I have often thought that the designers often consider the mechanics who have to service the car as an afterthought

I have had a few memorable times, like trying to remove the clutch cylinder of a W201 (80s era) Mercedes - one bolt took me 2 hours to finally get because of all the crap assembled after - but the shining crown of frustration had to have been changing the motor mounts on my 1986 Mercedes 300E.

I’ll bet the crash certification was fun. Wonder how many Eggs they had to break to make a ....

I read sometime ago VW was put in a crazy situation - between the Audi team and the Porsche team, they put $1 billion into these WEC cars (knowing almost certainly 1 would win).

Anyone want to bet that this might be in for some change?

My only point is that by having a pump put more air in than normal atmospheric pressure would allow is the same as increasing the displacement - of course the actual displacement is not changed

A gasoline engine has a fixed ratio of fuel to air - about 15:1. By forcing more air into the cylinders - above normal atmospheric pressure with a pump - whether a turbo (powered by exhaust) or supercharger (powered by crankshaft) while the air/fuel ratio has to remain constant because you are pumping in more air you…

“The old saying “there’s no replacement for displacement” is bullshit.”

The customer good will that this generates is far greater than the cost of inspecting these things. Word gets around. Still remember 30 years ago having a Toyota Celica with 130,000 miles and because the exhaust manifold was known to crack on some 20R engines they replaced them all - including mine.

“A hydraulic floor jack is a sweet addition to any garage, but even the best hydraulic jack will go bad after a while, and when that happens, you’re gonna need a second line of defense.”

You are the exception :-)

The pros always had a healthy respect for the Ring - more so than some amateurs it seems

No doubt where they got those styling ques. What is “zoom-zoom” in Italian?

For many years I produced the newsletter for our car club in California. We had someone put the .pdf to our website and you wouldn’t believe the scammers that would contact our local sellers - scammers from Africa and Russia.

Got to the point I put in a warning not to include the email address in the ad.

my 29 year old mr2 has about the same engine specs and to tell you the truth with a low torque hig-revving engine it is a blast to drive - like a big go-cart. Personally I can’t understand the appeal of having something that will do 60 mph in 1st gear when we all have the same speed limits on public roads.

If the 2 liter version is 4K pounds more than the 1.5 liter version, are they including any extra equipment? It sure can’t cost significantly more to bore/stroke the engine.

Still can’t get over their tearing up Riverside - what an historic track

“They’re expensive to keep 100% perfect, but cheap to keep running well.“

I rode in a W140 (90s era) S600. I can only describe the sensation as turbine smooth with seemingly unlimited amounts of torque.

“It’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow”

Priuses - not so much hit in the face as kick in the ass -as I continually seem to have one of these in front with the owner staring intently at his mileage refusing to give way