MotoGP ran in Germany at the oft-dominated-by-Marc Sachsenring.
This year was no different with Marc securing pole position with a new lap record, leading every sprint lap, and leading every race lap. The once indomitable looking 100+ point lead of Bez has disappeared and been overcome by Jorge Martin. Jorge himself now has a scant 14 point lead over Ai Ogura, one of the highly competitive Trackhouse riders, and only an 18 point lead over Marc Marquez.
Bez was ruled out with injury for both sprint and race after a fast crash in Q2 and his big fat zero points in so many races has likely already cost him the championship.
Ducati locked out the front row start with Marc, Alex, and Digi.
In the sprint Marc's brother Alex kept him honest for the entirety of the run and finished second, though never threatened a pass. Digi started and finished the race in third. Not the most exciting of sprints, and a return to recent form for Ducati with three machines on the podium.
In the race Alex was unable to keep up with brother Marc and crashed out of contention at about one third race distance. Digiantonnio, who has been consistent this year, and whose consistency has him in the running for the championship, finally saw a GP DNF as well as he lost the front. Four other riders would retire and everyone who finished would score. AiOgura's late race pace once again came to him and, to his credit, wasn't left too late this time with a decent qualifying in 5th, so that he was able to overtake his teammate Raul for 2nd place. Raul finished 3rd. Pedro Acosta rode the wheels off his bike, fresh from carpal tunnel relief surgery, and placed 4th.
While this was not the most exciting race weekend in terms of action on track it was a weekend of big moves in the championship standings.
MotoGP will reconvene after the summer break with healthy(ier) riders at Silverstone in England and only 25 points between the top five.
Omega x Swatch Moonswatch: Mission to Milk (your bank account)?
We all love to rag on poorcha owners. Whether its a dentist carting his fourth wife (a 25 year old retail employee) or a 34 year old investment banker who resembles a balding AARP cardholder, we all know they paid too much for the equivalent experience. Ultimately, however, we also know that there is nothing inherently WRONG with said experience; its just that the relative valuation has gotten nonsensical, and you can get a nice R8 or maybe an NA1 NSX for far less cash than his garden variety C2S which you just saw get outrun by a TRD camry on proper summer tires.
The Omega collab strikes me as a similar conundrum - why pay less when you can pay more? Let's start with the strap. lord almighty is this thing unfit for human consumption. notwithstanding the fact that the "catcher" side of the velcro circles the whole circumference of the outside of the watch for some reason, rendering it ripe for the collection of errant dribbles of tequila and leftover food, but the default wrist this is set up for is an Ozempic riddled teenager who already had an eating disorder. at 8.25" of wrist, i can comfortably say i am wearing a "speedmast" with a detent that cuts off the word but not my bloodflow.
further hating on the OEM strap, it somehow manages to be both soft, flexible, and uncomfortable. jack, i regret to inform you this one will be coming home with amazon aftermarket straps on it (in addition to the standard, fret not).
next, allow me to hate on the build quality. shockingly, somehow the "tachymetre" sticker is actually about half a degree off center, resulting in "60" actually being about "59" instead. for a $250 watch this is simply unacceptable. the crown spins freely, and the entire ensemble looks like you pulled it out of a toy store.
in my last round of hate, its hard for a watch to feel "lived in" when you're constantly more than a little afraid that your plastic watch might die from washing your hands. its certainly splash proof, but the fact that every time i washed my hands or wanted to take a dip in a pool or off the boat i had to make sure i was wearing my g shock or my R word (the other R word). id love to beat the shit out of this watch; but i never felt like i wasnt going to murder it unless i was strictly going to work, home, and then taking it off before toddler bath time.
but enough of vindicating the haterzzzzz, what did i love about it? for one, i would wager this is the first chronograph watch exposure for a vast majority of buyers. what a lovely format it is, even if it makes the dials a little unusable at a glance. in terms of doing the needful and getting folks hooked on interesting watches, i find it hard to believe there is a more effective tool in this price range.
its also, as youd expect, insanely light. on aftermarket bands, yeah, this is a very wearable and even fun to wear watch. im really enjoying my time with it, but its also doing its other job - namely, making me think about what life would be like with a REAL moonwatch.
finally, its just a fun piece to have on. people ask about it. people want to know about it. colleagues have pulled me aside. people ask if its a fun gift for the husband who has everything for fathers day. i say abso-fuckin-loutely. i know a fellow who works with diamonds regularly in a facility that cuts them, and he lost a very nice omega aqua terra to the microscopic particles floating around in said facility. his kids answer was a couple of moonswatches in various colors for fathers day... and when they die after a year or so, they die. but lord, was it a fun go.
so would i recommend? absolutely. but much like a poorcha, you gotta know what youre getting yourself into. one, you can get a better watch for your $250. please know this off the bat. something that looks and feels nicer. something maybe even presentable if you arent a heathen like me. like the P car you are paying for the label. but can you debate the fun of the experience? absolutely NOT. and if you arent one to weigh your options pound for pound across the peer set, thats enough.
"a balding AARP cardholder" describes the typical Corvette owner, yes?
as to the watch, it sounds like I could build a better watch for $250, but I guarantee you now one beyond Jack is gonna comment on it.
"he lost a very nice omega aqua terra to the microscopic particles floating around in said facility."
Somewhere, an exec at Rolex is pondering whether it could design a watch designed to mitigate that very problem, name it something like Diamantpulver, and sell it for, say, $18,000. It worked with the Milgaus...
one day, id like to imagine bark sees everything here the way weasley, i mean wesley did. he'll read you the riot act about airing is dirty laundry, and all you will have ot say in response is "well, you are kind of a piece of shit" and that will be the end of that discussion
the difference is the poorcha owner only LOOKS 65.
somewhere, deep in the bowels of Rolex, is a project dedicated to every obscure professional watch variant one could cook up. there is the Falcon Master (scratch resistant for your aviary adventures), the SubSoil (for your gardening), the Sherpa Special (includes an altimeter for your climbing expeditions), and now of course the Diamantpulver. however, shockingly, there is no Desk Master yet for the most common Rolex occasion - sitting at a keyboard for 18 hours a day and a button to automatically summon the nearest Sweetgreen for delivery.
you know Rolex has at least considered something like a Falcon Master for the various sheiks and princes and other obscenely wealthy men of the Middle East for whom falconry is yet another way of showing the plebes you have the time and money to engage in such a thing.
I have no doubt a falconry-adjacent watch has been conceived, designed, tested, and perhaps even trade patented before someone put the kibosh on it for being a little too on the nose
You can realign the hands using the pushers. Look up the manual.
I owned a pre-moon caliber 321 Speedmaster for a long time. Sold it because it was too precious and had more than tripled in value, to help fund a new race car. My Moonswatch sufficiently scratches that itch for me (on an aftermarket strap that doesn't actually scratch me).
If you are referring to the slightly off center comment, it’s nothing to do with the hands, but rather the actual sticker around the crystal. The hands on the dial line up just fine, thankfully.
OPEN THREAD: So I took the new RX350h in for its 5kmi service this past weekend. This is the first new vehicle that I've ever waited this long to do the first oil change, but I figured its a hybrid with over 50% of the drive time in electric mode thus far, and its a toyota 4 banger so what could go wrong.
Anywho I pay no attention to the service requirements for the 5kmi interval, we drop it off and I just assume that it is a Lexus, and they are know for how well they take care of you, why should I concern myself with such things as the details of THEIR prescribed service?
After picking it up and back home I discover while reviewing the service report that they didn't change the oil. The 0w16 oil...wtf. So I comandeer Mrs. Sam's phone to pull up the cars app to review the service intervals to get to the bottom of this. As it turns out the standard interval from new is to change the oil every 10kmi, so we wasted a Saturday morning getting the tires rotated and the weird bubble in the drivers seat cushion leather documented.
I say documented because their diagnosis was that because Ms. Sam has no need for Ozempic it is taking longer for the seat to break in, and that bubble will eventually go away...suuuurrree it will, it might find the clip of my pocket knife 2-3kmi before the bumper to bumper is over if they don't do the right thing before hand and replace the lower cover.
Long story a little longer, I ended up changing the oil in our nearly 70k luxury appliance in the driveway like the true dirt bag I am. I was at least relieved to see that Toyota did not delete the economy car dip stick from the engine to better compete with the other luxury brands and their electronic oil level sensors.
One day I might come to realize what my time is worth, but until then who knows the best (read cheapest) place to buy OEM Toyota oil filters in bulk?
You buy a $70k car and worry about the price of oil filters? Man, even I am not that cheap! I don't know about the US, but in the UK Toyota will sell a complete service kit at a very reasonable rate; so much so that it was no cheaper to buy all the bits at an auto factor.
No, not at all, but the factory filter while still subject to cost cutting measures and supply chain variability will generally be suited for duty. A top tier WIX, K&N, Purolator etc will perform as as good or better, but the factory filter is $7-$8 versus $11-$14 for a premium aftermarket.
Missed the hybrid bit. What's wrong with Bosch or AC Delco? You said you wanted to stock up. You can get many filters and still pay the base shipping rate. Also easy to find a 5% off code. You'd probably break even at 2 or 3 filters.
MotoGP and Kevin Cameron fans, take note: Mr. Cameron’s MotoGP race reports (and possibly more) will now appear on SuperbikePlanet.com. With the shuttering of Cycle World, the great insight and perspective of Kevin Cameron can still be found. Here’s the first report, if you’ve never read one before— it’s a great time to start.
I think wristwatches are long past the point where men wore them for telling the time. It's a fashion accessory now. And somebody please introduce Asaoka-san to Sellitta. He could be putting a COSC certified (papers and all) movement in that nice watch for less than $150.
"And somebody please introduce Asaoka-san to Sellitta. He could be putting a COSC certified (papers and all) movement in that nice watch for less than $150."
Let's face it: the Chinese Seagull ST1901 is generally a lot more accurate for even less! But part of the Kurono brand is that the watches are entirely Japan-made.
Knowing how the Japanese are, it’s surprising to me that they don’t have any certifications for Japanese watch movements to match the Swiss stuff. Or is that because (Grand) Seiko owns that market, lock, stock, and winding stem?
It is a long story. Seiko successfully obtained the most exacting of Chronometer certificates from the Swiss until the laws were changed to exclude them. Then came the quartz crisis and drastic improvements in accuracy. Today's Spring Drive and quartz movements are far beyond any Swiss label and the Citizen A100 is simply the most accurate wristwatch ever created, period point blank.
Wait, what? The A100 is more accurate than the Ashtron, which from my understanding matches the accuracy of the atomic clock (+/- 1 second every 100,000 years) when synced to GPS satellites?
Exactly. The Astron's standalone timekeeping is merely that of a very good Seiko digital watch. The Citizen is nearly flawless without external recourse. Kind of like how modern computers will time-drift minutes in a week without NTP.
I really like the look of them. And the fact that it has minimal status is a bonus.
The question is how to buy. I opened a customer account. Ammo correct to assume that when something. Comes up you appl. Jack you mentioned something about having the application ready to go at midnight.?
I'm legitimately surprised he sells a watch with that kind of inaccuracy when he could regulate them. My understanding is the Miyota 9015, etc., are relatively easy to regulate. If hobbyists can regularly get them to +/- 5 sec (or better), there's no reason Asaoka-san can't.
I am in no way disparaging his watches, which are drop-dead gorgeous.
Don't forget Spitz watches. They are American and cost "fuck you" money. They _start_ at $128k, but Dan Spitz designs and manufactures every part of the watch, including every component of his movements.
For those who do not know, Spitz refers to Dan Spitz, who was one of two guitarists in, and a founding member of, Anthrax. He is a third-generation watchmaker and a certified master technician of mechanical movements.
He completed the 4-year Bulova School of Watchmaking program in 18 months, studied at the Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program, and is a certified technician for Rolex, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Audemars Piguet.
Oh, he also served as head watchmaker of complications for Chopard and as its chief instructor for all of its North and South American after-sales service divisions. He also is said to have served as "ghost builder" for several high-end Swiss marques.
Dan limits production of a given model to no more than 30 examples. If I could drop something north of $128k on a watch, I'd buy a Spitz.
They are at least trying. I need to get up to the facility and take a look -- they're only 90 minutes away -- but I believe they're doing CNC operations in Mentor, OH.
yes and no. i know a few people who started wearing watches as a way to ditch their phone for a little while, as a tool to keep time date and a basic timing function. one of these luddites turned me on and here i am as well.
I love watches for their beauty and the remarkable engineering within them. For anyone who questions that, I suggest you watch any of the videos IWC has on its YouTube page showing one of its watchmakers building one from start to finish.
I blame Jack for my increasingly ridiculous interest in watches, specifically Seikos. Until a bit more than a year ago, I owned my father's Rolex, my grandfather's Longines, and an Oris Williams F1 I'd bought in 2007. I had no interest in expanding the collection.
Last year, while in Tokyo, I walked by a Grand Seiko boutique and immediately fell in love with a spring drive model in the window. I told myself I could not justify the price. One week later, still in Japan, I was still thinking about that watch. Jack, being Jack and therefore an enabler, encouraged me to buy one. I did: the "Snowflake," which apparently is where pretty much everyone starts.
I had no particular urge to continue down the road until Jack for reasons that escape me sent me a link to the online retailer Samurai Vintage. I found a gorgeous 1969 King Seiko in excellent condition and bearing an inscription, in Kanji, noting it was awarded to an employee of the Japanese television network Asahi upon his 10th anniversary. I have inherited from my father a love of anything with a story behind it, so I bought it.
And so it began.
I now have a collection of six vintage Seikos manufactured between 1967 and 1978. In an effort to keep myself from emulating Jack and Brother Bark and amassing a frightening number of watches, I have two rules:
1. Any Grand Seiko must be purchased at its flagship store in Tokyo, Melbourne, or New York because those are the only places where a purchase includes a Grand Seiko-branded maneki-neko, aka the Japanese "waving cat." Grand Seiko being Grand Seiko, it is presented in a box of equal quality to the one containing the watch.
2. Any vintage watch must have a compelling story behind it, or be a "birthday" watch, meaning it was manufactured in March, 1968. You'd think that would be tricky, but no. I have in the past 5 months found two birthday watches, one inscribed as being awarded to a governor of Japan Railway for meritous service, another inscribed as being awarded to the employee of a Japanese construction company, and, most recently, a Citizen Homer "Railway," a mechanical watch from around 1969. The Railway was made exclusively for Japan Railway, for which they were standard issue to all employees who were not directly involved in keeping the trains running, as those people needed a level of accuracy one notch higher and were therefore issued Seikos. This particular example was issued to those working the Shinkansen line.
I also have started modifying Seiko watches and building them from scratch, but I've already blathered on long enough.
yes! correct! my mistake. ham-fisted amateurs _build_ watches from parts. Watchmakers assemble them from meticulously organized, spotlessly clean, and precisely organized tray of incredibly tiny parts.
William is a very nice guy. I somehow managed to magnetize that King Seiko about six weeks after I received it, though I didn't know it at the time. I just knew it was FUBAR. No one local wanted to work on it, a point made clear by one fellow who quoted me $600 plus any parts it might need. I reached out to William, told him what was going on, made clear that I was in no way suggesting it was his fault, and asked if he had a recommendation.
I assumed he'd provide the name or names of some qualified vintage Seiko experts in the US. Instead he told me to box it up and send it to him (He's in Hong Kong) and he'd have his watchmaker give it a look. He pinged me about two weeks later (it took 10 days to get to Hong Kong) to say it had been magnetized, then quoted a nominal price and offered to split the return shipping.
A few months (and two watches from him) later, a Lord Matic that I'd bought from Jack's guy in Vietnam (who also was fantastic) decided that after 50 years it was time for the day/date "star" - the gear that engages to manually change the day and date - had shit the bed. This is a known issue, the part is hard to get, and those who have the skill and the tools to do the job typically specialize in restorations and charge accordingly. Again, I pinged William. He said his watchmaker could fix it for $115 US with a replacement part that is far more durable than OEM.
While he had it, he added another watch that I had to have to his inventory. I bought that. He said that if I were willing to wait another two weeks or so for his guy to fix the Lord Matic, he'd send them together to save me the added postage.
Buy with confidence. He's great.
Oh... he's also an F1 fan, but don't fault him for being a Hamilton fan. And he races karts. Best I can tell, he is in his 30s.
The only time I've seen an LFA was parked inside Lexus Santa Monica in 2017. I was there to buy the one-owner, mint-condition, Nipponsei Skyline 350GT someone had traded in on a Lexus GS, back when those were still a thing.
When the finance lady saw my salary at the end of the transaction, she was trying to pique my interest in not buying the $10,000 stick-shift Nissan they had no idea what to do with, but instead taking a spin in the used LFA just outside her office door. I thought she was nuts, the thing was like $150,000 used and had obviously been sitting in there a long time, so I politely declined her offer to drive it.
Ha, well, joke's on me. Who knew attempting to finance that used Lexus could have paid for an entire house five years later?
-I had a delightful face to face discussion with an English football hooligan / hedge fund manager this morning in Atlanta about Onlyfans and high-risk banking / payment processing. He was absolutely rapt with attention - loved the ingenuity of it all.
-I read a comment today on a Substack, which had absolutely nothing to do with the article, the initial comment, or the reply to the initial comment. It was mostly made so the commentator could brag about how clever he was. He's never been able to figure out why everybody bristles at the things he says.
Ah, Stan. This is some inside baseball playing out before your eyes. This comment references a long history "Sherman" and "Eric" (oh wait that's my real name) have, because he worked with the inventor of Only Fans, whereas I merely rejected said man's offer to work for him as a consultant. Sherman found another rich guy who was impressed by the moves that made modern-year Sherman who he is--someone who won't hesitate to exploit humans in the name of being able to later afford $132 cashmere baby socks.
Did any of us predict how weird and broken our post ~2018 economy would get? Obviously not, because we didn't buy the junk that people are ascribing insane value to now.
What? That was a golden opportunity to take the LFA out and just go to town on it, whether you were gonna buy it or not! You know; re-create the rental car scene from Days Of Thunder and then park the smoking heap back at the dealer lot and throw the keys on the finance lady’s desk. “Ya, not really my thing. Have a good one.”
The problem with car enthusiast blogs is that people actually know cars. Yes, I bought a 4-door G35 that is the American counterpart of the RHD V35 Nissan Skyline 350GT. ~300 HP VQ35DE, six speed manual, viscous limited slip, "sport" suspension with neat-o, red-colored OEM shocks. I like to pretend the former owner was a Japanese man living in Santa Monica, where the car did 55K miles in *12 years* of ownership, because he'd put on Skyline 350GT badges, used up the entirety of the clutch, worn out the diff bushings, and the tire alignment on the UHP all season Kumhos was set to TRACK MODE with bizarre toe and camber.
And it was absolutely excellent. 7.5 years later after buying it, I gave it to my friend who was sitting in that Lexus finance office with me, but only because I needed a vehicle that can fit a family of 7 and go on bad dirt roads in Idaho. Of the small number of cars I've owned ('00 Taurus, '02 Maxima 6-speed pocket rocket, '05 Maxima 6-speed luxury barge with 2+2 heated leather buckets and rear power window shade etc etc., '05 Skyline 350GT, '17 QX80) it is by far the most fun to drive. Instant giggles because the handling is so responsive and 3400 lbs + 300HP + lightened flywheel is more than enough to accidentally oversteer you into a circle when you're doing STUPID things. It was built by people who cared about all the little things, and didn't creak or rattle or vibrate TWENTY YEARS after the nice Japanese man signed the apology letter Nissan includes in the glovebox, explaining that the car has 4 miles on the odometer because they flog it around their performance track before it leaves the factory.
It's downsides are:
1. It's not nearly as fast as generic modern cars. Baruth wrote a rental review of the CHEVY IMPALA ~8 years ago that specifically called out G35s as being a victim of the FWD Chevy. Hurtful, but true.
2. The rear seat is not designed for hauling full-sized Americans.
3. Some people think it looks boring, I guess. The revised decklid on the 2005-2006 still looks impressively clean to me, with the license plate set down low and the R33-esque taillight design prominently LEDing its way through the night. But you're reading a comment from a guy who loves how stealth the Chevy SS is. Who cares if it looks like a Malibu if it goes faster than a Corvette?
4. The suspension is very complex, so it has lots of OEM parts to eventually fail. There are 6 balljoins, for instance. But the absolutely insane aftermarket support for G35s and 350Zs (same car, differing number of doors and seats) means ain't nobody replacing that Nissan "compression rod" with a factory one and most used cars are going to be full of awful, fake-racing components.
5. It doesn't break, so your father in law who thinks Toyota and Honda can do no wrong--despite legion of problems with the Camrys, Lexus RXes, and Ridgelines he's owned--gets all hot under the collar because you owned a NISSAN for almost 8 years and the only thing it needed was a new clutch and some bushings because the diff clunks under hard launches when the OEM ones are shot and that can't be right because you're hard on your car and everyone knows Nissans suck and didn't your daughter's 2007 Camry's power steering pump fail at 32,000 miles and 3 months outside the powertrain warranty and Toyota corporate wouldn't cover it and remember how your wife's RX hybrid would randomly power off on the highway because of some electrical problem it had they could never resolve so they traded it in on that ~2010 RX that also spent a lot of time in the shop with expensive broken engine and cooling parts? Uh... So the whole Nissan makes bad cars for the Altima demographic will always hang over you. An albatross 'round your neck that will never fly away.
I came to say that driving a bubble Taurus is peak Millenial, if one didn't themselves they knew at least 3 others that did. But then I read that last paragraph, just tell him he is a putz already, and give your wife the QX80 and pick up the new 4 door Z it drops for yourself.
I truly, madly, deeply loved my 2005 G35 sedan. All I ever did was oil changes in 6 years of ownership. The last thing the service advisor tried to get my attention about was a worn "compression rod."
I gave it to my wife in the divorce; I got the kids and the other VQ-powered car in the driveway: a Nissan Quest.
The engine of the 1974 Dodge Monaco idle-roared like a dying beast in the tunnel behind the Palace Hotel Ballroom. Jake and Elwood Blues, clad in their signature black suits, fedoras, and sunglasses, scrambled into the front seat. They had $5,000 in cash, a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, and the entire Chicago Police Department on their tail. Elwood reached for the ignition.
Suddenly, the driver’s side door was yanked open with violent, terrifying force. Standing there was Tom Klockau in a coral golf shirt and a manic look in his eyes, breathing heavily, his glasses slightly askew, and a look of sheer, unadulterated panic. He wasn't looking at the cops. He wasn't looking at the cash. He was looking at his watch.
"Out of the way, boys! Move it!" Tom screamed, grabbing Elwood by the lapels of his black suit. "Hey, pal, we're on a mission from—" Jake started to protest, but Tom didn't have time for divine interventions. With the strength of a man who had been dreaming of surf and turf and a Brandy Old Fashioned for six months, Tom hoisted Elwood completely out of the driver’s seat and hurled him backward as if he weighed no more than an empty Kleenex box. Elwood landed in a tangled heap of black wool and sunglasses in the rear seat.
Tom slammed himself into the driver's seat, threw the Bluesmobile into drive, and stomped the gas pedal straight through the floorboards. "Hey!" Elwood yelled from the back, his hat knocked sideways. "This is a cop motor! It's got cop suspension!" "I don't care if it's got a rocket booster from NASA!" Tom shouted over the screaming tires as the Dodge launched out of the alley, instantly obliterating a row of garbage cans. "My reservation at The Cellar Supper Club in Geneseo is for 8:15! If I am one minute late, they give my table away, and I am not missing their drawn butter or Green Goddess dressing for anything! So shut up and hold on!"
What followed made Elwood’s previous driving look like a Sunday stroll through the park. Tom didn't just drift corners; he defied the laws of physics. The Bluesmobile rocketed onto the Dan Ryan Expressway, instantly drawing the attention of fifty converging CPD police cruisers. "We got company," Jake said, looking out the window as sirens wailed from every direction. "They're slowing me down! Dammit!" Tom roared. He flicked the steering wheel, executing a flawless, 90-mile-per-hour slalom through three lanes of squad cars. He clipped a concrete barrier, launched the Bluesmobile briefly into the air, landed on all four wheels, and passed a state trooper on the inside shoulder.
Elwood watched in absolute awe from the back seat. "Jake," Elwood whispered, adjusting his glasses. "This guy is on a mission--for fine dining!" "He's a maniac!" Jake yelled, gripping the dashboard as Tom ran a red light at 110 miles per hour, narrowly missing a city bus, a Chrysler Cordoba and a hot dog vendor. "Geneseo is like a hundred and fifty miles away! You're going the wrong way for us!" "I know a shortcut!" Tom yelled back, eyes locked on the road with laser focus. "But I'm a reasonable man. I'll drop you off!"
With a screech of burning rubber, Tom whipped the Bluesmobile off the highway and pulled off a spectacular, four-wheel drift right onto the sidewalk of Clark Street. The heavy sedan slammed to a violent halt exactly in front of the doors of the Cook County Assessor's Office. The force of the stop sent Jake and Elwood flying forward.
"End of the line, fellas! Save the orphanage!" Tom shouted, reaching over and throwing both passenger doors open. "Get out, get out, get out! The relish tray and cheese ball waits for no man!" Jake grabbed the briefcase of cash, and Elwood scrambled out of the back. The second their feet hit the pavement Tom slammed the doors shut. He didn't even wait for them to clear the curb before he floored it again, leaving a massive cloud of white smoke and two perfect, 60-foot long black tire tracks on the sidewalk. Jake and Elwood stood under the neon lights of the Assessor's Office, coughing in the exhaust fumes, watching the taillights of the Bluesmobile vanish into the night at supersonic speed. Elwood adjusted his fedora and looked at Jake. "You know, Jake, I think he's gonna make it." "Yeah," Jake sighed, turning toward the building. "Come on. Let's go pay the taxes."
Tom K you have been hitting the AI bottle again have we not.. how many times do your readers have to remind you when you have writers block head to The Cellar for a surf and turf with a top shelf gin and tonic, that is always a cure.
Word of the "Chicago Bluesmobile Incident" had traveled down the grapevine to Eugene, but Paul had dismissed it as internet mythology. No man—not even Tom—could outrun fifty police cruisers in a 1974 Dodge Monaco just for a supper club reservation.
Paul was about to learn that underestimating Tom’s dedication to Midwestern fine dining was his final, catastrophic mistake.
It was 7:45 PM on a Friday. Paul was covertly working in his garage, attempting to modify his Mayor Klockau-mandated 1980 Chevy Citation. He had managed to jerry-rig an old Peugeot diesel fuel pump into the Iron Duke engine, hoping it would give him enough torque to escape the city limits.
Suddenly, the garage door didn't just open; it was obliterated.
The Hijacking of the Citation
Through the splintered wood and flying drywall charged Mayor Tom Klockau. He wasn't in his usual mayoral velvet. He was wearing a rumpled coral golf shirt, his glasses were crooked, and his eyes carried the terrifying, manic glaze of a man possessed by the spirit of a thousand Friday night fish fries. He wasn't looking at Paul. He was looking at his watch.
"Out of the way, Niedermeyer! Move it!" Tom shrieked, sprinting toward the trembling Chevy Citation.
"Tom?! What are you doing in my garage?!" Paul yelled, waving a metric wrench defensively. "This is a restricted zone! I am working on historical Curbside engineering!"
"I don't care if it's a Mercedes-Benz 300d!" Tom roared, grabbing Paul by the collar of his faded flannel shirt. With the terrifying, adrenaline-fueled strength of a man who hadn't seen a butter-slathered baked potato in six months, Tom hoisted Paul completely off the ground and hurled him backward. Paul landed with a spectacular crash into a stack of vintage Road & Track magazines.
Tom slammed himself into the Citation’s saggy vinyl bucket seat. "Tom, stop!" Paul screamed from the floor, rubbing his elbow. "That car has a loose steering column! The rear brakes lock up! The torque steer will kill you!"
"The Cellar Supper Club in Geneseo is closing its Oregon pop-up kitchen at 8:15 PM!" Tom shouted over the deafening, un-muffled clatter of Paul's modified engine. "If I miss the prime rib and the brandy old-fashioned, nobody in this town drives a Japanese car ever again! Hold onto your flat-four, Paul, because we are going supersonic!"
The Flight of the X-Body
What followed made Tom's legendary drive through Chicago look like a casual trip to the grocery store.
Tom slammed the Citation into drive. The front wheels spun wildly, sending a horrific cloud of burning rubber and unburned vegetable oil smoke into the garage. The Citation launched into the street, instantly clipping Paul’s recycling bins and sending them into low-earth orbit.
Paul scrambled to his feet and ran to the curb, watching in absolute horror.
Eugene’s entire police force—now driving 1979 classic Ford LTD squads with mandatory landau tops—immediately turned on their sirens. A dozen cruisers converged on the intersection.
Tom didn't even tap the brakes. He executed a flawless, 85-mile-per-hour slalom through the bike lanes of Willamette Street. When a city bus blocked the intersection, Tom flicked the wheel. The Citation clipped a concrete planter, launched completely into the air, landed on all four wheels with a sound like a metal dumpster hitting a trampoline, and passed a parking enforcement officer on the sidewalk.
"He's going to disintegrate the chassis!" Paul whispered to himself, his jaw dropping. "The Citation doesn't have structural integrity for that kind of banking!"
But Tom was defying the laws of physics. He was driving on pure, unadulterated hunger. He wrestled the aggressive torque steer with one hand while adjusting his aviator sunglasses with the other.
The Return
At exactly 8:14 PM, a screech of burning metallic brakes echoed through downtown Eugene.
The Chevy Citation executed a spectacular, smoke-filled four-wheel drift, sliding perfectly parallel to the curb right in front of the pop-up Supper Club. The front bumper was missing. The hood was smoking. The left front fender was flapping in the breeze like a wounded bird.
The door flew open. Tom Klockau stepped out, looking immaculate, his coral shirt barely creased. He checked his watch, smiled warmly at the maître d' standing at the door, and walked inside to claim his relish tray.
The Citation, having fulfilled its divine purpose, slowly hissed, dropped three inches as the front suspension gave up entirely, and bled its entire oil supply onto the asphalt.
Paul walked up to the scene twenty minutes later, staring at the mechanical corpse of his daily driver. He looked at the perfect, 80-foot long black tire tracks on the pavement, then up at the warm, neon glow of the supper club.
Paul adjusted his glasses, let out a deep, defeated sigh, and looked at a passing Volvo enthusiast.
"You know," Paul whispered, "the engineering was atrocious... but I think he made his reservation."
“I defy you to get tired of hearing the new Toyota GR GT3 driving around the ‘Ring. This isn’t a “GT3” like Porsche’s GT3 street-car line, which now includes a convertible and has basically become nothing more than the Malibu Beach version of the Celebrity Eurosport. This is a car that you buy to race in FIA’s GT3 class, competing against the Porsche GT3 Cup.
Will the GR be faster than the Porsche? It would probably be drastically faster, were it not for the Balance of Performance rules on which Porsche relies to keep its strong-selling customer race car competitive with inherently superior machinery. A front-mid-engined car will, all else being equal, always have a significant advantage over a rear-engined car.”
0-The vehicle that Porsche races in the SRO-sanctioned global GT3 classes is the 911 GT3 R, not the Cup car, which is for one make racing.
1-It doesn’t matter how any of the cars would race against each other WITHOUT BOP, because that will never happen. Almost certainly the fastest car would be the McLaren 720S, which is lightweight and develops well more than 700 BHP without the fitment of sonic restrictors.
2-BOP, for all its manifold ills, allows a big, heavy Mustang to race straight up against a vastly lighter European exotics. It is what it is.
3-Interestingly, a “Confidential Informant” told me just last night that the new Lamborghini Temerario GT3, which has a bespoke flat plane crank V8 that develops 800 bhp (before the hybrid, which is not allowed in GT3 racing) … is an absolute dog and is not competitive even when racing at the minimum BOP weight.
4-The GR GT will probably price in the low to mid $200s, I suspect. And I think that will be a tough sell given it’ll be 911 GT3 (road car) money.
The GR is dumb as shit. They didn’t sell LFAs, why bother with this? Just make a hot 4Runner for fucks sake. Product planning from Toyota has been run by retards when it’s not base models
There are 245 Lexus dealers in America. I'd be surprised if they allocated three per dealer. Allocating one per dealer is a good way to make sure that, as with the long-forgotten Buick Reatta convertible, the #1 profession reported by owners is "Dealer's wife". Allocating four per dealer is probably too much hassle for the dealer.
Will they brand it as a Toyota or Lexus? This seems a lot more brash than the Lexus brand would tolerate, but the potential buyers wouldn’t want to share the service waiting room with some tatted-up dude waiting for his Corolla’s 20,000-mile oil change, either!
I think people want to be lumped in, sort of the point of owning one. Takes a true hero to buy a 250k+ Toyota. I’m not one of them because I hate Toyota
A gt3 in base guise is 260k and realistically in the low 300s at best. That’s after you fall on your knees to blow the dealer to consider selling to you. So many of us may prefer the Toyota on there’s assuming it’s equivalent. But it’s not equivalent having a far longer wheelbase and weighting a critical 500lbs more. Plus it appears the battery is mounted up high above the rear axle. Now if they made a 500lbs lighter non electrified one lien the race car then yes it’s competitive with the porche . Assuming it’s durable and reliable too.
Things all speculation of corse. But imo it will not soceed well because like the lfa it won’t compete on paper at 3860lbs and 660 hp with either. A gt3 or a cheaper Vette .
how i hate/loathe/detest b.o.p. will we never see who builds the fastest car running against one another? remember when the mclaren had to disable its aero device WHICH WAS ON ALL ITS ROAD CARS to race--and win--at le mans?
The only development series - i.e., non-spec and non-BOP - are F1 and Moto GP … because there are enough eyeballs to facilitate ongoing development (i.e., $$$).
If you are a young man who is not yet married and someday would like to use a motorcycle to get a lady to have fun with you. Don't get an adventure bike. For all others, I kinda agree with Andrew. The day I can actually go on a 500mm motorcycle trip with the wife, I might be picking one up. Or maybe I'll just get that z4 M40. I don't hate it.
My creaking old bones seek the plush ride and upright stance that my ST1100 is not delivering. My throttle hand keeps falling asleep after about 5 minutes and this might actually get me to move on from the bike.
Also, the wingaling thing is less ugly than adv bikes and Honda is REFUSING to sell the CB1000GT in the US.
A word about using a Motocycle for sex : I'd highly suggest laying hands on an old, solid engine mounted Harley-Davidson, plop pretty much any female on the pillion and take off, do highway / freeway speeds and leave it in third gear .
I can guarantee you'll in five minutes she'll be extremely excited and ready to go .
Maybe not with you but someone's going to be getting off before 10 hours .
I have never needed a Motocycle to "pick up chicks" but I certainly had some serious fun giving my buddies wives rides because they were all impressed with "oh, a _HARLEY_ !" .
My buddies either thanked or cursed me the next time we met but it was fun, always =8-) .
Well, damn. I posted the same thing before reading this comment. A Ducati also does the trick. I know this from a woman who owned a first-gen Monster that she regularly flogged like a rented mule. She would slide as far forward as possible on the seat, settle herself against the tank just so and enjoy the ride, as it were.
They're also excessively, almost needlessly, complex.
A friend of mine once owned a 1200 K-bike of year that I've long since forgotten. He did all of his own work, and at some point had to replace the clutch slave cylinder - which BMW apparently suspended in mid-air at the factory before building the entire bike around it. He had to remove just about everything behind the engine and below the seat to reach it.
Yes, it's called a Double Century Ride. But that was nominal. I had a good friend who rode three hundred miles in one day. I was a serious rider but not like him!!! There are people out there, in every walk of life, who have capacities we mortals can only dimly imagine!
when I was much younger and therefore more limber and more foolish, I regularly did 300-mile days on a Ducati 900SS/SP. Such days are much better on a GS.
Fair enough. It’s grown on me too. But it was a semi serious answer. If you see a G87 in person, it’s easy to see the F8X lineage in its face. It’s low and wide. The G80 is, to me, a harder pill to swallow. But in darker colors it nails being a little discrete.
That's the color I saw when I thought "Maybe they aren't hideous' A real color that isn't white black or gray. It was refreshing. The green somehow disguises the hideous grill.
I’m coming around on the G cars; you make highly persuasive points in their defense.
but to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin’s ideas, it is harder to put a basket over the front fascia of a G car than it is to put a stickier tire & other supporting suspension mods on an F car to chill the wheel hop
I just got done beating the brakes off mine for the day. It’s just inconceivable to me that someone who loves street driving couldn’t like this car. It’s stupid fast, the suspension is magic in its balance, it’s low and wide and makes good noises once you code out the fake engine stuff. The screen gauges are gay and the steering is so so.
The F chassis has a number of sins that made it difficult to live with day to day but it’s a weekend car I can see the argument.
If, as you say, someone "would like to use a motorcycle to get a lady to have fun with you," there is only one right and proper answer to this: A V-twin. The vibrations at a specific RPM (which varies with the make and model) will lead to the desired result.
Apparently Harley-Davidsons will do this very effectively (I will allow someone here who has specific experience with that weight in if he so desires), and I know from talking with a woman who owned a first-gen Monster that she flogged relentlessly that a Ducati will have the same effect while also being drop-dead gorgeous.
Y'all are perverts. Motorcycles are just fun. Girls like to have fun and after they sometime like to have more fun. I'm an old fashioned guy who uses what God gave me to get the ladies off.
Looking like an obnoxious asshole on a sportbike is peacocking. Harleys are for old chicks with a smokers cough.
You’re actually both wrong. It’s not about masturbating them with an industrial grade ride on dildo or about being “fun”. It’s the implication of a rough and tumble, free living man with some sense of danger. Women can’t stand that shit and so when they see a guy like this they immediately think “how can I ruin his life?” And like all things in a woman’s mind, it’s have sex with him and start to control his actions!
I will say, Wikipedia suggests the 330i I drove in 2018 was likely B48 powered, and that engine clattered like an Isuzu NPR diesel at almost any speed. It was audible even inside the cabin. Do you know if they fixed the sound?
Oh it’ll clatter and generally sound like shit, but what two point oh tee doesn’t at this point?
As for tuning, yessir there’s a dozen different brands that’ll sell you anything from a canned tune to big turbos and the like. $600 off the shelf, plug and play tune should get you close to 300hp.
Most of them mostly do nothing. Number needed to treat is the most interesting stat for drugs. This is commonly in the hundreds which is how people end up on two dozen different drugs, IMO. You are most likely to not be helped by a drug, maybe just get some side effects. So you get another drug to deal with those side effects and a third drug that likely won't help your original problem and so on.
Is there a company that says "F it... let's just make this" as much as Mr. Toyoda's company does? Nissan learned the hard way that just because you're winning the numbers war one day doesn't mean you won't be the laughing stock the next. Thank God they decided to green light the RZ34 when Nissan really didn't HAVE to make something like that anymore.
Nissan made the R35 to basically break the numbers system when car rags were testing it. It just got absolutely slobbered on from day one... until they started to break. Then, they were fat pigs. Jack said it best in that it was a car that started digital and became more analogue with every year and change to the Nismo version.
The RZ34 is the current Nissan Z. Yes, it has the same hard points as the 370z aka the Z34. However, literally everything was tinkered with. And since it's "retro", they kept the Z34 moniker internally and embraced the R(retro). Considering that it stayed around long enough to horseshoe back into being cool again... it was a good move.
Now... here's the latest in making them MORE retro.... people are doing old school bre chin spoilers and carbon fiber bumpers that are like the original 240z.
“Nissan learned the hard way that just because you're winning the numbers war one day doesn't mean you won't be the laughing stock the next.”
The quality of certain nineties Nissan products—the 0g Q45 in particular—is a testament to this. Beyond the obvious guess (they blew the budget), one wonders what shot Nissan’s world-leading products out of the sky
Honestly... when I get to it and drive it to Jack's place. It's only fitting that he get to enjoy a drive in it as well. Currently it is a bit under braked, but I've been sorting some exhaust and timing chain issues. I've been cautious about driving it too far due to cooling issues, but that has been my own fault.
THen there's the intake... Well, it's kind of higher than the hood now sadly. May just not run a hood for Woodward Dream Cruise this year.
I gotta say I’ve been impressed by the Miyota 9 series movement. Yes, they are a pain to regulate, but once set, it’s been impressively accurate. Hell of a movement for the money.
It’s just a super sensitive lever with no micro adjustment screws or anything. You just have to have a very steady hand and figure you’ll probably tweak it a few times before you get it right. Once there though, it runs very accurately.
Seiko NH movements (and I assume many others) have the same thing: a lever for the time and another for the beat error. Everything in a watch is close to the balance wheel of course, but these are positioned in such a way that one slip and you can send your tool right into it. Reddit surely abounds with posts from people who have done just that.
The trick I've heard is to use a toothpick and approach the levers from as close to horizontal as possible so if you slip the tool goes out, not down.
"A very steady hand" is, at my place in middle-age, a growing challenge lol
I couldn’t afford a $75k new car either, which is why a Z4 M40i 6MT—as pictured in the column—is not in my garage at present. Hopefully these come off lease at a reasonably low price, as my new-to-me E38 740i Sport needs a companion.
Thank you kindly! Still ironing out a few annoyances—at 27 years old and 173k miles, I’m frankly surprised at how few there are, especially compared to my former V12 W221 which was eleven years and 60k miles younger.
My wife has claimed it as her driver, though, so after we sell her former 9-5 Aero SportCombi, I’m on the hunt for a E46 (or even an E90) manual-trans sedan.
"at 27 years old and 173k miles, I’m frankly surprised..." means that you are 27 years old and have run an average of about 124 miles per week every week of your life. Now, that's impressive. Just having some fun with the English language; that's all.
the 740i sport is the car I wanted to get as a road trip-mobile. My other plan was to have my kids chauffeur me around in on once driver's license's were obtained, bu I didnt act fast enough and now they are out of the house. Dammit. Still, very sweet rides.
Now a 740 with a S62/six speed from the e39 M5.....
It’s so lovely having a wife who doesn’t bat an eye to the mental illness of automobilia, as you can attest. Any hesitancy I have with regard to further purchases is purely on my part… “pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered”.
My ex has been trying ever harder to come back as if =8-^ .
I courted my Sweet in a clapped out 1959 Nash Metropolitan DHC with a hokey home made removable hard top that had port holes like a '55 Fort T-Bird .
She drove to Canada and back with me in it and still talked to me afterwards, I knew right then she was a 'keeper' =8-) .
I've jettisoned more than a few women who foolishly said "I don't like - - - -" and /
or "you're too close to your son, you shouldn't kiss him hello / good bye" .
One really cute one actually actually asked if I'd get upset if she dated my best bud, I said "of course not, go and have a good time" .
He called to make sure and I said "have at it" he did then booted her and she became all pissy for some reason when she next called me and I said "we're all done now" like I should have given her a warning after she expressed interest in my buddy ?! .
Even my first wife never did anything that stupid .
It matters not what she thinks, I'll go to my grave with a handlebar, steering wheel or tool in my mangled old hand(s) .
we dont need to keep rolling the dice to see if one of them wont kill a family due to sheer negligence or to worsen interborder reputations when they smuggle drugs from one country into the next
I'm talking about the massive problem in the U.S.A. here after trucking was de regulated .
At the time it was mostly Mexican rig operators, they're -so- sketchy with things like air in paper thin tires, having any friction surface left to run on the also paper thin brake drums......
I at the time I correctly predicted roadway mayhem and increased traffic deaths, blah blah blah .
The current issue isn't about Federal standards but rather how California and a few other states are issuing CDLs to people who shouldn't have them.
I just drove down to Ohio to see the Union Pacific Big Boy locomotive. There is construction on I-75 and the roadway is down to two lanes, with signs saying "Trucks Stay In Left Lane". I'd say only about half of the truck drivers pay attention to those signs.
By the way, the big train is very impressive. I was able to see it in a couple of places. One was in the middle of nowhere, at a railroad crossing a mile or two outside a small Ohio town. By the time the train passed, there were dozens of people. The other was in Continental, Ohio, pop. 1,102, where there was a whistle stop. Hundreds of people showed up to watch and take photos and video, enough so that there were traffic jams at the stop signs on the road leading out of town.
Another member of the Flip-flop Brigade was recently sentenced in Toronto for killing 4 people after rear-ending them. To a whopping 4 years. Its almost like the government wants them out murdering white citizens.
I saw the U.P. Big Boy long long ago, it's very impressive and to me, beautiful .
I'm not sure how you manage to disassociate the gop's endless deregulation from un trained / incompetent foreigners getting CDL's when they surely should not .
President Carter signed the bill that deregulated the trucking industry. Ted Kennedy was a big champion for it. You can’t lay blame for this on one side.
Nice try at deflection but the facts remain : the gop has been pushing deregulation and privatization of nearly everything long than most here have been alive .
How about killing and maiming a bus load of hockey players on their way to a tournament?
There are many horrific stories to tell about the current crop of truck drivers terrorizing our highways in massive death machines. They are poorly trained, overworked, and exhausted while driving for companies with highly questionable ethics.
Someone very close to me worked for an insurance company dealing with automotive and commercial vehicle insurance. I heard many stories from her over the years, but one that has stuck with me clearly illustrates some of the problems that exist in the commercial trucking arena. An accident claim for a tractor trailer unit was being investigated and during the interview with the South Asian driver, some questions were raised about the driver log entries for the long haul run the driver and truck were on when the accident occurred. The entries showed that the driver and co-driver were operating safely within the regulated maximum time limits behind the wheel, and supposedly getting appropriate rest before taking the wheel again for their next shift. The co-driver was then interviewed and turned out to be the driver’s wife. She could not speak English and despite the presence of a translator, the investigator was getting increasingly frustrated by this driver pairing and the feeling that he was getting the runaround.
“Okay”, the investigator said to the translator, “tell her she, you, and I are going out to the truck so that she can explain her driving duties to me.” The co-driver looked like she wasn’t too happy about the situation, but the three of them went out to the truck and she got behind the wheel. The investigator gave her the keys and asked her to start up the truck and then do some short manoeuvres around the parking lot. Well, I don’t think it surprises anybody reading this that she didn’t have a clue what to do in that cockpit. She couldn’t even get the truck started, never mind maneuver it around the lot. Bottom line is that the main driver was doubling his allowable time behind the wheel and thereby running himself into the ground to get the job done. The log entries were a joke, and the company that owned the truck was turning a blind eye to the whole thing. The whole thing was a ticking time bomb. Sadly, there are many more stories like this, but nobody wants to deal with it and if you ask too many questions, you are labelled a racist.
theyre the reason wages are in the dirt and have also made the highway system unsafe. they literally do not know how to read road signs in most cases. theyve made every facet of the trucking industry worse and the people who facilitate it dont care becuase theyre cheap. there are already way more american truck drivers than are needed to replace them but those guys arent the ones hired becuase indians also own fly by night fraudulent trucking companies.
like a lot of things it requires the right people in charge who are are at the same time prevented from being in charge becuase that would stop the spice flowing as you said
a bunch of serious older white guys could solve mostly everything but would fly entirely against the current dei/globohomo nonsense
- A significant number of boomers really do hate young Americans. As part of the campaign, Putsch's volunteers would point out Vivek's Christmas Crashout to boomer Republican voters. A disturbingly large share of them agreed with Vivek and said they would vote for him BECAUSE of the crashout, because they thought kids these days are lazy and ungrateful. We have a LOT of work to do to overcome this hurdle."
The cause of our future does not lack young men willing to step into the arena and take a stand. In fact, Casey's campaign was a success in that it proved the opposite: if you build it, they *will* come.
What the cause lacks is the support of the older generations. This is critical because we are fighting an uphill demographic battle. Gen Z can stand up and shout as much as we want, but we are statistically irrelevant in the democratic process. We may as well not exist.
The largest voting block is the boomers, and people over age 50 make up half of the voting population. That means, if you are seriously popular with the boomers, and marginally popular with Gen X, you will win over Gen Z for at least the next 8 years.
The boomers have demonstrated active disdain for Gen Z, and as a result, canvassing boomers with young volunteers is unusually ineffective.
you need smart guys who care about their country and their countrymen in positions of power everywhere to enact meaningful change and to remain there so it can be maintained
Note the photo with the poster falling off the wall; Commercial Drivers License holders are required to speak English and understand basic road signs, but apparently the Sikh trucking companies don't care when hiring their co-ethnics.
(The BBC didn't speak of the fact that many diesel mechanics are exposed to biohazards when performing brake work, because the Subcon "drivers" cut a hole into the floor of their cabs to create a drop chute toilet.)
I have previously posted about this because it illustrates the Subcon mentality. Contrast with the Jeffrey Dahmer case: neither the LGBTQ Community, nor the German-American Community rallied around Dahmer. But the Subcons always protect your own, as you have seen with the Pakistani Muslim Rape Gangs.
Sadly, in the same way that the original Rape Gang Inquiry was directed by {Shabana Mahmood}, Trump appointed {Harmeet Dhillon}, an Indian-born Sikh, as Assistant AG, who tweeted:
On 2026-05-14, the Supreme Court has ruled in MONTGOMERY v. CARIBE TRANSPORT II, LLC, ET AL. that negligent-hiring claims against brokers may proceed, which will probably have a significant impact: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-1238_1b7d.pdf
As a longtime IMSA fan, I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new Toyoder GT car, mostly because I am dreadfully sick of watching the pig-ugly RCF compete against the track versions of cars I actually desire. On track, it makes the Giant M6 look positively ZOZEMPICed (see what I did there?)
MotoGP ran in Germany at the oft-dominated-by-Marc Sachsenring.
This year was no different with Marc securing pole position with a new lap record, leading every sprint lap, and leading every race lap. The once indomitable looking 100+ point lead of Bez has disappeared and been overcome by Jorge Martin. Jorge himself now has a scant 14 point lead over Ai Ogura, one of the highly competitive Trackhouse riders, and only an 18 point lead over Marc Marquez.
Bez was ruled out with injury for both sprint and race after a fast crash in Q2 and his big fat zero points in so many races has likely already cost him the championship.
Ducati locked out the front row start with Marc, Alex, and Digi.
In the sprint Marc's brother Alex kept him honest for the entirety of the run and finished second, though never threatened a pass. Digi started and finished the race in third. Not the most exciting of sprints, and a return to recent form for Ducati with three machines on the podium.
In the race Alex was unable to keep up with brother Marc and crashed out of contention at about one third race distance. Digiantonnio, who has been consistent this year, and whose consistency has him in the running for the championship, finally saw a GP DNF as well as he lost the front. Four other riders would retire and everyone who finished would score. AiOgura's late race pace once again came to him and, to his credit, wasn't left too late this time with a decent qualifying in 5th, so that he was able to overtake his teammate Raul for 2nd place. Raul finished 3rd. Pedro Acosta rode the wheels off his bike, fresh from carpal tunnel relief surgery, and placed 4th.
While this was not the most exciting race weekend in terms of action on track it was a weekend of big moves in the championship standings.
MotoGP will reconvene after the summer break with healthy(ier) riders at Silverstone in England and only 25 points between the top five.
Omega x Swatch Moonswatch: Mission to Milk (your bank account)?
We all love to rag on poorcha owners. Whether its a dentist carting his fourth wife (a 25 year old retail employee) or a 34 year old investment banker who resembles a balding AARP cardholder, we all know they paid too much for the equivalent experience. Ultimately, however, we also know that there is nothing inherently WRONG with said experience; its just that the relative valuation has gotten nonsensical, and you can get a nice R8 or maybe an NA1 NSX for far less cash than his garden variety C2S which you just saw get outrun by a TRD camry on proper summer tires.
The Omega collab strikes me as a similar conundrum - why pay less when you can pay more? Let's start with the strap. lord almighty is this thing unfit for human consumption. notwithstanding the fact that the "catcher" side of the velcro circles the whole circumference of the outside of the watch for some reason, rendering it ripe for the collection of errant dribbles of tequila and leftover food, but the default wrist this is set up for is an Ozempic riddled teenager who already had an eating disorder. at 8.25" of wrist, i can comfortably say i am wearing a "speedmast" with a detent that cuts off the word but not my bloodflow.
further hating on the OEM strap, it somehow manages to be both soft, flexible, and uncomfortable. jack, i regret to inform you this one will be coming home with amazon aftermarket straps on it (in addition to the standard, fret not).
next, allow me to hate on the build quality. shockingly, somehow the "tachymetre" sticker is actually about half a degree off center, resulting in "60" actually being about "59" instead. for a $250 watch this is simply unacceptable. the crown spins freely, and the entire ensemble looks like you pulled it out of a toy store.
in my last round of hate, its hard for a watch to feel "lived in" when you're constantly more than a little afraid that your plastic watch might die from washing your hands. its certainly splash proof, but the fact that every time i washed my hands or wanted to take a dip in a pool or off the boat i had to make sure i was wearing my g shock or my R word (the other R word). id love to beat the shit out of this watch; but i never felt like i wasnt going to murder it unless i was strictly going to work, home, and then taking it off before toddler bath time.
but enough of vindicating the haterzzzzz, what did i love about it? for one, i would wager this is the first chronograph watch exposure for a vast majority of buyers. what a lovely format it is, even if it makes the dials a little unusable at a glance. in terms of doing the needful and getting folks hooked on interesting watches, i find it hard to believe there is a more effective tool in this price range.
its also, as youd expect, insanely light. on aftermarket bands, yeah, this is a very wearable and even fun to wear watch. im really enjoying my time with it, but its also doing its other job - namely, making me think about what life would be like with a REAL moonwatch.
finally, its just a fun piece to have on. people ask about it. people want to know about it. colleagues have pulled me aside. people ask if its a fun gift for the husband who has everything for fathers day. i say abso-fuckin-loutely. i know a fellow who works with diamonds regularly in a facility that cuts them, and he lost a very nice omega aqua terra to the microscopic particles floating around in said facility. his kids answer was a couple of moonswatches in various colors for fathers day... and when they die after a year or so, they die. but lord, was it a fun go.
so would i recommend? absolutely. but much like a poorcha, you gotta know what youre getting yourself into. one, you can get a better watch for your $250. please know this off the bat. something that looks and feels nicer. something maybe even presentable if you arent a heathen like me. like the P car you are paying for the label. but can you debate the fun of the experience? absolutely NOT. and if you arent one to weigh your options pound for pound across the peer set, thats enough.
"a balding AARP cardholder" describes the typical Corvette owner, yes?
as to the watch, it sounds like I could build a better watch for $250, but I guarantee you now one beyond Jack is gonna comment on it.
"he lost a very nice omega aqua terra to the microscopic particles floating around in said facility."
Somewhere, an exec at Rolex is pondering whether it could design a watch designed to mitigate that very problem, name it something like Diamantpulver, and sell it for, say, $18,000. It worked with the Milgaus...
Yeah, my idiot brother bought a Milgauss for all of his EXTREMELY HIGH MAGNETIC FIELD ACTIVITIES.
My first thought was -- "You know, a 20-year-old slut's vagina isn't an MRI machine"
a ring might come off regardless
one suspects that ring should have come off a long time ago, anyway
the only magnetic field he is likely to come into contact with is the MRI machine after a dad beats his ass
Like a woman with an involved father is going to date a 48 year old man!
one day, id like to imagine bark sees everything here the way weasley, i mean wesley did. he'll read you the riot act about airing is dirty laundry, and all you will have ot say in response is "well, you are kind of a piece of shit" and that will be the end of that discussion
He comments here!
Douche'
the fact she _doesn't_ have an involved father is the likely reason she is dating him.
Just under 150k a year doesn't buy as many watches as just under 300k
he may not magnetize it, but he might inadvertently leave it in there
The Milgauss is probably the only Rolex I really, really want… Not sure I want to pick up your brother‘s hobby, though :-D
I will readily admit that it is quite handsome, especially in the blue/green variety he has.
the difference is the poorcha owner only LOOKS 65.
somewhere, deep in the bowels of Rolex, is a project dedicated to every obscure professional watch variant one could cook up. there is the Falcon Master (scratch resistant for your aviary adventures), the SubSoil (for your gardening), the Sherpa Special (includes an altimeter for your climbing expeditions), and now of course the Diamantpulver. however, shockingly, there is no Desk Master yet for the most common Rolex occasion - sitting at a keyboard for 18 hours a day and a button to automatically summon the nearest Sweetgreen for delivery.
you know Rolex has at least considered something like a Falcon Master for the various sheiks and princes and other obscenely wealthy men of the Middle East for whom falconry is yet another way of showing the plebes you have the time and money to engage in such a thing.
I have no doubt a falconry-adjacent watch has been conceived, designed, tested, and perhaps even trade patented before someone put the kibosh on it for being a little too on the nose
Or arm.
You can realign the hands using the pushers. Look up the manual.
I owned a pre-moon caliber 321 Speedmaster for a long time. Sold it because it was too precious and had more than tripled in value, to help fund a new race car. My Moonswatch sufficiently scratches that itch for me (on an aftermarket strap that doesn't actually scratch me).
If you are referring to the slightly off center comment, it’s nothing to do with the hands, but rather the actual sticker around the crystal. The hands on the dial line up just fine, thankfully.
Well, all you gotta do is:
0. Have another sticker made custom;
1. Steam the original one off;
2. Install the new one perfectly
WHAT IS UR PROBLEM
OPEN THREAD: So I took the new RX350h in for its 5kmi service this past weekend. This is the first new vehicle that I've ever waited this long to do the first oil change, but I figured its a hybrid with over 50% of the drive time in electric mode thus far, and its a toyota 4 banger so what could go wrong.
Anywho I pay no attention to the service requirements for the 5kmi interval, we drop it off and I just assume that it is a Lexus, and they are know for how well they take care of you, why should I concern myself with such things as the details of THEIR prescribed service?
After picking it up and back home I discover while reviewing the service report that they didn't change the oil. The 0w16 oil...wtf. So I comandeer Mrs. Sam's phone to pull up the cars app to review the service intervals to get to the bottom of this. As it turns out the standard interval from new is to change the oil every 10kmi, so we wasted a Saturday morning getting the tires rotated and the weird bubble in the drivers seat cushion leather documented.
I say documented because their diagnosis was that because Ms. Sam has no need for Ozempic it is taking longer for the seat to break in, and that bubble will eventually go away...suuuurrree it will, it might find the clip of my pocket knife 2-3kmi before the bumper to bumper is over if they don't do the right thing before hand and replace the lower cover.
Long story a little longer, I ended up changing the oil in our nearly 70k luxury appliance in the driveway like the true dirt bag I am. I was at least relieved to see that Toyota did not delete the economy car dip stick from the engine to better compete with the other luxury brands and their electronic oil level sensors.
One day I might come to realize what my time is worth, but until then who knows the best (read cheapest) place to buy OEM Toyota oil filters in bulk?
rockauto but i imagine youve already checked there
Surprisingly RA doesn't sell the OEM filter.
I do not know, and I should know, because I frequently find myself doing Toyota oil changes!
You buy a $70k car and worry about the price of oil filters? Man, even I am not that cheap! I don't know about the US, but in the UK Toyota will sell a complete service kit at a very reasonable rate; so much so that it was no cheaper to buy all the bits at an auto factor.
Hey man, you don't get the ability to experience amazing by throwing dollars away!
The relentless pursuit of perfect oil filtration!
>tfw acf turns into bitog
Are you worried about voiding your warranty if you use something different?
No, not at all, but the factory filter while still subject to cost cutting measures and supply chain variability will generally be suited for duty. A top tier WIX, K&N, Purolator etc will perform as as good or better, but the factory filter is $7-$8 versus $11-$14 for a premium aftermarket.
You said you looked on RA. I see the Wix costing $5.22 there.
Don't forget shipping on RA, and what are you searching, when I put in the details of the car I own...I see ACDelco, Beck/Arnley, and 3 BOSCH options
Missed the hybrid bit. What's wrong with Bosch or AC Delco? You said you wanted to stock up. You can get many filters and still pay the base shipping rate. Also easy to find a 5% off code. You'd probably break even at 2 or 3 filters.
Do you work for RockAuto?
MotoGP and Kevin Cameron fans, take note: Mr. Cameron’s MotoGP race reports (and possibly more) will now appear on SuperbikePlanet.com. With the shuttering of Cycle World, the great insight and perspective of Kevin Cameron can still be found. Here’s the first report, if you’ve never read one before— it’s a great time to start.
https://superbikeplanet.com/story/2219/marc-marquez-keeps-winning-with-the-other-two-things
Mr. Cameron has to be 112 years old. I'm 62, and he'd been doing it for at least a decade by the time I started reading CW as an 18 y/o.
Yep!
he looked old when he was prepping race kawis in the early 70s so 112 might be undershooting it
Two stroke fumes are obviously the secret to a long life. One in the eye for the Sierra Club!
gotta make sure you get enough castrol in your diet lol
Besides, who wants rusty lungs ? =8-) .
-Nate
(who flew through a Pulmonary stress test this morning and was surprised to do so)
The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America website has 1941 as his birth year.
So then, 112.
We have people older than that commenting here.
Get off my lawn, whippersnapper.
You're closer to my age than tolys
I think wristwatches are long past the point where men wore them for telling the time. It's a fashion accessory now. And somebody please introduce Asaoka-san to Sellitta. He could be putting a COSC certified (papers and all) movement in that nice watch for less than $150.
"And somebody please introduce Asaoka-san to Sellitta. He could be putting a COSC certified (papers and all) movement in that nice watch for less than $150."
Let's face it: the Chinese Seagull ST1901 is generally a lot more accurate for even less! But part of the Kurono brand is that the watches are entirely Japan-made.
Knowing how the Japanese are, it’s surprising to me that they don’t have any certifications for Japanese watch movements to match the Swiss stuff. Or is that because (Grand) Seiko owns that market, lock, stock, and winding stem?
It is a long story. Seiko successfully obtained the most exacting of Chronometer certificates from the Swiss until the laws were changed to exclude them. Then came the quartz crisis and drastic improvements in accuracy. Today's Spring Drive and quartz movements are far beyond any Swiss label and the Citizen A100 is simply the most accurate wristwatch ever created, period point blank.
Wait, what? The A100 is more accurate than the Ashtron, which from my understanding matches the accuracy of the atomic clock (+/- 1 second every 100,000 years) when synced to GPS satellites?
GPS watches are awesome, but in my opinion, syncing with a superior chronometer now and then is sort of cheating.
Exactly. The Astron's standalone timekeeping is merely that of a very good Seiko digital watch. The Citizen is nearly flawless without external recourse. Kind of like how modern computers will time-drift minutes in a week without NTP.
oh absolutely. Without the GPS sync it is accurate to +/- 15 seconds a day IIRC.
The accuracy of that 0100 movement seems useless to me without numbers on the face. Why don't they put numbers on the damn face?
Good question.
I really like the look of them. And the fact that it has minimal status is a bonus.
The question is how to buy. I opened a customer account. Ammo correct to assume that when something. Comes up you appl. Jack you mentioned something about having the application ready to go at midnight.?
They will email you a month ahead of time to prepare.
Thanks
Btw I got my father the watch dives aquanaut he loves it.
Hell yeah! It's GREAT!
I'm on the email list. Please ping me with instructions on how to prepare
You need to be training your mouse finger NOW.
I'm legitimately surprised he sells a watch with that kind of inaccuracy when he could regulate them. My understanding is the Miyota 9015, etc., are relatively easy to regulate. If hobbyists can regularly get them to +/- 5 sec (or better), there's no reason Asaoka-san can't.
I am in no way disparaging his watches, which are drop-dead gorgeous.
I'm in a situation where I need a regular watch instead of my phone but everything looks awful to me. I'd also prefer American if possible.
The most American of watches:
https://www.rgmwatches.com/
RGM is American but expensive. LUMTEC is anerican and cheap.
Don't forget Spitz watches. They are American and cost "fuck you" money. They _start_ at $128k, but Dan Spitz designs and manufactures every part of the watch, including every component of his movements.
For those who do not know, Spitz refers to Dan Spitz, who was one of two guitarists in, and a founding member of, Anthrax. He is a third-generation watchmaker and a certified master technician of mechanical movements.
He completed the 4-year Bulova School of Watchmaking program in 18 months, studied at the Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program, and is a certified technician for Rolex, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Audemars Piguet.
Oh, he also served as head watchmaker of complications for Chopard and as its chief instructor for all of its North and South American after-sales service divisions. He also is said to have served as "ghost builder" for several high-end Swiss marques.
Dan limits production of a given model to no more than 30 examples. If I could drop something north of $128k on a watch, I'd buy a Spitz.
You know very well Lumtec's American assembly is nowhere near "American Made."
They are at least trying. I need to get up to the facility and take a look -- they're only 90 minutes away -- but I believe they're doing CNC operations in Mentor, OH.
yes and no. i know a few people who started wearing watches as a way to ditch their phone for a little while, as a tool to keep time date and a basic timing function. one of these luddites turned me on and here i am as well.
I love watches for their beauty and the remarkable engineering within them. For anyone who questions that, I suggest you watch any of the videos IWC has on its YouTube page showing one of its watchmakers building one from start to finish.
I blame Jack for my increasingly ridiculous interest in watches, specifically Seikos. Until a bit more than a year ago, I owned my father's Rolex, my grandfather's Longines, and an Oris Williams F1 I'd bought in 2007. I had no interest in expanding the collection.
Last year, while in Tokyo, I walked by a Grand Seiko boutique and immediately fell in love with a spring drive model in the window. I told myself I could not justify the price. One week later, still in Japan, I was still thinking about that watch. Jack, being Jack and therefore an enabler, encouraged me to buy one. I did: the "Snowflake," which apparently is where pretty much everyone starts.
I had no particular urge to continue down the road until Jack for reasons that escape me sent me a link to the online retailer Samurai Vintage. I found a gorgeous 1969 King Seiko in excellent condition and bearing an inscription, in Kanji, noting it was awarded to an employee of the Japanese television network Asahi upon his 10th anniversary. I have inherited from my father a love of anything with a story behind it, so I bought it.
And so it began.
I now have a collection of six vintage Seikos manufactured between 1967 and 1978. In an effort to keep myself from emulating Jack and Brother Bark and amassing a frightening number of watches, I have two rules:
1. Any Grand Seiko must be purchased at its flagship store in Tokyo, Melbourne, or New York because those are the only places where a purchase includes a Grand Seiko-branded maneki-neko, aka the Japanese "waving cat." Grand Seiko being Grand Seiko, it is presented in a box of equal quality to the one containing the watch.
2. Any vintage watch must have a compelling story behind it, or be a "birthday" watch, meaning it was manufactured in March, 1968. You'd think that would be tricky, but no. I have in the past 5 months found two birthday watches, one inscribed as being awarded to a governor of Japan Railway for meritous service, another inscribed as being awarded to the employee of a Japanese construction company, and, most recently, a Citizen Homer "Railway," a mechanical watch from around 1969. The Railway was made exclusively for Japan Railway, for which they were standard issue to all employees who were not directly involved in keeping the trains running, as those people needed a level of accuracy one notch higher and were therefore issued Seikos. This particular example was issued to those working the Shinkansen line.
I also have started modifying Seiko watches and building them from scratch, but I've already blathered on long enough.
SOUNDS LIKE IT'S GUEST POST TIME!
It kind of is!
"Timing for Harambe"
I was thinking 'Watching Harambe"
"...IWC has on its YouTube page showing one of its watchmakers building one from start to finish."
*assembling one from start to finish
yes! correct! my mistake. ham-fisted amateurs _build_ watches from parts. Watchmakers assemble them from meticulously organized, spotlessly clean, and precisely organized tray of incredibly tiny parts.
Thanks for posting about Samurai Vintage. Went and looked at their site. Lots of interesting stuff there.
William is a very nice guy. I somehow managed to magnetize that King Seiko about six weeks after I received it, though I didn't know it at the time. I just knew it was FUBAR. No one local wanted to work on it, a point made clear by one fellow who quoted me $600 plus any parts it might need. I reached out to William, told him what was going on, made clear that I was in no way suggesting it was his fault, and asked if he had a recommendation.
I assumed he'd provide the name or names of some qualified vintage Seiko experts in the US. Instead he told me to box it up and send it to him (He's in Hong Kong) and he'd have his watchmaker give it a look. He pinged me about two weeks later (it took 10 days to get to Hong Kong) to say it had been magnetized, then quoted a nominal price and offered to split the return shipping.
A few months (and two watches from him) later, a Lord Matic that I'd bought from Jack's guy in Vietnam (who also was fantastic) decided that after 50 years it was time for the day/date "star" - the gear that engages to manually change the day and date - had shit the bed. This is a known issue, the part is hard to get, and those who have the skill and the tools to do the job typically specialize in restorations and charge accordingly. Again, I pinged William. He said his watchmaker could fix it for $115 US with a replacement part that is far more durable than OEM.
While he had it, he added another watch that I had to have to his inventory. I bought that. He said that if I were willing to wait another two weeks or so for his guy to fix the Lord Matic, he'd send them together to save me the added postage.
Buy with confidence. He's great.
Oh... he's also an F1 fan, but don't fault him for being a Hamilton fan. And he races karts. Best I can tell, he is in his 30s.
The only time I've seen an LFA was parked inside Lexus Santa Monica in 2017. I was there to buy the one-owner, mint-condition, Nipponsei Skyline 350GT someone had traded in on a Lexus GS, back when those were still a thing.
When the finance lady saw my salary at the end of the transaction, she was trying to pique my interest in not buying the $10,000 stick-shift Nissan they had no idea what to do with, but instead taking a spin in the used LFA just outside her office door. I thought she was nuts, the thing was like $150,000 used and had obviously been sitting in there a long time, so I politely declined her offer to drive it.
Ha, well, joke's on me. Who knew attempting to finance that used Lexus could have paid for an entire house five years later?
Live a little.
My wife would have murdered me. So, yes, I would have lived the two hours between buying it and arriving home in San Diego.
You will enjoy this:
-I had a delightful face to face discussion with an English football hooligan / hedge fund manager this morning in Atlanta about Onlyfans and high-risk banking / payment processing. He was absolutely rapt with attention - loved the ingenuity of it all.
You will enjoy this:
-I read a comment today on a Substack, which had absolutely nothing to do with the article, the initial comment, or the reply to the initial comment. It was mostly made so the commentator could brag about how clever he was. He's never been able to figure out why everybody bristles at the things he says.
Ah, Stan. This is some inside baseball playing out before your eyes. This comment references a long history "Sherman" and "Eric" (oh wait that's my real name) have, because he worked with the inventor of Only Fans, whereas I merely rejected said man's offer to work for him as a consultant. Sherman found another rich guy who was impressed by the moves that made modern-year Sherman who he is--someone who won't hesitate to exploit humans in the name of being able to later afford $132 cashmere baby socks.
https://us.loropiana.com/en/gifting-idea/kids/baby-weekly-socks-set-FAO5321_F6KX.html
I did not work with the INVENTOR of Onlyfans, Tim Stokely. I worked with the later owner, Leo Radvinsky (RIP).
I have done nothing exploitative; I am all about empowerment, as a Feminist.
At least it wasn't as random as it appeared to the guy who's only been here for a 6 months.
Did he buy those for Harelip's kid? Surely Sherm needs all his hours for creating value, no way he has time to have children of his own.
Stan, everyone here already knows about my clever works. Well, at least some of them.
it doesn't appear to be stopping you from recounting them again and again.
When Toyota couldn't sell them, they had five lined up at the Chicago Auto Show.
Did any of us predict how weird and broken our post ~2018 economy would get? Obviously not, because we didn't buy the junk that people are ascribing insane value to now.
bookmarking this comment for 10 years from now when RC F fujis are 6 figures
V6 4Runners will be six figures in a decade.
Have you looked at the prices of GS-Fs? The RC Fs seem to actually depreciate a bit, but even late model regular GS350s are commanding nearly MSRP.
GS Fs have come down quite a bit. tempt me not, Satan... https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2016-lexus-gs-f-4/
Damn, that was stolen. Carmax has at least one GS350 listed for almost 40k, 2020 with 30kmi https://www.carmax.com/car_spotlight/28399596?store=7197&adcode=SEMGVLA46&vzmadcode=SEM&utm_source=sem_google&utm_content=sem_carmax_shopping&utm_term=&utm_campaign=&physical_loc=9194846&interest_loc=&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23197058147&gbraid=0AAAAAD819jSH1KyF6rRzUT2wd5UnRmbuz&gclid=Cj0KCQjwguLSBhDLARIsAH-yPrEsYqNcfcPMufOZSEwJjlGoXES0vqvTqxzWUvCS_OoEtczwCpFTnTwaAipREALw_wcB
Was that a crazy deal or is that the normal price now? That’s $10-15k less than what it would take to get an is500 and it’s a bigger real F car.
Are they less than that now?
My brother and I saw those at the Chicago show. 2015 I believe.
What? That was a golden opportunity to take the LFA out and just go to town on it, whether you were gonna buy it or not! You know; re-create the rental car scene from Days Of Thunder and then park the smoking heap back at the dealer lot and throw the keys on the finance lady’s desk. “Ya, not really my thing. Have a good one.”
https://clip.cafe/the-rock-1996/hey-man-you-just-fucked-up-ferrari/
What’s a skyline 350gt? I used to have a r32 gtr back in my youth. Are you buying a g35? Also, how was it?
The problem with car enthusiast blogs is that people actually know cars. Yes, I bought a 4-door G35 that is the American counterpart of the RHD V35 Nissan Skyline 350GT. ~300 HP VQ35DE, six speed manual, viscous limited slip, "sport" suspension with neat-o, red-colored OEM shocks. I like to pretend the former owner was a Japanese man living in Santa Monica, where the car did 55K miles in *12 years* of ownership, because he'd put on Skyline 350GT badges, used up the entirety of the clutch, worn out the diff bushings, and the tire alignment on the UHP all season Kumhos was set to TRACK MODE with bizarre toe and camber.
It still looks very Japanese to me, regardless of which side of the car has the steering wheel: https://wieck-infiniti-production.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/97d3957bc302beb547d4c83a39d9c2cf5e2f6be8/preview-928x522.jpg as a "G35" or https://australiancar.reviews/wp-content/uploads/nissan3/nissan_skyline_v35_ser1_06.jpg as a Skyline. The inside was super Japanese, which always caused people to get confused at first when they were looking for the passenger seat controls, which are set on the inside of the supremely comfortable seats (https://usa.infinitinews.com/en-US/releases/release-a3c1b13ad3fb4e56a441366f0e9957cd-2005-infiniti-g-sedan-press-kit-3?modal=photo-412e4210e52542ddbdb0b6c355af762f)
And it was absolutely excellent. 7.5 years later after buying it, I gave it to my friend who was sitting in that Lexus finance office with me, but only because I needed a vehicle that can fit a family of 7 and go on bad dirt roads in Idaho. Of the small number of cars I've owned ('00 Taurus, '02 Maxima 6-speed pocket rocket, '05 Maxima 6-speed luxury barge with 2+2 heated leather buckets and rear power window shade etc etc., '05 Skyline 350GT, '17 QX80) it is by far the most fun to drive. Instant giggles because the handling is so responsive and 3400 lbs + 300HP + lightened flywheel is more than enough to accidentally oversteer you into a circle when you're doing STUPID things. It was built by people who cared about all the little things, and didn't creak or rattle or vibrate TWENTY YEARS after the nice Japanese man signed the apology letter Nissan includes in the glovebox, explaining that the car has 4 miles on the odometer because they flog it around their performance track before it leaves the factory.
It's downsides are:
1. It's not nearly as fast as generic modern cars. Baruth wrote a rental review of the CHEVY IMPALA ~8 years ago that specifically called out G35s as being a victim of the FWD Chevy. Hurtful, but true.
2. The rear seat is not designed for hauling full-sized Americans.
3. Some people think it looks boring, I guess. The revised decklid on the 2005-2006 still looks impressively clean to me, with the license plate set down low and the R33-esque taillight design prominently LEDing its way through the night. But you're reading a comment from a guy who loves how stealth the Chevy SS is. Who cares if it looks like a Malibu if it goes faster than a Corvette?
4. The suspension is very complex, so it has lots of OEM parts to eventually fail. There are 6 balljoins, for instance. But the absolutely insane aftermarket support for G35s and 350Zs (same car, differing number of doors and seats) means ain't nobody replacing that Nissan "compression rod" with a factory one and most used cars are going to be full of awful, fake-racing components.
5. It doesn't break, so your father in law who thinks Toyota and Honda can do no wrong--despite legion of problems with the Camrys, Lexus RXes, and Ridgelines he's owned--gets all hot under the collar because you owned a NISSAN for almost 8 years and the only thing it needed was a new clutch and some bushings because the diff clunks under hard launches when the OEM ones are shot and that can't be right because you're hard on your car and everyone knows Nissans suck and didn't your daughter's 2007 Camry's power steering pump fail at 32,000 miles and 3 months outside the powertrain warranty and Toyota corporate wouldn't cover it and remember how your wife's RX hybrid would randomly power off on the highway because of some electrical problem it had they could never resolve so they traded it in on that ~2010 RX that also spent a lot of time in the shop with expensive broken engine and cooling parts? Uh... So the whole Nissan makes bad cars for the Altima demographic will always hang over you. An albatross 'round your neck that will never fly away.
I came to say that driving a bubble Taurus is peak Millenial, if one didn't themselves they knew at least 3 others that did. But then I read that last paragraph, just tell him he is a putz already, and give your wife the QX80 and pick up the new 4 door Z it drops for yourself.
Hey man! I had a bubble Sable.
I completed drivers ed in the Mercury version.
"I came to say that driving a bubble Taurus is peak Millenial, if one didn't themselves they knew at least 3 others that did."
I bought a new one...
...then, fifteen years later, I dated a Millennial woman who had one.
Driving a 15+ year old buble Taurus means only 1 thing with millennial women, she pegged out the crazy hot scale
I don't know if she is the most beautiful woman in the world.
I only know she is that for me.
I truly, madly, deeply loved my 2005 G35 sedan. All I ever did was oil changes in 6 years of ownership. The last thing the service advisor tried to get my attention about was a worn "compression rod."
I gave it to my wife in the divorce; I got the kids and the other VQ-powered car in the driveway: a Nissan Quest.
"I gave it to my wife in the divorce; "
You fuckin' lost, pal.
"I got the kids"
Belay that.
Oh yeah, I remember those now that I have viewed the link. Those were good looking cars.
I detect a very slight bitter tone in your references to your father-in-law.
Open thread you say?
The engine of the 1974 Dodge Monaco idle-roared like a dying beast in the tunnel behind the Palace Hotel Ballroom. Jake and Elwood Blues, clad in their signature black suits, fedoras, and sunglasses, scrambled into the front seat. They had $5,000 in cash, a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, and the entire Chicago Police Department on their tail. Elwood reached for the ignition.
Suddenly, the driver’s side door was yanked open with violent, terrifying force. Standing there was Tom Klockau in a coral golf shirt and a manic look in his eyes, breathing heavily, his glasses slightly askew, and a look of sheer, unadulterated panic. He wasn't looking at the cops. He wasn't looking at the cash. He was looking at his watch.
"Out of the way, boys! Move it!" Tom screamed, grabbing Elwood by the lapels of his black suit. "Hey, pal, we're on a mission from—" Jake started to protest, but Tom didn't have time for divine interventions. With the strength of a man who had been dreaming of surf and turf and a Brandy Old Fashioned for six months, Tom hoisted Elwood completely out of the driver’s seat and hurled him backward as if he weighed no more than an empty Kleenex box. Elwood landed in a tangled heap of black wool and sunglasses in the rear seat.
Tom slammed himself into the driver's seat, threw the Bluesmobile into drive, and stomped the gas pedal straight through the floorboards. "Hey!" Elwood yelled from the back, his hat knocked sideways. "This is a cop motor! It's got cop suspension!" "I don't care if it's got a rocket booster from NASA!" Tom shouted over the screaming tires as the Dodge launched out of the alley, instantly obliterating a row of garbage cans. "My reservation at The Cellar Supper Club in Geneseo is for 8:15! If I am one minute late, they give my table away, and I am not missing their drawn butter or Green Goddess dressing for anything! So shut up and hold on!"
What followed made Elwood’s previous driving look like a Sunday stroll through the park. Tom didn't just drift corners; he defied the laws of physics. The Bluesmobile rocketed onto the Dan Ryan Expressway, instantly drawing the attention of fifty converging CPD police cruisers. "We got company," Jake said, looking out the window as sirens wailed from every direction. "They're slowing me down! Dammit!" Tom roared. He flicked the steering wheel, executing a flawless, 90-mile-per-hour slalom through three lanes of squad cars. He clipped a concrete barrier, launched the Bluesmobile briefly into the air, landed on all four wheels, and passed a state trooper on the inside shoulder.
Elwood watched in absolute awe from the back seat. "Jake," Elwood whispered, adjusting his glasses. "This guy is on a mission--for fine dining!" "He's a maniac!" Jake yelled, gripping the dashboard as Tom ran a red light at 110 miles per hour, narrowly missing a city bus, a Chrysler Cordoba and a hot dog vendor. "Geneseo is like a hundred and fifty miles away! You're going the wrong way for us!" "I know a shortcut!" Tom yelled back, eyes locked on the road with laser focus. "But I'm a reasonable man. I'll drop you off!"
With a screech of burning rubber, Tom whipped the Bluesmobile off the highway and pulled off a spectacular, four-wheel drift right onto the sidewalk of Clark Street. The heavy sedan slammed to a violent halt exactly in front of the doors of the Cook County Assessor's Office. The force of the stop sent Jake and Elwood flying forward.
"End of the line, fellas! Save the orphanage!" Tom shouted, reaching over and throwing both passenger doors open. "Get out, get out, get out! The relish tray and cheese ball waits for no man!" Jake grabbed the briefcase of cash, and Elwood scrambled out of the back. The second their feet hit the pavement Tom slammed the doors shut. He didn't even wait for them to clear the curb before he floored it again, leaving a massive cloud of white smoke and two perfect, 60-foot long black tire tracks on the sidewalk. Jake and Elwood stood under the neon lights of the Assessor's Office, coughing in the exhaust fumes, watching the taillights of the Bluesmobile vanish into the night at supersonic speed. Elwood adjusted his fedora and looked at Jake. "You know, Jake, I think he's gonna make it." "Yeah," Jake sighed, turning toward the building. "Come on. Let's go pay the taxes."
Tom K you have been hitting the AI bottle again have we not.. how many times do your readers have to remind you when you have writers block head to The Cellar for a surf and turf with a top shelf gin and tonic, that is always a cure.
No writers block. These things just make me laugh so I put them in the comments.
Understood… 👍👍👍
Carry on then .
-Nate
Thank you Sir .
-Nate
But wait, there's even more! Bwa ha!
The Geneseo Precedent
Word of the "Chicago Bluesmobile Incident" had traveled down the grapevine to Eugene, but Paul had dismissed it as internet mythology. No man—not even Tom—could outrun fifty police cruisers in a 1974 Dodge Monaco just for a supper club reservation.
Paul was about to learn that underestimating Tom’s dedication to Midwestern fine dining was his final, catastrophic mistake.
It was 7:45 PM on a Friday. Paul was covertly working in his garage, attempting to modify his Mayor Klockau-mandated 1980 Chevy Citation. He had managed to jerry-rig an old Peugeot diesel fuel pump into the Iron Duke engine, hoping it would give him enough torque to escape the city limits.
Suddenly, the garage door didn't just open; it was obliterated.
The Hijacking of the Citation
Through the splintered wood and flying drywall charged Mayor Tom Klockau. He wasn't in his usual mayoral velvet. He was wearing a rumpled coral golf shirt, his glasses were crooked, and his eyes carried the terrifying, manic glaze of a man possessed by the spirit of a thousand Friday night fish fries. He wasn't looking at Paul. He was looking at his watch.
"Out of the way, Niedermeyer! Move it!" Tom shrieked, sprinting toward the trembling Chevy Citation.
"Tom?! What are you doing in my garage?!" Paul yelled, waving a metric wrench defensively. "This is a restricted zone! I am working on historical Curbside engineering!"
"I don't care if it's a Mercedes-Benz 300d!" Tom roared, grabbing Paul by the collar of his faded flannel shirt. With the terrifying, adrenaline-fueled strength of a man who hadn't seen a butter-slathered baked potato in six months, Tom hoisted Paul completely off the ground and hurled him backward. Paul landed with a spectacular crash into a stack of vintage Road & Track magazines.
Tom slammed himself into the Citation’s saggy vinyl bucket seat. "Tom, stop!" Paul screamed from the floor, rubbing his elbow. "That car has a loose steering column! The rear brakes lock up! The torque steer will kill you!"
"The Cellar Supper Club in Geneseo is closing its Oregon pop-up kitchen at 8:15 PM!" Tom shouted over the deafening, un-muffled clatter of Paul's modified engine. "If I miss the prime rib and the brandy old-fashioned, nobody in this town drives a Japanese car ever again! Hold onto your flat-four, Paul, because we are going supersonic!"
The Flight of the X-Body
What followed made Tom's legendary drive through Chicago look like a casual trip to the grocery store.
Tom slammed the Citation into drive. The front wheels spun wildly, sending a horrific cloud of burning rubber and unburned vegetable oil smoke into the garage. The Citation launched into the street, instantly clipping Paul’s recycling bins and sending them into low-earth orbit.
Paul scrambled to his feet and ran to the curb, watching in absolute horror.
Eugene’s entire police force—now driving 1979 classic Ford LTD squads with mandatory landau tops—immediately turned on their sirens. A dozen cruisers converged on the intersection.
Tom didn't even tap the brakes. He executed a flawless, 85-mile-per-hour slalom through the bike lanes of Willamette Street. When a city bus blocked the intersection, Tom flicked the wheel. The Citation clipped a concrete planter, launched completely into the air, landed on all four wheels with a sound like a metal dumpster hitting a trampoline, and passed a parking enforcement officer on the sidewalk.
"He's going to disintegrate the chassis!" Paul whispered to himself, his jaw dropping. "The Citation doesn't have structural integrity for that kind of banking!"
But Tom was defying the laws of physics. He was driving on pure, unadulterated hunger. He wrestled the aggressive torque steer with one hand while adjusting his aviator sunglasses with the other.
The Return
At exactly 8:14 PM, a screech of burning metallic brakes echoed through downtown Eugene.
The Chevy Citation executed a spectacular, smoke-filled four-wheel drift, sliding perfectly parallel to the curb right in front of the pop-up Supper Club. The front bumper was missing. The hood was smoking. The left front fender was flapping in the breeze like a wounded bird.
The door flew open. Tom Klockau stepped out, looking immaculate, his coral shirt barely creased. He checked his watch, smiled warmly at the maître d' standing at the door, and walked inside to claim his relish tray.
The Citation, having fulfilled its divine purpose, slowly hissed, dropped three inches as the front suspension gave up entirely, and bled its entire oil supply onto the asphalt.
Paul walked up to the scene twenty minutes later, staring at the mechanical corpse of his daily driver. He looked at the perfect, 80-foot long black tire tracks on the pavement, then up at the warm, neon glow of the supper club.
Paul adjusted his glasses, let out a deep, defeated sigh, and looked at a passing Volvo enthusiast.
"You know," Paul whispered, "the engineering was atrocious... but I think he made his reservation."
“I defy you to get tired of hearing the new Toyota GR GT3 driving around the ‘Ring. This isn’t a “GT3” like Porsche’s GT3 street-car line, which now includes a convertible and has basically become nothing more than the Malibu Beach version of the Celebrity Eurosport. This is a car that you buy to race in FIA’s GT3 class, competing against the Porsche GT3 Cup.
Will the GR be faster than the Porsche? It would probably be drastically faster, were it not for the Balance of Performance rules on which Porsche relies to keep its strong-selling customer race car competitive with inherently superior machinery. A front-mid-engined car will, all else being equal, always have a significant advantage over a rear-engined car.”
0-The vehicle that Porsche races in the SRO-sanctioned global GT3 classes is the 911 GT3 R, not the Cup car, which is for one make racing.
1-It doesn’t matter how any of the cars would race against each other WITHOUT BOP, because that will never happen. Almost certainly the fastest car would be the McLaren 720S, which is lightweight and develops well more than 700 BHP without the fitment of sonic restrictors.
2-BOP, for all its manifold ills, allows a big, heavy Mustang to race straight up against a vastly lighter European exotics. It is what it is.
3-Interestingly, a “Confidential Informant” told me just last night that the new Lamborghini Temerario GT3, which has a bespoke flat plane crank V8 that develops 800 bhp (before the hybrid, which is not allowed in GT3 racing) … is an absolute dog and is not competitive even when racing at the minimum BOP weight.
4-The GR GT will probably price in the low to mid $200s, I suspect. And I think that will be a tough sell given it’ll be 911 GT3 (road car) money.
The GR is dumb as shit. They didn’t sell LFAs, why bother with this? Just make a hot 4Runner for fucks sake. Product planning from Toyota has been run by retards when it’s not base models
I don’t think it’s dumb.
But you’d have to be a real Japanophile to buy one instead of a GT3.
In the long run it will hold value better, if only because it will be far more rare.
I wonder how many they will be able to shift in a year? 2,500?
You should join my nemesis - Harelip - on Kalshi and trade your way into a GR GT. Harelip is up $80 on Argentina today.
fuck i wanted england to win
I tuned in for the end; very disappointing.
The team with the natives beat the team with the mercenaries. Spain vs Africans and Argentina vs africans. Im glad Argentina won
2,500 is hilariously high.
I meant globally.
I don't think they can MAKE that many.
There are 245 Lexus dealers in America. I'd be surprised if they allocated three per dealer. Allocating one per dealer is a good way to make sure that, as with the long-forgotten Buick Reatta convertible, the #1 profession reported by owners is "Dealer's wife". Allocating four per dealer is probably too much hassle for the dealer.
Making and selling are very different prospects. Again, a hot 4runner would sell WAY better.
Will they brand it as a Toyota or Lexus? This seems a lot more brash than the Lexus brand would tolerate, but the potential buyers wouldn’t want to share the service waiting room with some tatted-up dude waiting for his Corolla’s 20,000-mile oil change, either!
also, you won't be mistaken for / lumped in with the douchebags who comprise a not insignificant number of buyers of late model Porsches
I think people want to be lumped in, sort of the point of owning one. Takes a true hero to buy a 250k+ Toyota. I’m not one of them because I hate Toyota
At that price point, Brand matters more than performance.
A gt3 in base guise is 260k and realistically in the low 300s at best. That’s after you fall on your knees to blow the dealer to consider selling to you. So many of us may prefer the Toyota on there’s assuming it’s equivalent. But it’s not equivalent having a far longer wheelbase and weighting a critical 500lbs more. Plus it appears the battery is mounted up high above the rear axle. Now if they made a 500lbs lighter non electrified one lien the race car then yes it’s competitive with the porche . Assuming it’s durable and reliable too.
Things all speculation of corse. But imo it will not soceed well because like the lfa it won’t compete on paper at 3860lbs and 660 hp with either. A gt3 or a cheaper Vette .
I want a 4Runner w 500hp.
"is an absolute dog and is not competitive even when racing at the minimum BOP weight"
how? are they just unwilling to uncork it for more power so it can be competitive?
There is sort of a box within which you need to be competitive. The Lambo is not competitive even when given max power and minimum weight.
extremely disappointing
And no match on paper for a zr1 maybe not even a z06 at half the rice. The gr being too heavy
how i hate/loathe/detest b.o.p. will we never see who builds the fastest car running against one another? remember when the mclaren had to disable its aero device WHICH WAS ON ALL ITS ROAD CARS to race--and win--at le mans?
The only development series - i.e., non-spec and non-BOP - are F1 and Moto GP … because there are enough eyeballs to facilitate ongoing development (i.e., $$$).
If you are a young man who is not yet married and someday would like to use a motorcycle to get a lady to have fun with you. Don't get an adventure bike. For all others, I kinda agree with Andrew. The day I can actually go on a 500mm motorcycle trip with the wife, I might be picking one up. Or maybe I'll just get that z4 M40. I don't hate it.
You misspelled Goldwing here for a 500mi moto trip.
500 miles doesn't seem like Goldwing necessary. I did 400 from Ohio on a 2013 Street triple. It was not ideal.
My creaking old bones seek the plush ride and upright stance that my ST1100 is not delivering. My throttle hand keeps falling asleep after about 5 minutes and this might actually get me to move on from the bike.
Also, the wingaling thing is less ugly than adv bikes and Honda is REFUSING to sell the CB1000GT in the US.
If I tried that trip again today, it'd probably kill me. My knees hurt just sitting now. You're young though!
A word about using a Motocycle for sex : I'd highly suggest laying hands on an old, solid engine mounted Harley-Davidson, plop pretty much any female on the pillion and take off, do highway / freeway speeds and leave it in third gear .
I can guarantee you'll in five minutes she'll be extremely excited and ready to go .
Maybe not with you but someone's going to be getting off before 10 hours .
I have never needed a Motocycle to "pick up chicks" but I certainly had some serious fun giving my buddies wives rides because they were all impressed with "oh, a _HARLEY_ !" .
My buddies either thanked or cursed me the next time we met but it was fun, always =8-) .
-Nate
This is correct
Didnt need a motorcycle or a big bank account but it certainly makes it easier
Well, damn. I posted the same thing before reading this comment. A Ducati also does the trick. I know this from a woman who owned a first-gen Monster that she regularly flogged like a rented mule. She would slide as far forward as possible on the seat, settle herself against the tank just so and enjoy the ride, as it were.
>CB1000GT
Wow, looks great. Had heard of thr new CB1000 nakeds but not that
>old bones seek the plush ride
There are *excellent* K1300S-es out there. That are maintained like brand new. Is this just me?
BMW prices for service or parts is most of what keeps me away from the K13/1600s. Not that I don't look.
They're also excessively, almost needlessly, complex.
A friend of mine once owned a 1200 K-bike of year that I've long since forgotten. He did all of his own work, and at some point had to replace the clutch slave cylinder - which BMW apparently suspended in mid-air at the factory before building the entire bike around it. He had to remove just about everything behind the engine and below the seat to reach it.
Refusing or are they still trying to fix the oil consumption issue and can't produce more yet?
I would be surprised if the PowerPoint issue were at the heart of not adding the other CB1000 variant.
Honda does weird to me, but probably reasonable to them line up decisions. Such as the NT1100 only being offered in DCT form.
You are probably right. Just theorizing here.
I'd be quite interested in a manual NT, as well. I liked that blue they used to have.
I did 200 on a bicycle (after I took off the 30 pounds).
In one day?
Yes, it's called a Double Century Ride. But that was nominal. I had a good friend who rode three hundred miles in one day. I was a serious rider but not like him!!! There are people out there, in every walk of life, who have capacities we mortals can only dimly imagine!
Good for you. Max I’ve ever ridden in one day is 154 miles, long ago. Have done a bunch of centuries over the years.
holy shit. I did a couple of centuries when I was a cyclist half a lifetime ago and they nearly killed me.
when I was much younger and therefore more limber and more foolish, I regularly did 300-mile days on a Ducati 900SS/SP. Such days are much better on a GS.
Until there is a 6 cylinder adventure bike, nothing will be smoother than a Goldwing. Also much less wind noise.
i find it interesting that there is Z4 love and yet G chassis M car hate. the cars drive very, very similarly.
They are ugly
Yes, but much like the butterface on the soccer team in college, it feels better when you’re in there, so what do I care.
Just responding to the why. If the m3 wasnt ugly, id be a lot more interested. Although, it has been growing on me.
Fair enough. It’s grown on me too. But it was a semi serious answer. If you see a G87 in person, it’s easy to see the F8X lineage in its face. It’s low and wide. The G80 is, to me, a harder pill to swallow. But in darker colors it nails being a little discrete.
I saw an Isle of Man Green M4 on the road recently. It looked fantastic. The giant nostrils look actually look good 6 or 7 years on imo.
That's the color I saw when I thought "Maybe they aren't hideous' A real color that isn't white black or gray. It was refreshing. The green somehow disguises the hideous grill.
I’m coming around on the G cars; you make highly persuasive points in their defense.
but to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin’s ideas, it is harder to put a basket over the front fascia of a G car than it is to put a stickier tire & other supporting suspension mods on an F car to chill the wheel hop
I just got done beating the brakes off mine for the day. It’s just inconceivable to me that someone who loves street driving couldn’t like this car. It’s stupid fast, the suspension is magic in its balance, it’s low and wide and makes good noises once you code out the fake engine stuff. The screen gauges are gay and the steering is so so.
The F chassis has a number of sins that made it difficult to live with day to day but it’s a weekend car I can see the argument.
I think my dream car is “your M2 with F8X M4 hardtop convertible looks and form factor”.
But if one can only get one, you probably made the right call.
If, as you say, someone "would like to use a motorcycle to get a lady to have fun with you," there is only one right and proper answer to this: A V-twin. The vibrations at a specific RPM (which varies with the make and model) will lead to the desired result.
Apparently Harley-Davidsons will do this very effectively (I will allow someone here who has specific experience with that weight in if he so desires), and I know from talking with a woman who owned a first-gen Monster that she flogged relentlessly that a Ducati will have the same effect while also being drop-dead gorgeous.
Y'all are perverts. Motorcycles are just fun. Girls like to have fun and after they sometime like to have more fun. I'm an old fashioned guy who uses what God gave me to get the ladies off.
Looking like an obnoxious asshole on a sportbike is peacocking. Harleys are for old chicks with a smokers cough.
I am not suggesting they be used _exclusively_ to get them off, but rather saying they are an effective way of priming the pump, as it were.
You’re actually both wrong. It’s not about masturbating them with an industrial grade ride on dildo or about being “fun”. It’s the implication of a rough and tumble, free living man with some sense of danger. Women can’t stand that shit and so when they see a guy like this they immediately think “how can I ruin his life?” And like all things in a woman’s mind, it’s have sex with him and start to control his actions!
HOF post 🫡
A lesson every young man must learn
RE: Z4s…
The ones powered by a B48 can be found all day long for around $30k.
Truly a terrific car for the money tbh.
You have a point here.
I will say, Wikipedia suggests the 330i I drove in 2018 was likely B48 powered, and that engine clattered like an Isuzu NPR diesel at almost any speed. It was audible even inside the cabin. Do you know if they fixed the sound?
Do tuners exist for the B48?
Oh it’ll clatter and generally sound like shit, but what two point oh tee doesn’t at this point?
As for tuning, yessir there’s a dozen different brands that’ll sell you anything from a canned tune to big turbos and the like. $600 off the shelf, plug and play tune should get you close to 300hp.
Beware industry-funded studies of drugs. All drugs have a downside.
If they didn't have an upside, people wouldn't do them
I thought everything had a downside.
Sasha Latypova is a great resource for pHARMa-induced maladies.
Also funniest GLP side effect has got to be blindness.
You won’t feel fat when you can’t see if you’re fat, skinny or even ugly anymore. But then blindness may also treat the need for the drug, sooo….
Thanks, I love alternative perspectives.
of course there is a downside. the downside is that i occasionally run out of them.
'Show me a drug without any side effects and I'll show you a drug that doesn't do anything.'
Most of them mostly do nothing. Number needed to treat is the most interesting stat for drugs. This is commonly in the hundreds which is how people end up on two dozen different drugs, IMO. You are most likely to not be helped by a drug, maybe just get some side effects. So you get another drug to deal with those side effects and a third drug that likely won't help your original problem and so on.
Is there a company that says "F it... let's just make this" as much as Mr. Toyoda's company does? Nissan learned the hard way that just because you're winning the numbers war one day doesn't mean you won't be the laughing stock the next. Thank God they decided to green light the RZ34 when Nissan really didn't HAVE to make something like that anymore.
I'm not sure what anything after your first sentence even means, but I agree 100% with your first sentence.
Nissan made the R35 to basically break the numbers system when car rags were testing it. It just got absolutely slobbered on from day one... until they started to break. Then, they were fat pigs. Jack said it best in that it was a car that started digital and became more analogue with every year and change to the Nismo version.
The RZ34 is the current Nissan Z. Yes, it has the same hard points as the 370z aka the Z34. However, literally everything was tinkered with. And since it's "retro", they kept the Z34 moniker internally and embraced the R(retro). Considering that it stayed around long enough to horseshoe back into being cool again... it was a good move.
Now... here's the latest in making them MORE retro.... people are doing old school bre chin spoilers and carbon fiber bumpers that are like the original 240z.
Not
In
Stock
Must
Order .
You're welcome =8-) .
-Nate
“Nissan learned the hard way that just because you're winning the numbers war one day doesn't mean you won't be the laughing stock the next.”
The quality of certain nineties Nissan products—the 0g Q45 in particular—is a testament to this. Beyond the obvious guess (they blew the budget), one wonders what shot Nissan’s world-leading products out of the sky
And it's for that reason that I put a Q45 V8 in my Z32 slicktop. Just incredible engineering and budgets back then.
Sir! Where is the driving for harambe on this!
Honestly... when I get to it and drive it to Jack's place. It's only fitting that he get to enjoy a drive in it as well. Currently it is a bit under braked, but I've been sorting some exhaust and timing chain issues. I've been cautious about driving it too far due to cooling issues, but that has been my own fault.
THen there's the intake... Well, it's kind of higher than the hood now sadly. May just not run a hood for Woodward Dream Cruise this year.
Dude , this sounds awesome regardless of any issues.
Please keep us posted and/or Harambed
"Harambe'd" is an excellent verb.
X1000
I gotta say I’ve been impressed by the Miyota 9 series movement. Yes, they are a pain to regulate, but once set, it’s been impressively accurate. Hell of a movement for the money.
I am a fairly clumsy person so we will see how well I get mine regulated...
REGULATORS, MOUNT UP!
In what way are they a pain, and do you mean more of a pain than, say, a Seiko?
My concern with regulating a Seiko is the levers are so. damn. small. and so freaking close to the balance wheel.
It’s just a super sensitive lever with no micro adjustment screws or anything. You just have to have a very steady hand and figure you’ll probably tweak it a few times before you get it right. Once there though, it runs very accurately.
Seiko NH movements (and I assume many others) have the same thing: a lever for the time and another for the beat error. Everything in a watch is close to the balance wheel of course, but these are positioned in such a way that one slip and you can send your tool right into it. Reddit surely abounds with posts from people who have done just that.
The trick I've heard is to use a toothpick and approach the levers from as close to horizontal as possible so if you slip the tool goes out, not down.
"A very steady hand" is, at my place in middle-age, a growing challenge lol
I couldn’t afford a $75k new car either, which is why a Z4 M40i 6MT—as pictured in the column—is not in my garage at present. Hopefully these come off lease at a reasonably low price, as my new-to-me E38 740i Sport needs a companion.
"as my new-to-me E38 740i Sport "
As some ACFers say, MAZEL!
Thank you kindly! Still ironing out a few annoyances—at 27 years old and 173k miles, I’m frankly surprised at how few there are, especially compared to my former V12 W221 which was eleven years and 60k miles younger.
My wife has claimed it as her driver, though, so after we sell her former 9-5 Aero SportCombi, I’m on the hunt for a E46 (or even an E90) manual-trans sedan.
"at 27 years old and 173k miles, I’m frankly surprised..." means that you are 27 years old and have run an average of about 124 miles per week every week of your life. Now, that's impressive. Just having some fun with the English language; that's all.
It's much simpler for sure.
the 740i sport is the car I wanted to get as a road trip-mobile. My other plan was to have my kids chauffeur me around in on once driver's license's were obtained, bu I didnt act fast enough and now they are out of the house. Dammit. Still, very sweet rides.
Now a 740 with a S62/six speed from the e39 M5.....
Some big fat dude built just such a car and called it "baby". Don't know what happened to him or the car.
There's an 840Ci that's been given the full S62 treatment local to me.
Jared ;
It's very simple : Buy that clapped out roach of whatever you're lusting for and set to work as you rattle & wheeze it 'round .
In a few short years you'll have a $75,000 whatever it is / was and maybe you'll still like it and even remain married .
Trust me, I've done this more times than you can imagine, I'll never get married again and my Sweet knows this is my vice so she's okay with it .
-Nate
It’s so lovely having a wife who doesn’t bat an eye to the mental illness of automobilia, as you can attest. Any hesitancy I have with regard to further purchases is purely on my part… “pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered”.
True ;
My ex has been trying ever harder to come back as if =8-^ .
I courted my Sweet in a clapped out 1959 Nash Metropolitan DHC with a hokey home made removable hard top that had port holes like a '55 Fort T-Bird .
She drove to Canada and back with me in it and still talked to me afterwards, I knew right then she was a 'keeper' =8-) .
I've jettisoned more than a few women who foolishly said "I don't like - - - -" and /
or "you're too close to your son, you shouldn't kiss him hello / good bye" .
One really cute one actually actually asked if I'd get upset if she dated my best bud, I said "of course not, go and have a good time" .
He called to make sure and I said "have at it" he did then booted her and she became all pissy for some reason when she next called me and I said "we're all done now" like I should have given her a warning after she expressed interest in my buddy ?! .
Even my first wife never did anything that stupid .
It matters not what she thinks, I'll go to my grave with a handlebar, steering wheel or tool in my mangled old hand(s) .
-Nate
There are an estimated 150,000 Sikh truck drivers in the United States, about one in five truckers.
Really???
150k too many tbh
we dont need to keep rolling the dice to see if one of them wont kill a family due to sheer negligence or to worsen interborder reputations when they smuggle drugs from one country into the next
And we most definitely don’t want them driving the ice road trains across Canada. 🇨🇦
Too late Speed .
If the gop would stop deregulating things these guys *might* be forced into driving safely and so on .
Here in So. Cal. it seems like 75% of the CDL drivers are sikh .
-Nate
this is a massive problem in canada so you cant blame the gop for this one
Sure I can .
I'm talking about the massive problem in the U.S.A. here after trucking was de regulated .
At the time it was mostly Mexican rig operators, they're -so- sketchy with things like air in paper thin tires, having any friction surface left to run on the also paper thin brake drums......
I at the time I correctly predicted roadway mayhem and increased traffic deaths, blah blah blah .
-Nate
The current issue isn't about Federal standards but rather how California and a few other states are issuing CDLs to people who shouldn't have them.
I just drove down to Ohio to see the Union Pacific Big Boy locomotive. There is construction on I-75 and the roadway is down to two lanes, with signs saying "Trucks Stay In Left Lane". I'd say only about half of the truck drivers pay attention to those signs.
By the way, the big train is very impressive. I was able to see it in a couple of places. One was in the middle of nowhere, at a railroad crossing a mile or two outside a small Ohio town. By the time the train passed, there were dozens of people. The other was in Continental, Ohio, pop. 1,102, where there was a whistle stop. Hundreds of people showed up to watch and take photos and video, enough so that there were traffic jams at the stop signs on the road leading out of town.
Another member of the Flip-flop Brigade was recently sentenced in Toronto for killing 4 people after rear-ending them. To a whopping 4 years. Its almost like the government wants them out murdering white citizens.
I saw the U.P. Big Boy long long ago, it's very impressive and to me, beautiful .
I'm not sure how you manage to disassociate the gop's endless deregulation from un trained / incompetent foreigners getting CDL's when they surely should not .
-Nate
The Big Boy is an amazing piece of machinery. Saw it in Sacramento a couple of years ago, on a 110F day.
100% was worth it to see the train
President Carter signed the bill that deregulated the trucking industry. Ted Kennedy was a big champion for it. You can’t lay blame for this on one side.
And then NAFTA threw gas on that fire.
Nice try at deflection but the facts remain : the gop has been pushing deregulation and privatization of nearly everything long than most here have been alive .
-Nate
Don’t let the facts get in the way of your narrative.
How about killing and maiming a bus load of hockey players on their way to a tournament?
There are many horrific stories to tell about the current crop of truck drivers terrorizing our highways in massive death machines. They are poorly trained, overworked, and exhausted while driving for companies with highly questionable ethics.
Someone very close to me worked for an insurance company dealing with automotive and commercial vehicle insurance. I heard many stories from her over the years, but one that has stuck with me clearly illustrates some of the problems that exist in the commercial trucking arena. An accident claim for a tractor trailer unit was being investigated and during the interview with the South Asian driver, some questions were raised about the driver log entries for the long haul run the driver and truck were on when the accident occurred. The entries showed that the driver and co-driver were operating safely within the regulated maximum time limits behind the wheel, and supposedly getting appropriate rest before taking the wheel again for their next shift. The co-driver was then interviewed and turned out to be the driver’s wife. She could not speak English and despite the presence of a translator, the investigator was getting increasingly frustrated by this driver pairing and the feeling that he was getting the runaround.
“Okay”, the investigator said to the translator, “tell her she, you, and I are going out to the truck so that she can explain her driving duties to me.” The co-driver looked like she wasn’t too happy about the situation, but the three of them went out to the truck and she got behind the wheel. The investigator gave her the keys and asked her to start up the truck and then do some short manoeuvres around the parking lot. Well, I don’t think it surprises anybody reading this that she didn’t have a clue what to do in that cockpit. She couldn’t even get the truck started, never mind maneuver it around the lot. Bottom line is that the main driver was doubling his allowable time behind the wheel and thereby running himself into the ground to get the job done. The log entries were a joke, and the company that owned the truck was turning a blind eye to the whole thing. The whole thing was a ticking time bomb. Sadly, there are many more stories like this, but nobody wants to deal with it and if you ask too many questions, you are labelled a racist.
indians scamming the system isnt new but some people are still somehow unaware of all this happening or worse deny it
Why? Have they ground down the wages to that point? And who lets this happen. Asking as a non US resident.
theyre the reason wages are in the dirt and have also made the highway system unsafe. they literally do not know how to read road signs in most cases. theyve made every facet of the trucking industry worse and the people who facilitate it dont care becuase theyre cheap. there are already way more american truck drivers than are needed to replace them but those guys arent the ones hired becuase indians also own fly by night fraudulent trucking companies.
Surely a simple thing to fix if one had a mind to? So, as Jack says, the spice must flow.
like a lot of things it requires the right people in charge who are are at the same time prevented from being in charge becuase that would stop the spice flowing as you said
a bunch of serious older white guys could solve mostly everything but would fly entirely against the current dei/globohomo nonsense
I'm increasingly convinced that "older white guys" are the main problem.
0) Numerous ACF members who are consistently anti-American and pro-enemy
1) Donald Trump's support for H-1B, OPT, H-4EAD, including CCP "students"
2) https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-lost-generation/
3) https://xcancel.com/mattforney/status/2052038352308777068#m
"...
- A significant number of boomers really do hate young Americans. As part of the campaign, Putsch's volunteers would point out Vivek's Christmas Crashout to boomer Republican voters. A disturbingly large share of them agreed with Vivek and said they would vote for him BECAUSE of the crashout, because they thought kids these days are lazy and ungrateful. We have a LOT of work to do to overcome this hurdle."
4) https://xcancel.com/GeorgeRoush/status/2052645600068542736#m
"...
The cause of our future does not lack young men willing to step into the arena and take a stand. In fact, Casey's campaign was a success in that it proved the opposite: if you build it, they *will* come.
What the cause lacks is the support of the older generations. This is critical because we are fighting an uphill demographic battle. Gen Z can stand up and shout as much as we want, but we are statistically irrelevant in the democratic process. We may as well not exist.
The largest voting block is the boomers, and people over age 50 make up half of the voting population. That means, if you are seriously popular with the boomers, and marginally popular with Gen X, you will win over Gen Z for at least the next 8 years.
The boomers have demonstrated active disdain for Gen Z, and as a result, canvassing boomers with young volunteers is unusually ineffective.
..."
Boomer white guys still think the country is 90% white.
Remind me, are Gen Z the ones who believe that ladies may have a cock? If so, case answered...
thats why i put serious in there
you need smart guys who care about their country and their countrymen in positions of power everywhere to enact meaningful change and to remain there so it can be maintained
The first "why" seems to be that Sikh companies form fly-by-night operators who underbid the competition and only hire their relatives / other Sikhs; essentially the same attack used on other areas of critical infrastructure including IT, banking, and medicine (https://x.com/MaryBowdenMD/status/2037905486020747410 , https://x.com/MaryBowdenMD/status/2038669980804280705 , etc.), and politics (https://x.com/Anc_Aesthetics/status/2072563856262434841). See the final paragraph for an update to the trucking shell companies via the Supreme Court.
Please start with this surprisingly good overview of the issue: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4rmymrl2ro
Note the photo with the poster falling off the wall; Commercial Drivers License holders are required to speak English and understand basic road signs, but apparently the Sikh trucking companies don't care when hiring their co-ethnics.
(The BBC didn't speak of the fact that many diesel mechanics are exposed to biohazards when performing brake work, because the Subcon "drivers" cut a hole into the floor of their cabs to create a drop chute toilet.)
After one of the more egregious crashes, MILLIONS of enemy combatants signed petitions in support of the perpetrators: https://nypost.com/2025/08/24/world-news/illegal-migrant-trucker-gets-support-from-2-2-million-in-change-org-petition/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/nearly-2-5m-people-sign-petition-supporting-illegal-immigrant-truck-driver-charged-fatal-crash
I have previously posted about this because it illustrates the Subcon mentality. Contrast with the Jeffrey Dahmer case: neither the LGBTQ Community, nor the German-American Community rallied around Dahmer. But the Subcons always protect your own, as you have seen with the Pakistani Muslim Rape Gangs.
Sadly, in the same way that the original Rape Gang Inquiry was directed by {Shabana Mahmood}, Trump appointed {Harmeet Dhillon}, an Indian-born Sikh, as Assistant AG, who tweeted:
"Seriously if it weren’t for Sikh truckers … y’all would be eating grass rn." https://x.com/HarmeetKDhillon/status/1448781507590451201
On 2026-05-14, the Supreme Court has ruled in MONTGOMERY v. CARIBE TRANSPORT II, LLC, ET AL. that negligent-hiring claims against brokers may proceed, which will probably have a significant impact: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-1238_1b7d.pdf
I’ve always liked this song, but it and the rest of the truck in’ song genre is purely fiction
https://youtu.be/moL7-nsy8oY?is=D7wuHbPhC3l5WsuF
As a longtime IMSA fan, I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new Toyoder GT car, mostly because I am dreadfully sick of watching the pig-ugly RCF compete against the track versions of cars I actually desire. On track, it makes the Giant M6 look positively ZOZEMPICed (see what I did there?)