The EV charging network is getting better and better, and companies that actually pay attention to things like charging (Lucid, Porsche, Hyundai) are offering cars that will only slow down the “pee in a cup” crowd on road trips.

This isn’t an F1 gearbox 360 with 90% worn clutches and a stack of deferred maintenance and other assorted hidden issues passed off to some unsuspecting rube wide-eyed about the prospect of owning a Ferrari. This is basically a barn find restoration job. Nobody is buying a car like this unaware that it needs basically…

Sometimes when I have a tough parenting day I think about the cars I could have purchased for what I’ve spent on my kids... 

Why would you use stretch bolts in an application like that? 

Most supercar buyers are going to have enough money that they don’t necessarily care about the cost. It’s more about whether it’s worth the hassle. 

The thing that gets me on cars like this are things that are expensive “because supercar” that shouldn’t inherently expensive, as well as stuff that needs to be replaced in this but no other car.

““You don’t need masses of infrastructure like an airport or train line with an aircraft like this – all you need is a flat surface for landing,” she said. “It opens up lots of opportunities to connect places that aren’t currently connected, for example communities in places like the Highlands and Islands in…

That’s also the problem with flying low (where you don’t need pressurization). The big advantage of flying high is you can fly above most weather. 

It’s nearly impossible to keep a secret once more than a handful of people are involved.

Fair that the work isn’t entirely done. It appears the plan was to cut the bonnet/boot in half to make it wider with similar filler strips. Once the filler strips are all aligned, it’s just a matter of welding them up. You don’t need the gap absolutely perfect to weld it. 

Those are called cleco pins. They are essentially temporary removable rivets that you use before a body panel is permanently fixed in place (either welded, rivited, or bonded as the case may be). Very useful when you are working out fitment of body panels. They are not intended to permanently affix panels and the…

I can’t imagine anybody would buy this who doesn’t have the ability to finish (and work on) it themselves. The core issue isn’t the “bills” so much as whether you like the fundamental project.

EAG is always going to be very top of the market. They were charging up to $50k back when you could get a very nice one for $20k. Pretty mint ones go for $60-80k on BAT.

I doubt a modern Camry is going to run any circles around this. This car weighs about the same as a v6 modern Camry and has an extra 100hp (plus RWD and an LSD). Current Camry v6 runs mid 14s in the 1/4 mile while the E39 M5 ran mid 13s when new (when tire tech was way behind). When it was new, it was one of the…

E39 M5s bottomed out about 8-9 years ago. I remember examples like this selling in the $10-15k range back then. They’ve now transitioned from “used car” to “classic car” in valuation, and condition is paramount. Really nice examples are now $40k+.

Then why doesn’t McLaren or Ferrari use billet blocks to sell cars with 2,000+ hp? An extra $100k for a stronger billet block wouldn’t break someone spending $600k on a Ferrari.

Depending on the criminal enterprise, the accomplice may not need clean money like the launderer does. For example, the straw seller might want to buy a car, but the straw buyer accomplice can use the cash for a wholesale drug purchase.

I want to ask how much it costs, but it sounds like one of those “if you have to ask you can’t afford it” type of things. It’s impressive what can be done with engines these days if you don’t have to worry about emissions, reliability, or fuel economy. I note that billet blocks are truly only for race engines- there…

Assuming the car was $40k new and purchased in early 2007, the same amount invested in an SP500 index fund would be worth $140k today. Storage insurance is pretty cheap (no need to insure a car that went less than 500 miles total for the road over 17 years) and there wouldn’t be much in the way of maintenance, so…

Collectables are hard to value objectively, which makes them ideal for money laundering. Art is the most common vector, but a classic car could be used too.