Having a racecar with an engine inferior to the street version is pretty sad. They should just give them a fixed amount of fuel to extract as much power as they can from, so they’d be optimizing [horsepower x mileage] rather than some arcane formula. Then we could use the tech on street cars.

Agreed. Here’s my Formula Open idea: you get a window for width/length of the vehicle to keep it in “car” territory. You’re restricted on tires and fuel. Use whatever drivetrain you want — the limits will incentivize development that optimizes (grip x tire life) and (power x mileage), which will translate directly to…

The one Toyota that “excites” me is the Tacoma, and it hasn’t changed in about a decade. I’d love to see Toyota’s engineering applied to something that isn’t a snoozefest, but the fact is they make cars for people who hate cars.

The slightest bit of research would have informed you this is semi (single-fire) rather than an assault rifle (full auto), but more clicks if you use taglines from those who want every modern firearms banned right?

Not fresh steel, but steel made before fission was discovered. Production of post-nuclear “new” steel will still have trace amounts of isotopes.

Was going to star your excellent explanations of the horsepower/torque relationship, but then you said “maths” so I know you’re secretly using kilowatts and commiemetres.

Like most other government spending, spending “cuts” means we set a new record high, but didn’t give them as much of an increase as they wanted. In the last decade TSA spending has doubled three times, from $1B to over $8B, with no tie to performance or travel rates (budgets kept increasing while passenger count…

Deafening silence on why we can’t drop the undersized 4-banger and uncompetitive NA V6 for the 2.7TT (or 3.5TT, but I guess that’s asking too much).

And when he t-bones another car or hits a kid...?

So it’s not so much that “modern cars make adult women look like toddlers”, but more that toddler-size women shouldn’t buy SUVs sized for normal people. Agreed.

Right. And they desperately need modern engines, hence rekindling it to put Ecoboosts in everything.

Yep and now Mazda has pretty cars and good suspensions, but no money to develop a modern engine so we’re stuck with that 150hp Skyactiv crap. Perfect time to reunite and put Ecoboosts in every model.

The new S4 matters because they cut several hundred pounds from it. With the S4 the size of an S6, I’ve wanted to see an S4 powerplant in an S3 (aka B5) for some time.

Can we all agree that getting rid of the silver windshield surround and adding an Ecoboost 2.0 (c’mon Mazda-Ford partnership...) would make Fiat great again?

Maybe I’ve watched Super Troopers too much, but arrested? Why wasn’t the outcome a wtf call to the station, a sheepish apology from the rookie, and a laugh at his expense for the next five years?

“13 seconds later”? So is that a 400hp Supra, or a 1400hp Supra?

Is no one going to comment on the Maserati shirts? Or did not making Alfa ones help meet the cost target?

No, all electronics won't fail. Very tiny circuits which could be overloaded would, but a spark plug is just two hefty leads, built to handle 10-50k volts dozens of times a second.

Significant in terms of effort, but not output. When Cd is high, you get large marginal returns. When Cd is low, it’s noise.

The BMW 3.0 is a great example: to get the turbo to hit full boost by 1500, it’s small enough it runs out of steam at 6000 and guys short-shift. It also only hits boost that fast if you’re WOT from idle.