Bez looks unstoppable during practice and qualifying as he secures an easy pole position. Fermin Aldeguer begins from 2nd, and Raul Fernandez, of all riders, starts from 3rd. Marc Marquez suffers through wrecks and a rough start to the weekend having to come through Q1 only to place for a lowly 9th starting position.
Still, none of that was as bad as Perfect Pecco's perilous plummet from the pinnacle of last weekend: 16th place starting position for Bagnaia.
In the sprint Bez, or his bike, blew the start and tumbled back down to 8th position. Aldeguer charged ahead and, at one point, had a three second gap. That gap would be eaten up lap after lap by a hard charging Bezzecchi who would overtake Fermin on the last lap to come back to victory. Raul Fernandez started the same as he finished in the ride of his career. Alex Marquez managed to clamber from 7th to 4th, with big brother finishing 6th after a long lap penalty from an overly aggressive move on Alex Rins. The full race would have much more over aggression from both Aprilia riders with some gnarly results.
The race begins and Bez again is blown away off the line and falls back. As he tries to charge up through the pack he carries far too much roll speed through a corner, stands his bike up as he rolls off, and careens into the back of Marc Marquez' ride. As Marc hit the gravel trap and tumbles his right shoulder augers into the gravel and leaves him with damaged ligaments and at least one minor fracture. Marc will miss at least the next two rounds, but he has already secured the championship and so will focus on recovery as needed. Bez would shoot by and lose the bike in the deep gravel, tumbling as well, but without incurring serious injury.
Fermin Aldeguer and Pedro Acosta went toe to to for the first few laps until Aldeguer got by Pedro and... disappeared into the distance. The rookie, now the second youngest to have won a MotoGP race, finished 7s (giving up ~1.5s on the last lap as he cruised to victory) ahead of his competition in a total demolition job. Acosta, meanwhile, kept up an incredible defense against Luca Marini and Raul Fernandez. In the end, Pedro was helped immensely by Fernandez' excessive aggression and dive bombing which, instead of waiting for Luca to dispatch Pedro, cost both of them positions and forced Luca to cede two spots by the end of the race. Marini 5th, Fernandez all the way down to 6th.
Alex Marquez was the big winner over the weekend as he managed a third place to put both Gresinis on the podium and cement his 2nd place lead.
Pecco Bagnaia crashed out of the race after only seven laps while running, by that time, about 20s behind the race leader. This must be extremely distressing for the rider to go from one extreme to the other. His only saving grace is that he was helped in his championship hopes for bronze by Bez taking himself out earlier on.
Next week MotoGP is at windy, weathersome, and bird-filled Philip Island, Australia.
I felt dumber after reading articles in either GRM or CM. Probably has to do with what Jack says that most auto journalism is written to a middle school level.
Even if the magazines are garbage, they were well positioned to move to an actual lifestyle brand. They already had the Daytona thing, The Mitty, Orange Blossom tour, $2000 Challenge, UTCC, etc. Add or piggyback off of a few events and you could have something almost monthly. Use the magazine/website to drive FOMO.
Instead they chose to become unfinished project car monthly.
I need to swap my wedding band for a smaller one and when I checked last year 14k gold rings were still less than platinum. (Purity and cost to manufacturer platinum his higher).
I saw a few videos of the shenanigans in Pigeon Forge. From my understanding there was a car show at the convention center in Sevierville. Many cars drive south and ended up in Pigeon Forge at a gas station called Jimmy's.
From social media, the owner usually doesn't mind the cars but it appears things got out of hand. They ended up cancelling the car show in Sevierville and apparently lots of folks are mad.
Now, what I don't get is why schedule a large car show during an extremely busy week adding to the overall strain in the area.
There is a reason why Jeep week or Thunder rally is after spring break in PCB.
Could you imagine Thunder Rally while spring breakers are partying?
"Other than generating some warm-and-fuzzy authoritarian-adjacent, teacher’s-little-pet, run-to-mommy feelings on the part of the people who work there, what effect could it possibly have?"
This is why they pay you the big bucks, Jack. I'm stealing this, by the way.
Jack, love the notion that you were the hinge in the Bari Weiss deal! You 'da man!!
What is the connection with Morris Dees? Isn't he the former SPLC guide who got caught with his hand in the "cookie jar", so to speak?
I pay no attention to auto vehicle racing, I don't even own a car. Uber serves our needs these days so please excuse my naivete: Is Zak Brown the country music guy or someone in motor racing?
Yes. Zak Brown is the head of McLaren, hand in United Autosports, a few other things. Zac Brown is the "chicken fried" singer amongst other things. His only connection to racing was being in the same hotel room as Kenny Habul when it got raided for coke.
During COVID, the ownership of Grassroots Motorsports begged the community for donations to save the magazine. (It was never really clear why COVID meant it needed saving.) But when it turned out that the money wasn't necessary to save the magazine, the Suddards gave the money to the Southern Poverty Law Center for, like, no reason at all. They said that they were touched by the story of George Floyd.
A fair number of GRM supporters asked for their donations back; the Suddards declined.
Even better was when a subscriber/poster on their forum questioned the donation to SPLC, the publisher’s wife told the poster to die in a fire. Literally.
I’d been a subscriber in the past but I declined to continue.
I want EVERYONE here to know that I will NEVER, EVER donate the money you’re giving me to ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER, NO MATTER HOW JUSTIFIED. I will SPEND IT ALL on STUPID SHIT like LEXUS SEDANS.
I was about to comment in defense of GRM but had no idea they had their political heads where the sun don't shine. I do like many of their articles being a nerd and all.
Politics aside, I’d like to hear your defense. I dropped my subs to GRM and CM in 2020.
Recently, I was looking into S197s and a few of their Spec Mustang articles came up so I read a few. Most of the articles were behind a paywall, but the ones that weren’t had maybe a few hundred words.
To me it felt like they were purposely spreading updates thin while cutting out any real technical content. Other projects on their site look to be similar. I guess I don’t understand what their value proposition is.
Slop. They have devolved into quickly written slop or even AI type garbage where it's just parroting easy to google information. Zero creativity or originality.
I'd like to also point out how thorough the comments are on here. There are people whose writing ability is outstanding. It just goes to show how irrelevant much of the "car media" is when we have a group here who don't write for a living but can easily one-up something like GRM... without even trying.
I don't discuss politics with harmonica players and unless I'm tight with them, when musicians start talking politics, I keep my mouth shut and try not to roll my eyes. As it is, some rando on X is trying to get me cancelled from my job at Cars In Depth because I'm a Zionist. Should I tell him?
There's some irony in the fact that the Groypers think anyone with a German sounding surname has to be a Jew, doubly so because Jews formerly used patronymics (Shlomo ben David) until the Habsburg empire mandated them to start using surnames, which is why so many Ashkenazi Jews have Germanic surnames. If my family's name was Hebrew or Yiddish it would have been Sofer or Soifer.
Porsche SE (the holding company) tried to get enough shares in the mid-2000s to get majority control of VW AG, and acquired 40% of VW AG’s shares. But it took on a ton of debt to do so, and that came to a head right when the 2008 financial crisis hit.
In the years following, VW AG turned around and absorbed Porsche AG, which is responsible for Porsche’s car production, acquiring 100% of it by 2012. That said, Porsche SE is still VW AG’s largest shareholder.
In 2022, Porsche AG was partially floated on the stock market. Now VW AG owns roughly 75% of Porsche AG.
When I was a kid, pre-911/912, the rare Porsche WAS a VW: lower, squattier and faster but still Beetle-based. And, of course, Porsche engines found their way into actual VWs and VW-based dune buggies, such as the Meyers Manx.
A quick search just now confirmed my memory of a magazine I subscribed to back then called "Dune Buggies and Hot VWs". To may amazement, it still exists!
"And forget that GRM in general is the equivalent of your Oberlin-grad wine aunt in terms of understanding even the most basic political concepts." 🤣 And they no longer have a tent at the Rolex 24, nor midnight garage tours or Sunday brunch. I still have a couple of their t-shirts though.
A well meaning relative bought me a subscription one year which came with a shirt. I wear it when changing oil or doing body work on the car in my photo.
GRM is like Highlights For Children without the Timbertoes or Goofus and Gallant.
AI is definitely a trade, but long positions have thus far paid off immensely. A few companies will win, and those companies will be unfathomably valuable. Google? OpenAI? For the moment enjoy the ride but don’t get greedy if you are investing. Take some profits.
Porsche should go back to what it did in the '90's but it won't. They and BMW, Mercedes and Audi are now addicted to making moribund and weak SUV's to the masses.
Porsche cars like the 911, 944 and 928 had great traditions of air cooled, 6 or 8 cylinders with manual transmissions and uncontrollable handling. They were unique and had a German flavour. Now they are made in Eastern Europe and Malaysia and have a Dim Sum flavour. They are overgrown, overweight and way overpriced. Sure they're more refined. But that's like being hailed as better behaved ever since being convicted as an axe murderer.
Most people are SUV first and those VPs and management who would previously buy the 911 or 928 in addition to the commuter BMW, Benz, or Audi are just buying one SUV now. Very few people have 3 cars nowadays, and as cost goes up they want one that does it all.
I bought the "to save the company" line for years, since the first Cayenne. I'm calling "bogus" as they backstroke through money and keep doing more and more stupid things ("Daddy says, no more ICE Boxters/Caymans -- oh wait! Just kidding!").
I would argue, however, that BMW has fallen even further than Porsche.
People don't want "one car that does it all", they want something that signals they're suave and urbane and successful. That's why they buy a Macan instead of a Q5.
FWIW, more people have 3 cars than at any time I can remember (I'm 62).
Sure, but what I see living across 3 of America’s wealthiest zip codes is that far more people have 2 cars than you’d expect in the past for the successful types. It seems to split between 2 cars for the “non-car” people buying the SUVs and the car folks with 4+ vehicles.
That third sports car is less expected nowadays among the younger successful crowd.
Every rich guy I know (regardless of their age) has at least 3 cars. Most of them have at least 5.
I don't live in the proper zip-code to speak with any authority regarding trends and what the cool kids do -- but there are plenty of people in flyover country with more than enough money to do what they want with the loose change they find in the couch cushions.
Lots of them will buy a Tesla Model S gonzo-plaid double-pump pooper-scooper for their 3rd of 4th car, because it won't go more than 75 miles or so without a "supercharge" (and not the kind guys like me like) and is therefore worthless as a useful automobile, so it becomes a garage queen that will sometimes (inexplicably) be trotted out as giving them both car guy and modern man cred. They think it makes them an alpha dog to drive 0-60 in .3 seconds or whatever for the two times they can do it before the batteries overheat. But there ain't nobody getting groceries in that.
But they still have that 3rd car. Or toaster. Or something.
I think that's the difference - Jack's addressed it a few times on here - that you all in flyover country have way more space and time to keep all the motor toys and 3+ cars.
What I see in the NYC area and here in Miami it's the 2 or 4+, with 3 being slightly more common here in Miami since more folks have homes. Down in Nashville, the folks with land in Williamson county are more like what you describe.
I live in a fairly wealthy area outside of Chicago full of $1M+ homes and can count on one hand the people I know (or even “know”) who have more than one car per driver.
Had BMW really fallen, or is that just the rose colored enthusiast perception of what they were?
As someone a bit younger than you, I hear of BMW as the drivers car but the volume seemed to be more the YUPPIE type and that doesn’t seem to have changed much.
I do find it funny how BMW enthusiasts are becoming more like the Land Rover folks where the new stuff is always selling out, until the next gen comes and then that one is great! The LR3/LR4 trajectory was very fun to watch as a previous Discovery owner.
Regardless of the Yuppie's ~motivations~, in the olden days, he ended up with a durable, repairable, driver's car whether he wanted or appreciated it or not.
The several I had were driver's cars first and foremost.
Rich yuppies have been gravitating towards them since the 80s, but the predominant flavor of them was still centered around the experience of driving until about the turn of the millennium. That's when they decided they wanted to be a mass production company, rather than a sports sedan company. They are the new Roger Smith GM: bland in the extreme, odd styling, weird product choices, bad engineering.
I had a V8 E39 (non M5) 540i with a manual -- which might have been the perfect automobile, had it not been let down by its "electronics by the sainted German engineers" which have plagued all German autos since 1995 or so. That car was a sledgehammer in a velvet glove, and it made me giggle every time I drove it.
folks love to smack BMW for this but i think its that the product delta was simply larger than others and thus had farther to fall. im not 62, but i have had the pleasure of owning many old and new cars so far and the product delta no matter than brand is shameful (drive a 300ZX turbo, then a "nissan Z"; drive a 2002 WRX, then a 2022 "WRX"; drive a B5 S4, then a B9; ad nauseam) and a lot of this was sacrificed at the dual altars of """""""climate change""""""""" and the much more real and important cause of reliability. there is very real rose colored glasses of folks who owned E39s in the 2000s forgetting the, uh, other side of the ownership experience. lest i even mention the "big 3" on E46 M3s? we get it, the cars had a je nais se quois, when they decided to work.
I think the G BMWs of the last few years were solid cars, and better driving than equivalents. But my wife (and previously in-laws) own previous gen X3's. While they're not to the mechanical level of late 90's/early 2000's European car perfection, they still drive really well in a modern sense. I think we also see them more as GT cars than true drivers cars today.
That said, does any brand really live up to its "best" time today? My father has an 1998 SL500 (R129), that I'd take in a heartbeat over any new SL and it sure drives better than most modern stuff.
While I am definitely a Volvo fanatic, I think they can make a pretty solid argument that the current cars align perfectly with their "brand value" and heyday driving experience. Between my wife, myself, and our parents we've owned every generation of Volvo from 240 to present and each seems to get better while retaining the core DNA. It's really only the electric stuff that's screwed it up lately. We can talk about the Chinese there, but from a core value point it was treated as more a PE investment than true control form China which let the Swedes actually design the car and make it work.
"The several I had were driver's cars first and foremost."
When I was a kid, a friend's dad used to drive us to/from the mall in his E21 320i. I remember thinking how cool it was that it danced over the same roads that our W123 300D just steam-shipped over.
BMW still makes accessible products with enthusiast intent. to get an enthusiast grade porsche you are spending at LEAST two hundo large. you can argue about whether you personally enjoy models like the 240, 340, M2/3/4, but to deny that they are appealing enthusiast options that are attainable without your dad having sold out to Oracle in the dot com era is to do a disservice to a brand that is at least trying (with varying degrees of success) to offer attainable, mass produced products for "people like us" (although after my last loaner, i question how this will work going forward)
porsche on the other hand has shown the type of deliberate disregard and disrespect to its core customer base for DECADES that is eerily reminiscent of how HK has treated its US customers ("HK: because fuck you") for probably just as long. lol, the cayman would suck and fuck all over a 911 with the same running gear so we're gonna nerf it. fuck you! entry level models? yeah, you get the four banger. actually, you liked the cayman too much, so we're making it an EV to punish you for your wrong opinions. dont like it? dont be poor!
Even the 230 is a SOLID drivers car. The in-laws got a 2016 228 droptop to leave at the beach house, and that car is a HOOT around town. More than fast enough, and you can toss it even if it doesn't have the power of the 6 cylinder models.
The sneaky good one is the M235i fwd thing. A buddy's wife has one, while he drives a Golf R and they are really close. Boy are those things fun to drive while still being reasonably priced, especially for the CPO's compared to the VW or Audi S3.
couldnt agree more. i had a 430 xdrive as a loaner recently and i liked it significantly LESS than the M235 AWD/FWD contraption i had a few months prior. the interior sucks and its ugly but its a solid contender in the AWD econobox straight up seating position brawl with the S3/golf R twins, MB whatever, mazda 3 AWD, and maybe the WRX limited if you have significantly fewer functioning brain cells.
The 430 vs the 235 have a very different focus. My buddy's wife drives her M235 on her 5 mile Miami commute like it's a time attack course and absolutely adores the car. He can barely take it from her that 1 day a year he needs to replace the tires.
I kind of liked the 430 my wife had as a loaner last year, but I was thinking of it as a highway commuter car. However, I still think my Volvo V60 is far superior in that role. Probably more about expectations there than anything.
And now instead of working, I am researching used 230i prices. They cross my mind every year or so to get as a daily and I am up for a new ride in the Spring. The M240i resale value is high but you can get a 2-3 year old low mileage 230i for sub 30k. Never considered an M235 before either but just found several 2020-2021s with <50k miles for the $27-30k range. Also seems like a steal.
they are good cars and fun to drive but totally different. 230 will feel like a "real" sports car in the seating position and RWD dynamics. 235 is a BMW S3. really just a question of "sports" car or hot "hatch" style drive.
I recently purchased a one-owner 2011 135i M-Sport. It's a glorious little car and has turned me into a douchebag on my commute. Its small and likes to be driven hard. It is also screen-free and has real, pretty round gauges. I don't know if BMW still makes car like this but I'm slightly hooked.
that really is a glorious little car. theres a reason nice 135s command premiums now. to the question does BMW make cars like this anymore? the answer is: kind of. small, likes to be driven hard? 2 series of any 35, 40, or M stripe still fits the bill. screen free, pretty round gauges? absolutely not. makes you drive like a douchebag? absolutely.
Any experience from the Bimmer guys here with an e90/92 335d? There is an immaculate but higher mileage one near me. A 2009. Was a certified car, has a lot of documentation. How do they drive? How are they to live with?
I live in a solidly middle class neighborhood with a mix of owned homes, owned homes with renters, and outright rentals many of which have multiple units per property. EVERYBODY has a minimum of one car regardless of income level. That means that the couple renting the basement suite across the street has one vehicle each, while the family of five upstairs have four cars; one each for mom and dad, and cars for two of their teenaged kids. The guy in the carriage house takes the bus, but he’s an anomaly.
Lotsa folks in my hood also have toys and motorcycles in addition to their daily drivers and company cars.
I don’t see many trying to consolidate down to one vehicle.
Those are just some examples, but suffice it to say that there are plenty of multiple car owners around, and parking on my street is a disaster!
I just saw a new 911 here in Hooterville and my first impression was how fat it was, and how they put really big wheels on a small car to try and hide the fat. Didn’t work.
Here’s how I imagine the latest design process. The designers took a balloon shaped like the original 911 and kept blowing more and more air into it until they thought it was about to pop, then said “here, this is the new 911”.
911s are a dime a dozen in Oakland County and following one is a common occurrence. Each and every time I'm behind one, especially the 992, I think "what a big ass" which then reminds me I never liked big asses on women either.
My neighbor has a white one he bought a couple of years ago, and it is hideous. He got rid of a C7 vette as he couldn’t load the wife and 3 kids in the vette and show off at the weekend youth soccer game.
I saw a python green one last week and laughed. Something about a huge, impractical wagon, like the Audi Rs6 with the 21 inch wheels that makes me think some German somewhere has a sense of humor.
There is a Porsche ad in the latest issue of The Road Rat. It has a purple air cooled 911 with the caption in large black and purple letters “911. There is no substitute.” Then in a smaller black font, “Vehicles shown are historic and not available for purchase from new.” I guess it could be even lamer if you showed a current Porsche SUV that is the substitute.
It's embarrassing owning one these days, even more two. The aircooleds owner base is ridiculous, the Macan/911/Cayenne/Taycan base is just lame. They actually bring 992s and the EVs and SUVs to Porsche in the Park gatherings.
I agree it’s not probable. It’s one of those technologies that is always five years out. I guess you could say it would be a deterministic system as you would get all possible answers every time. ;)
$90k at Mercedes still get you the real wealthy person’s Benz in today’s America (and probably the best thing they sell) - the E450 wagon which still has the turbo I6.
It also gets you the most interesting current Benz, the GLE580 which is their only big motor non AMG left
$26 is a big jump though, and to me the big German SUVs are less appealing than the mid-sizers. At that GLS price, I’d take a Navigator.
There’s a good chance one of those is my wife’s next car in 2 years, so we keep an eye on it. Hopefully they don’t ruin either model like BMW has been doing with the new interiors.
The only problem with them is that a similarly equipped Expedition is $30k+ cheaper in most cases, so I couldn't actually justify the "breaded" version as my wife calls it.
I think that, in most regards, the 2025 Expedition is an aesthetic downgrade from the 2022-2024. Minimally, I’d have to get a 2025 in all-black to avoid that gratuitous trim on the back standing out so starkly.
You experienced them at their worst for reliability, and now fear owning them when they were much better. (I need to get my LR3 drivable before winter, and I'm highly apprehensive about my wife wanting an L405 or LR4)
That may be what I end up with to mile munch on my commute if my Volvo goes to Nashville, but the wife likes buying new and driving it into the ground.
I think that's every new car nowadays. I've gotten over it to some degree with my Volvo, but they also haven't changed too much there since 2018 and I know the mechanicals are really solid at this point.
MB may be a different story, but I see plenty of high mileage wagons around still.
Was it in the S-Klasse where there were tiny screens for something ON THE FORWARD PORTION OF THE DOOR ARMRESTS?! Or was that on a BMW Siebener?! Or BOTH?!
GLE and GLS are still last gen on the interior so it is almost pleasant to use, and not *just* an Everest of Screen to summit anytime you want to adjust the temperature
That may be but the GLE makes me both angry and sick to my stomach when I'm stuck behind one going 47mph down Telegraph when everyone else is flying by at 60. Fat fucking bulbous hippos with 8 mile wide goddamn tires that never see more than 23% throttle, I HATE THEM. Maybe more than Slingshots! At least slingshot people are having fun!
This thought occurred to me today: Will AI make Hollywood accounting obsolete by removing all the human creatives from the production of entertainment, thus eliminating everyone there is to cheat out of royalties?
To produce a true AI, and by that I mean the artificial person Strong AI of science fiction, will require not only a different sort of technology than silicon-based computing but a proper understanding, or at least a serviceable guess, of how human consciousness works.
I suspect we'll eventually be able to simulate the thought processes of some of the higher animals - dogs, cats, your deadbeat brother-in-law - but truly human thinking is likely beyond us.
MotoGP in Mandalika:
Bez looks unstoppable during practice and qualifying as he secures an easy pole position. Fermin Aldeguer begins from 2nd, and Raul Fernandez, of all riders, starts from 3rd. Marc Marquez suffers through wrecks and a rough start to the weekend having to come through Q1 only to place for a lowly 9th starting position.
Still, none of that was as bad as Perfect Pecco's perilous plummet from the pinnacle of last weekend: 16th place starting position for Bagnaia.
In the sprint Bez, or his bike, blew the start and tumbled back down to 8th position. Aldeguer charged ahead and, at one point, had a three second gap. That gap would be eaten up lap after lap by a hard charging Bezzecchi who would overtake Fermin on the last lap to come back to victory. Raul Fernandez started the same as he finished in the ride of his career. Alex Marquez managed to clamber from 7th to 4th, with big brother finishing 6th after a long lap penalty from an overly aggressive move on Alex Rins. The full race would have much more over aggression from both Aprilia riders with some gnarly results.
The race begins and Bez again is blown away off the line and falls back. As he tries to charge up through the pack he carries far too much roll speed through a corner, stands his bike up as he rolls off, and careens into the back of Marc Marquez' ride. As Marc hit the gravel trap and tumbles his right shoulder augers into the gravel and leaves him with damaged ligaments and at least one minor fracture. Marc will miss at least the next two rounds, but he has already secured the championship and so will focus on recovery as needed. Bez would shoot by and lose the bike in the deep gravel, tumbling as well, but without incurring serious injury.
Fermin Aldeguer and Pedro Acosta went toe to to for the first few laps until Aldeguer got by Pedro and... disappeared into the distance. The rookie, now the second youngest to have won a MotoGP race, finished 7s (giving up ~1.5s on the last lap as he cruised to victory) ahead of his competition in a total demolition job. Acosta, meanwhile, kept up an incredible defense against Luca Marini and Raul Fernandez. In the end, Pedro was helped immensely by Fernandez' excessive aggression and dive bombing which, instead of waiting for Luca to dispatch Pedro, cost both of them positions and forced Luca to cede two spots by the end of the race. Marini 5th, Fernandez all the way down to 6th.
Alex Marquez was the big winner over the weekend as he managed a third place to put both Gresinis on the podium and cement his 2nd place lead.
Pecco Bagnaia crashed out of the race after only seven laps while running, by that time, about 20s behind the race leader. This must be extremely distressing for the rider to go from one extreme to the other. His only saving grace is that he was helped in his championship hopes for bronze by Bez taking himself out earlier on.
Next week MotoGP is at windy, weathersome, and bird-filled Philip Island, Australia.
I felt dumber after reading articles in either GRM or CM. Probably has to do with what Jack says that most auto journalism is written to a middle school level.
had a couple cars in the quail. early on it was delightful.
Even if the magazines are garbage, they were well positioned to move to an actual lifestyle brand. They already had the Daytona thing, The Mitty, Orange Blossom tour, $2000 Challenge, UTCC, etc. Add or piggyback off of a few events and you could have something almost monthly. Use the magazine/website to drive FOMO.
Instead they chose to become unfinished project car monthly.
That AI money cycle is true.
I made some cash on an Nvidia call, and promptly lost it on an AMD put.
The amount of money being invested on AI is insane.
Forget AI. I've got gold in my safe I need to cash out.
Are you AI? Hold the gold.
Gold's going to go above 4500?
I need to swap my wedding band for a smaller one and when I checked last year 14k gold rings were still less than platinum. (Purity and cost to manufacturer platinum his higher).
During Covid I invested in lead. You don’t need to stockpile anything else if you stockpile lead.
i think i disposed of more lead than i acquired during lolvid
Don’t worry. AI “friends” will be enough to carry the machine learning to the next generation. He will be Buster Friendly.
I saw a few videos of the shenanigans in Pigeon Forge. From my understanding there was a car show at the convention center in Sevierville. Many cars drive south and ended up in Pigeon Forge at a gas station called Jimmy's.
From social media, the owner usually doesn't mind the cars but it appears things got out of hand. They ended up cancelling the car show in Sevierville and apparently lots of folks are mad.
Now, what I don't get is why schedule a large car show during an extremely busy week adding to the overall strain in the area.
There is a reason why Jeep week or Thunder rally is after spring break in PCB.
Could you imagine Thunder Rally while spring breakers are partying?
"Other than generating some warm-and-fuzzy authoritarian-adjacent, teacher’s-little-pet, run-to-mommy feelings on the part of the people who work there, what effect could it possibly have?"
This is why they pay you the big bucks, Jack. I'm stealing this, by the way.
Jack, love the notion that you were the hinge in the Bari Weiss deal! You 'da man!!
What is the connection with Morris Dees? Isn't he the former SPLC guide who got caught with his hand in the "cookie jar", so to speak?
I pay no attention to auto vehicle racing, I don't even own a car. Uber serves our needs these days so please excuse my naivete: Is Zak Brown the country music guy or someone in motor racing?
Yes. Zak Brown is the head of McLaren, hand in United Autosports, a few other things. Zac Brown is the "chicken fried" singer amongst other things. His only connection to racing was being in the same hotel room as Kenny Habul when it got raided for coke.
Got it, many thanks. Love Zac Brown.
During COVID, the ownership of Grassroots Motorsports begged the community for donations to save the magazine. (It was never really clear why COVID meant it needed saving.) But when it turned out that the money wasn't necessary to save the magazine, the Suddards gave the money to the Southern Poverty Law Center for, like, no reason at all. They said that they were touched by the story of George Floyd.
A fair number of GRM supporters asked for their donations back; the Suddards declined.
Got it, Jack and thanks.
credit card dispute time!
Even better was when a subscriber/poster on their forum questioned the donation to SPLC, the publisher’s wife told the poster to die in a fire. Literally.
Yeah, that really endeared her to everyone.
After watching that go down and the earlier ask for the Covid donation, I let my subscription expire.
I’d been a subscriber in the past but I declined to continue.
I want EVERYONE here to know that I will NEVER, EVER donate the money you’re giving me to ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER, NO MATTER HOW JUSTIFIED. I will SPEND IT ALL on STUPID SHIT like LEXUS SEDANS.
Money is only worth having to spend on stupid shit.
And cat food
I approve of this message. But don't forget The Human Fund, it's, "Money For People."
I will continue to subscribe secure in that knowledge.
Thanks for this assurance.
I do feel good knowing that my money gets you about 14 seconds of Radical runtime annually.
Jack will be the Adam Wade of Lexi.
tim wrote a nice story about my 80th birthday party.
I was about to comment in defense of GRM but had no idea they had their political heads where the sun don't shine. I do like many of their articles being a nerd and all.
Politics aside, I’d like to hear your defense. I dropped my subs to GRM and CM in 2020.
Recently, I was looking into S197s and a few of their Spec Mustang articles came up so I read a few. Most of the articles were behind a paywall, but the ones that weren’t had maybe a few hundred words.
To me it felt like they were purposely spreading updates thin while cutting out any real technical content. Other projects on their site look to be similar. I guess I don’t understand what their value proposition is.
Slop. They have devolved into quickly written slop or even AI type garbage where it's just parroting easy to google information. Zero creativity or originality.
You’re saying that this technical masterpiece is unoriginal?
https://archive.is/VhzVA
OMFG... this could have been partially stolen from some old ass Crutchfield installation instructions. It's so bad.
I'd like to also point out how thorough the comments are on here. There are people whose writing ability is outstanding. It just goes to show how irrelevant much of the "car media" is when we have a group here who don't write for a living but can easily one-up something like GRM... without even trying.
The one funny thing I know about GRM is that their forums used to autocorrect “shit” to “E36 M3”. Now I happen to like the E36 M3, but that’s funny.
yeah fuck those guys with a brick
someone tell me how to access their subscriber content without being a subscriber so i can cheat them out of money
I don't discuss politics with harmonica players and unless I'm tight with them, when musicians start talking politics, I keep my mouth shut and try not to roll my eyes. As it is, some rando on X is trying to get me cancelled from my job at Cars In Depth because I'm a Zionist. Should I tell him?
"hey ronnie why do you like jews so much"
does this guy not know your last name or something
There's some irony in the fact that the Groypers think anyone with a German sounding surname has to be a Jew, doubly so because Jews formerly used patronymics (Shlomo ben David) until the Habsburg empire mandated them to start using surnames, which is why so many Ashkenazi Jews have Germanic surnames. If my family's name was Hebrew or Yiddish it would have been Sofer or Soifer.
its really just an action thing rather than a name
the only time anyone that has their lineage investigated is when they do certain things that make people question their motives or allegiances
Conquest's 2nd Rule: Any organization that isn't explicitly right-wing will eventually become left-wing.
Is this a real observation?
It is now.
Ye gods, I hadn't heard that. I dumped GRM about fifteen years ago when it was clearly going downhill...guess I was ahead of the curve.
Wow! I must have really been busy during COVID. I did not know that.
I was a long time subscriber to GMS, until 2015, when I sold my Miatas and bought my 2004 Boxster S.
My interest in track days and autocross went to zero after selling the Miatas. I had no desire to track my Porsche.
The magazine also seemed to be going downhill and I let my subscription go.
I am glad I did now, hearing about this. Thanks again, Jack.
I'm not happy to be the one to bring you the news, but at least you know.
Of course—leftists support the globalist agenda through NGO’s, Soros-funded chaos, and organizations designed to destroy this republic
Well.... there you go, All of ua after Nader v:2
"Here’s the funny thing about selling out: it almost never solves your problems." Excellent take on Porsche's situation.
Although in the case of Porsche, it seems to have moved into the mo’ money, mo’ problems realm.
Lots of cash meant less focus, and trying silly things like buying VW
Buying VW? I guess I've lost track of their seven decade+ relationship. I thought VAG owned Porsche.
Porsche SE (the holding company) tried to get enough shares in the mid-2000s to get majority control of VW AG, and acquired 40% of VW AG’s shares. But it took on a ton of debt to do so, and that came to a head right when the 2008 financial crisis hit.
In the years following, VW AG turned around and absorbed Porsche AG, which is responsible for Porsche’s car production, acquiring 100% of it by 2012. That said, Porsche SE is still VW AG’s largest shareholder.
In 2022, Porsche AG was partially floated on the stock market. Now VW AG owns roughly 75% of Porsche AG.
So…it’s complicated.
Thanks for the detailed explanation.
When I was a kid, pre-911/912, the rare Porsche WAS a VW: lower, squattier and faster but still Beetle-based. And, of course, Porsche engines found their way into actual VWs and VW-based dune buggies, such as the Meyers Manx.
A quick search just now confirmed my memory of a magazine I subscribed to back then called "Dune Buggies and Hot VWs". To may amazement, it still exists!
https://hotvws.com
Excellent take on LIFE
"And forget that GRM in general is the equivalent of your Oberlin-grad wine aunt in terms of understanding even the most basic political concepts." 🤣 And they no longer have a tent at the Rolex 24, nor midnight garage tours or Sunday brunch. I still have a couple of their t-shirts though.
A well meaning relative bought me a subscription one year which came with a shirt. I wear it when changing oil or doing body work on the car in my photo.
GRM is like Highlights For Children without the Timbertoes or Goofus and Gallant.
Why bother.
AI is definitely a trade, but long positions have thus far paid off immensely. A few companies will win, and those companies will be unfathomably valuable. Google? OpenAI? For the moment enjoy the ride but don’t get greedy if you are investing. Take some profits.
Oh, you mean like when I bought Bitcoin at 343 and sold at 1260 thinking it was a good return? Smacks head.
That was a very good return. When you make money on a trade that is what matters.
Someone once asked Baron Rothschild how he made so much money.
His answer: I always sold too soon.
Microsoft. They always win with their hammerlock on business.
This AI stuff is really useful for data analysis and excel monkey tasks, so it’ll be interesting to see the investor types turn on themselves
The GM of computers.
Ouch!!
Not wrong, though.
Porsche should go back to what it did in the '90's but it won't. They and BMW, Mercedes and Audi are now addicted to making moribund and weak SUV's to the masses.
Porsche cars like the 911, 944 and 928 had great traditions of air cooled, 6 or 8 cylinders with manual transmissions and uncontrollable handling. They were unique and had a German flavour. Now they are made in Eastern Europe and Malaysia and have a Dim Sum flavour. They are overgrown, overweight and way overpriced. Sure they're more refined. But that's like being hailed as better behaved ever since being convicted as an axe murderer.
They need to make money!
Most people are SUV first and those VPs and management who would previously buy the 911 or 928 in addition to the commuter BMW, Benz, or Audi are just buying one SUV now. Very few people have 3 cars nowadays, and as cost goes up they want one that does it all.
I bought the "to save the company" line for years, since the first Cayenne. I'm calling "bogus" as they backstroke through money and keep doing more and more stupid things ("Daddy says, no more ICE Boxters/Caymans -- oh wait! Just kidding!").
I would argue, however, that BMW has fallen even further than Porsche.
People don't want "one car that does it all", they want something that signals they're suave and urbane and successful. That's why they buy a Macan instead of a Q5.
FWIW, more people have 3 cars than at any time I can remember (I'm 62).
Exactly. Multiple-car garages are far more common than they were when the 911 was Porsche's core product.
Sure, but what I see living across 3 of America’s wealthiest zip codes is that far more people have 2 cars than you’d expect in the past for the successful types. It seems to split between 2 cars for the “non-car” people buying the SUVs and the car folks with 4+ vehicles.
That third sports car is less expected nowadays among the younger successful crowd.
Moving or vacation home?
I’ve got a house to sell too, market has been weird lately.
Call when you're looking at owning 4 houses, gathering rent from none of them, and paying rent to live in a 1 br walk-up.
I've lived that reality. It was as much fun as it sounds.
I'd recommend that you sell something quickly, before you and Mrs. A turn on each other.
Every rich guy I know (regardless of their age) has at least 3 cars. Most of them have at least 5.
I don't live in the proper zip-code to speak with any authority regarding trends and what the cool kids do -- but there are plenty of people in flyover country with more than enough money to do what they want with the loose change they find in the couch cushions.
Lots of them will buy a Tesla Model S gonzo-plaid double-pump pooper-scooper for their 3rd of 4th car, because it won't go more than 75 miles or so without a "supercharge" (and not the kind guys like me like) and is therefore worthless as a useful automobile, so it becomes a garage queen that will sometimes (inexplicably) be trotted out as giving them both car guy and modern man cred. They think it makes them an alpha dog to drive 0-60 in .3 seconds or whatever for the two times they can do it before the batteries overheat. But there ain't nobody getting groceries in that.
But they still have that 3rd car. Or toaster. Or something.
I think that's the difference - Jack's addressed it a few times on here - that you all in flyover country have way more space and time to keep all the motor toys and 3+ cars.
What I see in the NYC area and here in Miami it's the 2 or 4+, with 3 being slightly more common here in Miami since more folks have homes. Down in Nashville, the folks with land in Williamson county are more like what you describe.
I live in a fairly wealthy area outside of Chicago full of $1M+ homes and can count on one hand the people I know (or even “know”) who have more than one car per driver.
Had BMW really fallen, or is that just the rose colored enthusiast perception of what they were?
As someone a bit younger than you, I hear of BMW as the drivers car but the volume seemed to be more the YUPPIE type and that doesn’t seem to have changed much.
They chose the more profitable one.
I do find it funny how BMW enthusiasts are becoming more like the Land Rover folks where the new stuff is always selling out, until the next gen comes and then that one is great! The LR3/LR4 trajectory was very fun to watch as a previous Discovery owner.
Regardless of the Yuppie's ~motivations~, in the olden days, he ended up with a durable, repairable, driver's car whether he wanted or appreciated it or not.
https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2015/04/24/16/1980yuppies1.jpg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=1000
The several I had were driver's cars first and foremost.
Rich yuppies have been gravitating towards them since the 80s, but the predominant flavor of them was still centered around the experience of driving until about the turn of the millennium. That's when they decided they wanted to be a mass production company, rather than a sports sedan company. They are the new Roger Smith GM: bland in the extreme, odd styling, weird product choices, bad engineering.
I had a V8 E39 (non M5) 540i with a manual -- which might have been the perfect automobile, had it not been let down by its "electronics by the sainted German engineers" which have plagued all German autos since 1995 or so. That car was a sledgehammer in a velvet glove, and it made me giggle every time I drove it.
folks love to smack BMW for this but i think its that the product delta was simply larger than others and thus had farther to fall. im not 62, but i have had the pleasure of owning many old and new cars so far and the product delta no matter than brand is shameful (drive a 300ZX turbo, then a "nissan Z"; drive a 2002 WRX, then a 2022 "WRX"; drive a B5 S4, then a B9; ad nauseam) and a lot of this was sacrificed at the dual altars of """""""climate change""""""""" and the much more real and important cause of reliability. there is very real rose colored glasses of folks who owned E39s in the 2000s forgetting the, uh, other side of the ownership experience. lest i even mention the "big 3" on E46 M3s? we get it, the cars had a je nais se quois, when they decided to work.
I'd put the plastic engine parts under "climate change," not "reliability."
Having owned a new B5 S4, and later a used B5 S4, and now owning a B9 S4, yeah, the user experience today is ...better.
What do you have against E46 M3s?
Every BMW straight 6 in existence has had the same 3 gaskets that need to be replaced.
The N63 V8 makes the problems you'd get on an M62 in an E39 look trivial.
BMW used to make relatively tasteful looking cars that drove incredibly well. They now make hideous sedans that outweigh my LR3.
I think the G BMWs of the last few years were solid cars, and better driving than equivalents. But my wife (and previously in-laws) own previous gen X3's. While they're not to the mechanical level of late 90's/early 2000's European car perfection, they still drive really well in a modern sense. I think we also see them more as GT cars than true drivers cars today.
That said, does any brand really live up to its "best" time today? My father has an 1998 SL500 (R129), that I'd take in a heartbeat over any new SL and it sure drives better than most modern stuff.
While I am definitely a Volvo fanatic, I think they can make a pretty solid argument that the current cars align perfectly with their "brand value" and heyday driving experience. Between my wife, myself, and our parents we've owned every generation of Volvo from 240 to present and each seems to get better while retaining the core DNA. It's really only the electric stuff that's screwed it up lately. We can talk about the Chinese there, but from a core value point it was treated as more a PE investment than true control form China which let the Swedes actually design the car and make it work.
There's an E39 540i manual around here that is used as a shop car by some of the team mechanics. It's ropey but still nice to drive.
"The several I had were driver's cars first and foremost."
When I was a kid, a friend's dad used to drive us to/from the mall in his E21 320i. I remember thinking how cool it was that it danced over the same roads that our W123 300D just steam-shipped over.
BMW still makes accessible products with enthusiast intent. to get an enthusiast grade porsche you are spending at LEAST two hundo large. you can argue about whether you personally enjoy models like the 240, 340, M2/3/4, but to deny that they are appealing enthusiast options that are attainable without your dad having sold out to Oracle in the dot com era is to do a disservice to a brand that is at least trying (with varying degrees of success) to offer attainable, mass produced products for "people like us" (although after my last loaner, i question how this will work going forward)
porsche on the other hand has shown the type of deliberate disregard and disrespect to its core customer base for DECADES that is eerily reminiscent of how HK has treated its US customers ("HK: because fuck you") for probably just as long. lol, the cayman would suck and fuck all over a 911 with the same running gear so we're gonna nerf it. fuck you! entry level models? yeah, you get the four banger. actually, you liked the cayman too much, so we're making it an EV to punish you for your wrong opinions. dont like it? dont be poor!
Even the 230 is a SOLID drivers car. The in-laws got a 2016 228 droptop to leave at the beach house, and that car is a HOOT around town. More than fast enough, and you can toss it even if it doesn't have the power of the 6 cylinder models.
The sneaky good one is the M235i fwd thing. A buddy's wife has one, while he drives a Golf R and they are really close. Boy are those things fun to drive while still being reasonably priced, especially for the CPO's compared to the VW or Audi S3.
couldnt agree more. i had a 430 xdrive as a loaner recently and i liked it significantly LESS than the M235 AWD/FWD contraption i had a few months prior. the interior sucks and its ugly but its a solid contender in the AWD econobox straight up seating position brawl with the S3/golf R twins, MB whatever, mazda 3 AWD, and maybe the WRX limited if you have significantly fewer functioning brain cells.
The 430 vs the 235 have a very different focus. My buddy's wife drives her M235 on her 5 mile Miami commute like it's a time attack course and absolutely adores the car. He can barely take it from her that 1 day a year he needs to replace the tires.
I kind of liked the 430 my wife had as a loaner last year, but I was thinking of it as a highway commuter car. However, I still think my Volvo V60 is far superior in that role. Probably more about expectations there than anything.
And now instead of working, I am researching used 230i prices. They cross my mind every year or so to get as a daily and I am up for a new ride in the Spring. The M240i resale value is high but you can get a 2-3 year old low mileage 230i for sub 30k. Never considered an M235 before either but just found several 2020-2021s with <50k miles for the $27-30k range. Also seems like a steal.
they are good cars and fun to drive but totally different. 230 will feel like a "real" sports car in the seating position and RWD dynamics. 235 is a BMW S3. really just a question of "sports" car or hot "hatch" style drive.
I recently purchased a one-owner 2011 135i M-Sport. It's a glorious little car and has turned me into a douchebag on my commute. Its small and likes to be driven hard. It is also screen-free and has real, pretty round gauges. I don't know if BMW still makes car like this but I'm slightly hooked.
that really is a glorious little car. theres a reason nice 135s command premiums now. to the question does BMW make cars like this anymore? the answer is: kind of. small, likes to be driven hard? 2 series of any 35, 40, or M stripe still fits the bill. screen free, pretty round gauges? absolutely not. makes you drive like a douchebag? absolutely.
Any experience from the Bimmer guys here with an e90/92 335d? There is an immaculate but higher mileage one near me. A 2009. Was a certified car, has a lot of documentation. How do they drive? How are they to live with?
You speak truth.
I live in a solidly middle class neighborhood with a mix of owned homes, owned homes with renters, and outright rentals many of which have multiple units per property. EVERYBODY has a minimum of one car regardless of income level. That means that the couple renting the basement suite across the street has one vehicle each, while the family of five upstairs have four cars; one each for mom and dad, and cars for two of their teenaged kids. The guy in the carriage house takes the bus, but he’s an anomaly.
Lotsa folks in my hood also have toys and motorcycles in addition to their daily drivers and company cars.
I don’t see many trying to consolidate down to one vehicle.
Those are just some examples, but suffice it to say that there are plenty of multiple car owners around, and parking on my street is a disaster!
Hey, dim sum flavor can be good.
I just saw a new 911 here in Hooterville and my first impression was how fat it was, and how they put really big wheels on a small car to try and hide the fat. Didn’t work.
Here’s how I imagine the latest design process. The designers took a balloon shaped like the original 911 and kept blowing more and more air into it until they thought it was about to pop, then said “here, this is the new 911”.
Old 911 design process: start with a VW Type 1 and enlarge it a little
New 911 design process: start with a Cayenne and shrink
911s are a dime a dozen in Oakland County and following one is a common occurrence. Each and every time I'm behind one, especially the 992, I think "what a big ass" which then reminds me I never liked big asses on women either.
Big asses are good on some cars and some women; but not all.
Then there is the Panamera. Let’s take a front engined, 4 door sedan and make it look like a rear engined, 2 door sports car.
…that melted.
you forgot “bloated”
The second gen is marginally prettier. The Grand Touring station wagon rocked IMO.
My neighbor has a white one he bought a couple of years ago, and it is hideous. He got rid of a C7 vette as he couldn’t load the wife and 3 kids in the vette and show off at the weekend youth soccer game.
I saw a python green one last week and laughed. Something about a huge, impractical wagon, like the Audi Rs6 with the 21 inch wheels that makes me think some German somewhere has a sense of humor.
There is a Porsche ad in the latest issue of The Road Rat. It has a purple air cooled 911 with the caption in large black and purple letters “911. There is no substitute.” Then in a smaller black font, “Vehicles shown are historic and not available for purchase from new.” I guess it could be even lamer if you showed a current Porsche SUV that is the substitute.
It's embarrassing owning one these days, even more two. The aircooleds owner base is ridiculous, the Macan/911/Cayenne/Taycan base is just lame. They actually bring 992s and the EVs and SUVs to Porsche in the Park gatherings.
The crypto bros should be scared to death of quantum computing. If you can crack the crypto, crypto is worthless.
'The crypto bros should be scared to death of quantum computing. If you can crack the crypto, crypto is worthless.'
They should also be scared to death of the aliens, who could crack crypto, and are statistically more likely to arrive than the quantum computers.
start writing some short reports on the public names. plenty of free money to be had on 200x rev multiples
I agree it’s not probable. It’s one of those technologies that is always five years out. I guess you could say it would be a deterministic system as you would get all possible answers every time. ;)
You mean space aliens, right?
Great. Now we have to explain Action Park to the Vulcans.
$90k at Mercedes still get you the real wealthy person’s Benz in today’s America (and probably the best thing they sell) - the E450 wagon which still has the turbo I6.
It also gets you the most interesting current Benz, the GLE580 which is their only big motor non AMG left
GOOD CALL, both of them.
Although I'd rather put $26k more loan on my back and get the GLS580.
$26 is a big jump though, and to me the big German SUVs are less appealing than the mid-sizers. At that GLS price, I’d take a Navigator.
There’s a good chance one of those is my wife’s next car in 2 years, so we keep an eye on it. Hopefully they don’t ruin either model like BMW has been doing with the new interiors.
The only problem with them is that a similarly equipped Expedition is $30k+ cheaper in most cases, so I couldn't actually justify the "breaded" version as my wife calls it.
I think that, in most regards, the 2025 Expedition is an aesthetic downgrade from the 2022-2024. Minimally, I’d have to get a 2025 in all-black to avoid that gratuitous trim on the back standing out so starkly.
you'll eat that 26k in depreciation before you leave the lot. ill take the GLE and a used GMT burban with the change!
Sir, that's Range Rover money
As a former owner of multiple Rovers... there is no number that is "Range Rover money" for me now :)
You experienced them at their worst for reliability, and now fear owning them when they were much better. (I need to get my LR3 drivable before winter, and I'm highly apprehensive about my wife wanting an L405 or LR4)
Better yet, $25k gets you a used mint condition suburban driven W212 with a V6 and a tiny screen in the dash.
That may be what I end up with to mile munch on my commute if my Volvo goes to Nashville, but the wife likes buying new and driving it into the ground.
I get it. The complexity of the new MBs inside and out scares me.
I think that's every new car nowadays. I've gotten over it to some degree with my Volvo, but they also haven't changed too much there since 2018 and I know the mechanicals are really solid at this point.
MB may be a different story, but I see plenty of high mileage wagons around still.
Was it in the S-Klasse where there were tiny screens for something ON THE FORWARD PORTION OF THE DOOR ARMRESTS?! Or was that on a BMW Siebener?! Or BOTH?!
GLE and GLS are still last gen on the interior so it is almost pleasant to use, and not *just* an Everest of Screen to summit anytime you want to adjust the temperature
They’re very pleasant places to be.
That may be but the GLE makes me both angry and sick to my stomach when I'm stuck behind one going 47mph down Telegraph when everyone else is flying by at 60. Fat fucking bulbous hippos with 8 mile wide goddamn tires that never see more than 23% throttle, I HATE THEM. Maybe more than Slingshots! At least slingshot people are having fun!
The GLE350 is HILARIOUS. Shitty little turbo four with, as you say, literally 275s on all four corners.
For who? For what?
The poors
I was parked next to a new A6 Allroad the other day and looked it up, 335hp turbo 6, about $80,000 all in. Killer interior too.
God. Eighty grand.
The sticker on my better-optioned Phaeton was $81,575. For a car that was a whole universe beyond an A6. I know, I know, the dollar is paper.
I think VAG hopes to turn a profit from the A6.
GLE580 is by far the most interesting Benz. I wish I was rich enough to get one of those as a family vehicle.
Jack, any thoughts on PittRace closing?
Not Jack, but: "Sunday OT: Meet Big Lex, Odyssey Track Test, Pitt Race Remembered, Ford Stumbles"
Paid subscribers only
https://www.avoidablecontact.com/p/sunday-ot-meet-big-lex-odyssey-track
Where have you been?
This thought occurred to me today: Will AI make Hollywood accounting obsolete by removing all the human creatives from the production of entertainment, thus eliminating everyone there is to cheat out of royalties?
Yes.
Ask Tilly Norwood.
To produce a true AI, and by that I mean the artificial person Strong AI of science fiction, will require not only a different sort of technology than silicon-based computing but a proper understanding, or at least a serviceable guess, of how human consciousness works.
I suspect we'll eventually be able to simulate the thought processes of some of the higher animals - dogs, cats, your deadbeat brother-in-law - but truly human thinking is likely beyond us.
How do you know the thought process of dogs and cats is less complex than our own?
Also, we've already gotten AI to simulate the thought process of corporate middle management, so that's something.
Well, dogs and cats don't lie to anyone...
You've clearly never asked your cat to explain how a sleeve of crackers came to be torn open on the floor when you were out for work
Ah, but I HAVE asked one why he has sitting in the fridge next to the milk. He didn't lie. He just meowed at me.
Needs a VIC-20 in a Chinese Room.