Yep. 

Fucking hell the raging truth in your comment, yeah. That second line especially. Every time I hear “we have to get back to normal” or “I miss normal”, all I can hear is “I miss my isolated privilege.”

There is too much of our society where voluntarily engaging in these kinds of things is gross or “of the devil”, but when its forced by creepy men it’s swept under the rug or accepted. 

Fucking awful. 

I keep seeing comments about this “being 10 years ago why are we bringing it up???” etc. There’s not a single male driver now or a decade ago that would have missed a ride unless they did some kind of nude shoot. And anyone who thinks this couldn’t happen just as easily today is so naïve. This is sadly still a gross…

If you ever get back to the Tail of the Dragon area, I recommend checking out a lot of the surrounding roads if you haven’t already. Cherohala Skyway, Moonshiner 28 & Devil’s Triangle are 3 in particular that are amazing and far less touristy.  

Ah gotcha, yeah I was reading his use of that more as a general group of corporate approvers rather than a literal board of directors, but you could be right.

I mean a ~$30-50 million annual budget still requires buy in from the CEO typically, even if it’s just a quick head nod during a committee oversight meeting. And that’s going to be a mix of marketing and development budgets. 

I’m not too worried about it getting old. In a sports car, I don’t want a loud exhaust droning for the two-hours on the highway going to the track, I only want it to get loud when I’m higher in the revs during said track day. Similarly, when I want fun sounds in an EV, you could just select a setting when you want it…

I have to say, I can’t agree with your take about the artificial sound at all. Frankly that’s one of the things I look forward to most with electric cars. A Ferrari V12 soundtrack on Monday, a Shelby GT350 on Tuesday, Subaru Wednesday, etc. Whatever the mood called for. Just like I was playing Forza, etc.

I say this…

Every now and then, yes, but typically its separate events, yeah. Sometimes it’s a really rich guy holding a private day for he and his friends to drive around in their collection, sometimes it’s a group that restricts entry to a known or trusted list (often actual race teams will show up to these to test for a lower…

Since you mentioned VIR, I worked there for a year and therefore I was present for over 200 track days in that time. There’s definitely a lot of the lower cost examples you mention, but at least a third of those events definitely had a lot of higher end stuff.

True but that’s the same market I’m talking about, in my mind. Motorcyclists. Doesn’t have to be current motorcyclists ;) 

No you’re right, this was a great answer for this topic haha. And look, I completely get the concept you’re talking about - my first intro to performance driving was local autocross, and I was obsessed with it at the time because it was all that I knew. But now I’m 7 years into a motorsports industry career, have had…

A very good point, but again, it’s likely going to be someone who rides or used to ride motorcycles who would do something like that, and therefore have the “mindset” I was referring to.

Forgive me if I’m thinking of the wrong user but you have a Viper, right?

I mean more rain is one of the biggest reasons I want to move to the PNW, so nope lol. My point still holds - it’s a mindset thing. Not one I’m saying we *should* cling to by any means, but it exists and that’s where the resistance comes in for these.

Just looked one of those up and that is HILLARIOUS looking haha. But that also is a fix for what I said, yep. However, for the cost and appearance, I’m guessing that would likely drive most on the fence back to a Miata or similar rather than pushing them towards choosing the Slingshot. 

I think the problem with these is that fit into the lifestyle mindset of a motorcyclist but seem to target more of an alternative to a typical roadster.

People who want a roadster like that if you’re out in it and it starts raining, you can put the top up and get home. People who own motorcycles are used to the…

You’re operating off of a misguided principle here... or possibly you just have a different definition of what merits tech transfer/development in your eyes.