That thing, despite lacking the rest of the STI around it, looks no faster than the whole car. The driven front wheels must make the bars... rather lively when you cane it.
kinako2
kinako2
Maybe I’m just so destitute that I have to overcompensate with make-believe... but I’ve driven many a vehicle — mostly not mine (rentals, friend’s cars, work vehicles, etc.) that aren’t stereotypically ‘soulful’, but I began to attach to after living with a while...
Case in point: an iron-block V6 Toyota Tacoma box…
As a long-time motorcyclist we tend to develop skills for threat acquisition and situational awareness, you just don’t get as a driver. I can’t count how many times this gap’s hilariously borne fruit, but nowhere more than in the winter in Seattle...
As you may know, Seattle has a rep for people melting down quite…
For my last 5 years on earth, to somehow inherit an aerospace-level CNC machine shop and 3D print capability, unlimited access to OEM & raw materials, plus CNC/3D data for all my automotive heroes... then set about Frankensteining for 48 glorious months, with proceeds from sales of half going to the ACLU...
... then…
No.
812 Chancretta Aperta
Word. I remember my ancient Yamaha FZR600R having stacks, and that was a new bike back in 1989... of course motorcycles have used side-draft (side-draught?) and downdraft individual carbs, since carburetors were first used on multis.
One thing that I’d noticed on modern carbed & injected sportbikes that was…
Cars:
Parents had a ‘82 wagon... best friend in the military and I both had pre-VTEC hatches. Then I got another brand and missed all of Honda’s super-brill years (CRX, I still pine for you...).
I’ve lived in many cities, in a few countries, and driven and rode in all sorts of weather. Ladders atop a work vehicle by far are the best telltales for dick drivers, whether dawdling in the left lane, or methed-out Mario Carting.
Three words: Seattle motorcycle commuting...
Commuted on I-90 thru Seattle to Bellevue daily, all weather, all times of year. Naturally there were days I drove because it was just too insane to be single-tracking it, but really was less than a week a year.
Have a look around at the kind of people who ride your local bus... not surprised at all...
Then again the guy who rammed his $35K Tacoma pickup at 40 mph into a bus in service drove, so that’s a counterpoint. May be a bus rider after this cluster, though...
This, plus all the other utter garbage I’ve experienced trying to buy a car from Kiaundai, give me no choice but Japan when getting a daily driver. Not that Hondas empirically have the dominance they used to in the industry by any measure (definitely not Toyota either)... but Ford/GM-like shens as this, aren’t in…
When I was overseas, *almost* bit on a 5.0 manual notchback, same vintage, just red. Worked at a exotic car rental in HS and got to know the 5.0 convertibles... rented them when I got back on leave. So when the correct 5-spd notchback I’d been reading was the one to have popped up in Germany, of all places...
... nope.…
Absolutely. The 787B’s R26B had them (though to be honest, any rotary needs as much powerband-filling tech as practically-possible) way back in 1991... its predecessor had two-step variable runner length, like us in coach now...
In the bike world... Suzuki’s dual-throttle-blade venturis accomplished much of the intake…
All it needs is Muppets at the controls :D Green Monsterchicken must be piloted by Animal, non-negotiable...
I think the major issue most people don’t realize about V-engines vs. inlines... is the number of machining processes, esp if they’re high-precision ones... determine what becomes a high-end, cost-less-an-object engine, and what powers the cars us regular schmoes in coach will buy.
An inline engine allows almost all…
They do not, 100% with you... not only in their ergonomics... but their service access. They went extreme with looks and new models, but engineering got flaccid with compromise (like their Civic generations of the era, 2001 - 2015... they had a Hondajet’s R&D / FAA cert to hurl truckloads of cash at, so mediocre was…
ER fatfingered “VR35" should be VR38. Damn you, ten-key...
COTD ;)