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.

I doubt we are going to see $100k Mazdaspeed Miatas. I owned one. They are great cars, and I’d buy one again if I were in the market for another 2-seater, but the Mazdaspeed has been relatively unloved for 20 years now, with prices only marginally above regular NBs. I don’t see a catalyst for it suddenly being…

I’d rather see it dirty with tire rubber and squashed bugs from going hard on track. Never been a fan of these museum-level detail jobs that are only for cars that will just sit there. 

The analysis I read was that the pilots in the Max crashes were physically unable to move the manual trim control because of the forces being exerted on it (likewise the main control surfaces). Essentially, once the MCAS went haywire, the only recovery was to disable it, but because there was no MAX type certification…

Yeah, most Pontiacs shared the majority of their parts with other GM vehicles (or in the case of cars like the Vibe and G8, were just rebadges of other makes). Nobody was worried that their Pontiac was going to become bricked. But when you are dealing with a bankrupt company’s proprietary software, there’s not much…

The point of the Max-8 story was that we already depend on the computer not screwing up. They are already implemented in such a way that they can crash the plane all by themselves even if there are competent pilots in charge.

Well, that’s just it. Some of the highest profile crashes of the last two decades were pilots who wanted to commit suicide along with everyone onboard. Besides the Germanwings crash, the MH370 crash was also likely pilot suicide.

You already do trust your life to a computer when you get on a plane- you just don’t realize it. It doesn’t take full automation for a hack to bring down a plane. Just look at what happened the 737-Max. Software issues were a key driver to those crashes despite having pilots at the controls. 

This is a baby step towards what will eventually become the reality of fully autonomous aircraft. Aircraft are actually a lot easier to automate than cars. And in fact, modern commercial airliners do basically fly themselves. The pilots are mostly there to plan, communicate, and respond to unusual situations. Perhaps…

The pilots may be pissed, but at least they have a toilet to piss in without leaving the cockpit. 

Perhaps not a horror story, but I found the autobahn extremely disappointing. I wasn’t expecting a race track (I went to the Nurburgring for that) and have enough track experience that the lack of speed limits wasn’t that exciting in and of itself. But I was expecting a fast/efficient driving experience where I could…

Right, the charging network is still key. But we are just talking about the specs for the vehicle itself here. 

Not sure how I feel about the exterior design, but the pricing and specs look to be spot-on.

Yeah, biggest problem for an average Joe is that you cannot just putter around in an F1 car. Even the safety car is a high performance sports car being driven close to flat-out by someone with considerable racing experience. That speed is basically the minimum speed for an F1 car (and even then drivers have problems…

I doubt they’ve sold more than a small handful of any these cars in the U.S. Just about all of them are going to be leased. I can sort of squint and see the value proposition of a $500/month lease for a 3-row crossover. Even if it’s crap, that’s about the cheapest 3-row crossover monthly you are going to get and you…

I like this car in theory, but the pricing of 911s has gotten out of control. Throw in a few options and you are knocking on GT4RS land. Or, save a few bucks and get a 4.0 Cayman GTS, which is cheaper, lighter, and faster with a glorious NA engine. If you need back seats, you’ll have plenty left over for a sensible…

Given the age of the hardware Russia is using in Ukraine, they are probably still using these in combat operations. I could see parts getting hard to come by as more and more get blown up. 

On the upside, with our new HHS Secretary we will all be eating our roadkill instead of having to bury it in Central Park.