Does the Focus RS use the speakers to augment mechanical sounds? I don't mean the trick of sending a pipe to an open hole in the firewall, because at least that's real mechanical noise. I mean actually have paid programmers and sound engineers to develop electronic sounds.

As long as BMWs make "VROOM VROOM" noises through the speakers, I will not acknowledge their vehicles as performance oriented. Ford wins.

Just over a month ago I drove my first child home in a Camry.

I give precisely zero shits, because I’m not so insecure that I would be embarrassed about my family car being a Camry.

300 @ ~3000 lbs

Not too low that it’s not somewhat exciting, but not too high that I don’t get to enjoy listening to the engine as I run through the gears before risking jail time.

That's for my personal driver. For my family truckster, the big heavy one that I'm not going to go chucking around corners so much, the more…

yeah........ ~$1200 per tire change, not using that dorifto mode very often.

If you’re not using it for competition, with track work my #1 most important attribute is the ability to handle heat, followed #2 by durability, and *then* grip.

I don't mind using a low grip tire at a track day if it doesn't get greasy after 10 minutes and lasts for a while. I don't get a trophy for being faster than…

God sounds like a real asshole.

lame

Also, all that ^ said, I know that I could list a couple of things that I find annoying about the VI that I'm sure you'd hate even more than the clutch. Things that, if I had known about before buying, would have caused me to choose a different car.

You’re getting kind of worked up and I’m just trying to talk about cars.

Yeah, I have a MkVI. But you have to realize the inverse of your statement is also true, while it can be stated that aspects of the newer cars are worse than the old cars, something that is undoubtably true, there are aspects of the old cars that…

I’ve understood this for years now, but I learned it on the back of sport bikes. Yeah so, that one or two times a year I could find the favorable, safe conditions to run my CBR1100XX up to 180 MPH sure were amazing...... or I could get the same enjoyment on a friend’s SV-650 just toddling through a neighborhood at 25…

I was talking to your concerns, not mine. I understand that it’s something you find annoying and I don’t fault you for it. If it even registers as an annoyance to me, it’s such a mild one that I wouldn’t bother to mention.

All I wanted to do was point out that there was an easy, cheap fix to the problem you had with…

I don’t recall sharing my feelings on the clutch, and I also don’t recall saying anything about “new = better.” It’s also worth noting that you can get into a MkVI for less than $10k now. So again, confusion about where you’re coming from.

No butthurt here, just confused. You have preferences, I get that. The problem is that each of these cars have little issues that detract from them in a similar way. The MkI has crappy steering and terrible brakes, the MkII has crappy steering, the MkIII is the MkIII, the MkIV needs suspension work, the MkV is solid…

Yes, you can modify any car, and this one is perfectly drivable off the showroom floor. But not all cars have the aftermarket support this one has, which makes getting it just right exceptionally easy and not all that expensive. I can’t imagine there’s even a single company out there that’s bothered to design and sell…

The nice thing about VW’s though, is that there’s usually an answer to those problems. As for the clutch, the reason it feels that way is because VW used a valve in the hydraulics to slow down the flow of fluid from the master cylinder to the slave, to smooth it out or something. ECS Tuning has a replacement part that…

I’m going to say “now.” The IV was better than the III, the V even better, the VI even better, and of course the VII is an improvement still.

I have a VI, and it's still so good I have no intention of getting rid of it.

Except you can buy cars that’ll run over 200 mph off the showroom floor for less than $100k these days. This isn’t 1980 where 300 hp was considered insane. Ford, GM, and Dodge all have showroom stock V-8 engines that are within spitting distance of a NASCAR regulation engine’s horsepower output. GM and Dodge each have…

Better leverage. I can’t imagine driving a car like that, that fast, for that long, with my arms stretched out

The shame is that for such a crap engine, they really are nice to use. But it’s time for Mazda to stop. The RX-8 was a fantastic machine, ruined by the engine. They’d have been better off going to Honda to provide the thrust. Hell, Toyota’s 2GR-FE V-6 would have been so perfect.