Actually I did understand, chief, and you apparently didn’t get that my bit about the racerep was tongue-in-cheek. I mean, you’d think the next three words of my post being “In all seriousness” would’ve clued one in as my religion forbids emoticons. Or at least that you’re playing to a favorable audience when I called…

So is flexing on the concept of not burning to death but here we are.

Nah, just an acknowledgement that we’re all young and dumb once. Looks like you’re having your moment. I will say I had probably had more fun on some angry aluminum, magnesium and plastic than you’ll have on that keyboard, unless you used it to buy Tesla stock five-ten years ago.

I dunno, I’ve got an “M” endorsement and started out on a 600cc racerep.

In all seriousness, no one hits every at-bat. Tesla itself, cool. Space-X, super-cool. Solar City/PowerWall, interesting. TBC? Total. Fucking. Whiff.

Yes, but ironically, the condition of the wagon is about a billion times more important than the M5 as you’ll be living with the wagon, and only stealing the powertrain from the M5. Which means “serviceable” isn’t going to cut it, unless you want to get laughed at for dropping a ton of money in a build and then have…

That’s. . . tame.

A much better-er banned car commercial because think of the children!!! (Apparently uploaded in potato vision.)

Which is why I found a 2011 manual trans 335i xDrive.

To go with those first three, in order:
- There isn’t exactly a wealth of E39 wagons out there at the moment, and apparently today 540i wagons are functionally about as rare as the V wagon.
-Modern GM interiors, while not up to old Teutonic standards*, are certainly not the plastic fantastic interiors of yore. When TTAC…

Except at that point, you may as well go nuts and grab a CTS-V wagon, which already has a stick and a blower mounted to an engine that’ll outlast the cockroaches. Not as pretty, no, but damned if wouldn’t be every bit as fun. Probably more so, as going from my prior (Holden-built) GTO to my current E90 335i, you feel…

Because it’s the D.C. Metro, only it goes nowhere useful and you brought your own train.  Nothing involved here except for the car itself is remotely revolutionary, and I can take that out of the picture by riding through on a bicycle.

Oh, I agree. This being an engine-out service is insane and I’ve no idea why Audi engineered the car this way. I mean, I get it in mid/rear-engined supercars but I guess here it’s an artifact of Audi hanging the engine out past the front axle. (Maybe I do have a clue?) I’m curious if the new guides are actual lifetime…

It depends on what’s written on those receipts. German lux-o cars are fairly solid if you keep on top of their needy maintenance schedules. If those receipts show things being addressed at the (roughly) appropriate times, life isn’t going to be too painful.

I gave this a wholly irrational NP: I loathe VAG products but…

Situational. I don’t have “tool truck” money to support what’s realistically only a hobby that happens to save some cash once in a while. If I’ll only use the tool once a decade, I’ll ask around first to see if I know anybody that already owns/has access to. . . but failing that, go cheap. On things I’ll need…

It doesn’t help that the car up for grabs is the original pre-LCI E90/1 design. In the refresh, they updated all the lighting,* the fascias at both ends and added creasing to the hood among other details. This is mine (2011 335i xDrive manual), not long after picking it up last year. It’s a little staid by today’s sta…

I dig it because I’m getting a bit of an Akira vibe. . . but Tetsuo’s bike, so fuckin’ A, man.

And that’s your first mistake.

They want you to lease.

I find the whole thing fascinating, as IIRC, the only significant difference in the forward structures of the Charger and Challenger is that new floorpan. I’m surprised they couldn’t have found some weasel loophole to make a manual Charger happen. I mean, the shit GM pulled to get the Holden Monaro over here is…

Economy of scale (given the volume of automatic transmissions built) and increasing cost of emissions (and occasionally crashworthiness*) certification.

*This is why there’s no manual transmission Charger, despite the Challenger being structurally similar. To fit the manual in the Challenger, it required a modified…

Every gets Ho-ka right. It’s the next part that trips them up. Apparently the full brand name is “Ho-ka Oh-nay Oh-nay” as it derives from Maori phrase. I’ve mainly heard “One-One” (which is what I honestly thought), and the odd “Eleven.”

Used to rock Lunarglides until the tread changed; the newer version has siping…

Probably because you see writers that used to be commonplace at Jalopnik 5-10 years ago.