I like this generation of X5 and something about this version of the X5 M just works for me. You’re still buying a car for $16k that has $100k car repair bills, but I’d take a chance if I had the money. NP

This matches my anecdotal evidence of looking up used listings for the R in Ottawa, Ontario. With a 1000km radius, the split is pretty close to 50:50.

I think a car like the VW Golf will keep the stick for a while. Globally there are so many variants and the take rate has to be high enough that there is a financial incentive. Among GTI and Rs I imagine it’s > 50%. So far in my research for a used R that works out.

The group that I drive with at our local track consistently uses the phrase “check your ego at the gate” and this is exactly why. I’ve had nothing but good experiences in my slow car for this reason. 

People forget that Li-ion batteries in general are unstable on their own and require electronics to manage them. The tech has gotten reliable enough that we don’t think about it but pack so many of those cells together and it’s no surprise stuff like this happens (Tesla or not). 

I’m saving/researching for a Mk7.5 Golf R and the majority of ones I see listed are for the original Lapiz Blue. Either people custom order cars and hold them or dealers don’t want to take a chance with an extra $2k (CAD) on the sticker. Either way, I want one of those special blue colours!

What does Munro do with the parts after the cars are no longer commercially important? Are they sent back to their manufacturers, sold to salvage yards or something else?

I have some good stuff. Here is my first car, a 2010 Golf Trendline I leased from the dealer. After about 78,000 km it became a car-b-que.

I was invited to the Canadian launch for this at CTMP to try an autocross course and ride for some hot laps. I want to try it again after the 90 seconds I spent driving it. There were a few other people who either didn’t drive stick at the time or hadn’t driven one for a long time but they eventually made it through.…

Now is the time to buy if you’re in the market for a GT3. The flippers are holding but not a lot of cars are moving. Turns out the GT3 is rather populate and Porsche made a lot of them. Save the manuals!

Yep, Mk6 3 door checking in! This is my favourite angle of my car.

Needs more City Chevrolet

I like McMike’s addition

Rob has said on some other podcasts and videos (The Smoking Tire I heard him on originally) that 100% of the manual cars they have rented before were crashed in some form. Not even like 9 / 10 but 100%.

Shameless self promotion of the photos I took going to the rally back in 2015.

I have two memories: once, when I was probably around 13, my dad suggested I try to pull our 16ft fiberglass boat out of the water in our Pontiac Transport (FWD!). I smoked those front tires because my throttle control was subpar.

The 2.5 really takes it for me though.

Neutral: My Golf is 8 years old and recently crossed 200k km, with about 140k of those mine (5 years). I finished paying it off a few months ago and the maintenance has stabilized, with a cost of about $0.10 CAD / km (thank you, HPDE events). I want a Golf R, but in Canada they are so pricey that I have to wait.…

Driver mod, best mod! This guy probably mobs on those tourist days

Is anyone interested in doing the math to try to find the equivalent fill rate of a gas pump? My research suggests a standard pump flows at 30 L/min but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.