Acknowledged.  I’d be interested in finding out more, as on the one hand Tesla has far fewer retail/repair outlets than Ford, but then Tesla also runs a retail energy distribution company (Superchargers) and also has an arm that sells household solar.

I know there might be some scale and supplier integration differences, but Ford produced 4.4M vehicles in 2023 with 177,000 employees. Tesla built 1.8M with 140,000 folks. It may be overly simplistic, but simple math yields that the Ford employee is about 2X more productive.

Harley pioneered this.  For the longest time Vivid Black was the free color.  Now it is gray.  Everything else costs extra.

The most notable racing Valiant that comes to mind is Mopar Action’s One Lap Valiant.  Sweet little car.  It was a 340 though.

It’s interesting. I have cousin’s in both police and fire and they are some of the most bigoted and racist people I know. I finally had to stop inviting them over because the amount of N-words that started flowing when they drank was getting out of hand and I didn’t want my kids around that.

When you do it’ll seem cool. Then you’ll go to Europe and see how much cooler it is when there is a moderate level of competency behind it.

He’s not an engineer.

Being a PUBLIC shithead.  Most CEOs are shitheads, they just don’t go publicizing it in the manner that Musk does.

The Amtrak service along that line is always delayed. Amtrak basically negotiates homerun timing with Union Pacific. If the Amtrak train gets delayed at all, it loses priority and the delays compound. Went from LA to Monterey Bay once on Amtrak. Had to stop for 15 minutes at a crossing to get a kid passenger that was…

Regarding the minivan. I have found that it is usually the husband (see HD truck guy) that forces the wife into a Tahoe. Had a male coworker who was expecting a second child. Wife had a RAV4 at the time. Rode in our minivan and she was sold. She managed to get him to allow her to buy a Sienna. She had it just under 2…

In a rare moment of insight, my kid said that what makes Hammond, May and Clarkson so good is that they’re lifelong friends and have an insatiable need to fuck with each other.

Saving my pocket change for when the current fleet is auctioned off.  Probably my favorite ride there.  The look on my kid’s little faces when they got to drive was something I’ll not forget.

AI Trains. Been there, done that.

After several crashes when I started, I was able to run my model railroad for sometimes an hour before scale catastrophe.  Perhaps the solution is remote operated trains piloted by children.  Some of them may even do it for free.  I know I would have...

I do think one of the keys is getting a US rider back on the grid, or having a larger than life personality like Rossi, or both.

They did do that. The Focus/Fiesta ST and the Focus RS were awesome cars. No one bought them.

Regarding the Cosworth... Silicon not Silicone.

I love the Type 4.  The FI is an issue, but then it is on every 70 car.  Mechanically though, it is superior in every way to the Type 1.

Came to say this. “Stewardess” isn’t a thing. What if a male flight attendant had shown up? This guy’s head would explode.

How does it compare to the Serial 1?