I get that... Things like brake pads, ball joints, and tie-rod ends could be a pain... but it’s $2700.  If you can eek a couple years of service life out of it and have something that limps along that you can still get $1500 out of, you did alright.

Agreed. The right size is 17's. Big enough to fit reasonable sized brakes, small enough for a reasonable amount of sidewall. Maybe 16's on older stuff or 4x4's, and maybe 18's on supercars... But yes, 17's are the sweet spot.

What is a Countach SV? No such model exists except for a few one-offs by Franco Sbarro (mostly more power and crappy side skirts).

Yeah, I think this falls under the umbrella of protectionism... Which is more or less the result of capitalists having political power.

Remove the engine noise and the shifting, and you can experience more of the quieter sensations. Hear the tires squirm thorugh a corner, or fighting for grip during acceleration, Hear the gearbox whine as power is applied and removed, etc.

What exactly do you mean by “easy” to modify? Are you just talking about GM’s aftermarket wing and all the stuff they offer or the aftermarket in general? I would say that GM didn’t do anything to make them easy to modify other than build a bajillion of them. They don’t just release the code and encryption to tune…

The reliability argument is pointless, there are just as many SOHC and DOHC engines that are just as reliable as the LS engines, plus there are some historical OHC engines that were total nightmares.

Yeah... If I bought a Porsche sight unseen at a presumably good price, and it only needed $2k to get it tip-top, I’d chalk that up in the win column.

This post makes you my favorite person for the whole day.

I’ll differ from you and posit that squid cars would have 4 wheels. Our cars don’t have 4 wheels because we have 4 limbs... They have 4 wheels because that’s the minimum you can have without things getting tippy.

I’ve spent a lot of time contemplating motorcycle sounds, and they basically fall into two distinct categories. (disregarding thumpers and 2-strokes)

This is a youtube rabbit hole I’ve fallen down a time or two. My favorite inline-6 bike noise ended up being a video a Z1300 going around Spa. (That’s not to say the Z1300 sounds better than a CBX, just that this owner happened to hit the sweet of exhaust choice and riding ability)

The other side of the coin is if I’m a buyer who wants one, and I just plunked down $60,000 on an overpowered 90's Mercedes, I’d damn well expect the dealer to let me keep it.

Maybe, but it used twice as much gas, so that has to count for something!

They added the X to the name when they started giving the cars turbos, so it might even be a 300ZX again!

They actually said that about the 350Z when it debuted... and the 370Z is basically a mid-cycle refresh of the 350Z so, by the transitive property, you are correct.

Eh, I’d say it’s plausible he heard the screeching tires and was pulling over to the shoulder to investigate the noise.

Yeah, a few years back I remember hearing about a motorcyclist who stalled his bike at a stoplight when it turned green, and the semi that was sitting behind him ran him over and killed him without realizing it.