Now I’m dying to see a comparo shootout between this and the 500hp all-wheel-drive Honda Insight the madmen from LHT Performance brought to SEMA last year. Sadly, their stunning achievement went largely unnoticed as they didn’t slap any silly bling on it. http://www.engineswapdepot.com/?p=8175

Congrats on success! I plopped a RX7 engine that had similarly been sitting next to a friend’s shed for years with a tarp over it into my ‘85 RX7 GSL. Best $500 I ever spent as I sold the attached transmission for $300 and everything worked. Which is odd because sitting is what kills rotary engines ...

Mad props to you for writing / photographing this story - it’s one of the single most illuminating stories I’ve read on the automotive industry since reading Car Wars.

My pal Phil ran a British car repair shop in Austin. He was always elbow-deep in grime. He’d paint without a respirator and reach into the degrease bath to fish out parts and wipe his arm with a dirty shop rag. He’d shoot brake cleaner, mix bondo and inhale stale gas fumes from abandoned gas tanks without a 2nd…

Only if you promise to be horrible.

My ex hates Steely Dan.

It’s NOT wagon wheel effect - you can see on most burnouts to warm his tires that only one wheel is smoking. He MUST have a good reason for not running a limited slip differential...

For the record, I’m the kind of guy who NEVER laughs.

I once found an abandoned syringe with some mystery liquid in it so I just jammed it into an artery like anyone else would do given the opportunity.

At a record show Saturday a skinny, bearded hipster and his beardless girlfriend were thumbing through the bin next to me. He excitedly holds up a Kanye album and asks the booth owner if it’s the best one. He bought it and Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
My wife said “they look like a Volkswagen ad”.
I don’t have a moral…

The micro-second after hearing “It’s really nobody’s fault,” I would’ve had her insurance company on the line while filing an accident report with the police - because anyone who’d say that while clearly at fault - is incapable of accepting responsibility. One day she’ll mow down a motorcyclist and say the same thing,…

Not long after this TMBG classic came out I got to see an Ensor painting at the Prado. Not sure anyone appreciated me singing aloud in the gallery.

You’re aces at planning. Me, not so much. I had an idea for a startup while employed in Japan and returned to Austin to collaborate with friends. Got as far as a provisional patent and pitching the idea at TL as well as Austin Ventures before the bottom fell out of the market. Properly chastened I should have returned…

When I taught in Odawara I hadn’t accumulated much so schlepping my apartment to my new job 150km’s away in Tsukuba wasn’t a gigantic hassle. But a year later when I was packing, selling and shipping everything to return to Austin, not having a car royally sucked. Everyone who could take advantage of me - did. Car2Go…

I’m a Kimbrel (one L). I’d heard this story before and hoped it was fiction. I went to college at La. Tech and frequently commuted to New Orleans which meant a long slog through central Louisiana. I can confirm, that’s indeed a no-man’s land.

Tell me about these "moat people" - I am intrigued!

Finally, someone uses the word "literally" correctly. +1

Nice attempt at rewriting history Qiu Wei. Your government censors everything in your country and your "Great Firewall" banishes any meaningful criticism of Chinese policy. I expect you're a paid troll in the services of your government - or just clueless. If the events of June '89 really were acts of stupidity your…

No jokes here, that is not fun and six people have died in related crashes. What's happening? The weight of the key ring, coupled with a rough road, can cause the ingestion switch to turn of. Oh, yeah, and the airbags then might not work.