Exactly, the Toppola only ~adds 250 pounds to the car; I’ve had over 500 pounds in the back of my 9-3 and it didn’t sag that much. However, towing a 900 has got to be pushing the envelope on both the NG9-3's tow and payload ratings.

Hmmm.... I have a hard time calling what Porsche is offering an actual wagon, whether it’s the Cross Turismo or the Sport Turismo. Gaining slightly more than 10 square feet of cargo space, mostly above the beltline of the vehicle, isn’t really living the station wagon life. These are just variations of the fastback…

I had a laugh at that, too. 0.020 is a standard overbore for this engine; 0.040, or about 1mm,  is about the limit, I think.

Welp, I have two Saabs with FWD and snow tires. Your advice was quite helpful thanks... :/

Just my thoughts on why AWD is prevalent and snow tires are not. It is obvious that AWD doesn’t do f-all for stopping.

Only a couple of 5000GTs were able to get to those sort of speeds—they had the full 450S twin-plug quad-carb racing engine. Most of the customer cars--and there weren’t many--were detuned single-plug cars set up for more reliable operation and were probably good for 160-170 mph if the driver was brave enough. That…

Well, street car. 

The prismatic pouch cells Nissan is using for the Ariya have been around a while. The main difference with the Ariya is liquid cooling b/c the charging performance of the Leaf is so poor. And the AWD system is, I believe, derived in part from the GT-R so that’s been around awhile as well.

In the U.S. they sold to the tune of 70-80K/yr for a few years. The garbage JATCO CVT didn’t win all that many fans but it has steadily done over 50K a year ever since.

Great review. I agree that the charging tech makes this is a second car, albeit a good one and a welcome alternative to the Leaf, which has subpar charging characteristics, and the Niro/Leaf/Soul EV trio, which I still have not seen on the road.

Are snow tires mandatory in Finland? In the U.S. they are not, and the average urban driver is less interested in having a backup set of very good tires than they are having a “set it and forget it” solution like AWD. Gas is cheap, so the math works.

This CD Panhard is essentially a continuation of Hanna’s racer, which I believe was a 1959 model. Bonnet left in ~(1962), which left Deutsch to develop yet another streamlined racer with Panhard power. He made five or six CD Dynas for competition, then another 170 or so street “Coach” models.

Well, this one didn’t. Deutsch & Bonnet won IoE at Le Mans many years using Panhard mechanicals.

A first-gen Tiguan is technically within the limit--174.5".

Mazda 5 is great in concept but too long at 180.5 inches and the gas mileage is pretty iffy unless you get the manual.

It’s a great car but she’s looking for something with easier ingress/egress. In this case—aging parents—that means something with higher seating and step-in access, particularly for the rear seats. Niro/Kona/C-Max might offer enough extra entry height and hip room to make things easier.

I was also stuck in the past... replica prices have taken a steep hike along with the rest of the air-cooled Porsche market. That said, a kit like this suggests that it’s probably got some funky driving dynamics that may or may not work well. Hard to say without driving, and given the components the price is pretty…

“pretty much a VW Beetle” ...engine case and some mechanical bits in the pre-A. Otherwise a pretty hard no throughout the production lifespan.

Yep. At first I was a little surprised by the $10K install figure for the Corvair mill, but it would be at least double or maybe triple that figure for a fully-built period correct air-cooled Porsche engine. But the Porsche would clearly be a better option with output up to and over 200hp.

550 but point made.