I’ve been a racing fan my whole life, and grew up in Indianapolis. One of my earliest memories is seeing Gordon Smiley’s fatal crash during practice. I remember losing Smiley, Jovy Marcelo, Senna & Ratzenberger, Gonzalo Rodriguez, Greg Moore, Dan Wheldon, Justin Wilson, and more.

Yeah, there’s enough electronics that there are definitely a few things you’re just going to have to take to a professional shop, but there’s still a lot you can do yourself.

I find it interesting it was actually based off a Chrysler design... My parents had a pair of 356s in the late ‘60s-early ‘70s. At that point, they were still fairly uncommon cars, so a lot of people had never even heard of a Porsche.

Nicely done, Toyota.

They’re starting to be, but the community is still going. They do have a few issues, but nothing truly horrendous. They’re about the last generation of Mercedes that aren’t so loaded with computers that a backyard mechanic can still do a good amount of work on them.

Well, I can personally recommend a W124....

My taste has changed somewhat... With a Dad who was a native German & a car guy, so there was always a near-genetic bias towards German cars. Mom & Dad had a pair of 356s “B. C.” (before children), and we grew up hearing many tales of their days in PCA & SCCA. I grew up wanting nothing so badly as a 944 Turbo.

See, I've been telling you guys that the '80s era Mercedes were awesone....

Agreed. I admit, I tend to drive too fast. But I’m alert enough to usually spot a cop before I get in range, plus I adjust to conditions & the car I’m driving. If it’s bad weather and/or traffic is even slightly heavy, I back off.

Just had to include Spa ‘98, didn’t he?

As Indiana Jones said, “It’s not the years; it’s the mileage,” and my personal odometer is a bit higher than most. (Waterskiing for nearly 20 years pretty much trashed every joint from the waist down all by itself.) For many people, 43 is just late middle age, but I’m not one of them. (I’m also not really likely to…

Amen. I’m 43 and female, and all the things I did when I was young & stupid have definitely caught up with me.

While this is definitely bad news and I’m sad to see it, I do want to remind y’all that non-working legs (or none at all) is no longer an *automatic* end to a racing career.

Does it make me a horrible human being if I hope this kills his Indycar career?

Oh, I’m sure at least a few will pop up anyway-they always do. Still, it was nice to see an almost unanimous positive response and no jokes that went far enough to be distinctly unfunny to anyone who’s had to deal with anything similar.

Eh, it helps that this dealer has been around for ages—they were the original sole M-B dealer in Indianapolis (possibly in Indiana) since at least the ‘60s. Especially with the market growth over the past 30-40 years, if they weren’t at least halfway decent, another dealer would have at least tried to compete. (There…

I know it’s early, but as a female who often travels alone, it was so nice to *not* ready any “wow, overreaction much?”-type responses. (Regrettably, I’m sure they’ll show up at some point.)

As he’s being officially charged with “simple assault”, I would think that assault is perfectly adequate to describe his actions.

Absolutely. Trying to deal with shops when I was a young, blonde, 20-something female was an utter nightmare.

I wasn’t thinking of looks, actually, just general quality.