MotoGP ran in Argentina this past weekend. We'll check on the rookies first.
Ai Ogura came close to, but just failed to get into Q2 at this track. He had hundreds of laps around Buriram on the Aprilia and none here so this was still impressive given the times being set. He would perform so-so in the sprint, and well in the race being the highest placing Aprilia. Or he would if he was not DQed due to software(!) post-race. Honestly, he looks more impressive to me on debut then much hyped Pedro Acosta did last year. Fermin Aldeguer has yet to show a real flash despite being on a Ducati24, but neither did Bagnaia for some time. The first Thai rider, Chantra, in MotoGP continues to circulate near or at DFL.
KTM still looks to have a lot of work ahead of them with Binder 6th, Acosta 8th (finished behind Ogura), Vinales 12, and Bastianini 17th in the race. Their sprint results were worse.
Honda is looking strong with the flying Frenchman, Zarco, sailing into Q2 for a second time in two races. Mir would make it through Q1 into Q2. Zarco qualified 3rd in an incredible showing for the Honda team. Poor starts saw him clawing back through the field, something riders had been struggling to do, to finish 4th and 6th in sprint and race.
The Marquez brothers once again qualifying 1-2 with Marc in pole position. After them is Zarco, and after that Bagnaia in 4th. That pole would translate to an easy sprint victory for Marquez, second for Alex, the pair of which were well ahead of Bagnaia who had a lonely third place ride. Zarco's late pace is good, but the starts killed him.
The race began much the same but saw Bagnaia get barged backward by Morbidelli and under threat for a bit by Digi kn their VR46 Ducatis. Marc flubbed an entry into a turn and Alex would lead much of the race with Marc biding his time. The first attempt was from a long ways back and Marc couldn't make the line after dive bombing with 8 laps to go. After that his second attempt a few laps later was clean and he proceeded to put a second and a half gap between himself and his kid brother. Another Marquez 1-2 and another weekend hat trick for Marc.
Marquez is over Bagnaia by a forty one point margin.
Martin will miss COTA in Austin, TX which is another track the elder Marquez enjoys and has had great success at. Those races will close out March on the 29th and 30th.
It's interesting to watch the dichotomy between Hamilton's arrival at Ferrari vs Marquez's at factory Ducati.
Granted Ferrari is nowhere close to Ducati's dominance as a platform, but Marquez is pretty emphatically proving he's still the (current) best. It's also a little concerning how controlled Marc's riding has been looking - hard to tell if this is just him being a more mature rider, or if he just has that much pace in reserve.
It would be helpful to have a summary list of the F1 teams/drivers at the start of these GP articles for those of us who can't be bothered keep up with all of the team and driver shuffling, not to mention the nick names. Thanks.
Or maybe a standalone article “Dummy’s Guide to F1” for those of us who never followed the sport but are, shall we say, F1-curious and don’t know where to start.
All of Jack's prose often requires substantial lists of insider understanding and a glossary of terms. If you're only confused by F1, you're doing great! : )
Pick a color. Any color. Follow their race, even if they're a bit back. You'll learn their team really well and quickly you'll learn a bunch about the teams they directly battle with. In a few races, your color might move way up the grid, or fall way back, as the tracks change. Then you get to learn a new rival. Trying to follow the circus all at once is too much to process and I never really crack the surface.
I miss Lotus on the grid. When Ford was trying to beat Ferrari at Le Mans, Chapman and his crew were already doing it in F1. I suppose it doesn't make financial sense for Geely to do anything more than a sponsorship, but, geez, if an energy drink company can build a competitive F1 car, the folks at Hethel should be able to do likewise.
I don’t know who first said it or similar but I believe it. The right’s free speech is violence and the left’s violence is free speech. The latest IRL example:
Sometimes I will ride a bike without a helmet and when people ask me why, I'll show them a picture of this guy. Also, I haven't fallen off a bike since I was a kid.
I’m not gay but the injuries suffered by someone I know falling off his kid’s BMX bike in the cul-de-sac in front of his house had my buying his and hers helmets for my wife and I.
I think I’ve wiped out on more bicycles than any of my friends / family or even most older peers I know - except maybe Jack. I was ridiculed for years growing up being forced to wear a helmet. Sometimes I’d remove it and hide it in the woods to re affix it before I returned. It didn’t help I was ALWAYS biking if not for fun, a means of transportation up to and including getting to work.
Rode a bit of non competitive bmx, a little freestyle, mountain biking etc.
I’ve never EVER put even a scratch on a helmet or landed on my lid. The most action it saw were some low hanging branches / leaves. That being said I’ve watched multiple people eat shit where a helmet completely saved their face / teeth - my sister one of them. Not everyone can fall correctly or even mitigate an accident. There’s definitely an art to it.
The faster you are traveling and the more outside variables, the more a skull cap matters. Any competition, fast downhill trails, environments like a park where there are plenty of extra angles and things to find…
It’s why I’m a huge proponent of them on motorcycles. My own brother has vision issues and some level of brain damage (which honestly I think has been a good thing for his personality) even from wrecking a basic scooter (think Vespa / Metropolitan / Faggio ) at a slower speed.
Much better to be safe than sorry. Especially if getting some road rash is a new concept to you. For the record I bike without one when riding around normally. Hopefully that doesn’t bite me one day.
I ride at 12mph on limestone paths 90% of the time. No cars, no aggressive riding. Sometimes i wear the helmet but usually only if im on the street like it will magically save me from a soccer mom texting in her tahoe
Unrelated it’s our first full week of semi decent weather in NE Ohio and already tonite I see someone lost their life on a bike near my house. If the pattern follows routine, it’ll be once a week until late October. I can’t tell people how to live or enjoy their lives but at least give your family the opportunity for an open casket. Tonite’s incident didn’t sound like it’d have mattered otherwise…
Wear the damn helmet. I’ve had several crashes in the past few years riding a bicycle; I ride several times a week. Some my fault, some due to idiot drivers. Have cracked a couple of helmets but no head injuries. Trek will replace a helmet for free within a year of purchase; don’t know about other brands. And your balance will get worse as you get older.
I concur that to default to a helmet is good protocol. My two biggest crashes on my bike didn't put a scratch or dent in my helmet, *however*, it doesn't mean they weren't doing their job of being in between me and part of the earth that my head didn't want to meet in that fashion.
Oregon doesn't mandate helmets for adults, but I like flying down descents at 30-40 mph, so at least my brain will be in good shape relative to a bunch of broken bones and internal injuries caused by no other bodily defense. My (Trek) helmet was bought after last summer's big crash. It's super light, high tech, visible (white), looks good/slim, and the color matches my cycling shoes--I make the best of this 'situation', even as romantically appealing it would be to wear those small cycling caps worn by racers in the '60s, '70s, and '80s.
It’s been fun to watch the people cry about Teslas and Terrorism (big T). Much like how today everyone to the right of Mao is a Nazi, the word “terrorism” has lost all meaning. Throwing Molotov cocktails at Teslas/Tesla dealerships in an attempt to influence the government (Musk and/or Trump) is closer to the DOJ’s definition of Terrorism than just about anything else that the MSM has labeled as terrorism since September of 2001.
Also, Bronx Bar sucks. You can’t be edgy when you’re situated around the corner from a Shinola store. All of the real dives are on the outskirts of town or inner-ring suburbs.
Carhartt always puzzled me. Has stuff in Walmart, workwear stores. Also has a line of stores in like Soho NYC and Eurocapitals where they charge lots of money for slightly different clothing products. I believe I have seen Schott peddling expensive fashion workwear, but I've never seen another company that has seemingly normal workwear alongside a fashion line.
I’ve never been that in on Carhartt as I’m not not a blue collar worker, but they struck me as a company that makes good stuff for tradesmen who said “we don’t know why the strivers like our stuff but we’ll mark it up and sell it to them as long as they want.”
“The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass every day, but mister, you ain’t seen a ray of light since you got here.”
IYKYK. Growing up in Indiana in the 60’s the Milan championship was mythical. It gave every team hope they could win. No HS school classes based on size.
Basketball was a BFD back then. The high schools in my conference all had gym seating in the thousands. Our gym - not the biggest - sat over 5,000. The annual Indiana/Kentucky all star game was the biggest sporting event of the year.
Carhartt was founded in Detroit and is still family-owned. The headquarters offices are in Dearborn. It's interesting that they have both the big store on Cass and then also a store less than a mile away on Canfield, near Shinola and Jack White's retail stores.
The one time I was at the store on Cass it was very busy.
It's a drag that so much of their stuff is made in China, but unlike Eddie Bauer, Carhartt still makes decent stuff.
Not original to me but someone said that Hitler would weep today to see that the Nazi brand has fallen to mean making electric cars and trying to save taxpayers money.
Most of the folks supporting more war are those who have never heard or felt a shot fired in anger. Plus, it won't be them or their kids that will do the fighting.
I don't think that Trump is acting on behalf of Putin, frankly I think his ego is too big to be acting at the behest of anyone, except maybe Americans in general, but let's look at this geopolitically. Some people have suggested that Trump do a "reverse Kissinger". Nixon went to China at Kissinger's recommendation to gain leverage against the Soviet Russians. Lawyers like to say that the most successful negotiations are when both parties walk away unhappy. If Putin sees Trump as an honest broker of a deal that he can accept, that could help the US vis a vis it's primary geopolitical rival and possible enemy China.
One funny thing about the ascendancy of dive bar culture is how fake and ridiculous it is in 2025.
There are what you might call dive bars near where I used to live, but truthfully they are less “dive bars” and more “intentionally poorly-outfitted and kitschily-decorated shitholes” designed to appeal to urban left-leaners… who would feel “too bougie” for enjoying clean, well-decorated, more formal, deliberately-appealingly-designed bar or lounge.
I hate-read Jalop just to facepalm/laugh at the idiocy passing itself off as journalism/blogging. As much as I hate to admit it, there's an element of masochism involved, but I do draw the line at reading anything written by Fat Brad, because, well, Fat Brad, but my God, what a cesspool of "OMG, you're the sperm that won?" that is...
He's complained about his father online in the past... his stepfather was the REAL DAD who STEPPED UP and that was also true of his wife whose father is NOT IN HER LIFE and her stepdad is THE REAL DAD and so on.
"Why do bash “dead-beat” dads for not being there for their kids but we never question if the child has bad vibes. Or if they're just unpleasant to be around."
Or if the ex-wife has lawfared the dad to the point that the dad, for his sanity, has to check out of any relationship with his kids.
Close friend hasn’t seen his kids in 20 years because the ex turned the kids against him. He has financially supported his kids throughout, but the lack of contact took him to, in his words, “a very dark place”, so he has checked out totally even though he didn’t want to.
It's easy for me to say it in retrospect, and given the wholeheartedly decent behavior of my son's mother during and after our divorce, but I doubt I could have remained sane and within the bounds of decent behavior in your friend's situation. I kinda think the children and I would be in Malaysia ducking a felonious assault charge.
You’re lucky to have a decent ex. Everything has to be children first and sadly it’s not. My friend is the strongest person I know. Hit rock bottom through the divorce and subsequent bankruptcy, but amazingly bounced back. I don’t know how he compartmentalized the loss of his kids, and obviously you never really do, but he just decided it was a burden that wasn’t going to bring him down. It’s the Victor Frankl theory that when everything is taken from you, all you have left and can control is how you react to it.
True story, my friend’s car was firebombed during the divorce process. Gas can shoved under the rear wheel well and the trunk lid lit up with an accelerant. Luckily the gas can never exploded.
The city bomb squad came out, he told them his story, and the investigators just gave him the knowing nod.
So many stories of fathers getting lawfared to Pluto and back and main narrative Society not changing anything to improve that, even from "conservative" outlets that just tell the man to soldier on and try again eventually with another woman. And many men accept that and try again. Hard to not do that when men are by nature attracted to women, especially when chemistry (as Ronnie points out below) can so easily happen. I wonder where the divorces are concentrated, if not geologically, but on a world view/political spectrum.
[Stops the comment from turning into a rambling novel with half a dozen related topics...]
I can say much the same about my ex. She called the other day to see if I wanted to collaborate on a Bar Mitzvah gift for our grandson. She's a sewer and wants to make him a tefillin bag and wanted to know if I'd embroider the fabric with the monogram his parents had designed for the invitations. I suggested embroidering some kind of "from Zayde & Savta" on the lining too. "Oh, that's a good idea." I made her laugh a couple of times. The phone call was pleasant but a bit aggravating because the chemistry is still there.
They’re actively working on sinking their ship, they just don’t know it yet. I’m OK with any site having outlier articles, but when the outliers become more frequent, I’m out. That’s *any* online site.
I don't about real journalism, but I used to like them too. I once sent the editor, Ballaban I think, a suggestion that they lay off the politics, since they were, you know, a car site? His response was a snide "Pro tip" to not read the political articles if I don't want to. I told him that he was a fool to blow off a reader and was gratified when the whole Gawker episode brought Jalop down with it. I go there about once month when I remember they still exist. Same with TTAC.
15 years ago I used to love to read Jalop. Even back then they had a slightly left bent. They went full in during Trump's first presidency. The weird thing was that at one time they had a bunch of automotive writers opining every day about how we don't need pickup trucks and no one should drive and everyone should use mass transit. That same writer would then do a review on some vehicle. Why would I trust this writer?
Jalopnik's childishness, petulance, and obsession with Big Bad Tesla That Can Do No Good is quite something to read, or at least skim the article titles of. TDS V2.0.. Sure, I don't know their upbringing, but their SSH type is Gamma (at best) to the pathetic maximum. "Have you tried...*not* caring? Do you know how freeing it is to not give a rip about something, and how truly transformative physically, mentally, and emotionally that can be?" I suppose this is akin to asking one's wife to calm down or telling someone who is depressed to think happy thoughts or "just stop being sad." It's nice to read the Autopian, even if they still drink from that poisonous well. I miss pre-Super-AI Autoblog from a couple years ago because it was at least a nicely organized, centrally-located place to get new and concept/auto show car debuts *with* full photo galleries. As it stands, I am fully behind on all the new Ferrari models and sub-models outside the Roma. Oh well!
The people who do this shit aren't coming to rural Ohio to try it out for the same reason the shitbirds surrounding Jewish kids on elite college campuses aren't coming to rural Tennessee to protest white supremacy. They are operating solely where they have political cover and the expectation that they won't face an armed lamb contesting their vote on dinner.
Amen. Here in the center of White Christian extremism in Tennessee outside of Nashville I believe you’d find the local law enforcement very understanding if you took one of them out if they tried to torch your Tesla in your driveway. And if not you’d have a solid chance of jury nullification.
It must be true. I read it in the Nashville Scene. I can get downtown in about a half hour in off rush hour traffic via expressway. Maybe 40 minutes on regular streets.
The alliance between the radical left and Muslim extremists is fascinating. The Khalil guy that Trump & Co. are trying to deport spouts a lot of leftist revolutionary rhetoric but undoubtedly would be fine with an Islamic caliphate. His wife with the anchor baby in her belly wears a hijab. Those on the left are cool with the Islamists because they both want to destroy the West.
With any luck, the center-left types who daily drive Teslas will be so repulsed by the insanity of the far left that they'll vote for moderates in every primary, thus restoring some degree of sanity to the Democrat party.
Oh, right - there are no longer any moderate Democrat politicians running for office. Well, it was a nice thought, anyway.
This is the correct analysis. If you vote for a Dem at the national level you will get an extremist. Let’s not forget Biden was a centrist until he got elected, then he got busy transient the kids. Or at least the auto-pen got busy.
The stated policy positions of leftists who enter political primaries for low office in my (very liberal) town claim a preferred slate of policy proposals so far left they must have totally detached themselves from reality. Gun confiscation/illegalization, police restriction or elimination, dramatic restrictions on sentencing even for violent crimes:
There’s an increasingly obvious element of masochism to it.
Do you have a source for your carrot/stick interpretation? The dictionary I have at hand (Webster's Collegiate 11th) gives the definition: "carrot-and-stick, adj. [fr. the traditional alternatives of driving a donkey on by either holding out a carrot or whipping it with a stick] (1876) : characterized by the use of both reward and punishment to induce cooperation."
So while the traditional phrase (or compound adjective) is carrot-and-stick (meaning both punishment and incentive together) I don't think this prevents people backing into to talking about the carrot or the stick. Your definition reduces the phrase by making it purely about reward.
I have a number of books at hand collecting commonly misused words and phrases, and none of them includes this.
If Ray was on the Disney payroll, Rachel Zeigler wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem. She'd do an interview, and Ray would get to the interviewer before publishing. "Your talked to who? WHO???? I'm going to make a phone call".
You should listen to the James McMurtry song “No More Buffalo”, especially the live version on the album “Live in aught-three”, there is a line about that carrot dangling from a stick. And it’s a great song. By one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time, and a great album.
I’ll see your “No More Buffalo” and raise you his cover of “Choctaw Bingo,” a Ray Wylie Hubbard tune. JM’s debut album Too Long in the Wasteland was solid as granite.
As a matter of fact, one of my best live music memories is watching McMurtry at The Continental Club in Austin playing “Choctaw Bingo”, and a smokin’ hot waitress jumped up on the bar and started dancing in the guitar solo leading up to “…I just wanna get between them with a big ole’ hard-on, like a bull dark fence post, that you hang a pipe rail gate from, and do some sister twisters till the cows come home…”
Copy that. I grew up in Austin and he is an Austin guy. I have been lucky enough to see him many times in various settings-from the first Austin City Limits music festival at Zilker Park, to the Saxon Pub, to his residency at The Continental Club. The guy is just amazing.
1. There are probably a handful of people in the US who have the OPSEC to avoid the federal government and none of them are on reddit
2. It's going to be hilarious watching SIR lewis hamilton meltdown as Ferrari continuously fucks up the strategy and he ends up behind Sharles race after race. F-1 will be must see tv for this alone
3. I am almost rooting for Mercedes because as much as I cannot stand Toto, watching lewis finish behind them will be funnier
4. If anyone at GM wants to give me a Corvette, Ill praise that ugly ass vehicle on my own substack. Offer also stands for a loaded Tahoe but I think they're handsome
2. "K1" has me traumatized. "Well it is Ferrari strategy!!!! It's always bad." And last year a couple of positions between them and McClaren changing during the season and Ferrari wins the WCC. So, I guess Ferrari has regressed in strategy?
how did we once just root for all the drivers in f1 and indy and nascar even as we realized some were much better than others? any fan root against ANYBODY racing in 1960?
They weren’t insufferable because they were approachable and weren’t spoiled by money. I would go to sprint car races in Indiana as a youngster with my Dad, and Indy drivers would show up and race because they were local and just wanted to race anything with 4 wheels. Tony Stewart was probably the last name driver to do that. Plus you would see young midget or sprint car drivers who would end up at Indy later. It was their training ground before Indy Lights and other series appeared.
I go back to the early 60’s listening to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing via transistor radio on Memorial Day during a cookout. I don’t remember any of that. I do remember Mario breaking my little heart every year except one and the bad luck of poor Andy Granatelli.
It wasn't the '60s, but I never rooted for Dale Earnhardt Sr. I'm sure he could have competitively driven in any top level racing series but outside of NASCAR he'd have been banned for life for the way he drove.
Also, I've always rooted against Ferrari. Rooting for Ferrari is like rooting for the Yankees (baseball team, not the country).
Vintage Ferraris were built like crap, reflecting Enzo's scorn for his customers. I was in concours-winning Mike Kleeve's shop, covering the Bugatti 64 body he was making for Peter Mullin and over to the side was a Zagato 250 GTO getting restored. It was one of five made, the only "lusso" [luxury] version of the five. It had already been taken down to bare metal. The roof was made of irregularly shaped aluminum that was pieced together. You could see every mark made by Luigi's hammer shaping the metal. Kleeve's guys had trouble removing the cotton flock based body filler in every little divot. The frame was fabricated with very skinny looking 1" tubing, with welds that can best be described as scabrous.
Made with all the attention to detail of a frat-party bonfire.
I subscribe to the theory that the flat-12 in the 512 BB and Testarossa had both timing belts AND an engine-out replacement procedure for them because Enzo deliberately ordered his engineers to design the engine that way BECAUSE HE WAS AN ASSHOLE.
The NAIAS aka Detroit auto show is really three shows. There's the press preview, then the industry days, and then the public show, so at the press preview there are lots of tradespeople setting up and knocking down displays.
Once I ran into Bob Seger during the media preview. When I saw him, at first I wasn't sure it was him because there were dozens of greybeards in blue jeans who look like Bob Seger working at the show.
That sounds like when I lived in Pittsburgh and I ran into Jerome Bettis is a CoGo's convenience store. It least I think it was him - the guy was wearing a Steelers jersey with "BETTIS" across the back.
But something seemed strange to me. I thought Jerome Bettis was a big black guy. Turns out he was actually a scrawny five-foot-two white dude rockin' a Hulk Hogan mustache and a power mullet.
Jalen Rose had some kind of meeting in the office building near my home that houses a small restaurant I patronize and while I was there he came in and ordered about $100 worth of takeout for lunch. No 50 year old man has hair that black without dying it, and the Gucci bag he was carrying probably cost more than my Honda is worth.
Regarding jerseys, a memorabilia dealer has a game worn jersey from when John Schreiber, now on the Kansas City Royals, was on the Tigers and it's marked down to less than 100 bucks. Very tempted.
The fact that it was extraordinarily dangerous back then was probably a factor. One would not want to wish harm upon someone and then have harm come to them the next Sunday.
I, for one, fully support the people who think it's a great idea to go around vandalizing Teslas, harassing Tesla owners, and fire-bombing or shooting up Tesla dealerships. I've written a few times here about the conflict that is being insisted on by certain segments of the political spectrum and how it will not look anything like what they imagine in their ridiculous fantasies of the world vindicating them and handing over control.
Their actions here are a big red suppository making it abundantly clear that the gap between them and, say, ISIS could be stepped over by a toddler. Turns out that they don't need you to commit an injustice against George Floyd to get violent against you...all you have to do is drive the wrong car and you are a target.
Not a general, you. Not people who look like you. You, specifically...all because you are driving a vehicle that was a progressive icon like ten minutes ago. But we have always been at war with Eastasia!
Sunlight is the best disinfectant in the world (which would have been useful to remember back during COVID, but that would have been right for the wrong reasons or some such shit according to the NYT) and the more the people who are the core of the problem out themselves and clearly show that they are in fact just authoritarian shitbirds looking for an excuse to abuse others under the banner of a supposedly noble ideology, the less bewitched by their bullshit the general public becomes.
The more the general public sees them for who they are, the more unhinged and extreme they will become. Bloodshed is inevitable....but that bloodshed will generate a very large public outcry of fucking enough already, and that in turn will have profound impacts on all the institutions that will set the course for at least a generation, and likely a considerably better one than we've been on.
I don't know what the exact catalyst for that moment of crystallization will be, but it's coming. I would prefer if we could realize this is all stupid before any more innocent blood is spilled, but unfortunately the people who feel justified in firebombing shit aren't going to listen to any kind of reason on this.
Unlike the people who bombed police stations in the 60's, there won't be any tenured faculty positions at public universities or them this time. Just prison.
That is the pickle. What does one do with these spiteful mutants? Perhaps Franco's worst mistake was being merciful and 'only' putting some of them in camps, where they plotted and proceeded to make more trouble as soon as they got out.
Prosecute them for the laws they've broken. Accountability has a way of stopping this sort of madness. The people doing this are not used to facing consequences for doing it.
Prosecute them for every law they broke. Pull some of that Jack McCoy bullshit and charge them with 15 minor versions of the same crime (eg Assault, Assault With A Deadly Weapon, Assault With Intent To Cause Grevious Bodily Harm, etc.)
There's a lot of fed-level teeth-gnashing about Musk haters as "terrorists". Time will tell if a future Dem admin pardons those convicted of defacing Teslas using the Jan 8 pardons as precedent.
That could set up a fascinating, and highly unpleasant, resonance in the violence economy, where you have groups of people doing awful things in full expectation of a pardon when the other side has power.
Is it any worse than the Marc Rich pardon? That's for history to say.
I was having lunch with a friend today and explained that unless the armed forces supported the left, any civil war would be short. American citizens have more guns and ammo than most countries' armies do. My guess is most of those Americans with guns are not on the left. Likewise with millions of military veterans who could bring their own skills to the fight, many with combat experience.
Who wants to fight a hundred million armed machinists, drivers, survivalists, conspiracy theorists, ex-soldiers, victims of the IRS and assorted headcases?
Your comment about the distance from your house to your mailbox reminds me of the scene in the book "The Dog Stars" where the protagonist would sleep in the bushes outside of his house while leaving the deck light on. When undesirables would show up and start looking at the electric light (no power in this post apocalypse), he and his partner would pick them off with their rifles. Anyway... I look forward to your long term Cybertruck test.
Regarding the new Cummins and the idea of swappable chassis, I recall a story about a decade ago about a field services company for pipelines that worked areas so rough they were killing new pickups in less than a year. Their solution was to buy an old 50's Power Wagon and drop a new Cummins powertrain into it. At the time the story was published it had been working for a few years, and they were planning on keeping it forever as it appeared unkillable.
late '70s at hallett we had an official new chevy truck reveal or promotion or whatever. it involved thrashing them around on the unpaved bits. i heard it tore the front suspensions out of several and a quickish redesign was in order. sorry i wasn't there to see it!
The Cummins diesel has become the most common swap for old full size trucks of all brands. It’s dirt cheap, and with the replacement of a pesky bolt it’s bulletproof, and easily tunable up to 500-600hp.
Limp-wrist neighbor: “you have rifles in your home? Like you could shoot someone on the street in front of your house?”
Me, hopped up on Weller Special Reserve: “I could shoot someone on [Main Street nearby a couple hundred yards away] without really having to think about it.”
L-WN: “how can you have that here in the suburbs?”
Me: “well hopefully you’ll never have to wonder why you don’t have it.”
Dude it’s a $700 Savage .30-06, literally anyone could have it.
Sadly, Cans are illegal in Illinois unless your a certain class FFL. I've looked into being an FFL but the paperwork requirement juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Agreed, but it depends on the jurisdiction. Who wants to be the next Daniel Penney? I’m fine down here in NC where our local deputy for my county sector gives us his cell phone number, but it would be awful risky to defend yourself, say, in Chicago.
I personally don’t have a weapon as I’m old (72) and never dedicated the time for training that I think a responsible person should if they do. My one neighbor has a gun safe the size of a subzero and the other is a naval academy graduate so we should be ok.
But I’m a big 2nd amendment supporter. I went to a couple demonstrations in Chicago around it and had the pleasure of shaking the hand of Mr Otis McDonald, the plaintiff in McDonald vs the City of Chicago case. We got Illinois FOID so we could take the day long NRA safety course with two hours of range time.
What did this Naval Academy grad do in the Navy? If it wasn’t in the teams there is a really good chance he knows nothing about guns (at least from the Navy). I always chuckle when I’m talking with navy vets who tell me about pistol marksmanship with 22 revolvers. In the 90s. You’ve been warned!
"Naval Academy Grad" could also mean a five-foot-two, 95-pound Philipina using a naval commission to launch her aspirations to political office as a Hard D.
Speed I thought Trudy disarmed all the undesirables in Cuba North? Are you not worried that the CMP might come knocking at the door of your house boat?
All rifles are hunting rifles! Although I almost bought a 6.5 creedmore over a 308 and anything under 30 caliber is illegal for hunting in Illinois. Which is a step up from previous years where rifles weren't allowed at all. Maybe one of these days I'll get a deer.
see what you said is entirely correct but the govt of canada sees ar15s and other semi auto rifles as scary black fully semiautomatic baby killing weapons of war that nobody should ever have for any reason becuase youre not allowed or encouraged to defend yourself
Share with your friends, they too will become firearm enthusiasts .
make sure they're trained ! roger was a dope who laid his fully loaded hunting rife on the seat of his truck and saw a flash, grabbed the muzzle and hopped out of the truck, put a .30-06 round through his femoral artery and very nearly bled out up there in the woods .
The only thing that saved his life was : the guys were just that year trying out portable walkie-talkies so one of the other guys got there P.D.Q., tied him off and transported down the hill screaming on the radio for help .
6.5 Creed is the heat if you want to shoot out to 1,200 yards. .308 is kind of out of gas at about 800 absent some special setups in barrel and ammo. But for killing game .308 works just as well as it ever did.
Longest range i have by me is 600 yards. I havent even reached out to 100 yet. Mostly new to rifles. Mostly been pistols and shotguns. I Have some learning to do this summer
I'd really only recommend these things for people who can't own proper firearms or need things to be a bit quieter.
I can't shoot squirrels in my backyard with a proper 22 and while it is against our city ordinance to shoot pests with a pellet gun, they're not loud enough for it to really be an issue.
I have a crossman or sheridan 117 and an rws diana 22. The rws diana is very nice but costs more than a ruger 10/22. Not sure i needed the extra but it will probably take up to a raccon where .177 is better for squirrels and bunnies. I dont shoot many animals these days
especially when you get to watch all the people that pretend reality isnt real and that hamilton actually has 8 championships
"GM made the Olds 350 into a diesel, making a new block for it but being too lazy and arrogant to change the critical dimensions"
for olds guys this was awesome becuase they now had a cheap and plentiful super tough block that could handle tons of power and could be punched out to 440 cubes
how retarded does someone have to be to think that inciting violence is going to be permitted and there wont be any blowback or punishment from that
They've been conditioned to not expect consequences.
Most of the discussion is around property damage, but personal info for Tesla owners is on that site too.
Regardless of political context, I would like to see all doxxing dealt with harshly. Encouraging others to commit violence on your behalf while pretending to have plausible deniability about your intent is one of the biggest bitch moves that i can think of.
I am very frustrated with this. That article made it slightly more clear that the flexibility tests are always subject to revision, but it goes against my feeling of write the rules and live by them. This doesn't appear to be a safety issue.
They have a practical way, it is the stated tests. If the test is passed it is clever, not cheating. New tests should go through the same lengthy process as new technical regulations. More stability of rules, closer racing in a development series like F1.
Make the only communication between the car and the pit wall two way voice during qualifying and the race. The can record as much data at they like, and they can monitor real time in practice and testing, but needs a physical connection to download during a race/qualy. They can have as many lights, data displays, master cautions as they like in the cockpit for safety and for the driver to manage settings.
Changing the rules to manage the competition in the current era began in 2021, when Verstappen would have cruised to the WDC if Michael Masi hadn't issued a technical directive at Toto Wolff's request to make the rear wing on the Red Bull illegal because it could be seen drooping from an onboard camera, in spite of the wing passing all static load tests. For good measure, Michael Masi also issued a technical directive to make Red Bull's quick pitstops illegal during the season on the request of Toto Wolff, in spite of Red Bull not being one of the teams that struggled to fasten wheels to cars.
Last season, McLaren started making an absolute mockery of the wing flexibility rules, and the right course of action would have been to update the tests for 2025. The precedent was set for the FIA to issue a technical directive immediately, making McLaren run wings that didn't flex and open dramatically with three separate moving planes. Instead, they did none of these things. They made the other teams waste money developing flexible wings that could be banned at any time. Then they said that the flexible wings could be used for the first 6 races of 2025, meaning that anyone who wanted to be competitive had to throw money at a dying technology or let McLaren have a potentially insurmountable lead.
Ferrari changed everything. It was thought that they were also doing a great job with flexible wings in the second half of 2025, and that letting them have 6 races to bury Max Verstappen would increase the chances of Lewis Hamilton winning something. Unfortunately for the FIA and McLaren, there's no helping Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari with the current specs. Since the rules aren't helping Hamilton against Max Verstappen, they are being changed immediately. The hope is that this will make Ferrari competitive with McLaren and Red Bull. When that doesn't work, who knows what the FIA will try.
Please forgive my errors typing kn the phone.
MotoGP ran in Argentina this past weekend. We'll check on the rookies first.
Ai Ogura came close to, but just failed to get into Q2 at this track. He had hundreds of laps around Buriram on the Aprilia and none here so this was still impressive given the times being set. He would perform so-so in the sprint, and well in the race being the highest placing Aprilia. Or he would if he was not DQed due to software(!) post-race. Honestly, he looks more impressive to me on debut then much hyped Pedro Acosta did last year. Fermin Aldeguer has yet to show a real flash despite being on a Ducati24, but neither did Bagnaia for some time. The first Thai rider, Chantra, in MotoGP continues to circulate near or at DFL.
KTM still looks to have a lot of work ahead of them with Binder 6th, Acosta 8th (finished behind Ogura), Vinales 12, and Bastianini 17th in the race. Their sprint results were worse.
Honda is looking strong with the flying Frenchman, Zarco, sailing into Q2 for a second time in two races. Mir would make it through Q1 into Q2. Zarco qualified 3rd in an incredible showing for the Honda team. Poor starts saw him clawing back through the field, something riders had been struggling to do, to finish 4th and 6th in sprint and race.
The Marquez brothers once again qualifying 1-2 with Marc in pole position. After them is Zarco, and after that Bagnaia in 4th. That pole would translate to an easy sprint victory for Marquez, second for Alex, the pair of which were well ahead of Bagnaia who had a lonely third place ride. Zarco's late pace is good, but the starts killed him.
The race began much the same but saw Bagnaia get barged backward by Morbidelli and under threat for a bit by Digi kn their VR46 Ducatis. Marc flubbed an entry into a turn and Alex would lead much of the race with Marc biding his time. The first attempt was from a long ways back and Marc couldn't make the line after dive bombing with 8 laps to go. After that his second attempt a few laps later was clean and he proceeded to put a second and a half gap between himself and his kid brother. Another Marquez 1-2 and another weekend hat trick for Marc.
Marquez is over Bagnaia by a forty one point margin.
Martin will miss COTA in Austin, TX which is another track the elder Marquez enjoys and has had great success at. Those races will close out March on the 29th and 30th.
It's interesting to watch the dichotomy between Hamilton's arrival at Ferrari vs Marquez's at factory Ducati.
Granted Ferrari is nowhere close to Ducati's dominance as a platform, but Marquez is pretty emphatically proving he's still the (current) best. It's also a little concerning how controlled Marc's riding has been looking - hard to tell if this is just him being a more mature rider, or if he just has that much pace in reserve.
He looks incredibly tidy while just dominating vs always on the edge and saving it through skill on the Honda and much cleaner than the GP23 Duc.
Honestly, Perfect Pecco looks out of sorts compared to him. Alex M has also been riding clean, late race tire drop at Buriram notwithstanding.
It would be helpful to have a summary list of the F1 teams/drivers at the start of these GP articles for those of us who can't be bothered keep up with all of the team and driver shuffling, not to mention the nick names. Thanks.
Or maybe a standalone article “Dummy’s Guide to F1” for those of us who never followed the sport but are, shall we say, F1-curious and don’t know where to start.
Based on my observations over the last few decades, the essential first step in following F1 is picking a team to hate on.
Without that, it's not even worth turning on the TV!
that part's easy! Hamilton or Verstappen!
The only place to start is with the Netflix series "Drive to Survive".
All of Jack's prose often requires substantial lists of insider understanding and a glossary of terms. If you're only confused by F1, you're doing great! : )
Jack doesn’t shuffle his prose style every season.
LOL. The new characters, and why I need to despise them is challenging to keep up with. : )
Pick a color. Any color. Follow their race, even if they're a bit back. You'll learn their team really well and quickly you'll learn a bunch about the teams they directly battle with. In a few races, your color might move way up the grid, or fall way back, as the tracks change. Then you get to learn a new rival. Trying to follow the circus all at once is too much to process and I never really crack the surface.
I miss Lotus on the grid. When Ford was trying to beat Ferrari at Le Mans, Chapman and his crew were already doing it in F1. I suppose it doesn't make financial sense for Geely to do anything more than a sponsorship, but, geez, if an energy drink company can build a competitive F1 car, the folks at Hethel should be able to do likewise.
I don’t know who first said it or similar but I believe it. The right’s free speech is violence and the left’s violence is free speech. The latest IRL example:
https://x.com/BrooklineMAPD/status/1896985826489516309
Sometimes I will ride a bike without a helmet and when people ask me why, I'll show them a picture of this guy. Also, I haven't fallen off a bike since I was a kid.
I’m not gay but the injuries suffered by someone I know falling off his kid’s BMX bike in the cul-de-sac in front of his house had my buying his and hers helmets for my wife and I.
I think I’ve wiped out on more bicycles than any of my friends / family or even most older peers I know - except maybe Jack. I was ridiculed for years growing up being forced to wear a helmet. Sometimes I’d remove it and hide it in the woods to re affix it before I returned. It didn’t help I was ALWAYS biking if not for fun, a means of transportation up to and including getting to work.
Rode a bit of non competitive bmx, a little freestyle, mountain biking etc.
I’ve never EVER put even a scratch on a helmet or landed on my lid. The most action it saw were some low hanging branches / leaves. That being said I’ve watched multiple people eat shit where a helmet completely saved their face / teeth - my sister one of them. Not everyone can fall correctly or even mitigate an accident. There’s definitely an art to it.
The faster you are traveling and the more outside variables, the more a skull cap matters. Any competition, fast downhill trails, environments like a park where there are plenty of extra angles and things to find…
It’s why I’m a huge proponent of them on motorcycles. My own brother has vision issues and some level of brain damage (which honestly I think has been a good thing for his personality) even from wrecking a basic scooter (think Vespa / Metropolitan / Faggio ) at a slower speed.
Much better to be safe than sorry. Especially if getting some road rash is a new concept to you. For the record I bike without one when riding around normally. Hopefully that doesn’t bite me one day.
I ride at 12mph on limestone paths 90% of the time. No cars, no aggressive riding. Sometimes i wear the helmet but usually only if im on the street like it will magically save me from a soccer mom texting in her tahoe
Unrelated it’s our first full week of semi decent weather in NE Ohio and already tonite I see someone lost their life on a bike near my house. If the pattern follows routine, it’ll be once a week until late October. I can’t tell people how to live or enjoy their lives but at least give your family the opportunity for an open casket. Tonite’s incident didn’t sound like it’d have mattered otherwise…
I'd bet 90+% of them are wearing helmets.
Wear the damn helmet. I’ve had several crashes in the past few years riding a bicycle; I ride several times a week. Some my fault, some due to idiot drivers. Have cracked a couple of helmets but no head injuries. Trek will replace a helmet for free within a year of purchase; don’t know about other brands. And your balance will get worse as you get older.
I concur that to default to a helmet is good protocol. My two biggest crashes on my bike didn't put a scratch or dent in my helmet, *however*, it doesn't mean they weren't doing their job of being in between me and part of the earth that my head didn't want to meet in that fashion.
Oregon doesn't mandate helmets for adults, but I like flying down descents at 30-40 mph, so at least my brain will be in good shape relative to a bunch of broken bones and internal injuries caused by no other bodily defense. My (Trek) helmet was bought after last summer's big crash. It's super light, high tech, visible (white), looks good/slim, and the color matches my cycling shoes--I make the best of this 'situation', even as romantically appealing it would be to wear those small cycling caps worn by racers in the '60s, '70s, and '80s.
Hilarious ends of the horseshoe meeting moment:
Obviously the person doing this is a left wing person doing this to denigrate Tesla owners by association with Musk,
But could also see this being a right wing troll attempting to get Tesla’s often-liberal owners to confront their own association with Musk.
I love that Brookline PD won’t put up with this behavior. Cambridge would just sweep this guy under the rug.
It’s been fun to watch the people cry about Teslas and Terrorism (big T). Much like how today everyone to the right of Mao is a Nazi, the word “terrorism” has lost all meaning. Throwing Molotov cocktails at Teslas/Tesla dealerships in an attempt to influence the government (Musk and/or Trump) is closer to the DOJ’s definition of Terrorism than just about anything else that the MSM has labeled as terrorism since September of 2001.
Also, Bronx Bar sucks. You can’t be edgy when you’re situated around the corner from a Shinola store. All of the real dives are on the outskirts of town or inner-ring suburbs.
Walking through a building unimpeded = terrorism
Blowing up cars = free speech
Isn't Shinola for dispensing edgy midwestern fashion at malls?
You don’t get cred for being an edgy Detroit brand unless you have your flagship store in Midtown Detroit. See: Carhartt.
Carhartt always puzzled me. Has stuff in Walmart, workwear stores. Also has a line of stores in like Soho NYC and Eurocapitals where they charge lots of money for slightly different clothing products. I believe I have seen Schott peddling expensive fashion workwear, but I've never seen another company that has seemingly normal workwear alongside a fashion line.
Maybe Red Wing Shoes is another one.
I’ve never been that in on Carhartt as I’m not not a blue collar worker, but they struck me as a company that makes good stuff for tradesmen who said “we don’t know why the strivers like our stuff but we’ll mark it up and sell it to them as long as they want.”
I admire their little "WIP" scam but I wish they'd keep making the workwear in the USA.
does Duluth Trading make its stuff in USA?
The Carhartt store in Milan is amazing! It's all modern with cool mannequins and chill music. Like if Prada got into workwear.
Milan, IN, or Milan, OH?
“The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass every day, but mister, you ain’t seen a ray of light since you got here.”
IYKYK. Growing up in Indiana in the 60’s the Milan championship was mythical. It gave every team hope they could win. No HS school classes based on size.
Basketball was a BFD back then. The high schools in my conference all had gym seating in the thousands. Our gym - not the biggest - sat over 5,000. The annual Indiana/Kentucky all star game was the biggest sporting event of the year.
Milan, IL has an excellent Chinese restaurant, Shanghai.
I go at least once a month with a friend from work.
How could you snub Milan, MI like that?
OR Milan, MI?
OR Milan, Italy?
Carhartt has at least one *boutique* in Tokyo.
It's also edgy at Somerset, what with the burkas and hijabs all around.
If you want to see burkas, head to Hamtramck. Men in djellabas too.
I photograph the Hamtramck Labor Day festival every year, the husbands get mighty testy when I shoot the ladies.
"Officer, I wasn't taking a picture of the kid. It was a down-blouse shot of mom when she bent over, honest."
Or, if you've got some air miles, London!
Carhartt was founded in Detroit and is still family-owned. The headquarters offices are in Dearborn. It's interesting that they have both the big store on Cass and then also a store less than a mile away on Canfield, near Shinola and Jack White's retail stores.
The one time I was at the store on Cass it was very busy.
It's a drag that so much of their stuff is made in China, but unlike Eddie Bauer, Carhartt still makes decent stuff.
Also Sam's Club. Bronx looks as much dive bar as Shinola is a watch manufacturer.
And?
Not original to me but someone said that Hitler would weep today to see that the Nazi brand has fallen to mean making electric cars and trying to save taxpayers money.
poorly made ones at that which is possibly a greater insult
funny how one of the axis powers has now come to refer to anyone i dont like
I wish "Commie" had the same stigma as Nazi.
so would i but the brainwashing made everyone think those were the good guys
and maybe Trump carrying Putin's water?
if that means ending a war thats killed tens of thousands of white guys then ill help him find a bucket
i dont like the meat grinder or the endless aid spending
Most of the folks supporting more war are those who have never heard or felt a shot fired in anger. Plus, it won't be them or their kids that will do the fighting.
From what I've read, Vladimir and Kim sacrificed a few Asian guys to the meat grinder as well.
I don't think that Trump is acting on behalf of Putin, frankly I think his ego is too big to be acting at the behest of anyone, except maybe Americans in general, but let's look at this geopolitically. Some people have suggested that Trump do a "reverse Kissinger". Nixon went to China at Kissinger's recommendation to gain leverage against the Soviet Russians. Lawyers like to say that the most successful negotiations are when both parties walk away unhappy. If Putin sees Trump as an honest broker of a deal that he can accept, that could help the US vis a vis it's primary geopolitical rival and possible enemy China.
Commie works petty well as a term of derision for the Redskins. Actually, I still just call them the Redskins.
Jack, I demand you cancel linearphase! Actually, I wonder if Jack calls them the Commanders.
And the Cleveland Indians. And the Sears Tower.
It won't during the remaining lifetime of the United States.
Perhaps in five hundred years, when communists don't control the galaxy's media, Uncle Joe and the Dear Leader will be as hated as Der Fuhrer.
The Old Miami back in the 80’s and early 90’s was a good Midtown dive bar. Now they are all Ferndale/Royal Oak
One funny thing about the ascendancy of dive bar culture is how fake and ridiculous it is in 2025.
There are what you might call dive bars near where I used to live, but truthfully they are less “dive bars” and more “intentionally poorly-outfitted and kitschily-decorated shitholes” designed to appeal to urban left-leaners… who would feel “too bougie” for enjoying clean, well-decorated, more formal, deliberately-appealingly-designed bar or lounge.
I hate-read Jalop just to facepalm/laugh at the idiocy passing itself off as journalism/blogging. As much as I hate to admit it, there's an element of masochism involved, but I do draw the line at reading anything written by Fat Brad, because, well, Fat Brad, but my God, what a cesspool of "OMG, you're the sperm that won?" that is...
He's complained about his father online in the past... his stepfather was the REAL DAD who STEPPED UP and that was also true of his wife whose father is NOT IN HER LIFE and her stepdad is THE REAL DAD and so on.
"Why do bash “dead-beat” dads for not being there for their kids but we never question if the child has bad vibes. Or if they're just unpleasant to be around."
Top-5 best tweets of all time
Or if the ex-wife has lawfared the dad to the point that the dad, for his sanity, has to check out of any relationship with his kids.
Close friend hasn’t seen his kids in 20 years because the ex turned the kids against him. He has financially supported his kids throughout, but the lack of contact took him to, in his words, “a very dark place”, so he has checked out totally even though he didn’t want to.
It's easy for me to say it in retrospect, and given the wholeheartedly decent behavior of my son's mother during and after our divorce, but I doubt I could have remained sane and within the bounds of decent behavior in your friend's situation. I kinda think the children and I would be in Malaysia ducking a felonious assault charge.
You’re lucky to have a decent ex. Everything has to be children first and sadly it’s not. My friend is the strongest person I know. Hit rock bottom through the divorce and subsequent bankruptcy, but amazingly bounced back. I don’t know how he compartmentalized the loss of his kids, and obviously you never really do, but he just decided it was a burden that wasn’t going to bring him down. It’s the Victor Frankl theory that when everything is taken from you, all you have left and can control is how you react to it.
True story, my friend’s car was firebombed during the divorce process. Gas can shoved under the rear wheel well and the trunk lid lit up with an accelerant. Luckily the gas can never exploded.
The city bomb squad came out, he told them his story, and the investigators just gave him the knowing nod.
So many stories of fathers getting lawfared to Pluto and back and main narrative Society not changing anything to improve that, even from "conservative" outlets that just tell the man to soldier on and try again eventually with another woman. And many men accept that and try again. Hard to not do that when men are by nature attracted to women, especially when chemistry (as Ronnie points out below) can so easily happen. I wonder where the divorces are concentrated, if not geologically, but on a world view/political spectrum.
[Stops the comment from turning into a rambling novel with half a dozen related topics...]
I can say much the same about my ex. She called the other day to see if I wanted to collaborate on a Bar Mitzvah gift for our grandson. She's a sewer and wants to make him a tefillin bag and wanted to know if I'd embroider the fabric with the monogram his parents had designed for the invitations. I suggested embroidering some kind of "from Zayde & Savta" on the lining too. "Oh, that's a good idea." I made her laugh a couple of times. The phone call was pleasant but a bit aggravating because the chemistry is still there.
Had to pause at the third sentence to get the context right.
God created man to have a pair-bonded sexual aspect to our being. We were capable of sex before the Fall, which means God wants it for us.
Christian scholars assert that God grants perfected bodies to those who make it to Heaven. Bodies with both physical and spiritual components.
God loves each of us, wants was best for us and is in a unique position to grant that perfect goodness.
Putting two and two together, one could easily imagine a person dying, going to Heaven and meeting God.
"Welcome home, faithful servant. When you get done catching up with your friends and family, there's someone I'd like you to meet."
My oldest friend and his first wife divorced for one reason, and one reason only.
Each one wanted to win the argument more than they wanted to make the marriage work.
Yeah, and if you just throw up your hands and let her win every argument, she gets angry because you're not engaging.
Some people are born psychos. That's the current theory about Vladimir Lenin, anyway.
like a pair of soggy puzzle pieces they were made for each other
hate jalop with great intensity, only a left-wing car hating political site now
Forgot to mention that in my comment...
The Autopian has taken the leftward turn, as expected. Ex Jalopnik writers just recreating Jalopnik. I don’t get it.
Fortunately they haven’t jumped the shark just yet, but I’m not liking the direction they’re going. Plus they rescued Jack’s BFF Alanis King…
Maybe they want something that floats when the ship goes down
🤣🤣🤣🤣
They’re actively working on sinking their ship, they just don’t know it yet. I’m OK with any site having outlier articles, but when the outliers become more frequent, I’m out. That’s *any* online site.
"The Glorious Revolutionary Workers' And Peasants' Internet Site Of Automobiles."
was Jalop ever doing journalism? I say that as a fan of what the site once was.
I don't about real journalism, but I used to like them too. I once sent the editor, Ballaban I think, a suggestion that they lay off the politics, since they were, you know, a car site? His response was a snide "Pro tip" to not read the political articles if I don't want to. I told him that he was a fool to blow off a reader and was gratified when the whole Gawker episode brought Jalop down with it. I go there about once month when I remember they still exist. Same with TTAC.
15 years ago I used to love to read Jalop. Even back then they had a slightly left bent. They went full in during Trump's first presidency. The weird thing was that at one time they had a bunch of automotive writers opining every day about how we don't need pickup trucks and no one should drive and everyone should use mass transit. That same writer would then do a review on some vehicle. Why would I trust this writer?
Jalopnik's childishness, petulance, and obsession with Big Bad Tesla That Can Do No Good is quite something to read, or at least skim the article titles of. TDS V2.0.. Sure, I don't know their upbringing, but their SSH type is Gamma (at best) to the pathetic maximum. "Have you tried...*not* caring? Do you know how freeing it is to not give a rip about something, and how truly transformative physically, mentally, and emotionally that can be?" I suppose this is akin to asking one's wife to calm down or telling someone who is depressed to think happy thoughts or "just stop being sad." It's nice to read the Autopian, even if they still drink from that poisonous well. I miss pre-Super-AI Autoblog from a couple years ago because it was at least a nicely organized, centrally-located place to get new and concept/auto show car debuts *with* full photo galleries. As it stands, I am fully behind on all the new Ferrari models and sub-models outside the Roma. Oh well!
Jack - just find a very cheap bricked Tesla and park it in your driveway as a sort of "fly trap"
The people who do this shit aren't coming to rural Ohio to try it out for the same reason the shitbirds surrounding Jewish kids on elite college campuses aren't coming to rural Tennessee to protest white supremacy. They are operating solely where they have political cover and the expectation that they won't face an armed lamb contesting their vote on dinner.
Amen. Here in the center of White Christian extremism in Tennessee outside of Nashville I believe you’d find the local law enforcement very understanding if you took one of them out if they tried to torch your Tesla in your driveway. And if not you’d have a solid chance of jury nullification.
As long as the feds don't pile on a hate crime charge when it hits the press. Not as likely under the current administration
“Here in the center of White Christian extremism in Tennessee outside of Nashville…”
Begging your pardon - is this sarcasm or is it really still true where you live? Slash would a drive to Tootsies take longer than an hour
It must be true. I read it in the Nashville Scene. I can get downtown in about a half hour in off rush hour traffic via expressway. Maybe 40 minutes on regular streets.
https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/coverstory/right-flight-williamson-county-is-a-hotbed-of-far-right-political-power/article_d566a1a8-ff17-11ed-b9a8-9f954b9f2d01.html
“It must be true. I read it in the Nashville Scene.”
🤣🤣🤣🤣 thank you for that, I needed it this morning.
You’re welcome! I’m a very giving person. 😂
"I had no choice, Deputy. I thought they were gonna kill me."
I know that. Was just poking our dear author.
The alliance between the radical left and Muslim extremists is fascinating. The Khalil guy that Trump & Co. are trying to deport spouts a lot of leftist revolutionary rhetoric but undoubtedly would be fine with an Islamic caliphate. His wife with the anchor baby in her belly wears a hijab. Those on the left are cool with the Islamists because they both want to destroy the West.
i was kinda hoping theyd take each other out tbh
Inshallah.
With any luck, the center-left types who daily drive Teslas will be so repulsed by the insanity of the far left that they'll vote for moderates in every primary, thus restoring some degree of sanity to the Democrat party.
Oh, right - there are no longer any moderate Democrat politicians running for office. Well, it was a nice thought, anyway.
Even if a centrist Dem got elected on centrist policies, as soon as they got into office they’d vote for transing kids and DEI.
This is the correct analysis. If you vote for a Dem at the national level you will get an extremist. Let’s not forget Biden was a centrist until he got elected, then he got busy transient the kids. Or at least the auto-pen got busy.
The stated policy positions of leftists who enter political primaries for low office in my (very liberal) town claim a preferred slate of policy proposals so far left they must have totally detached themselves from reality. Gun confiscation/illegalization, police restriction or elimination, dramatic restrictions on sentencing even for violent crimes:
There’s an increasingly obvious element of masochism to it.
Do you have a source for your carrot/stick interpretation? The dictionary I have at hand (Webster's Collegiate 11th) gives the definition: "carrot-and-stick, adj. [fr. the traditional alternatives of driving a donkey on by either holding out a carrot or whipping it with a stick] (1876) : characterized by the use of both reward and punishment to induce cooperation."
So while the traditional phrase (or compound adjective) is carrot-and-stick (meaning both punishment and incentive together) I don't think this prevents people backing into to talking about the carrot or the stick. Your definition reduces the phrase by making it purely about reward.
I have a number of books at hand collecting commonly misused words and phrases, and none of them includes this.
I prefer the German version which translates to Gingerbread or Slap
Or in the words of Ray Donovan, “The bat or the sack?”
Plata o plomo?
- Pablo Escobar
If Ray was on the Disney payroll, Rachel Zeigler wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem. She'd do an interview, and Ray would get to the interviewer before publishing. "Your talked to who? WHO???? I'm going to make a phone call".
Snow White is going to go down in flames.
https://youtu.be/bgPDxRkci_A?si=KI4kcN3Sk_GDDWww
The carrot-and-stick dichotomy *might* predate the idea of a carrot dangling off a stick, but I can't figure out if it does.
It doesn't.
You should listen to the James McMurtry song “No More Buffalo”, especially the live version on the album “Live in aught-three”, there is a line about that carrot dangling from a stick. And it’s a great song. By one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time, and a great album.
I'm on the case. Thank you!
I’ll see your “No More Buffalo” and raise you his cover of “Choctaw Bingo,” a Ray Wylie Hubbard tune. JM’s debut album Too Long in the Wasteland was solid as granite.
https://youtu.be/AWEJPqJtZsk?si=YpfgAHsjs7Hsm0pK
“Bought a SKS rifle and a couple a full cases of that steel core ammo
With the berdan primers from some East bloc nation that no longer needs 'em
And a Desert Eagle that's one great big ol' pistol
I mean .50 caliber made by badass Hebrews
And some surplus tracers for that old BAR of Slayton's
Soon as it gets dark we're gonna have us a time
We're gonna have us a time.”
As a matter of fact, one of my best live music memories is watching McMurtry at The Continental Club in Austin playing “Choctaw Bingo”, and a smokin’ hot waitress jumped up on the bar and started dancing in the guitar solo leading up to “…I just wanna get between them with a big ole’ hard-on, like a bull dark fence post, that you hang a pipe rail gate from, and do some sister twisters till the cows come home…”
Choctaw Bingo is amazing. He cooks that crystal meth because the, 'shine don't sell
Rick T., oh yes, “Choctaw Bingo” is a favorite of mine. I’ve watched him play it live multiple times.
I was just highlighting “No More Buffalo” for the “carrot dangling on a stick” reference in Jack’s column.
To steal a line from “Office Space”, I celebrate the guy’s entire catalog.
Sure thing. I was just looking for an excuse to mention it. I just love that song as I’m a lyrics kind of guy so there you go.
Copy that. I grew up in Austin and he is an Austin guy. I have been lucky enough to see him many times in various settings-from the first Austin City Limits music festival at Zilker Park, to the Saxon Pub, to his residency at The Continental Club. The guy is just amazing.
We used stick or beer in my fraternity days, and they were very much two separate choices with distinctly different outcomes.
"Rubbers? What do we need rubbers for?"
"Baaaaaaaaaa!!!"
1. There are probably a handful of people in the US who have the OPSEC to avoid the federal government and none of them are on reddit
2. It's going to be hilarious watching SIR lewis hamilton meltdown as Ferrari continuously fucks up the strategy and he ends up behind Sharles race after race. F-1 will be must see tv for this alone
3. I am almost rooting for Mercedes because as much as I cannot stand Toto, watching lewis finish behind them will be funnier
4. If anyone at GM wants to give me a Corvette, Ill praise that ugly ass vehicle on my own substack. Offer also stands for a loaded Tahoe but I think they're handsome
2. "K1" has me traumatized. "Well it is Ferrari strategy!!!! It's always bad." And last year a couple of positions between them and McClaren changing during the season and Ferrari wins the WCC. So, I guess Ferrari has regressed in strategy?
It was a strategy race to the bottom between Ferrari and McLaren last season.
how did we once just root for all the drivers in f1 and indy and nascar even as we realized some were much better than others? any fan root against ANYBODY racing in 1960?
My guess, and i wasn't even a twinkle in my fathers eyes yet in 1960, is racing went from Niche to mainstream and the drama inevitably followed.
were there any drivers back then who people found insufferable?
They weren’t insufferable because they were approachable and weren’t spoiled by money. I would go to sprint car races in Indiana as a youngster with my Dad, and Indy drivers would show up and race because they were local and just wanted to race anything with 4 wheels. Tony Stewart was probably the last name driver to do that. Plus you would see young midget or sprint car drivers who would end up at Indy later. It was their training ground before Indy Lights and other series appeared.
And they could be dead five minutes later...like my namesake.
Enzo Ferrari comes to mind.
I go back to the early 60’s listening to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing via transistor radio on Memorial Day during a cookout. I don’t remember any of that. I do remember Mario breaking my little heart every year except one and the bad luck of poor Andy Granatelli.
It wasn't the '60s, but I never rooted for Dale Earnhardt Sr. I'm sure he could have competitively driven in any top level racing series but outside of NASCAR he'd have been banned for life for the way he drove.
Also, I've always rooted against Ferrari. Rooting for Ferrari is like rooting for the Yankees (baseball team, not the country).
Tifosi tears of anguish are almost as delectable as leftist tears of anguish.
Vintage Ferraris were built like crap, reflecting Enzo's scorn for his customers. I was in concours-winning Mike Kleeve's shop, covering the Bugatti 64 body he was making for Peter Mullin and over to the side was a Zagato 250 GTO getting restored. It was one of five made, the only "lusso" [luxury] version of the five. It had already been taken down to bare metal. The roof was made of irregularly shaped aluminum that was pieced together. You could see every mark made by Luigi's hammer shaping the metal. Kleeve's guys had trouble removing the cotton flock based body filler in every little divot. The frame was fabricated with very skinny looking 1" tubing, with welds that can best be described as scabrous.
Ah, the best in Italian automotive engineering.
Made with all the attention to detail of a frat-party bonfire.
I subscribe to the theory that the flat-12 in the 512 BB and Testarossa had both timing belts AND an engine-out replacement procedure for them because Enzo deliberately ordered his engineers to design the engine that way BECAUSE HE WAS AN ASSHOLE.
Earnhardt Sr. always looked like he should've been up on a roof with a nail gun.
The NAIAS aka Detroit auto show is really three shows. There's the press preview, then the industry days, and then the public show, so at the press preview there are lots of tradespeople setting up and knocking down displays.
Once I ran into Bob Seger during the media preview. When I saw him, at first I wasn't sure it was him because there were dozens of greybeards in blue jeans who look like Bob Seger working at the show.
That sounds like when I lived in Pittsburgh and I ran into Jerome Bettis is a CoGo's convenience store. It least I think it was him - the guy was wearing a Steelers jersey with "BETTIS" across the back.
But something seemed strange to me. I thought Jerome Bettis was a big black guy. Turns out he was actually a scrawny five-foot-two white dude rockin' a Hulk Hogan mustache and a power mullet.
The media are such liars.
Jalen Rose had some kind of meeting in the office building near my home that houses a small restaurant I patronize and while I was there he came in and ordered about $100 worth of takeout for lunch. No 50 year old man has hair that black without dying it, and the Gucci bag he was carrying probably cost more than my Honda is worth.
Regarding jerseys, a memorabilia dealer has a game worn jersey from when John Schreiber, now on the Kansas City Royals, was on the Tigers and it's marked down to less than 100 bucks. Very tempted.
The fact that it was extraordinarily dangerous back then was probably a factor. One would not want to wish harm upon someone and then have harm come to them the next Sunday.
I, for one, fully support the people who think it's a great idea to go around vandalizing Teslas, harassing Tesla owners, and fire-bombing or shooting up Tesla dealerships. I've written a few times here about the conflict that is being insisted on by certain segments of the political spectrum and how it will not look anything like what they imagine in their ridiculous fantasies of the world vindicating them and handing over control.
Their actions here are a big red suppository making it abundantly clear that the gap between them and, say, ISIS could be stepped over by a toddler. Turns out that they don't need you to commit an injustice against George Floyd to get violent against you...all you have to do is drive the wrong car and you are a target.
Not a general, you. Not people who look like you. You, specifically...all because you are driving a vehicle that was a progressive icon like ten minutes ago. But we have always been at war with Eastasia!
Sunlight is the best disinfectant in the world (which would have been useful to remember back during COVID, but that would have been right for the wrong reasons or some such shit according to the NYT) and the more the people who are the core of the problem out themselves and clearly show that they are in fact just authoritarian shitbirds looking for an excuse to abuse others under the banner of a supposedly noble ideology, the less bewitched by their bullshit the general public becomes.
The more the general public sees them for who they are, the more unhinged and extreme they will become. Bloodshed is inevitable....but that bloodshed will generate a very large public outcry of fucking enough already, and that in turn will have profound impacts on all the institutions that will set the course for at least a generation, and likely a considerably better one than we've been on.
I don't know what the exact catalyst for that moment of crystallization will be, but it's coming. I would prefer if we could realize this is all stupid before any more innocent blood is spilled, but unfortunately the people who feel justified in firebombing shit aren't going to listen to any kind of reason on this.
Unlike the people who bombed police stations in the 60's, there won't be any tenured faculty positions at public universities or them this time. Just prison.
That is the pickle. What does one do with these spiteful mutants? Perhaps Franco's worst mistake was being merciful and 'only' putting some of them in camps, where they plotted and proceeded to make more trouble as soon as they got out.
Prosecute them for the laws they've broken. Accountability has a way of stopping this sort of madness. The people doing this are not used to facing consequences for doing it.
Prosecute them for every law they broke. Pull some of that Jack McCoy bullshit and charge them with 15 minor versions of the same crime (eg Assault, Assault With A Deadly Weapon, Assault With Intent To Cause Grevious Bodily Harm, etc.)
Especially in the last four years in certain areas! 😉
There's a lot of fed-level teeth-gnashing about Musk haters as "terrorists". Time will tell if a future Dem admin pardons those convicted of defacing Teslas using the Jan 8 pardons as precedent.
That could set up a fascinating, and highly unpleasant, resonance in the violence economy, where you have groups of people doing awful things in full expectation of a pardon when the other side has power.
Is it any worse than the Marc Rich pardon? That's for history to say.
It's not terrorism. People calling it that are stupid.
...at least until it escalates to the point where they're burning Teslas with people in them. Which is coming sooner or later.
What they are right now are violent criminals. We have plenty of laws for dealing with that.
I was having lunch with a friend today and explained that unless the armed forces supported the left, any civil war would be short. American citizens have more guns and ammo than most countries' armies do. My guess is most of those Americans with guns are not on the left. Likewise with millions of military veterans who could bring their own skills to the fight, many with combat experience.
Who wants to fight a hundred million armed machinists, drivers, survivalists, conspiracy theorists, ex-soldiers, victims of the IRS and assorted headcases?
Even if most of them ARE working alone?
Your comment about the distance from your house to your mailbox reminds me of the scene in the book "The Dog Stars" where the protagonist would sleep in the bushes outside of his house while leaving the deck light on. When undesirables would show up and start looking at the electric light (no power in this post apocalypse), he and his partner would pick them off with their rifles. Anyway... I look forward to your long term Cybertruck test.
The only crying in racing is when you can’t race anymore.
And then there's a LOT of it!
They have rascals in the retirement homes. Im sure some geezer has figured out how to supe them up and race
There's an entire hot-rodded Power Wheels subculture, so why not Rascals?
Regarding the new Cummins and the idea of swappable chassis, I recall a story about a decade ago about a field services company for pipelines that worked areas so rough they were killing new pickups in less than a year. Their solution was to buy an old 50's Power Wagon and drop a new Cummins powertrain into it. At the time the story was published it had been working for a few years, and they were planning on keeping it forever as it appeared unkillable.
They were selling class 8 “rollers” for a while so guys could swap rebuilt pre emissions diesels in to them. I believe it got cracked down on.
What a fabulous idea!
Nobody tell ANYONE in Los Angeles.
better yet, don't mention it to anyone in Sacramento
TOO LATE ! . I don't know how but 'they' always seem to know what's going on .
-Nate
late '70s at hallett we had an official new chevy truck reveal or promotion or whatever. it involved thrashing them around on the unpaved bits. i heard it tore the front suspensions out of several and a quickish redesign was in order. sorry i wasn't there to see it!
Thank you! This is what I was wondering -- what about dropping this Cummins into an older pickup with a blown/worn engine?
The Cummins diesel has become the most common swap for old full size trucks of all brands. It’s dirt cheap, and with the replacement of a pesky bolt it’s bulletproof, and easily tunable up to 500-600hp.
Also: We can definitely do better than 4.9" of drop, bro.
He's using a pellet gun
.30-06 killed everything with a heartbeat on this continent so you might as well try that
i am a fudd at heart
Limp-wrist neighbor: “you have rifles in your home? Like you could shoot someone on the street in front of your house?”
Me, hopped up on Weller Special Reserve: “I could shoot someone on [Main Street nearby a couple hundred yards away] without really having to think about it.”
L-WN: “how can you have that here in the suburbs?”
Me: “well hopefully you’ll never have to wonder why you don’t have it.”
Dude it’s a $700 Savage .30-06, literally anyone could have it.
if he shot back that he preferred a 10.3 ar with a can on it for home defense you could have made a friend right there
I also asked him (in December) loudly in front of a group of other neighbors when he’s taking his Harris sign down. So probably not.
In 300 Blackout, naturally.
of course
id take an mp5sd becuase those are almost dead silent which is great for not waking the neighbors up
See, it's posts like that that make us think less 'Canadian' and more 'catfishing fed'. Say, what's the color of the boathouse at Hereford?
Sadly, Cans are illegal in Illinois unless your a certain class FFL. I've looked into being an FFL but the paperwork requirement juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Scott A's CPA and firearms,LLC
"If they're in the street in front of the house, I'll probably just use the shotgun"
.22 with birdshot for me--just gotta scare those coward bullies a little and they--well, most of them--will be gone!
Deadly force is deadly force. Once you start using deadly force they should all be dead.
300 winmag to center mass
Agreed, but it depends on the jurisdiction. Who wants to be the next Daniel Penney? I’m fine down here in NC where our local deputy for my county sector gives us his cell phone number, but it would be awful risky to defend yourself, say, in Chicago.
Good for snakes too, but I repeat myself.
I personally don’t have a weapon as I’m old (72) and never dedicated the time for training that I think a responsible person should if they do. My one neighbor has a gun safe the size of a subzero and the other is a naval academy graduate so we should be ok.
But I’m a big 2nd amendment supporter. I went to a couple demonstrations in Chicago around it and had the pleasure of shaking the hand of Mr Otis McDonald, the plaintiff in McDonald vs the City of Chicago case. We got Illinois FOID so we could take the day long NRA safety course with two hours of range time.
What did this Naval Academy grad do in the Navy? If it wasn’t in the teams there is a really good chance he knows nothing about guns (at least from the Navy). I always chuckle when I’m talking with navy vets who tell me about pistol marksmanship with 22 revolvers. In the 90s. You’ve been warned!
"Naval Academy Grad" could also mean a five-foot-two, 95-pound Philipina using a naval commission to launch her aspirations to political office as a Hard D.
Speed I thought Trudy disarmed all the undesirables in Cuba North? Are you not worried that the CMP might come knocking at the door of your house boat?
hunting rifles (despite being subjected to a bunch of pointless regulation) are one of the few firearms that are actually legal
for now
i might actually be on a list somewhere though
All rifles are hunting rifles! Although I almost bought a 6.5 creedmore over a 308 and anything under 30 caliber is illegal for hunting in Illinois. Which is a step up from previous years where rifles weren't allowed at all. Maybe one of these days I'll get a deer.
see what you said is entirely correct but the govt of canada sees ar15s and other semi auto rifles as scary black fully semiautomatic baby killing weapons of war that nobody should ever have for any reason becuase youre not allowed or encouraged to defend yourself
i do not agree with the govt of canada
Bambi tacos are great ! .
Share with your friends, they too will become firearm enthusiasts .
make sure they're trained ! roger was a dope who laid his fully loaded hunting rife on the seat of his truck and saw a flash, grabbed the muzzle and hopped out of the truck, put a .30-06 round through his femoral artery and very nearly bled out up there in the woods .
The only thing that saved his life was : the guys were just that year trying out portable walkie-talkies so one of the other guys got there P.D.Q., tied him off and transported down the hill screaming on the radio for help .
-Nate
6.5 Creed is the heat if you want to shoot out to 1,200 yards. .308 is kind of out of gas at about 800 absent some special setups in barrel and ammo. But for killing game .308 works just as well as it ever did.
Longest range i have by me is 600 yards. I havent even reached out to 100 yet. Mostly new to rifles. Mostly been pistols and shotguns. I Have some learning to do this summer
The .50 BMG cartridge.
The only round used for hunting that's never WOUNDED an animal.
Sir, I only have a .22 caliber Walther Parrus airsoft gun, I don't believe in violence.
They sell .22 caliber pellets with tannerite on the tips
america is the greatest country in the world
We sell fully automatic air guns in 308 that will take down a full size man.
My neighbor started carrying one of those Byrna gas guns in his pickup during the Floyd riots.
I'd really only recommend these things for people who can't own proper firearms or need things to be a bit quieter.
I can't shoot squirrels in my backyard with a proper 22 and while it is against our city ordinance to shoot pests with a pellet gun, they're not loud enough for it to really be an issue.
hmmm I need to look those up. My .177 pellet guns are ok for small rodents, but maybe something bigger for here in suburbia would be good to have.
I have a crossman or sheridan 117 and an rws diana 22. The rws diana is very nice but costs more than a ruger 10/22. Not sure i needed the extra but it will probably take up to a raccon where .177 is better for squirrels and bunnies. I dont shoot many animals these days
But you do believe in self defense…!!! 1911 or 357 Mag or Walter PPK…..
357 Mag or .45 = bad guy? What bad guy?
Hafta wonder what all this red stuff on the ground is about!
Don’t believe in violence?
Beirut over here will pop you for that.
"it’s always nice to be proven right"
especially when you get to watch all the people that pretend reality isnt real and that hamilton actually has 8 championships
"GM made the Olds 350 into a diesel, making a new block for it but being too lazy and arrogant to change the critical dimensions"
for olds guys this was awesome becuase they now had a cheap and plentiful super tough block that could handle tons of power and could be punched out to 440 cubes
how retarded does someone have to be to think that inciting violence is going to be permitted and there wont be any blowback or punishment from that
i mean hes a redditor but still
They've been conditioned to not expect consequences.
Most of the discussion is around property damage, but personal info for Tesla owners is on that site too.
Regardless of political context, I would like to see all doxxing dealt with harshly. Encouraging others to commit violence on your behalf while pretending to have plausible deniability about your intent is one of the biggest bitch moves that i can think of.
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/the-clear-winner-from-f1-new-rule-mini-drs-clampdown/
Flexi-wing clampdown this weekend in China … so we will see how much slower the McLarens are.
I am very frustrated with this. That article made it slightly more clear that the flexibility tests are always subject to revision, but it goes against my feeling of write the rules and live by them. This doesn't appear to be a safety issue.
Yeah, this kind of stuff should a "Oopsy, we missed this one. Won't next year".
It’s very hard to test the wings in static position given they will have to flex under load at the enormous peak downforce figures.
Since there is no practical way to police the wing (or bodywork really) “aero elasticity” at each venue, the teams cheat.
They could have Brad and Amanda stand on the endplates!
Before and after Golden Corral.
They have a practical way, it is the stated tests. If the test is passed it is clever, not cheating. New tests should go through the same lengthy process as new technical regulations. More stability of rules, closer racing in a development series like F1.
Ok - “cheating” was a little tongue in cheek.
The teams exploit the deficiencies of the policing regime.
Real racing in F1? Delete ground effects, wings, and mirrors.
Separate the racecar drivers from the overly brave wanks PDQ.
It’s total competition, unlike ANY other 4 wheel racing series.
Spec series is pretend, and BOP is DEI racing.
I will repeat my suggestion that they all climb into Spec Miatas with street tires...
Make the only communication between the car and the pit wall two way voice during qualifying and the race. The can record as much data at they like, and they can monitor real time in practice and testing, but needs a physical connection to download during a race/qualy. They can have as many lights, data displays, master cautions as they like in the cockpit for safety and for the driver to manage settings.
Look, if the sanctioning body were honest, they'd simply issue every team a copy of one car design, a la IROC.
Then they could have all their bullshit human drama and make racing the soap opera they actually want it to be.
close racing=no new developments i.e. a better car. that's what i wanna see--not identical performance.
Changing the rules to manage the competition in the current era began in 2021, when Verstappen would have cruised to the WDC if Michael Masi hadn't issued a technical directive at Toto Wolff's request to make the rear wing on the Red Bull illegal because it could be seen drooping from an onboard camera, in spite of the wing passing all static load tests. For good measure, Michael Masi also issued a technical directive to make Red Bull's quick pitstops illegal during the season on the request of Toto Wolff, in spite of Red Bull not being one of the teams that struggled to fasten wheels to cars.
Last season, McLaren started making an absolute mockery of the wing flexibility rules, and the right course of action would have been to update the tests for 2025. The precedent was set for the FIA to issue a technical directive immediately, making McLaren run wings that didn't flex and open dramatically with three separate moving planes. Instead, they did none of these things. They made the other teams waste money developing flexible wings that could be banned at any time. Then they said that the flexible wings could be used for the first 6 races of 2025, meaning that anyone who wanted to be competitive had to throw money at a dying technology or let McLaren have a potentially insurmountable lead.
Ferrari changed everything. It was thought that they were also doing a great job with flexible wings in the second half of 2025, and that letting them have 6 races to bury Max Verstappen would increase the chances of Lewis Hamilton winning something. Unfortunately for the FIA and McLaren, there's no helping Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari with the current specs. Since the rules aren't helping Hamilton against Max Verstappen, they are being changed immediately. The hope is that this will make Ferrari competitive with McLaren and Red Bull. When that doesn't work, who knows what the FIA will try.
i wonder how max feels knowing that so much time effort and money was spent trying to kneecap him only to fail becuase hes just that good