VW Golf Sportwagen water pump/thermostat. It’s actually covered by a recall but do I want to have the lowest guy on the dealership totem pole trying to beat book rate on my personal car with 1000 little plastic connectors? No. No I do not. I have the parts sitting on shelf waiting for me to clear out a couple…

At my first job out of school, one of my co-workers got to pay for the birth of their child out of pocket because his wife’s pregnancy was a ‘pre-existing condition’. Wheeeee!

That’s awesome.  Car&Driver had a story about a company that refurbs the GCC systems.  I bet they’d love to hear from you!

I don’t understand any of these ass kissers.  What’s the point of having F-U money if you’re not willing to say F-U?

Your statement “It does not vary with normal force or contact area.” is classic smooth surface friction rules that everyone learns in physics. It does not apply to the tire/road interface which, at the macro level (as I understand it), is a lot of very small mechanical connections.

Geez. How old is your dad? Mine is 80 and doesn’t bother with most of the latest tech but certainly gets it.

My friends and I bought a rough 308 GTS for $15k in early ‘19. Previous owner was a boat mechanic so the basics were OK but it had sat for quite a while under a canopy and the cosmetics were a disaster. The worst paint we’d ever seen. There was duct tape on the driver’s seat. :). It was running on (maybe) 6 cylinders.

Cool, thanks! 

That’s so sad. Maybe it’s because I only have one child but I’ve never given up on the things that make me, well, me. My wife is the same. I’ll miss my daughter when she leaves for college (simultaneously worried/excited for her future) but I’ll see more of my friends and wife, and will simply devote more time to my…

My F1 crazed Verstappen fan daughter wants to go to the Dutch GP next year as it lines up perfectly with the end of summer for her. I’m entertaining the idea but it’s going to be ... a lot. Probably cheaper than Miami or Vegas though, even accounting for airfare.

No kidding? Even with the 2.5?  It seems like it wouldn’t have enough power to break anything.  :)  My family bought the car new and I sold it with over 180k miles on it. I lived past 200k before someone crashed it into a bus in Baltimore. AFAIK, the motor mounts were original.

Maybe I missed it but you need to check toe. I *thought* my GSW (same basic front end as the A3) was fine after I lowered it about 3/4" on Golf R springs. I was wrong. It was about 3/8" toed out, which took all of 15 minutes to fix. And my very nice Michelins were trash after 15k miles...

430s don’t have the 360 problem of catching the fender lip with the right combination of bump and turned wheel?  ‘cause my 360 did it at stock height.  

My parents had the 2.5 in a Celebrity that I bracket raced once. I recall 19.8s. People would get antsy on the line because they had to wait sooooooo long and screw up the launch or redlight. Almost made it to the semis except I accidentally left the AC on during a run.

I stand corrected. I swore I saw that MT tested at the dragstrip.

The Prius Power Split Device is actually quite simple. No clucth packs, no gear box. Gas engine + two electric motors sharing a planetary gear set and a battery.  It provides a soul sucking experience but it’s quite elegant IMHO.

Had a dumb co-worker who told everyone his base FWD Toyota Celica had a turbo.

What you say is generally true but “it depends”. Fox Mustangs, for example, worked much better with a stiff front bar because the front camber curve was so bad. Way back when I raced SpecRX7s, we put a big bar up front and sometimes disconnected the back for the same reason.

I’ve been there! It...is...awesome.

For a long time, I viewed PhD as a guarantee of incompetence. I’ve since meant some truly gifted ones but it’s hard letting go of the stigma left by their predecessors.