Is the custom a monoposto? I don’t see the passenger pegs. If they are there, a passenger would do well to “mind the side pipes...yowza she-ah gets uh little warmah.”

no picture of the engine? Was it all covered in plastic panels? 

Neutral: Roll back those drug testing standards to the good ole days of urine sampling. Hair follicle testing is just too hard to beat.

My e61 was the 530i. Engine was nice but the ZF 6 speed was a nightmare for me. Also I had to replace all the acronym modules as least once (pcm/tcm/pdc)

I passed on the CTS-V wagon due to lack of trunk space (load floor is so high that my medium sized dog would only fit laying down. And all the pillars are massive creating gaping blind spots. The big v8 is nice but I chose an E61 5 series wagon, which I felt pretty proud of until 10 months into the transmission…

the beauty trim rings around those wheels. Not my taste.

“Lingus.”

Ridgelines are cute but they will not deftly handle a 5500 lb travel trailer.

Was the Cars 3 character “Mr. Sterling” loosely based on David MacNeil?

It had in common with an SC430 that it was a car. They did a long episode looking at all cars made by all companies. I think they said something like “the X3 is the village idiot to the town of BMWs.” Their point was BMW knows how to make a good car so shame on them.

It’s called the Kona Ironman but it’s not about the triathlon world championships, which takes place in Kona? Did someone not make it past the first slide of a co-promote opportunity deck with World Triathlon?

Manual or not, wasn’t this model of the X3 runner up for worst car ever made by Top Gear on one of their specials (spoiler: the winner was the Lexus sc430). 

wasn’t there a car chase showing a family sedan keeping up with TC on a liter bike on an open road? I can only suspend disbelief so far.

What does a recovery like this cost, any idea? Would AAA or any other roadside have a provision for such an event? 

I want to hear more about this 3 week course only providing a “rudimentary knowledge of mortars.”

i get that. To answer my question though, did you have a high level idea for cost? Perhaps it’s the voyeur in me, but I think it helps us live vicariously through your journey. Also, I think showing the difference (projected spend vs. actual) in plan figures is helpful for others who dream of tackling such a project.

I’m curious whether you had a projected budget on this build and if you would share. Like, did you think you could get it done for $20k? It will be interesting to compare that figure with what it ends up being the final figure.

hmmm... seems like a big decision to rely on a 10 minute test drive and first hand impression. Surely the internet commenters and bloggers can save me the trouble. 

So I’m finding myself in the market for a truck. My 2014 Grand Cherokee diesel broke down twice on a recent road trip pulling a camper (5,500 lbs travel trailer) and my wife said (paraphrased), “enough of this pansy-ass italian diesel leaving us stranded, it’s time to be a man just get a truck like the rest of…