You ever been genuinely, truly suicidal?

Re: the first item (fabric between front seats & console:

Could’ve been worse... Look at Germanwings 9525, Egyptair 990, and several others.

Most modern airliners are ridiculously overdesigned & overbuilt, so he probably would’ve been okay after the roll. The plane would’ve needed a thorough inspection & probably some repair before it was considered airworthy again, though. After all, one of the 707 prototypes was rolled by its test pilot in one of its…

It is a very well laid out car as far as maximizing space in a somewhat compact-ish body, both inside & out.

Really? I’ve got one of the old Mercedes-Benz models with an inline 6 (W124), and it’s never struck me as having a particularly long hood/ engine bay. If anything, it’s surprising how much extra space it has under the hood in the engine bay.  Back in 1990 (when my Dad bought it), it looked almost short compared to our…

These should all be available on Amazon:

Seconding “The Limit”—fantastic, very well written book.

Love love love *love* this. Both DTM cars are awesome, but considering there’s nearly 30 years between the two cars, the 190E aquitted itself very well. Plus, it’s always fun to see two drivers so geeked out over getting to try out different cars.

I’ve been watching DTM for a number of years now, and while utter mayhem is a frequent contributor to events, this goes waaaaaay beyond that. When people are getting badly injured & fueling rigs are being run into & knocked over by the cars (at least no fires started, which was wothin the realm of possibility, you…

This is a compromise I can live with, honestly. Better one step forward than none at all. And while I’d still probably prefer that the hottest thing on the grid be the cars, I can go for equal opportunity objectification. There’s worse things in the world.

Nope, it’s definitely a German language-only thing. That said, I’ve also spent a lot of time in Mercedes groups, and have noticed that it’s pretty common to have members with closer ties to Germany than average—people who’ve lived there, immgrants, and 1st & 2nd generation immigrant kids. I’m the latter—US-born,…

Not even that, but can’t believe that Tesla’s legal department isn’t having nightmares over this, because it’s opening the door to a massive legal liability/negligence lawsuit. Remember, this is the US—you don’t have to win a legal case for it to bankrupt a company. Legal fees and bad P resulting from a case can do…

Oh, I have no desire to protect morons. But every non-car-geek person I know knows next to nothing about how their car works, which makes me want to scream. Things like reading the owner’s manual are thoughts that never enter their mind. A lot of these folks are fairly intelligent people otherwise, but if they can…

And this is why Tesla shouldn’t call it “autopilot”. It’s incredibly misleading—implies that the car is fully autonomous when it isn’t. At least other manufacturers with similar systems are smart enough to call them something that doesn’t mislead people.

My Dad swore off American cars in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s largely due to GM. Admittedly, Dad was both a native German & a car guy, so his standards were a bit different than your average US car buyer.

I’m a Porsche purist for the most part, but I like this. It looks fun, and while it’s not got the biggest engine, it’s a small, probably not-too-heavy car. That should make for a fun car to hustle around a nice, twisty course or road.

Not quite.... The hood broke and popped loose after one of several brake-checks by Karam. She made a valid move on Karam, and he responded by acting like the immature spoiled brat he is, putting everyone on or near the track at risk for the sake of his ego.

Legal liability.

We had an ‘87 LeSabre that was the “road trip” car—roomy, decently driver friendly, and so reliable that we never had a single problem with it until the transmission went kablooey sometime in the mid ‘90s.