I have the opposite problem: when someone finds out I’m into cars, they start wanting to talk about them. Then I’ve usually got two minutes of excitement before I realize they don’t actually know anything. I don’t even know that much — I’m a terrible wrencher — but I still know and can do more than 99% of people out…

There’s a guy at work who has 20+ cars. He drives each one in one day a month. I don’t know where he keeps all of them.

Car shopping as a car enthusiast is the worst. My old car started to really die in fall of 2015. If I didn’t care, I’d have bought a Prius or some small crossover and been done with it in a week. But oh, no! I had to have 200+ horsepower, AWD or RWD, a hatchback or wagon, and of course it had to have a stick. Know how…

The last line really explains everything before it. The irony of me, a dude, explaining mansplaining is not lost on me.

My old job, I was less than a 10 minute walk from work. It was amazing. Now, I can’t live less than a 20-25 minute drive from my office because I work at a secure government facility that is giant (it’s 10 minutes from the gate to my office) and they don’t build housing right outside. Given that baseline, I choose to…

I was an undergrad in NYC. My roommate grew up in a suburb north of the city, and his dad worked in Manhattan. The dad’s work paid for a parking space and a commuter rail pass, so he could either drive or take the train. He told me on days he drove, he had to decide whether to leave at 3pm or at 7. Anything in between…

I wish I could take the train to work. There’s a bus, but I’d have to get on it at 6:30 to go in and I’d have to leave at 4 (it only runs twice a day) neither of which is feasible.

I’m allowed to telecommute as long as I don’t have a meeting or need to be in the lab. I rarely do it because I’m far less productive working at home. It’s nice if I need to take a half day though, cuz the commute would just kill the benefits.

I agree: the Magnaflow doesn’t impress. It was the first video I found where the exhaust was easily audible, probably because that’s what they’re advertising. It also makes this a direct side by side comparison.

What’s the project?

Gorgeous old car, but not worth the asking price.

We’re only talking about noise here. Of course forced induction gives performance advantages. Otherwise no one would do it.

An Abarth sounds good for the same reason that old Raptor does: a V8 is basically just two inline-4s side by side. Yes, engine nerds: I know that’s a gross simplification. A V6 just won’t ever sound like that because the harmonics are different.

It sounds... fine. But only fine. Here’s the old one with a Magnaflow.

I have a friend who won’t watch any British TV because he says they’re too celebrity focused, particularly on footballers.

I’m male and a little older than Stef, and I’m perfectly willing to admit that a good DCT can shift faster than I can. The thing is, there are so many other things which are slowing me down that going from half second shifts to 50ms shifts wouldn’t make much difference overall. Since I also find shifting by hand far…

FYI: the rallyX they do is different from what you’re going to find at a typical SCCA event. SCCA rallyX is solo, like autoX — just one car is out there at a time. On the other hand, that means you don’t need as much safety gear and you’re less likely to get rammed.

I’ve always heard FWD is the way to go for all but the top tier of rallying.

Having driven in both, I’m amazed Atlanta wasn’t above LA.