1st: as someone who used to design and support dynos that ran roadload testing, it is not at all surprising that there could be a cottage industry for law firms suing manufacturers over bogus coefficients. I suspect most roadload testing is based somehow off of sketchy data. I wouldn’t be surprised if test houses get…

I got it done for $2400 with a fancy matte metallic wrap and ceramic coating. I did get quotes that were twice that, though. 

I wish they would make it practical to buy any color other than black & white. I spent weeks looking for the color ‘18 GTI that I wanted, and then any color at all (green, red, blue, anything with some hue), before eventually breaking down and buying white and putting a wrap on it. Even if they did have this lovely…

I’ve had something like 6 Golfs. The first of which was my first car, an ‘85 bought at a Goodwill auction for $150 in 2000. It taught me how to troubleshoot and started my addiction to working on cars, mostly because it was essential to keep that heap running. The next 2 Golfs were an ‘86 & ‘87 which were actually…

Getting a little bit of air was an almost weekly occurrence when I regularly drove I-25 in my little ‘84 Rabbit GTi. There was a dip under E-470 that would make the Rabbit hop like its namesake at about 80-85 mph (the normal flow of traffic on I-25 on a good day). There were a few things that made my Rabbit a bit more…

I’m actually really thinking about making this my first new car purchase, since i’d like to have a wagon or hatch, turbo, RWD (yeah, right) or AWD, and adaptive cruise control. I’d add manual transmission to that list but that seems like too much to ask.

As a former dyno design engineer, you are totally correct. This approach is especially important for chassis dynos, where there are tons of influences on results (try letting 2psi out of your tires between runs!) and wacky estimates for crank power and torque, loosely based on numbers generated at the tires.

The timing of this couldn’t possibly be any better. I just listed my 2000 Jaguar Vanden Plas Supercharged at no reserve and a starting bid of a penny. Have at it, y’all.

I have been scouring the interweb to find out where to buy some of his shirts. This one form the Grand Tour, especially:

The WRX got a lump of coal

Did they control for the type of car and condition, or is this just average transaction price? Because I would think average transaction price would just be an indication of wealth or preference for more expensive cars, whereas controlling for type and condition of vehicle would indicate the relative cost of…

I didn’t watch the unveiling, but all their literature and specs state that there is a fuel cell for a range extender (which would make sense, if hydrogen is the fuel) and no mention of a turbine. Could you clarify where the turbine mentioned fits in? I can’t imagine burning hydrogen in a turbine is all that…

I reckon that I’ll stop by. No party on Sunday?

I worked for the dyno company that made the one they used previously. In developing the trailer, several engineers were banned from various car rental agencies for consistently returning trucks with ruined transmissions.

It is a Thing, it’s called a NASCAR-garita. The trick is to use ethanol + Mountain Dew.

1st Gear:

Seems like a lot of money, but I had a GL-10 with an auto that I swapped manual into, and even without all the correct trim pieces and some decent fender rust on one side, I sold it within hours of listing on Denver CL for $3500

The Nürburgring? That’s appropriate testing for a fat, wobbly Bentley, is it?

I bought this shirt. First time I wore it, I put my car in to a tree after an icy off-camber, downhill left. I am not Walter Rohrl.

I sure hope they've worked out some of the bugs:

http://jalopnik.com/5648126/volvo-…