Traders play games with electricity prices all the time (ask Enron about that one). Part of that is that the amount of power produced actually can go up and down (and indeed must) as standby generation turns/on and is shut off. Increasingly, there are stored electrons through home storage batteries and “virtual power…

$19,900 for a modified 18 year old STI closing in on 200k miles? Hard pass.

Fixed seat with movable pedals isn’t a Bugatti thing. It’s fairly common in race cars (especially endurance racers that have to accommodate multiple drivers). The Euro-spec Alfa Romeo 4c also did this.

Just looking at the lap time ratio with the AMG One at Hockheim, the Sperling would be in the 5:30 range if the relative speed were the same with the Ring. That’s getting into the 919 ballpark. But the Ring is a unique place so not sure how well it will translate.

I want to see the McMurtry Sperling production car run the ring. The recent prototype car is quicker than the AMG One at Hockhenheim by 14 seconds (on a 1:38 lap time by the Merc!). Seems like a shoe-in for a sub-6 ring time and potentially quicker than the Porsche 919 Evo race car (5:19). Supposedly, they are looking…

Curious about that one. It looks sort of like four of those pallet jack style single-post lifts (albeit only half-height) or one of those Danmar “Maxjax” type lifts but 4-post without anchors instead of 2 with anchors.

It’s supposed to be Robotaxi day. How that translates into a viable business, I don’t know but I’m sure Musk will do a lot of tapdancing and hype about how it will change the world... and then not actually release it for years if ever.  And if it is released, it will fall well short of promises. 

Yes, but Enron was very much a group effort by several executives. Also, audit culture and rules governing external auditors have changed dramatically since Enron. There’s good reason why there hasn’t been accounting fraud of that size since Enron.

I doubt Musk himself is “cooking the books.” A large public company like Tesla has a lot of firewalls that prevent a single person from causing false numbers to appear on financial statements. Besides, Tesla’s books really aren’t all that great for a company of its market cap. It’s riding high on vibes alone.

Fossil fuel “subsidies” are wildly overstated if you mean actual direct spending. There really aren’t material direct federal subsidies for fossil fuel companies. However, you can make the argument (and many groups have attempted to calculate) that there are big implicit subsidies through things like providing…

Ford has the F150 lightning (much more accessible than the Silverado EV) and the Mach-E, but both really need a new generation to be competitive with the forthcoming GM Utilium. Stellantis is a bit of a basketcase generally, but they are on the cusp of their big EV rollout (and not just the former Chrysler brands). 

Another reason is that China is already a huge manufacturing hub for a lot of components (especially electronics). If you have an EV factory in China and need to source a particular capacitor or need some vacuum molded plastic, the factory that does it is probably down the street and is used to turning around orders…

No. The only thing that detracts from range in these fast EVs is wheel/tire choice. Unlike ICE, where big power means less fuel economy, big power in an EV has next to no impact on efficiency. In fact, big power implies a big battery, which implies good range. 

Mandatory arbitration clauses aren’t a bad thing when they are negotiated between two sophisticated party. If Corporation A’s team of lawyers agrees with Corporation B’s team of lawyers that their contract for 1,000,000 widgets should be subject to arbitration, that’s a net positive. It keeps the dispute out of the…

Agree. The dealerships were mostly built during the era where Hyundai/Kia mostly sold miserable economy cars whose only virtue was being cheaper than the Honda/Toyota equivalent. Most have not caught up to serve the typical Ioniq 5N- type customer. But I think things will slowly change as they see more of those folks…

The article literally addresses this issue. Early fast EVs (mostly the Tesla S) were only good for a few launches. Today’s fast EVs like this one are going to repeat those launches until you are too nauseous to continue (which would likely take a lot less than an hour). 

It’s really just a product of how traditional drag strip timing devices work. It’s not a nefarious plot to goose numbers. Back when even fast sports cars were doing 0-60 in the 5 second range (and not very repeatably) nobody cared that much. It was the difference between 0-60 in 5.4 or 5.2 seconds. It’s only in the EV…

They are caught in a doom spiral that is the inevitable result of cost cutting. Cost cutting leads to less R&D and cheaper feeling vehicles, which leads to needing to tap subprime and fleet sales to move metal (upmarket buyers don’t want dated cheap-feeling vehicles). The subprime and fleet sales keep the cash coming…

They can lease and then buy out the lease.