Despite being a classic muscle car man and generally leaning toward the mighty V8, I have to admit I really kind of love the zaniness of an Autozam AZ-1.  It’s like a kid’s toy that you can actually use in theory.  Being 6' tall probably doesn’t help my odds of actually fitting in one...

A Viper, in more than one way.

I really wish people would stop judging this car against its past and instead judge it against its peers.  Yes, I miss the Hemi as much as the next guy, but if I had to buy an EV today, this would be the top of my list.  Everyone keeps saying that Dodge is “giving up” by building this, but how does it compare to all…

The new Hemi was pretty thoroughly modern compared to anything of the past. Variable length runners and VVT on some models, plus cylinder shutdown and all that jazz. A lighter block wouldn’t make any different for emissions (I’m pretty sure there are already aftermarket options for that as well). The Hemi’s strength…

Counterpoint: my 20+ year old Viper with 135,000 miles on the odometer that I can daily drive and fix myself with a standard set of hand tools and also completely thrash around a track with almost zero cares in the world.  The only expensive running cost on it is tires at ~$1500 a set.

Agreed, I’ve always appreciated the Viper for being what I call “mechanically fast”.  It doesn’t use electronics and torque vectoring and active braking and aero and all that stuff to individually control each corner to do what the computer thinks it needs to, it was just designed to go fast naturally.  To me it often…

The Viper has ACR specific tires made just for it, though my understanding was that the tires were the weak link in the record attempts.  I believe they had several failures with them over the course of the runs they made.

I’m pretty sure the ACR was run on the brand new ACR spec tires that were made just for it.  However, despite them being pretty incredible tires for still being street legal, my understanding is that they were still the weak link for the record attempts a while back.  They kept having issues with them failing as I…

It’s not really an issue with a Prius because they were hybrids, so even if the battery wore out it was still valid transportation. And recycling EVs doesn’t really fix the problem. You still have to make new ones to replace them.

I dunno, if we’re blaming anxiety, depression, and ADHD on anything, the internet should probably be the first scapegoat, not lead (maybe social media more specifically, but there are plenty of other things as well).

Longevity of EVs is still a big question mark to me though. ICE vehicles can largely be built, rebuilt, repowered, etc. over and over again. EVs are going to be much more like cell phones where once they are bad, they get trashed and you buy a whole new car. Unless there is some standardization in the segment that…

But we need it to melt so Captain America can be found again!

I guess I’ve never bought a car with the thought of selling it, so this hasn’t been a thing for me. I buy my cars for me because I want to enjoy them, not for the next person down the line. I joke that I’ve kept the value of my Viper flat by driving it so the depreciation cost of the miles keeps up with the…

I’ve got 137,000 and climbing on my 04 Viper.  Bought it as a daily driver with ~43,000 on it and just kept going.  Built like a tank and the corrosion resistance on it is really pretty incredible for the chassis bit.  Wipe a rag on the rails or suspension parts and they look like new, even after all that.

At one point my dad had a 69 Superbee or Roadrunner (can never remember which) with a 4 speed an a Hemi. Didn’t have it for long, but apparently it was something of a rebuild. He had it back in the 70s and I think bought it with a bad engine or something like that. Had a 440 in it when he bought it I think and the…

Not that I’m aware of.  The wheelbase has been common since the first gen.  I think it was always pretty much 50/50 weight balance as well.  The engine is in front of the driver, but it’s behind the front axle so it could theoretically be classified as “front-mid engine” if you wanted to be picky.

I’ve never understood how people seem to loose control of cars so often in races like these. If the back end lights up, just let off the gas, it’s pretty much that easy. You aren’t going fast enough by then for it to snap that bad. I daily drive a gen 3 with ~600hp and have never had anything like this happen to me.…

Also, it’s not like EVs are an overnight fix for the problem either.  How long have they been around in any real quantities?  They aren’t going to change the landscape overnight any differently than this fuel might.  There’s no silver bullet to the problem anyway, so taking multiple approaches makes way more sense. …

Except for me more than 50% of the time I just set my phone flat on the desk I’m working at or a table near me and don’t leave it in my pocket. I don’t like having stuff in my pockets when I’m sitting down. If my phone buzzes or something I’ll just reach over and set my finger on the sensor to see what’s going on, I…

Except for me more than 50% of the time I just set my phone flat on the desk I’m working at or a table near me and…

Just imagine if every Gundam they have built so far are actually real working war weapons and they are just pretending they can barely move and stand on their own.  Then a few years down the road when they’ve got a decent fleet of them going they will release them all to capture the other countries of the world.