I was hoping for the G16E-GTS (and a smaller, lighter car overall).

See, there’s another example of Big Government Waste. Why do astronauts need so much sand!?!?!?

A bit like this story from Gizmodo down here in Australia - the author had $25 worth of bitcoin on a hard drive that he threw away - the title of the link gives you a clue as to what happened:

That’s burnout mode.

Exactly - cost reduction is pretty much solely a result of reducing employee numbers. These employees have a vested interest in delaying the introduction of the new cars if it means they can keep their jobs for longer.

Even a smaller 4-stroke can make more power - an Aprilia RXV 450 makes 60hp stock compared to 55 from the CR500 engine.

Der Übermensch, everybody...

That looks pretty decent. The potential issues would be the torsional rigidity (or any rigidity - mating a unibody to a rear frame isn't a trivial engineering exercise), and matching spring rates and damping front and rear. The latter was an issue even for OEMs here in Australia - and getting it wrong can make the…

It’s ugly, yeah. But it’s a monster of a car if it’s tuned right. Plus the proper one (an Autech 260RS) looks better. More ridiculous, but better:

The front is awfully derpy. The Mk7 was a much better-styled car in that regard:

The prognosis isn't good...

Before you get rid of the stretcher, it might be worth looking into whether you can somehow adapt it to hold the bikes - if you can rig up a scissor jack to actuate the lifting function it would be a handy way to load them into the back and it would lift them off the ground for service during a track day. Which is…

I think there’s an opportunity to rig something up with the stretcher - they’re designed to lower and raise so that they can be loaded into the ambulance, and they often have brakes. You could use the stretcher itself as a mobile stand for the bike that you then load in to the back of the van. It looks like this is an…

Ah, no worries. I’ve just seen you made a comment exactly the same as my reply to you in an earlier thread, so we’re in furious agreement.

If it means you can have one car rather than two, the tree-huggers should be happy about it.

We’re not talking about a fixed hardtop here though, are we? We're talking about a hardtop car that you can turn into a no-top car with the push of a button. If you want a car that you can drive without a roof and it's your only car (like my mum's NC MX-5), then a retractable hardtop makes a lot of sense as it turns…

It’s just depressing as a Ricciardo fan. Hints of light at the end of the tunnel, then it turns out to be a train.

I’ve got a photo of an “OMGWTF” plate on a Ford Falcon somewhere.

And he can rip some pretty impressive fills too (his playing on Songs For The Deaf is his best drum work I think).

I wonder how Bezos would react to that. I assume Volvo retains use for vehicles.