Even those guys know you start out on less than 100 hp, because they prolly got to know the few people who did, THEN got literbikes when their track and street skills matched the added challenge. Those guys have confidence at speed — which is something you just can’t fake, when you’re being yarded in a basic set of…

Something Dorikin constantly impressed during his videos about drifting... is when you’re a novice, it isn’t power that you need to increase... but your sense of control, of knowing through muscle memory, what the car is going to do when x happens, y comes from you automatically. This takes time and diligence. Adding…

I think it has to do with compressing a set of peripheral nerves that stimulate a nearby nerve root @spine that controls the perspiration reaction. There are surgical procedures to cure those with excessively sweaty upper extremity by cutting a nerve in the upper thoracic, so it does make sense. But being a…

It’s not like, asphyxiating- or circulation-cutting pressure, remember that the courtesans wore it in ancient times — having something so tight as to do damage would be avoided.

In the TV show, they had some clothing elastic (the white bands about 2cm wide) and it didn’t look tight enough to cause lasting damage. Even…

Try this: take a length of elastic (maybe even ask the g/f or wife for a few hairties and loop them together) and wear the looped band right below armpit level.

There was a Japanese variety show a few years ago, that noted this phenomenon in Kyoto’s geisha courtesan community: none of them perspired during long summers…

Oh I admit, there are advantages to carbs — esp on inline-Fours, typically you can get MUCH heavier bikes to get insane fuel economy vs. a successor with EFI. Take for example the YZF600R vs. the R6 — the R6 smashes it in every performance metric, but it’s tuned for that. The YZF is more of a Honda-like do-it-all…

Word. I was a junior tech at the time these cradle-framed bikes were still available new on the market... and Jesus Christ, were they a pain to live with...

The early liquid-cooled, pre-’97 GSX-Rs were so heavy, the could barely get out of their own way (esp that generation’s 600, what a pig). The perimeter-framed…

It’s the perennial ritual... Spring comes, young men and women roll out of winter ennui clutching down payments on bikes they want... and inevitably crash one or two notches worth of arrogance out their brains a month later, as they pay on a tweaked bike for years that has road rash all over it...

SV650. EX650 or 250.…

Word. On a smaller scale... my commuter SV650 motorcycle was my project bike AND my DD for years... and in the beginning, stalling at freeway speeds in the rain (water thrown from my GSX-R front end was getting in the front plug well, drowning spark), indifferent charging and weak headlamps (both due to…

Wish my first car was still in my driveway, if only as a project car...

‘75 Toyota Corolla SR5 coupe, in dark green. Shaped like a super-deformed larval fastback Mustang (much less successfully than the ‘76 Celica, but whatever). Fender flares, raised shifter, full instrumentation, pillarless doors... and a backyard…

Unless this car’s steering was like 0.5 turns lock-to-lock like a sportbike’s steering head... not really. And that would be utterly terrifying in a 1970s-engineering sort of way...

Consider also, dorkbutt’s mention of crash protection. Ignoring the obvious submarining and lack of crash structure to begin with... belts…

This driving position is insane. Our bodies are evolved to reach and bend forward, not backward. Lying on your stomach with your head unsupported is a recipe for lots of pain, esp when you consider this car must have 3mm of suspension travel. Then consider what the driver’s arms must feel like trying to spin that…

Definitely second the Carrera GT. Incredible soundtrack; engineered for those with real driving skills, not pandered down to new-money punks *coughHURACAN*; real racing DNA in drivetrain and suspension.

I nominate the Ferrari F40. You wouldn’t be wrong stating its bodywork is just 308GTB ‘Competizione’d... but its mad…

Commenting from a single-track perspective... yes, one trait that befalls a lot of riders, is failure to drive defensively and acquire all threats, as if you don’t have a cage of steel to protect you... 

Rode 20 yrs, always in big cities, in the gnarliest conditions possible. While I’m no angel, that iota of respect…

Agree. Once they’d decided to pump all their spare cash into the money-pit Hondajet... the quality had to slump somewhere... and that somewhere was their founder’s ethos for ‘racing breeds good road cars’. Now we have Macpherson struts, paper-thin frame rails, cable shift linkages, and CVTs to prove Hondas aren’t the…

Yup. Wanted one for years... they definitely have their flaws (*very* hot engine temps that fry cooling system seals; the ill-fated side-rad setup that contributes to that, makes for a heavier and wider bike; the SSSA which requires special stands; its linked brakes which don’t contribute much performance while being…

The smart guys run a plenum airbox atop them, so sand and grit doesn’t bring your rebuild forward by years...

Motorcycle racers used to add air cleaners on each individual carb... until they saw the guys running properly-jetted ones with the stock airbox, were leaving them mid-corner. This is because, as in the…

I’ve had my share of cars/trucks/vans owned/driven daily and grown attachments to... I feel because ‘it’s mine/my responsiblity’, and know we’ll be spending a lot of time trying to get me to money or earn money, that I tend to notice what’s beyond the cover.

Take the old Astro vans, for example. Those would haul me all…

1999 Ford Escort LX with 2.0L SPI & 4EAT...

Bought off of my mother when I moved home to take care of parents... she’s one of those ‘I put gas in and drive’ owners, so if it was ever in good shape, after 6-7 years of her, it was on its last gasps. Got her a Fit and took the Escort, as I had to sell my car to move...

Jesu…

My take: for series production, 4-cyls are far better from a cost:benefit standpoint in an inline config vs. V4. Half the heads, half the cam drive components, half the exhaust logs or headers, & simpler crank machining outweigh any theoretical packaging advantage. Fours also tend to go into cars that aren’t a marques…