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I think this post duplicated itself

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i can sleep soundly knowing that two of the largest brands that at least at one point made an effort to produce enthusiast cars at multiple price points is owned and operated by vindictive dickheads

speaking of things that are no longer in production the continental extremecontact sport02 in the 205/50r15 size is apparently no longer produced with no replacement planned

i was really looking forward to buying a set as they seemed to be the right combination of wet and dry grip with good feel and breakaway characteristics with some comparing them favourably to the michelin ps4

if anyone has any suggestions for a non 200tw tire in that size let me know

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Wow I thought the options for 17s was slimming out, I went to check if my current go-to cheap but still good enough (Firestone Firehawk Indy 500, which is a rebadged Bridgestone RE003) tire was available in that size and you are shit out of luck. I used to run the Nitto NT05 on my Mazdaspeed3 in the summer and they were the best of the 200tw in the rain at the time. Take this with a grain of salt since that was over 10 years ago now, but they seem to still make them and they do come in that size.

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RE-71RS or bust!

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while i did look at the 200tw tires i perhaps wrongly assumed theyd last 4000miles and turn into bricks the second it got chilly because some of them definitely are not 200tw based on how many runs some guys are getting out of them

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I've been happy with the Firehawk Indy 500s that I got last year for my Fit. I was previously using Dunlop Direzzas, which I couldn't find in the size I wanted, and I haven't noticed any real drop off in performance (caveat: I don't track my car). My only complaint with the Firestones is that they're a bit noisy on the freeway.

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I've solved them being noisy by putting them on a car with stiff mounts, and a loud exhaust. A 245/40/17 puts down 400+ftlbs of torque in a ~3klb car on the street better than expected. The only complaint I have with them is their name, key words coming, FOR THE MONEY I don't think there is a better street performance tire out there.

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While Laguna Seca might be a better brand name for a performance handling tire, Firestone likely already has a deal with Indianapolis Motor Speedway to use the Indy 500 name and that still is the most famous race in America.

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cant wait for the bfg nelson lodges

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shut up and take my money!

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in 2021 i bought a car with 2017 date coded indy 500s that rode like absolute dogshit. it was coming from cali, so maybe the sun plus being a little old made them brittle. i replaced them with continental extremecontact dws 06s and it made a HUGE difference.

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You don’t track your Fit? No shit!

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I get motion sickness driving go-carts, and that was before I started having issues with vertigo (BPPV).

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You know about the Epley maneuver videos correct?

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Yes, I'm just hoping that the Epley maneuver continues to work.

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My decision to start hunting for a 1st-gen Mustang just keeps looking better and better...

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Yup, the Cubans were just ahead of us in terms of endlessly repairing old ICE vehicles.

I call it the "Cuban Slide." Because "When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG4PRAONVKI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC8vxXC0UMc

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I won't buy it - it's Electric! Boogie woogie woogie

I won't drive it - it's Electric! Boogie woogie woogie

Ooh, it's lousy! It's Electric! Boogie woogie woogie

Are you coming with me?

Come, let me drive you in my old-school ride

If it breaks down, I'll fix it! Myself!

And I'll teach you the Cuban Slide!

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* gestures broadly at parts quality and dearth for classics *

It's becoming difficult to keep classics on the road with shit quality parts in the supply chain. I'm seeing a lot of stuff bad out of the box now and it's becoming a real problem.

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Accurate. My three runners are 28-30 years old and the mnfrs I used to be able to count on are no longer totally reliable.

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On a long enough timeline, all cars become AutoZone Chinesium.

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Every time I get a Delco part labeled “made in (CHYNA)”my lips get a little closer to Xi’s loafers

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I had to wait a long while for a new a/c pipes for my 2000 Boxster…because they (used to?) come from Russia, apparently. Didn’t stop them costing £325, which must buy mucho vodka. Chinesium vs Russomnium, compare and contrast?

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I ordered a thermostat and housing, to save time scraping old gasket, for my the 5.8 in my bronco, pretty sure it's used the same one since the dawn of time and shares it with other 351/302 stuff. The housing that arrived was not even close to the quality of of the original, lacked some of the reliefs ect. In the casting, and didn't even fit the gasket supplied with it well. It looked like zinc.

Needless to say I scrapped the old gasket off and used the original housing.

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I had a similar problem. I bought a roll of gasket material from the local heavy truck supply house and started cutting my own like I was working on a brass era coach built thing. My 5.8 is out of an 89 F250 and I put a set of alu heads and alu intake on it, but I needed a thermostat housing that pointed up to make the top hose work. I went through 3 before I got a decent one. I wound up having to use that waterpump/water neck rtv goop to get it to stop pissing.

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One of my recent travails involved replacing the AC lines on one of my impalas. Picked up the CHYNA lines and thought they felt like paper mache. Went up in the attic and found an aftermarket set from about ten years ago that were noticeably heavier. Chabuduo right in the keister

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Since I'm likely jumping into classics from late models (lots of pretty good parts for late models), can you recommend suppliers, or tell me which suppliers to stay away from? My go-to is Summit, and they're usually fantastic...

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If you're going to stick with a certain brand or platform, comb the junkyard first and stock up on stuff that looks original and usable. From there it's a roll of the dice. Everything seems to come out of one giant red factory and goes into different boxes. I still get a lot of parts at Napa but that's because the staff is helpful and consistent and they have me on a pricing structure that usually beats the box parts stores.

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Pretty much any subsidiary of the Holley Group is trash now. Edelbrock was purchased by a private investment group who also own the largest aluminum foundry kettle thing. Their quality has slipped significantly from when an Edelbrock family member was at the helm. Generally the stuff with a Scott Drake reproductions tag is bottom tier. There is a Chinesium parts supplier that changes its name every few years to outrun the review inertia: ProComp/Speedmaster/Etc. MSD ignition is pretty poor now. Pretty much all electronics from China, including alternators and voltage regulators, circuit breakers, switches, and buttons.

Production has narrowed significantly so that a handful of factories produce repop or replacement parts, and they just put them in different boxes. You can still find some old stock stuff if you buy old stuff off eBay, but you have to watch the hustlers who put new junk in NOS boxes. They'll do that with OEM parts too on eBay and at swap meets because most people don't know a $10 part from a $250 OEM new old stock piece.

It will not be uncommon for you to return/replace 1 or 2 for being out of spec, even with Summit. But Summit is great about returns. Beware any house brand Summit stuff. It's always been okay to middling, but it's getting worse just because suppliers are worse.

Usually you can sort on Summit for Made in USA stuff, which is how I find most of the bits I need via mail order. I also lay in a stock of replacement parts for routine maintenance like valve cover gaskets, water pumps, oil pumps, brake components, etc.

Buy as much used OE stuff as you can and beware buying a classic that's been restored with "all new parts" because they took really good stuff and replaced it with shiny garbage that's 1/3 the quality.

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That's disappointing to hear about Scott Drake stuff... I had been looking over the website and they had so much stuff. Scratch that, I guess..

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really disheartening to see how badly the quality has fallen

ive heard too many tales of speedmaster/procomp head falt out not working out of the box with valves getting stuck in the guides and seats not being concentric and whatnot

if youre willing to check each head over and have it remachined if necessary they arent a bad deal if youre okay with china heads

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The good news is if you can afford to buy good performance parts you can still get them. AFR, Meier, Mustangs to Fear, Rose Hill, and others still make good stuff. Mustang Steve still does brake stuff. NPD tends to have pretty good repop quality parts. Branda too. West Coast Classic Cougar has some Dynacorn stuff they've brought to market they're happy with, which says a lot. Even American based Pertronix has their stuff made in China, but it's a notch better than the bottom tier Vatozone stuff. I run one of their ignition boxes that's been really good quality.

I bought Rose Hill adjustable strut rods for my car like 2 years ago and they were fantastic. And they're just a small shop in Texas building stuff one piece at a time.

It's the middle class being squeezed who still want to build hot rods or classics and can't really afford to who are being catered to with cheapo go fast parts. The guys with Cobras and Shelbys can still buy all the good stuff they want. So, this is really a gulf broadening between people who can afford it and people who really can't. anymore but haven't yet been able to admit it to themselves. And Speedmaster has cleverly found a place in that niche, especially when people got those stimmy checks.

But we're all being screwed over by the pedestrian bits that are being built to lowest standard and hobbling all the classics. Even the guys with GT40s or Panteras can't escape distributor caps and plug wires made of the finest Wuhan cheeses.

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I breathe a sigh of relief every time I buy something from Napa and see that it was made in Mexico. How far we've slid when that seems like something to celebrate over the true shit that does its long march from China

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I wonder how much of that is “supply chain issues?”

It’s really gotten bad in the last year or so, as you hear on all the automotive YouTube channels.

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Most of what I mean with "supply chain issues" is that a lot of stuff is filtering down from Covid era and just after. A lot of manufacturers figured out they can sell just as much shit quality as meh quality and pay half the wages.

However, there has been a significant drop in quality of cast parts over the last 6-10 years. IDKWTF is going on with that, but I've had brake drums shatter when barely dropped as a new normal.

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Should’ve nuked Beijing when we had the chance! 🙄🤬🤬

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much easier to keep alive when every single part is available

also its cool as hell

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A Dynacorn body and repro parts for everything else (including a lot that are licensed from Ford).

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Interesting analysis. Could you explain about cyber security and why it means no more gas 718s in Europe? I’m down to one car and it wouldn’t know what to do with a modem if it had one, so I don’t understand WTF “cyber security” has to do with a modern sports car.

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wow; thanks

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That’s the most simplified version I found. It’s very UN/eurocrat. Means people are getting screwed for their protection.

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First they turn cars into electric pods and surveillance devices, then they regulate them to "protect" drivers. You can't make this shit up.

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Yep.

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i dont know how much you hate them but you dont hate them enough

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“ A new cybersecurity regulation, UNECE R 155, comes from the United Nations and requires carmakers…”

This sentence makes my brain explode. Fuck the UN and fuck Porsche and anyone else for kowtowing to them. I took a giant UN regulation in my toilet this AM before I got in the shower.

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If they just made cars instead of rolling iPhones none of this would be a problem.

My head hurts.

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Just to be clear…the ruling itself is not killing off the vehicles. It’s the fact that the micro and possibly other ICs need to be replaced, which means new SW, integration, validation, etc., (at both the module and vehicle level) which can run to the millions of dollars, per module.This is part of what is driving SDV (software defined vehicles) EE architectures.

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Yeah, not sure what it has to do with cyber security, since it just creates a bigger attack surface. Unless they'll make us subscribe to an janky version of "Norton For Cars" as well... (don't laugh)

As for wifi/remote capability, I have no love for Teslas, but I do like how my friend can "pre-A/C" his MY from wherever we are, so it's cool by the time we get it. Spoiled and bougie? Sure. But it's been like Saigon here lately.

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My Jeep would do that with remote start from a reasonable distance away. I’d click it from my 2nd floor office, and by the time I’d thrown my laptop in my bag, stopped to pee, and walked out the front door the Jeep would be ice cold (or toasty warm), no intrusive electronics needed.

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I won't lie, I pay for OnStar just to have this feature. I never have to step in a hot/cold car if I don't want to. Worth the $40/month, and I hate needless tech.

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Until the OnStar Police show up at your house and ask to see your papers :)

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They can do that without me paying them. I justify it to myself by saying that at least I am getting some joy out of it.

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Or the actual police show up because your city has an ordinance against leaving ICE cars and trucks idling.

In Michigan it's illegal to leave an unattended car running on public roads, private roads, and parking lots. Until the law was changed 7 years ago, it was technically illegal to warm up or cool down your car on your own driveway. In 2017, some guy in Roseville got a $128 ticket for warming up his car on his driveway, and the resulting furor forced the politicians/bureaucrats to change the law.

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Have to start making bullets out of paper then...

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I pay for the phone-based remote start as well. As long as I stay away from the “rate your driving and save on ur insurance (yeah, right), I should be good!

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For $7 a month, my wifes KIA can do that too. Spoiler alert, I do not pay the $7

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Or one could...you know...NOT connect your car to the Internet.

In the history of bad ideas, this one is near the top. No one can resist the revenue possibilities though.

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I can't stand how we're being forced into electric vehicles.

I have zero interest in ever driving one.

Loathe the stuck up elites that decided this would happen

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It's not going to happen and we need to make sure those responsible for the train wreck will be mercilessly ridiculed

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by ridiculed don't you mean exiled to Salusa Secundus.

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The prison planet? Let's not look too carefully at what happens there!

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having read up on it, I think it's a great place to explore with EVs

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Let’s start with mocking and shaming. Elites hate that.

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And Jailed

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How ‘bout something a little more permanent?!

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Lead therapy

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I should have a burning desire to own a Porsche. As a child of the seventies and the days before cable & VHS, I saw McQueen in Le Mans on the big screen twice per year during elementary school via community “movie night” programs. But nearing retirement and the opening of the Retirement Account vaults I find the only vaguely attractive hyper car to be the 2nd gen NSX.

I’ll probably end up buying a nice new Miata.

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So it is true. I saw the usual circle jerk groups on Facebook bellowing loudly that Porsche "gets it". Honestly, I can't wait for the whole EV thing to collapse. I'm tried of reading self indulgent "car people" bemoan dinosaur ICE vehicles and the stupid people that drive them. Shit, Fords CEO made a plea for people to buy EV's and small cars again.

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If that’d happen, maybe I’d buy another Accord!

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I had a 2014 Ford Taurus with the 2.0 Ecoboost. Honestly, I loved that car. Ford I thought was doing a good job, better than GM on that front but all the same they threw in the towel and said "we can't do it!"

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It’s just that it’s frustrating that all these automakers are just selling themselves out by producing the lowest common denominator product possible, when even a decade ago, they prided themselves on being the best! Honda made a midsize family sedan that giddyupped and cornered better than anything else in the class, and now they’re satisfied with peddling something that barely runs away from a PRIUS, much less a Camry!

Of course BMW lost the plot fifteen years ago, and Mercedes, which built cars to a standard, now peddles glorified golf carts that are barely better than the Chinese junk!

What are we as car enthusiasts to do?!

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What Farley is really asking is for people to be willing to pay more for small cars. Until they are do, then Ford won't bother.

It doesn't break their heart to sell you an F150 instead.

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this, exactly

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"don’t be the sucker who buys one."

In general or is this Porsche specific? Because if I'm honest there are many combinations that would be hard to resist if brought back.

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I'm not saying don't buy a four eyed Fox Coyote. Just don't be the person who pays $25k extra for ICE BOXSTER :)

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I'd still buy one, not with the 25k extra though. You left that part unsaid in what you originally wrote.

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My crystal ball is extremely fallible, but we ARE talking about the company that used to charge an extra eight grand to NOT provide a convertible top and which charged $200k extra to NOT have a wing on a 911GT3-Minus, er, 911R.

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Well you and I may not fall for it, but clearly a whole bunch of boomer fucks paid em good money for that gimmickry, so are we really right to bitch about it?

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Yeah, and you and I are probably physically capable enough to kill any woman in America with our bare hands*. Would we be right to take advantage of people as a result?

* based on the fact that I probably am, and you wouldn't make things any worse :)

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This is an intellectual and moral question I have grappled with more and more in recent years.

Seems that's the way 'progress' is made in society isn't it?

Any deferment to 'right/wrong' really seems superficial to me these days.

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911s NEED rear wings.

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I have always maintained that real GT3s have wings.

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didnt they all by virtue of being a gt3

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The decision is cynical, crass and craven. Aka "Very Porsche" (tm)

It could also be a reasonable hedge if there's an econ event that actually does freak out the 1% (though, I fine those harder to imagine these days) and there's an auto bailout that's kinda-sorta prorated on an OEM's green-ness. We saw versions of that in 2008, after all.

I remember reading the original C&D review of the 944 Turbo S and - baked into my mind as much as the actual review - was the paragraph on how close Porsche was bankruptcy in post-1987 recession. They moved something like 14k cars annually in the early 90's. Those are Alfa numbers!

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There was one year where they sold 5,000 cars IIRC.

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1992 or 1993 IIRC. Many of those cars have since been raped by Singer, RWB, or similar.

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I think Singers just don’t look right with their mash-up designs, but you have to hand it to them for separating even more money from wealthy people than even Porsche does. And they did it just by following the logic of the Porsche option list, which is more destructive to a rich person’s brain than a parasite. Singer just amped up the option list to levels that probably made Porsche jealous, and it was catnip to the 1%.

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i kinda like options lists--at least porsche'd done it. as the first honda car dealer in oklahoma i got no notice when i asked honda to offer more options/deletes.

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Oh, I like option lists, too, as that was the way you ordered cars back in the day. Packaging options ruined car ordering.

It’s just the sheer ridiculousness of the Porsche options like leather covered air vents.

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