Thanks to all. Yours was the comprehensive explanation I was seeking.

Question about electronic steering: Is there a functional reason why companies offer it at all? My knee-jerk reaction is to say conventional power steering is safer, but I’m basing that on how I perceive catastrophic failure of the system. In a hydraulic system, you simply revert to unassisted steering and can drive…

The typical cycle is this: You have someone that has enough money to put the idea in play but not to actually fund the facilities/payroll necessary to sustain it. So they need working capital but nothing to leverage to acquire the capital. Typically the first play out of the playbook is to ask a government of some…

Nothing gets done without people taking risks, but at the end of the day, don’t tell me about the labor, show me the baby.

That particular property in Paint Rock is probably one of five structures within a radius of 5-10 miles in any direction. In addition to it being simply rural, the topography of the area (southern end of the Appalachian chain) is ill-suited to cropland, meaning it was never really settled. Other than bird noises…

No, I’m white and even local to the general region (Southeastern U.S.). Most of the time I have no problems but, as a friend of mine who is from Appalachia specifically has said, “People didn’t typically settle on a mountain because they wanted to be social.” Like any environment -- rural, urban or otherwise --…

Numerous trips into backwoods Appalachia. Places where you really don’t need to still be there after the sun goes down, if you can help it.

I’ve looked at that picture of the Mini five times now and I’m still not sure that isn’t Grant Imahara (“Mythbusters”) standing next to the car.

The wild cards are regulation and liability. There is an assumption in this piece that a switchover would follow market forces. All it takes is an authoritarian EPA/NHTSA/Your Acronym Here, or the pressure of the civil courts to make it happen a lot sooner than anyone really wants.

I’m not sure the LS ever was but its twin, the Jaguar S-Type did have a manual option for one year (2003). Only with the 3.0 V6, however. I know because I owned one. I’ve seen a couple of LS cars with manuals but I thought they were one-offs. What I could say with relative certainty is the manual option never existed…

If we’re going to talk about late, great Pontiacs, let’s bring up the G8 with the manual transmission option. Most people I talk to about Pontiac’s last days thought the GTO was the only stick-shift option (and most of those people thought the GTO and the G8 were the same car anyway).

Had an Axiom. In the running for the worst car I’ve ever owned. It literally was falling to pieces at 130k miles when we sold it. Literally, not figuratively. Radio buttons falling out over large bumps. Dashboard shattered like an eggshell on top of the nav unit. Shift cable retaining clips that would break every 3…

Biggest issue for me with those cars is they are essentially on the Lincoln LS platform. Lots of interior bits borrowed from the LS along with the motor (which is underrated) and the transmission (which ought to be shot in the face). No stick-shift option, which to me is unforgivable in any kind of 2-seater. The…

So let’s take this to its logical end -- if all cars are equipped with V2V avoidance systems, that should mean the end to all speed enforcement, right? At least in dry conditions. Cars should be governed only at/above the speed rating of their tires. I mean, it’s only fair...

Looks like that candle store loading dock really...

By the way, I just noticed you were questioning whether these were real Ferraris: They are not. The Miami Vice Daytonas were Corvettes with a body kit. The Testarossa they used in later episodes, however, was a real Ferrari.

I’ve owned a 1970 Corvette and a 1975 Bricklin; the Corvette was a better car all-around, no doubt about it. Much stronger runner (which you’d expect from a 454/4-speed stick car versus the 351W/3-speed auto Bricklin) but the handling in the Vette was much flatter. The only place the Bricklin beat it was in…

I’d be very wary of this particular car. About halfway down the ad that spends a lot of time telling you it’s “not a replica”, it seems to suggest that it is, indeed, a replica of the one actually used in shots on the show. And that would be because the original was set on fire and blown up in its final episode prior…

Had the XJ12L from the same model year. The Series II cars were the styling pinnacle of those cars made from the late 60s up through 87, what most folks think of when they think of the classic “mid-modern” Jag .

What makes that car such a poor driver is (in addition to a horrid rear suspension design) weight, and that weight comes from a structural roll cage built into the chassis design. The interior has ample padding in most places and even if not, there’s little difference between this car and a modern race car in regards…