Spotter's Guide To The October 2018 Road&Track

I could take or leave the whole Singer Por-sha phenomenon, but Preston Lerner does some great work tracking the development of their newest take on the air-cooled engine. What's depressing about the article is that Porsche themselves should be able to do anything that Williams F1 can do. We were told 20 years ago that EU noise regulations were the reason that the air-cooled engine could not continue. The real reason was, most likely, cost. The M96 engine costs half as much as its predecessor, and the current mill is probably cheaper still. Can you imagine a modern GT3RS with the Singer/Williams engine? It's enough to make me a Por-sha fan again.

Also in this issue: Sam Smith's great take on the "Dajiban" phenomenon. After that, on page 62, you'll find an article that has been a pet project of mine for a while now: a discussion about the compromises, and engineering challenges, faced by automotive audio teams. I received invaluable help from several OEMs on this but the best part of it was visiting Harman Automotive this past summer and being educated on the current state of car audio. Absolutely thrilling stuff --- for me, anyway!