friction at…

Is it weird that the thing that amazes the most is how clean the wheel well is?

@Littell: Are the carbon ceramic brakes hiding behind the carbon-carbon brakes in the picture?

My favorite Leno story involves the F1 Mclaren. Gordon Murray the designer of the F1 wanted all of the drafting for the car to be done by hand and not on computer. So most of it was, because Gordon got his way. Weismann, who was designing the transmission and had been working with Gordon for decades, just did…

@Ash78, cube farmer: The wing is the largest contributor of drag, so the engines are actually placed very close to the largest contributor of drag.