Damn! I'll have to let him know!

Well, you know how bitchy people can be about the 'need' for a truck. Most people think you should have to justify your purchase to them, and you NEED to be hauling or towing 100% of the time for the expense and gas to be worth it.

Oh hell no, it's more the guys that sit in nice, air conditioned trailers...you know, the Chair Force...

I was just surprised to see the F-16s, V-22, F/A-18s, and other aircraft with no thermal protection. I mean, they had the Griffin Fire Control Console uncovered in the KC-130 (which looks suspiciously like an AEGIS Q-70 console), but I figured that they maybe didn't want prying eyes to see the cockpit layout. Or…

That's not necessarily true. Most of the aircraft in the USAF and USN inventories are getting pretty long in the tooth, and it's really just the newer build F-16s, F-22s, and the E/F/G model of the F/A-18s that are newer. The F-15s are all about 30 years old, and the A/B/C/D models of the F/A-18 are about the same.…

I was in the thing last week, and the engine sounds awful. It probably has the worst idle of any vehicle I've ever been in!

I will do that! Course, he's going to want his XM radio, so that might change things a bit...

That's one of the primary reasons I've never bought a truck! Besides liking to drive something that doesn't feel like an ox cart (queue jokes about the S197 Mustang's stick axle), I never wanted to be on the hook to be the designated couch mover!

I work with a guy that just traded his 99' V6 in, with over 250k. Other than plugs and oil, it was still going strong, and he worked that thing like crazy, towing a 21' boat all over the southeast!

That depends on what you define as a work truck. He drove it about 100 miles, round trip, every day to work, where he was a pressman. On the weekends/nights, he was out, hauling sheetrock, dirt, mulch, plants, stone, lumber, or firewood to any one of the number of projects that I or he had going on at the time. …

Ahh, gotcha. I thought this was a ‘open the hood, mess with the engine’ type operation.

So, you turn the distributor by hand? How far? Is there some sort of a positive detent that denotes where to stop turning?

My dad is thinking of trading his 250k mile, running on five cylinders, squeaking and creaking, dented, scratched, beat to shit 2006 GMC 1500 for a new truck, but needs 4WD and a full rear door. To do so, he's well above where he wants to be, price-wise. He bought his last truck as a leftover, and it was a nearly…

I've done it when driving from SC to MD. If the kid is sleeping, and the wife doesn't mind, I can crank the entire trip in one shot.

Agreed, 100%. There is zero reason that the entire airframe should have been compromised because of the need for STOVL. The USMC should have been forced to adopt the C model as their primary aircraft, once the F/A-18 is phased out, and work towards a dedicated STOVL aircraft on the side. Still, it's badass seeing…

Ford has already said it’s going to be limited, and yes, I believe the GT500 was limited, as well, just not as limited as the GT350 will be.

What actually needs to be set for the timing? Do you have to manually adjust it each time, or just flip a switch or something?

My wife thinks I'm either an idiot, crazy, or a jackass, and possibly all three, because I want a Marauder. A Marauder with a Whipple, but a Marauder, nonetheless.

No problem! I was amazed, reading it here, as the existing COD platform, the C-2 Greyhound, was posited for modernization and new builds, but the V-22 won out (presumably to keep the Boeing factory in Philadelphia going, as the Chinook is almost at the end of the production line). It seems like you'd want the…

It's fairly typical of everything that goes through Congress, these days. The benefit has to be extremely spread out to ensure that every member of Congress gets to show their pork grab, even if the companies in the districts aren't able to adequately provide the widgets necessary to get the job done, or their of…