Slow?

You were Airborne? I’ve done ~19 years in the AF, just that has beat me up plenty. Can imagine what jumping does to your knees/back.

You can do both. I do either depending on what I feel like doing, but throttle roll-off up shifts are easy. Down shifts when you’re in the upper part of the RPM range are easier done with the clutch as oftentimes you’re already off-throttle.

Adjusting her bolt-ons?

No, the Chaser was not big even in its day. Nissan Glorias were much bigger.

Why do I always think of Zaphod Beeblebrox when I see your avatar?

Came here to say this. I lived in Japan, the Chaser is rather mid-sized, or very small compared to American cars.

Is it bad that I would sit there, totally enraptured, for the whole three hours?

I think the VFR800'ed N600 was my favorite One Take. 2 minutes of talking, 13 minutes of Matt giggling like a kid at Christmas.

The alcohol sanitizes it all, but habu sake is the most vile liquor I’ve ever tasted. It tastes exactly what I think a high-proof embalming fluid with specimen would taste like. And that was from a $120 bottle in Okinawa. :-P

I think I see what you did there...

If Charlize Theron is a grandma, I guess GILF is a thing for me now.

“Excuse me, I think I may have committed a crime. Not sure what, but I’m sure I need to be handcuffed and arrested.”

I dunno, there’s folks here that think we’d all be safer drivers if we had a spike in the middle of the steering wheel and stripped of all modern safety features.

You did see that One Take video with the VFR800 engine swapped N600, right?

Yeah... Not arguing that one! My first vert here in Germany was a SLK32, the one I have now is a Corvette Grand Sport. I will say that a hard top is far better if you’re daily driving.

You’re correct, of course, but I was thinking more along the lines of pusher diesel busses, typically used for metropolitan transport. I still remember the huge clouds of black smoke every time a public bus started moving. Nowadays most of those engines are long gone and no major city still runs them AFAIK.

I see more convertibles here in Germany than I ever did in the US. Granted, they’re 75% SLKs and VW Eos cars, but still.

Also to add - I looked at the ones for sale, and didn’t see any of the base-price Raptors at the time. I saw fully loaded ones for $70k-ish MSRP, and those were selling for $10-20k over.

I care because the extra money could go into real, material improvements that I’d get to enjoy vs. the dealership owner’s pocket.