TLDR: I'm going from a 1 car garage to a 2 car garage. Now the Exocet and Miata can live happily together inside.

It's not a secret that I hate living in California: watching my tax money burn on things I disagree with (highspeed rail), the traffic, and the noise/smells. When I moved to CA in 2013, I was surprised to find how difficult it was to find a place to live in a safe area. My car was broken into 3 times in the first year (including once by one of my own neighbors in a 9 unit apartment building). For the last 8 years, I've heard gun shots almost weekly. There have been a few times over the years that I got pretty close to affording a house then the market would go nuts and it would be totally out of reach again. Remote work has changed the game and I'm getting out of Dodge.

I just got the news that my offer has been accepted on a house in Carson City, NV. I'll be going from a 1 car garage to a 2 car garage with space for a workbench. The house also have a basement. I think the ceiling may be too low to actually finish it and call it square footage, but it will be a great place to have my 3D printers and keep additional tools / workspace.

Now part B of the fun starts: inspections and closing.

Oh, and actually seeing the house in person. Yes, I've bought a house sight-unseen. Houses in the area have been getting offers within 24 hours. This came on the market this week, so I had my realtor go out with her camera and live stream the house to me over Zoom. She was my eyes, ears, nose, and hands. Having been to 15 properties with me in person and 3 virtually, I can say that it's 1) great to use a realtor especially if 2) they are someone you can trust. The absolute complete insanity of offering on a house you've not seen in person isn't lost on me.

ICYMI:
https://opposite-lock.com/topic/59729/my-house-just-got-egged

The doorbell just rang and 4 very sorry-looking kids were standing at my front door with a very angry mom behind them. They apologized for egging my house and offered to clean it up. I told them that I'd already washed off the house, but that they were welcome to the egg shells and the mom said "they will pick them up with their bare hands!"

I couple weeks ago, I decided to finally make a new gauge cluster for the Exocet. I've been through a few iterations. First was a really ugly implementation of the stock Miata cluster. Second was an Android-powered reverse mirror that was heavy and rattly. Third is this new 3D printed version utilizing a FireHD 8 tablet.

I knew that I would spending almost an entire week printing this monstrosity out of ABS, so I got an Raspi, installed octoprint, got remote monitoring of my printer up and running.

I had to break up the print quite a bit to get it to fit on my print bed and reduce warping.

Tonight, I got the pieces welded together and sanded the seams a bit. ABS plastic is great. It's quite resistant to heat but melts if you touch acetone to it. Acetone and a paint brush = liquid welding.

The acetone trick really comes in handy when you want to fine tune some assembly and merge flat parts. The tablet mount was printer separately to save myself from having to waste filament on supports.

You can also see some of the threaded inserts that I use for m3/m4/m5/m6 bolts. They're brass(ish?). To use them, you print your model with a slightly undersized hole. Then you stick the threaded insert on the end of a hot soldering iron (heating the insert) and just press it in. The plastic melts around the insert as you press. It's a super satisfying process.

Here it is with the tablet in and turned on. I really wanted to maintain the stock Miata hazard button. It's been a PITA and it's never coming out of this thing (it's basically plastic-welded in). The little button above it is a momentary switch for the horn. The rear has two slots for the wiring.

The mount bolts up to the key/ignition bracket for stability and a second piece clamps onto the steering shaft. Here's a mockup of that:

I finished replacing front rotors and pads on the F-Type tonight. Rears are fine, but I had been nursing warped rotors for the last, uh, 7 months on the Jag. There was TONS of pad life left, but the rotors were absolutely shot. My guess would be that the dealership did pads only at the last service before I bought the car. @derp has been on me to fix it but as you can tell, my space is quite limited and the Miata (which still doesn't run) has been taking up the driveway.

Those are 380mm rotors. For those who don't speak metric, nearly 15 inches. Which happens to be the wheel size on my Miata.

About the brake job itself, it's not that bad for the fronts. Rears are apparently a bit tricky because of the electric parking brake but the only part that really sucks on the fronts is the anti-rattle clip which requires a crow bar and 3 hands to put back on. Everything about these brakes is massive.

Bedding is fun. Though the brakes do feel a little spongy and judging by the color of the brake fluid (starting to go a little dijon mustard yellow), I really should bleed them soon.

That is all for now. Happy stopping.

Today, I took a page from @Miss-Mercedes and the Best Way Towing Handbook.

I left Richmond, CA in the Miata to head home to Carson City (normally a 3.5 hour drive) at 1:15pm. I had run some errands around the Bay Area to tie up some loose ends there (Amazon return, cancel and return AT&T equipment, etc) in the morning without any issue.

When I got to Davis, CA, something went very wrong. The Miata abruptly shut down. Like... someone flicked a light switch to off. I coasted the car onto the shoulder. I was kind of bewildered. It cranks but won't restart.

Anyways, I called a tow truck with the Hagerty app. It went fine - the app is a little weird on my phone and seemed to kind of ignore the locations that I put for where I was. I set the tow destination to a parking lot with an O'Rielly. I immediately hit the call button in the app since it didn't get my start location right for the tow. While waiting for the call center to pick up, I checked my mileage. I was 141mi from home and I have the 150mi tow service. When Hagerty answered (maybe 2 minutes on hold), I had them fix the breakdown location and asked about changing my destination to my house. They confirmed that it was within the range and all good.

While waiting, I plugged in my laptop. One key piece of evidence is that TunerStudio doesn't see any RPM when cranking. That leads itself towards the crank sensor (or the chip on Megasquirt that reads that signal). No dice on solving that on the side of a highway.

So the tow truck arrived, loaded me up, and started out. The tow truck driver was thrilled to be doing a long tow. That was until about 45 minutes later when his dispatch called. Apparently they had only noted the updated origination and not the updated destination. So, on speakerphone, in the tow truck, dispatch told the tow truck driver to take the next exit and "get rid of that car". I can tell the guy driving the truck was mortified. If he finished the tow, he would probably not have a job anymore. If he didn't, he was an asshole who abandons a person with a broken car in a random location. I can't blame him for choosing his job. I didn't direct any anguish towards him.

I had enough pull in this situation to at least direct him to drop me at a location that didn't completely suck if I thought fast enough. I saw a sign for a Target and said "Drop me at that Target".

The car wasn't even off the truck and I was back on the Hagerty app requesting a new tow. They had a box for "additional details" where I explained the situation. Apparently those details were also passed to the responding tow company. They immediately called me to say "hey, don't worry, we're going to get you home. We're an hour and a half out but don't give up on us because we're not giving up on you." Honestly, that was the coolest response I've ever heard from a tow company.

The plaza that I was stranded in (near Placerville, CA) had a bunch of different stores. I ended up grabbing dinner since it was now dinner time and an ice cream. Then another ice cream. The girl at the burger and ice cream place gave me the second ice cream for free (apparently I looked like I needed it). That was super nice of her and I dropped a decent tip in the jar.

While I was waiting for the new tow truck, I got a call from a manager at Hagerty. He had seen my additional note in his normal routine of case review. He was shocked to see something like that had happened. He apologized, outlined actions he had taken against that tow company, and let me know that someone might call me for more details. Another Hagerty team member followed up just before the tow truck arrived to assure me that this tow would get me home. Big Kudos to Hagerty Driver's Club. How you deal with something going wrong is what makes the biggest difference. They were classy, action-oriented, and went above and beyond. I can't imagine a situation where AAA would have had the same reaction. I feel super vindicated in regards to having made this switch. I'll probably be a Driver's Club member for life.

The new tow truck showed up and the driver was great. He was a pretty Oppo dude who has a plane, a boat, and builds 1/2 scale RC aircraft. It was a pretty nice ride back, even if I was dead tired. I got home about a half hour ago, making this another 9 hour trip. I will need to try and sort out the Miata tomorrow. Hopefully it's nothing major. But I did just buy a house, which means it's probably something major (that's how it works right?).

This is the second year that I've done this calculation. Find last year's more extensive report here.

Route

In both directions, I avoided any major weather. On the way out, I spent an extra day in KC to enjoy BBQ and on the way back, I made only two stops (Chicago and Amarillo). The total distance was 6694mi. That's 706mi shorter than last year when I went through San Antonio, New Orleans, and up the east coast via Tennessee.

Gas
I drove much more efficiently this year, netting out at 24mpg compared to last year's 21mpg but that 3mpg difference didn't offset the cost at the pump. I spent $1494 (up 13% from last year).

Lodging
I spent less in total on hotels ($1133.89) but did the trip there and back in 8 nights compared to last year's 10 (exactly the same nightly average of $141/nt).

Car Expenses
This year I spent quite a bit. $1838 in total. That's 4 new Michelin PS AS 4's, oil change, a pump to do the oil change, and new wipers. Oh, and paying for wheel balancing after the place that installed my new tires in Vegas screwed it up.

Other Expenses
Oof. A speeding ticket. I hit a speed trap in Kansas. My attorney there says she'll get me off with no points as long as I don't get another ticket in that county over the next year. Total cost: $550 (including attorney fee).

$80 in tolls. The bulk of that (47.51 was New York state).

I spent $197 on food and drink.

Total and Summary
The all-in cost of the cross-country trip? $5282.95 including the tires.

That's about 30-40% higher than it would have cost for tickets and a rental car (assuming I could have got a rental car). Traditional travel costs were MUCH higher this year.

I very much recommend the cross-country journey. I'm already itching to do it again - in particular to do it in the summer and hit some of the northern states. The US is a big, amazing, diverse country. I'll always remember what it felt like to have every eye at an Iowa gas station on me as none of them had ever seen an F-Type. I also got asked at a separate stop if it was a Maserati. So many of the people I interacted with at gas stations, hotels, etc were genuinely nice and friendly people. So many bad things get said about the states away from the coasts by they are gorgeous and excellent places to visit with largely friendly folks (or friendly large folks, tbh). The juxtaposition from last year's largely southern route (southern hospitality) compared to this year's midwest route was not lost on me. So neat to experience both cultures.

I took a lot of mental pictures instead of actual pictures this year. The drive from Vegas to Boulder is probably the most beautiful drive you can do in the US outside of Tetons. I would even put it above the California coast. The colors are vivid and alien and seem to change every few miles. The progression from NV to UT to CO is stunning and is like hearing The Beatles for the first time.

There will surely be days when I miss the F-Type but I am so grateful for having had the chance to take it on so many incredible journeys and I'm thrilled that someone else will have that same opportunity.

@chariotoflove

Never forget!

@distraxi said in Smoke ‘Em while you’ve got ‘Em, folks:

The end of the IC engine has begun for realz.

Audi, and therefore most of VAG, have announced they’re no longer developing new IC engines.

Just wait until everyone realizes that their VW electric cars lied and have been secretly using gas all along.

Specifically, it's a 2002 BMW 325xi, 5 speed, 160k miles.

What, why?
As I've said in previous posts, I've been looking for a winter car. I've considered everything from cheap crapboxes (which don't really exist) to buying new to buying a used Bentley. My criteria was AWD and at least 1 more seat than a Miata. With the car market the way it is, I'd been erring towards the cheaper end of the spectrum to just kind of ride things out.

I popped open Facebook Marketplace this morning and someone up near Lake Tahoe had listed this car. Finding any XI, whether a 330xi or a 325xi, with a 5 speed is pretty rare. Let alone one that has survived without a bunch of rust and dents. As far as I can tell (I'll learn more when I finally detail it), this one appears to be pretty much dent-free.

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the E36 and E46. I've test driven a few and they've never been quite good enough for me to pull the trigger. Usually, the owner is like "oh don't worry about the seat, it's bolted to the floor" or "I'm glad you drove 2.5 hours to get here but I forgot to mention that I put a high ratio rear end in and the top speed is now 50". Both these things have happened to me.

Before I get on with the story, I'll get the good and the bad out of the way.

The Good:

• This car was basically mechanically rebuilt in 2020 as someone's pandemic project.
• Best E46 transmission I've felt. It's smooth and not vague. Shifts accurately. Was recently replaced, recent clutch, and recent transfer case.
• Suspension is tight. Car feels very planted. No rattles from worn bushings. Suspension suspends (owner says previous guy did coilovers but I'll need to verify this)
• No hiccups in power delivery
• No dents. Body is extremely straight.
• Paint is in shockingly good shape.
• Interior is mostly there.
• Full logbook of parts/maintenance from previous 2 owners.
• Purchase price $3700. Which is like $850 in 2019 dollars. #usedcarprices

The Bad:

• The CEL is on. Apparently it comes on when the gas level is low. Everything points to fuel pump (code is for lean condition). This is an easy job for me so I'll throw the parts cannon at it.
• Previous previous owner installed an oil pressure gauge under the steering wheel. Weird AF. The oil light pops on sometimes at idle, but it looks like it's the sensor, since the gauge reads fine.
• Needs tires.
• One wheel doesn't match. I'll just get some new wheels, probably. I'll need winter wheels and tires anyways. With all the shortages, I should do that sooner than later to get ahead of the rush.
• 2 of the window regulators need replacing.
• The trim around the shifter is loose.
• The shift boot is lose.
• The car needs a radio.

Now, getting back to the maintenance log book...

The owner in 2018 started the log and man, he really put way more love into this car than it was worth:

The Journey
Alright, now let's talk about the journey getting this car, and hoooooooey, was it a journey.

I sent the owner (Matt) a message around 8:30am PST. He seemed legit, so we agreed to meet up around 5pm near his house. He made it clear that cash would be helpful (even if just in part) as he was currently pretty strapped. I let him know that if I bought the car, I would do part in cash - not a big deal.

On the way up, the weather started fine. A bit overcast but top-down weather. By the time I got to Incline Village, it was raining pretty good and I had to put the top up. They've been working on the road around the lake and that added about 15 minutes due to 1 lane construction traffic.

It started to absolutely downpour when I got to the meeting location. Matt pulled in and I grabbed the big-brimmed Columbia hat that I normally use to keep the sun off my face to keep the rain off my glasses. I didn't do nearly the amount of checking that I normally would do because of the rain.

We went for a test drive. Car was awesome. Reminded me of how tight the Miata is since I did bushing and control arms. I was pretty shocked by that. The whole suspension felt brand new. That seems to make sense since the logbook reflects that. We scanned the code and verified that it was what he said it was.

Now let's talk about Matt for a moment. Matt is a BMW owner, has two Jeep Cherokees (one is an AMC), and a 996 911. He also has a taste for nude women. His phone, prominently in a holder in a car, has a full-frontal nudity, legs spread, female model as the lock-screen wallpaper. He laughed when he realized I saw that and told me that he somewhat embarrassingly left his phone at Walgreens today and the clerk smirked when he went back for it - having obviously seen the wallpaper. Our meeting spot wasn't a good place to leave a car so after finishing the deal, we drove up to his house to park — a dated 6 bedroom house where he lives alone, smokes a lot weed, plays a lot of drums, and proudly displays a stack of vintage porn magazines. As I was leaving, he jokingly reminded me to update my lock screen wallpaper since I'm a BMW owner now.

I get the sneaking suspicion that Matt wasn't ready for being the person to shakedown a fresh mechanical rebuild. As I drank a seltzer and he took a hit of a very large bong, I realized that he was the classic destructo-type. The kind of guy that can take anything apart but never get it back together again. He asked if I had ever worked on a Porsche. I said no and we remarked on how they are engine-out for almost anything. Something tells me that his 911 isn't that healthy.

I chose to drive the E46 home since it was getting a bit late and I'd rather break down with that if it's light out than not. I left the Miata at his place and set off. I gassed up, headed home. Aside from the car's outside temperature sensor randomly deciding that I should watch out for ice, everything went fine.

I ran inside, used the bathroom, requested an Uber back there, and before I could even finish a piece a chicken, the Uber was there. William, a 30-something year old ex-cop, was a pretty nice guy. A broken person if there ever was one but all the genuineness of someone brought up by an atomic family. On the drive up the mountain, he told me how he went from highschool to army then army to law enforcement. He had a mental breakdown when his long time girlfriend broke up with him in a fireworks-filled announcement that she had been cheating on him for 5 years. He couldn't handle it so he quite his job and started driving for Uber/Lyft while he sorts his life out.

Somewhere around the midpoint of his story, his Lyft app buzzed. I really felt for this guy as it's clear that he really cares about people. He looked at the app — it was requesting a pickup at Sand Beach on Lake Tahoe, which was about 35 minutes from our present location. "There's no Ubers or Lyfts up there this time of night. Sorry, but if we don't accept this, these people are stuck up there with nothing but rain and bears for the entire night." He called Ellen on the phone to verify that she didn't have more than 3 people (she said it was her and her husband) and we picked them up. I swapped to the front so Ellen and her Husband could have the rear together.

William mentioned something about the 49ers to our new rear passengers and Ellen's husband broke out with "well I'm a Patriots fan". Well hot damn, I'm a Patriots fan too! Turns out he's from a town near Boston that's only about 45 minutes from where I grew up. Small world. They were happy to not be bear food. We dropped them off at a restaurant near their house and continued on. Total detour was about 3 minutes and the adventure was worth it.

As we got up to where my Miata was parked, the weather became a full on downpour. We got to my car, I thanked William and wished him the very best, then I started my drive home in the rain. It was uneventful but I did discover that the Miata's very aggressive alignment and summer tires don't love the rain.

I'm pretty happy to have "saved" this car. I think it's going to be a pretty decent winter car. I may give it an additional shakedown trip to Vegas next month. If that goes well, maybe I'll drive it cross country in December.

I'm going to repost here from my LinkedIn with a little extra context.

Tomorrow, my former company will ring the NYSE opening bell.

This photo was taken the day that I moved from MA to CA in 2013. It was a day that important at the time, but not nearly as symbolic as I ever could have imagined.

Back in early 2013, I moved 3000 miles across the country to the San Francisco Bay Area. Sitting on the plane ride over, I had the realization that I had quit a job that I could have retired in to take a position with no title, no guarantees, and not much more than hope & air that we were going to turn enthusiasm into satellites.

I was the first person agree to join and the 2nd non-founder to show up to work. They now have around 200 employees.

I arrived on my first day to a roll up door at a garage in SF's South of Market neighborhood. The incubator garage at Lemnos was a full of crazy ideas and we went home smelling like fast food workers as the hamburger robot of another startup was serving up test burgers.

On my first day, Peter (CEO) told me that he wasn't sure which data from space people would want but that there would certainly be a market. That's a near-quote.

Jeroen (co-founder) and Joel (co-founder) had to take turns sleeping on the couch in the garage as it was often too late to go home when they "finished". At our first real office, I almost stepped on Joel's face when I entered the office at 7am. He had been sleeping under the table that we used as a desk because Jeroen had taken the futon that Peter had repurposed into office furniture. In the movies, all you see is a montage of work. Not the hard work, long nights, and dedication that building companies takes. When a shipping company lost a satellite in the mail, Megan (my long-time co-worker and roommate) called them every 15 minutes until it was found. When the business needed to scout locations for ground stations, Chris (another early employee) dropped everything except his suitcase and spent a fairly dangerous month trekking around Africa.

When folks see that opening bell, I'll see something very different than the investors on Wall St. I'll see Art F. transforming his career from office management to engineering. I'll see Lynsey hiring more than half of a 100+ person company. I'll see James on the phone at 3am EST with European reporters.

Lastly, I'll see Peter being told "no", eschewing sleep for days, until some customer, investor, or key hire said "yes".

So where you might see a bell, a formality, or a SPAC - I see nearly a decade of grit, determination, and a people who transformed themselves along with a company.

Am I going to be rich? No. Not at the current stock price, anyways.

@CarsOfFortLangley said in Dear Americans: If Your Guns Stop Government Tyranny...:

Just need to find an American with a gun that has an effective range of 12 vertical miles.

In all seriousness though, the US has laser weapons that can chew down a satellite in orbit. They could take this thing out in about 10 seconds. Also, the excuse that it might hurt someone on the ground is about as ludicrous as I've ever heard. It doesn't take a team of geniuses to do the math on where it's going to fall.

My guess is that the US is trying not to tip its hand about having infiltrated either that particular project or the team that worked on it. But at this point I think that cat's out of the bag.

@davesaddiction what part is actually "unhinged"?

That officer was either poorly trained or intentionally negligent with his firearm. No matter what you think about the protest that day, I don't know how you can argue that that was an appropriate use of force.

@davesaddiction said in most people don't like jerks:

He says the things out loud that some of his voters think. Some of those things are racist, sexist, etc., etc.

Do you have examples of each of those?

I ask because even though I dislike Trump, a lot of what people accuse him of tends to lack actual quotation.

A lot of the vitriol would leave politics if people were more accurate in reporting.

@Qaaaaa said in most people don't like jerks:

@nickhasanexocet Nah, plenty of people absolutely said "I'm voting for him because he tells it like it is" which is just a longer way of saying "he's an asshole"

So if someone tells it like it is, then they are assholes?

How about people who don't tell it like it is? People who tell you what you want to hear despite being incorrect, who lie, and who cheat? Those people are fine?

I'm playing devil's advocate here because I think you're falling into a logical fallacy.

@davesaddiction sure, but the motivations for people to vote for them are the same. It's incredibly cynical to think that people voted for Trump because he's an asshole. The reason they voted for an asshole was because he sticks it to the other side. Hell, That's the reason for half the stupid posts here on the politics board.

@trivet a bunch of that s*** is fake. Like when he presses the a button to accelerate and he's clearly pushing it with his foot.

@davesaddiction said in most people don't like jerks:

“It’s all pushing ______ and ______ back onto the same doomed path they followed in the ______ years: stunts and memes and insults and fabricated controversies in place of practical solutions to the real problems everyday people face. The party has lost contact with the sensibility of mainstream America, a huge country full of decent people who are offended by bullying and cruelty,” Frum writes.

Reread that with the partisan bits taken out. It describes both of the mainstream choices entirely.

@davesaddiction said in most people don't like jerks:

Unfortunately, there are some number of Americans who vote for Trump precisely because he's an asshole...

This is also describing both teams. The way the media system is currently designed, people are pushed into hating the other team and voting for any old bag of water just to spite the other side. In fact, the worse the candidate, the better because that will just annoy people even more.

I'm currently on the second half of a trip to the Southeastern US. I had meetings in Orlando and now I'm visiting my brother in Charleston South Carolina. Since I'm extending a work trip, I kept the cost exactly the same to the company by shifting my exit from Orlando by a couple of days and renting a car to go round trip from Orlando to Charleston and back to Orlando.

Originally I had rented a BMW 340i. I actually kind of wanted to rent the 840i that Sixt offers but the price online was going to add an extra $200 for the 3-day trip. When I got to the airport rental place yesterday, they offered to do the upgrade for $90, less than half the price than it was offered me before, so I just went ahead and did it.

I've experienced plenty of BMWs, but never had the chance to drive the 8 series. I have, however, driven the eight series closest competitor- the LC500.

My first impression of the 8 series is that it's very much cut from the same cloth as every other BMW of this generation. If you're used to the materials in a 3-series or a 5 series, you'll be right at home with the materials in the 8 series. To be honest, that's a little bit of a letdown. It took three attempts to get Android auto working, as it wouldn't work with a cable, and I discovered that if you pair the car to the phone and not the phone to the car, Android Auto inexplicably doesn't work. I'm sure if you own this car, you probably only pair at once and don't worry about it. It. As a rental car, that's kind of frustrating.

I'm also sure that ldrive is something that most people pick up pretty quickly. Since this is the first time I've used this latest iDrive system, it definitely took a few hours to adjust. A lot of settings are buried, pretty damn deep. There's an evil little voice in my head that tells me too mess with some of those settings before I return the car, like set the emergency stop distance to ridiculously far so the car beeps incessantly.

The digital gauge cluster is totally fine, although a bit rudimentary compared to what Audi does. The heads up display, is quite appreciated. Both the HUD and the gauge cluster. Integrate with Android Auto and show your next turn. I also found myself using the detected speed limit in the HUD quite a bit since I'm unfamiliar with the roads I was driving. As an aside, South Carolina roads have this way of going from 60 mph speed limit to 40 mph speed limit or less in a matter of 100 ft. You've really got to slam on the brakes. If you want to comply with the local speed limit. It is kind of wild.

In terms of driving experience, the car is fine by modern standards. It's less solid feeling than my E46. It's a real shame that BMW has lost that feeling over the generations. This chassis seems like it could learn a thing or two from the E39 or E46. The engine, turbocharged inline 6, is also just fine. I turned off the fake engine noise and honestly kind of wish I didn't. The engine sounds pretty awful and the amount of power it delivers with the transmission tuning in the car, doesn't fit a big grand touring car. Personally, I want my big touring car to have oodles of torque so that I can gently touch the throttle on the highway to make a pass without the car shifting down three gears or more. This car has a habit of quickly jumping down three or four years, showing off that the transmission can shift incredibly fast, but you're met with a pretty unrefined noise from the engine as it revs out. It's not very grand touring.

That's not to say that it's slow, because it's definitely not slow. 0 to 60 time is somewhere around 4 and 1/2 seconds. I haven't had the chance to test the handling at all but it seems confidence inspiring from the speed side I saw on on an off ramps. The all season tires on the car seem to curb pretty well, which I attribute to chassis tuning less than rental car tires. The cabin is not particularly quiet, at least for the price point. My E46, which admittedly has added sound deadening that I added to the car, is roughly the same if not slightly quieter.

In terms of looks, nah dawg. It avoids having the gigantic ugly grill, but this is definitely not a good looking car. The rear haunches are all right, but overall it's just too busy and not all that inspiring to look at. If you put it next to you a c8 Corvette, which costs a lot less, you can see that it's not actually that special looking.

Now, let's really talk about the biggest issue with this car. There's about 100 different ways to spend around $90,000. All of them are better ways to spend that money. Compared to the LC500, this car is an absolute joke. Better interior, a V8 engine, Lexus reliability, looks that kill, and it even better driving experience. Lexus also offers more standard features.

Honestly not sure who the 840i is for. It's all flash, and no substance but without the flash. I think a lot of that comes down to the lack of a V8 engine in the base model. It also seems quite silly that we're talking about a base model at all for a car that starts close to $90,000. I guess if you want a big, somewhat anonymous, premium GT car that gets decent fuel economy, this is the car for you. You. I averaged over 30 miles per gallon in my mostly highway drive from Orlando to Charleston. But if you're buying this car for fuel economy, you're doing it wrong.

BONUS Florida man content.
Here you'll find two Florida men, crossing six lanes of highway on bicycles with a fishing pole.

@ForSweden it's a shame that the new Ford GT hasn't been the greatest race car.

@Nibby Did he at least have a beard and wear flannel?

@davesaddiction said in Opponions on the Honda Passport?:

@nickhasanexocet

Passport is a stubby Pilot.

Oh weird. Why does a Passport have a higher starting price than a Pilot? Honda, you weird.