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The G20 was more than a Sentra. The only thing in common was the SE-R’s engine and transmissions, it was a different car. The best part of the car was its sophisticated multilink front suspension. Which made it... fast, I guess?

They did, using the DSC to move the power around. The trick with the transfer case is caging the oil regularly. Which is something NO one did. It takes under an hour to do.

And it had a positively Ziggy 54 degree V6 of 3.0 liters (the L81) that had an unfortunate habit of zagging the timing belt tensioner and eating itself with frightening preponderance.

I will say, I did a short drive in an auto with the 2.5 and it was not bad. I’d love a manual wagon with the 3.0; but when they do come up for sale they are not cheap, which is in contrast to the sedans. The looks on these cars is very color dependent, some look much better than others.

I don’t know...

The X-Type Estate is one of the most bizarre cars to ever be sold stateside. People weren’t really snatching up Jaguars at the time, and even fewer were buying station wagons. “Compact luxury station wagons” is a pretty unusual niche, in the U.S. at least. I think I’ve only ever seen one of these in real life.

Most of those engines were relatively stout, but horribly unrefined.

Crude is a good word for these things. Sure they got size thing right, especially for the time. And there was utility.

No. I was working in London when it was released. The problem was that half the people who got onto the order book were wide boys in the city. They never had the money to buy one, but they had the money for a deposit and intended to flip that order for a profit - I can remember classified ads in Autosport offering…

Nazi Germany had several Arctic outposts like this, they were all weather stations. The point is having weather information from this part of the Arctic allows them to track storms that will hit the North Atlantic and Baltic. Very important for their aircraft, as storms can kill as many airplanes as the RAF.

Most likely a weather station. Though that location is so remote - well north and east of the Arctic shipping routes, and well into the Arctic circle - that I wonder how useful it would be for that purpose.

From what I recall, it was the proportioning valve was set up way to sensitive, that combined with all the weight on the front made the early X-cars have some odd braking tendencies.

One quick point to mention here. You lay out the case for American pushrod engines and lack of sophisticated vehicles post 1960s pretty well. I’m not sure it explains the lack of racing innovation, particularly in the 1960s when Americans were still running front engine, pushrod engine cars in Indy. Lotus came in with…

All of you have brought up great points, particularly Demon-Xanth. Innovation was clearly here in the US early on, but the need for it seems to have completely fallen off post the 60s. As has been pointed out, when you don’t have high fuel prices, restrictions on engine displacement, or an informed customer base who…

The writing is so evocative and resonant, me eyes welled up with tears. Almost as though there were an onion in the room...

So great to finally read a review that isn’t 90% regurgitated press release. Honesty like this is so hard to find these days.

As we search for a talented reviews editor, we’re thrilled to announce that the legendary “Cracker” Jack MacSwagbag will be helping us backfill some of that content in the meantime.