I can imagine what Räikkönen would do in a Haas - get royally shitted-off at the heap of junk he was being forced to drive, bump it into a wall on purpose and go back to his motor home for a sleep.

Giovanni “Johnny Washing/Johnny Carwash” Lavaggi was pretty good too...

I genuinely don’t know how a Supercar would go on an oval, but the road courses could certainly be interesting. We’ll get an idea of relative lap pace of the current cars when NASCAR runs at COTA (Supercars ran there in 2013 and the cars are still roughly as fast as they were back then).

Yep - you need to be committed enough to spend time with the team, which means you relocate to the UK. It's not easy, but it's necessary.

Because Michael was such a success...

A G16E-GTS could work nicely...

“In Soviet Russia, you drive car!”

It sounds like NASCAR and Supercars here in Australia are converging, and it would probably be a good move for us here in Australia. We’ll be racing Mustangs and Camaros anyway from next year:

Yep - they were necessarily militant to begin with, and were never given the chance to evolve past that like the German and Nordic unions. And it's detrimental for everyone.

Absolutely - if both sides stopped focusing on quick wins over the other for a minute they could actually work together for everyone's benefit.

Absolutely - and I was remiss in not making that point (in my defence I was writing at about 3 in the morning).

Oh, I completely agree with you - I place the blame for the failure of our automotive industry far more on government policy than on the unions here.

It would be a damn good thing if all unions were like German unions. I’m my experience they don’t fuck about, and they are very well run. They’re far less adversarial than Australian (and it seems American) unions, at least in the automotive sector, and they approach management with the view that both sides want the…

In some people’s minds, qualified and elite are synonymous, and also seemingly pejorative.

Poe’s Law, I think - and perhaps you just underestimated the propensity of actual Muskovites to throw those kinds of wild-ass claims out there. Based on the dude who Jason talked to, it’s entirely within the realms of possibility - remember that he was claiming Google are just mechanical-turking their autonomous…

Dammit - now I’m looking for used NC35s. They’re temptingly affordable (though not exactly inexpensive) too...

Yep, Albert Biermann is the current head of N, having been the head of M at BMW, Peter Schreyer was the Audi design chief from memory.

If that is the case, it’s because he has been convinced by a fiscal elite (as distinct from “the elites” that Republicans are so eager to howl down), a compliant and conspiratorial media, and an intentionally inadequate education system to believe that policies and social systems that would benefit him are evil. If…

Yep - good design is a cheap way of making something much better. I really like a lot of modern Hyundais to be honest. Though they're not quite at their peak now (the 2017 i30 and Elantra are very attractive cars, I think).

Does “strong aesthetic value" mean it looks good for the money it costs? Because the M3 that you mentioned poses the question: are good looks and price at all related? I suggest that the answer is no.