The problem that plagues the legacy of the John Wyer/Broadley/FAV team is that their campaign in 1963-64 didn’t earn much success. In very American fashion, Shelby’s team dropped a 7-liter in the Mk II, built a four-speed to handle the torque, and quickly earned a win at Daytona. Fair or not, those big-engined GT40s…

Yeah, that’s why I referenced the Ridgeline, which sits at slide-in height. Sales figures for that car aren’t fantastic, but VW is looking to boost its portfolio, and a potential 20 to 30K sales per year might justify a new model that generates some “buzz”.

I think the Merc badge would get some conquests, but I see this as a lot like the Mini JCW cars. More interesting style, better customization options, better AWD options...but slightly pricier and not as good to drive.

V8 mid-engine Ferraris were transversely mounted until the 348. The ‘tb’ and ‘ts’ refers to the gearbox position.

I actually think it’s an optimistic price given that there’s clearly some bodywork issues and who knows what going on with the mechanicals.

Not this car. Even if it runs in good order 0-60 is between 7 and 8 seconds. The early cars are a LOT less powerful. Ferrari didn’t figure out the injection/emissions formula until 1983 IIRC.

Yes, and to be more specific, seating height. Part of the reason for the success of the crossover segment has been the height of the driver’s hips, which facilitates ingress/egress and offers a more commanding position with great visibility in traffic with the added (false?) sensation of safety.

That’s true. Ford didn’t have anything resembling the mid-engine aluminum monocoque in 1963. Most of the rest of the Europeans, except Jaguar, were still using space-frames. It was a UK concept through and through.

Not to take anything away from Bellof’s astounding qualifying lap, but that record likely would have been broken many times over if Group C racing had continued at the circuit past 1983. 

I will also hate the fact the movie is U.S.-centric (there’s a documentary on this on Netflix that never once mentions Lola or John Wyer). But it’s important not to exaggerate the Lola connection. As far as I can tell, the only Ford GTs to come out of the Bromley shed were two Lola Mk6 chassis. The very first Ford GT…

Apparently, Lotus (and, really, GM) took a total bath on the engineering costs. They would have needed to sell twice as many per year to break even.

I don’t think it was even a Ferrari concept. It was a proposal by a design student in Italy that went viral. And, weirdly, there’s already been a Ferrari F90.

Yeah, the battery degradation was especially bad on early models.

Hahaha, yes, disastrous depreciation for all of them: e-Golf, 500e, Mini E, i3, etc., etc. I guess they could win the parts cost argument, but no battery pack replacement has ever been cheap.

Yeah, I dig the TourX, for example, and with discounts for mid-tier cars it seems like a great deal. But I’ve never fit the Buick demo and my experience with GM products makes me skeptical that these cars are that satisfying.

It was also sold as a Kia in Japan, where they called it a Vigato.

This was about $40K new. Most luxury items were standard, but still...a Miata was around $14K at the time. I don’t know about the Capri, but it was likely around the same as a Miata.

The thing that’s crazy about the Arteon is the significantly worse fuel mileage. Maybe it has to do with the WLTP testing, but it’s an astounding 7 mpg worse than the A5 Sportback on the highway. I would expect Audi’s 7-speed DSG with Torsen quattro to perform worse than a front-biased Haldex and 8-speed auto. And the…

We’ll see. The E-hybrid version of the regular Cayenne is already potent, with 455 combined horsepower. A Cayenne Coupe E-hybrid would probably sell at $90K+. A Turbo S hybrid would send its price shooting way past $150K.

I’m not surprised they didn’t mention the Buick, which VW would regard with disdain. The Regal is much cheaper, too, especially with the automatic discounts that seem to appear as soon as they hit the lot. An AWD Regal starts $32,5 while an AWD Arteon starts at $37,5.