As long as you get the units right for torque, I'll be happy. (Force x distance is lbf • ft or Nm)

I'm no investigator, of course, but it seems like the circumstances are quite different. As far as I know, most trains are seatbelt free, so coming off the tracks and sliding into a building would be more devastating inside the cabin. Sliding along the runway is also a far different scenario than rolling a train car…

Those two museums in DC are probably my favourite two museums anywhere.

Someone with more 458 experience than me (exactly 0): is it easy to select neutral with the shifters? I'm sure the transmission is different in this than the road car, but it seems important to be able to do that without totally destroying the gears.

The contrast of the bright yellow Cayman against the dark, somewhat bleak landscape is fantastic. Great job, GF!

Great episode, and I was particularly interested in the caravan segment.

No kidding. I guess another confirmation that cocaine is a hell of a drug...

I think Matt "Smoking Tire" Farah mentioned here once that May trashed that Range Rover in the autonomous challenge before he tested it and Land Rover was hoping he'd go a little easier after May smashed like 11 rims...

In Canada, which is largely the same as the US in terms of gas specs, we have 91 as the highest grade available, and often the only one with 0% ethanol. Generally stations have 87 (10% ethanol), 89 (5% ethanol) and 91, with a few brands (Sunoco was one) carrying 94. Many people ignore recommended octane ratings and go…

The vehicles posted here read like a shopping list for when the second bay in my future garage needs to be filled and I need to tow the toys.

What benefits are there to starting with a 550 instead of an M5? Is each upgrade in the point system that much better than the OEM M5 component?

I spent my vacation week reading books about the Apollo missions and it never ceases to amaze me. What a phenomenal program, especially when you consider it took about 8 years to go from Kennedy's challenge to actually walking on the moon. It's such a shame that even during the last landing in 1972 NASA realized it…

Here in Ontario, I'd say the most common new non-SUV cop car is the Taurus, as I've seen lots of them in and around Ottawa. OPP has a boatload of Tahoes patrolling the 400 series highways, so I'd say that's the other one to look out for.

It's a pretty interesting graphic, but one of the things that tends to bother me about this sort of thing is the use of multiplier units. Maybe it's because I'm an engineer and like dealing in absolute quantities, but to me it seems more useful to attach a volume as close to 1 as possible (the volume of a well-known…

I'm a little biased, but next you see a mechanical engineer, shake their hand and thank them!

The biggest problem with this, and one that means the F-35 has to win, is that the F-35 is filled with compromises that make it mostly worse off than current planes. By trying to build one plane with slightly different "variants" for the 3 branches, the plane does a variety of things marginally well.

I've already mentioned it, but there's no doubt now that this will be my next car. Seeing as VW has all but confirmed that it will come to Canada, the only problem is waiting patiently enough for 2015. I know there are some new Mexican plants going up, but that still seems like a long time between Europe and North…

Absolutely right on with Toronto being 2nd worst in North America. When you consider it has the 4th highest population (NYC, LA, Mexico City) and the 3rd highest ridership (again, NYC and Mexico City), the overall efficiency and management is appalling. Combine far-too-powerful unions with aging vehicles (some subways…

If this results in higher quality, better value vehicles while giving VW the ability to create more unique designs, I'm all for it. Especially if it means bringing the GTD to Canada...

Wow, that driver was booking it. Anyone know what the chase car was? Excellent points from Bridge to Gantry, it looks like the driver was just out of his/her depth.