Learned'd VIII: Less Bewbs, Same Nonsense

[MinisterofDOOM]

Yup, Tito found it. So many good sounds. Those V12 sound so mindblowing. The 488 sounds pretty inappropriate as well.

Even if he did dismiss your RWD fanboidom? LOL

Yep! I don't agree with the reasoning but that's why discussing it is fun. To me, the fact that Corvette, Viper, Ferrari, McLaren don't use AWD at all (aside from snow modes in the FF/GTC4 Lusso) and ALL of them make SIGNIFICANTLY more power than the F-type kind of crushes the "get the power to the ground" argument like an aluminum can under a D9 cat. But it's still fun to have a discussion about a car with it's effing designer!

Hell, even Lambo is moving away from AWD-only on their highest-performance models.

[float_6969]

Thanks! I could spend all day listening to that.

[Bubba1]

I liked tita's link. but unfortunately, they're all newer Ferrari's with flappy paddle transmissions. Not as sweet as an old Ferrari V12 with multiple weber carbs, manual trannies with gate shifters operated by someone who knows what they're doing. More like comparing a symphony of sounds to a quartet.

[numbnuts240]

went to the casino on saturday to see bill burr. omfg. i was honestly in tears from the moment he opened his mouth until after he walked off stage. the funniest comedy routine i've ever seen.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Ugh. I just spent 500 miles in a base-model Focus hatch rental. What a turd. So spectacularly cheap. The interior is a mess. I forgot how bad the dual clutch trans is--it's impossible to launch or stop smoothly. The engine was stunningly unpleasant. I hate Ford's death-star-sized cruise control switches. The seats are terrible and I'm not sure how real humans who aren't scrawny twigs like me fit in them. THERE WAS NO MANUAL GEAR SELECT OF ANY KIND. How do people live with that? Especially with a gutless turd thrashing under the hood? It had exactly -23 passing power. It had to drop 2+ gears on the highway to find anything resembling power to accelerate, even moderately on flat ground.

I can only assume the performance models are better in every imaginable way, or that people are really willing to put up with a lot of fail in order to get power in a small package. I can't imagine having to drive that focus every day and not being completely miserable.

Oh, also, the audio system was impressively bad. I had to call in to a couple of conference calls and even with both car and phone volume maxed I could barely hear, and what I could hear sounded like it was coming from an underwater can filled with jelly and stuffed inside a sock. Music could only be discerned as more than random noise at volumes so loud they drowned out conversation.

And that reminds me: wind noise in the car was unbelievable. At 80mph one simply cannot have a conversation at natural speaking volume.

Also, the fuel tank is only around 10 gallons by my calculations (7 gallons was about 3/4), which means even at 32mpg highway you're not going very far without having to fill up again. How do you justify a 10 gallon fuel tank?! I might get ~7mpg fewer in the LS8, but at least I can go 450+ miles on the highway without stopping.

[Bubba1]

Fun rant. Base model Foci do suck. FWIW the published fuel tank capacity for a 2016 Focus is 12.4 gallons, which Is about average for that sized car. You realize if had you kept the speed down, you probably would have gotten more than 400 miles on a tank full, with less wind noise. It's also possible the tank in your rental was not completely full when you picked it up, despite the gauge showing full, which is very common, and that makes gas mileage appear worse.

[MinisterofDOOM]

GM engineers are twisted bastards.

Did an oil change on a twin-cam 1.9 liter Saturn on Saturday. The oil filter location is psychotic. I crawled under the damn thing for 3 minutes before I found it. It's on the REAR-facing side of the block, ABOVE the CV shaft for the passenger wheel. You can reach it and there's reasonable room to move a filter wrench, but once you get it off it dribbles oil over gorram EVERYTHING. I pride myself on spotless oilchanges, but even my fairly large oilpan couldn't cover all the area this thing slopped over once it was done running down half the damn enginebay.

Still, there were no obnoxious underbody covers to remove or any of that s***, so it was a quick and easy job. Just not a remotely clean one.

[float_6969]

The oil filter in the Protégé is in the same spot. Right by the damn exhaust as well. I hate changing the oil on that damn thing.

[RobPaulson]

oh hello, how ya'll been?

I moved to NYC, car's been staying with family in CT for over a year now. Makes me sad, need moar boost in my life

Tito, dat bill burr has jokes, wicked funny, need to stalk his next show in the city for sure.

[frapjap]

Wow man, long time. Whats shakin'? Why'd you pull out of Florida?

You going to reconnect with us all at Carlisle?

[sx moneypit]

Mornin folks!

[RobPaulson]

company went south, bounced with the quickness.

got a job in the city, working across the street from the WTC now in the financial district. Great new company, going real well, the VC $$'s are real

[sx moneypit]

[numbnuts240]

Ben! what's up buddy?

[sx moneypit]

Ben! what's up buddy?

Hiya Tito!Been workin' like a dog.What been happening up your way?

[numbnuts240]

idk who is up the street from my job, but so far i've spotted 2 r32 gtr's, a jdm fd rx-7, and an s13 silvia. i want to be their friend.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Give them that Mexican charm.

[Mr1der]

GM engineers are twisted bastards.

Did an oil change on a twin-cam 1.9 liter Saturn on Saturday. The oil filter location is psychotic. I crawled under the damn thing for 3 minutes before I found it. It's on the REAR-facing side of the block, ABOVE the CV shaft for the passenger wheel. You can reach it and there's reasonable room to move a filter wrench, but once you get it off it dribbles oil over gorram EVERYTHING.

Sounds like my EP3...f*** mess of an oil change and impossible for me to get the leverage to take the filter off without a wrench. Unless I feel like taking a wheel off...

[Loki]

Morning folks I edited a few videos of the on-track shenanigans at Carlisle NICOfest.

[Antihero]

I really need to get my GoPro set up for next year.

[nissangirl74]

idk who is up the street from my job, but so far i've spotted 2 r32 gtr's, a jdm fd rx-7, and an s13 silvia. i want to be their friend.

So do I

[nissangirl74]

The seats are terrible

This. I drove one of the ST models and couldn't get past this fact. I was done in less than half a mile. Greg prefers them to the ones in the 3 (he doesn't ride in my car unless he has to) but I couldn't stand them.

[Loki]

The seats are terrible

This. I drove one of the ST models and couldn't get past this fact. I was done in less than half a mile. Greg prefers them to the ones in the 3 (he doesn't ride in my car unless he has to) but I couldn't stand them.

ST seats are very polarizing. Greg seemed to like mine. I love them - 8 hours straight to and from Carlisle and I felt fantastic. But then I hear people say they hate them. At least make sure you try the Recaro seats, the base model ST seats are terrible.

[numbnuts240]

i love my st3 recaros. the longest i've done is 10 hours in a day and i was perfectly fine throughout the day. then again, my diver seat is broken in to my body. i feel less comfy in the passenger seat.

[nissangirl74]

The ones I sat in were not Recaros.

[xekushnr]

I can't believe this is still going.

Hi again!

[Loki]

The ones I sat in were not Recaros.

There's your problem, then. These are garbage:


These are glorious:

[numbnuts240]

since the gf's brakes are now safe again, i was granted permission to make the final decision as to what we are doing later tonight. she's not allowed to complain, and i better get laid before bed. this is what i came up with:

entertainment


food



and a grape soda.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I decided my 6-year old (originally very top-end) gaming PC wasn't cutting it anymore.

So I bought a new one.



It's funny...once upon a time I was a hardcore AMD fanboy.

Now I have 4 intel i7 machines in my house. 3 Skylake and one older Nehalem.

[TurboSauce]

Hiya, just decided to pop in and see how you guys were doing. It's been a while hasn't it?