So, when you’re trying to get ready for a long-distance off-road motorcycle event, it helps to have friends with extra off-road motorcycles. And it helps even more if they own some property on which you can legally ride. But it hurts when those fields haven’t been harvested yet. And it can be downright difficult when irrigation runoff creates a very deep trench where no such trench existed last year.
Luckily the XT250 is easy to pull out of a ditch. The DRZ400 I was riding behind him? Less so. Alright, let’s talk about what else happened this week.
Bark got a ticket in his Fiesta ST. Should he fight it? I think he should.
Over at TTAc, I wrote about the newest fad of eco-mandatory parking. This got a big boost from Facebook sharing and was the big post of our week, traffic-wise. I followed that up with a rank-em post about the seven previous generations of Nissan Maxima, which was not as popular.
Trying to find some good news in the downsizing-and-force-feeding of the standard Porsche 911, I wrote about the future of sports cars. At the risk of being even more pompous/self-involved than normal, I have to say that judging by the comments it’s a great litmus test to see who doesn’t know shit about modern performance automobiles. The people who gibbered responses about “LOL WUT THE TURBOW IS LIKE A CRITICAL 0.2 SEC FASTER IN 0-60” are clearly morons. I don’t know what else to say.
If you truly think the current 911 Carrera is superior to the 1998 Carrera as a driving proposition, or if you think that a Tesla Model S is more of a performance car than a stick-shift Ferrari 355, you and I are not going to be able to have much in the way of a productive conversation. That’s the rabbit hole that leads to the 2016 Camry SE being more awesome than the 1985 federalized Ferrari 512BBi or something just because it can scrape past in a climate-corrected quarter-mile. YOU GO TO HELL NOW.
What’s coming up this week? Well, there’s the Road&Track Performance Car Of The Year testing. Can’t wait. Who’s in it? Who will win? I can’t tell you the former and I don’t yet know the latter…
I’m pulling a smidge from that R&T piece for Quote Of The Week. (You have been warned.)
And in fact, my high-mehness sedan can run with a Mercedes-Benz Gullwing, but anyone who says that the experience must therefore be similar is seriously deranged.
_I’m_ a moron but I didn’t bother reading the Porsche article….
-Nate
Jack, why do you remind me of David Coverdale so much ??? 🙂
I find it really sad that some of your readers begrudge you having so much fun- keep on keeping on!
I like the supercharged Jaguars, and while the Scat Pack Challenger has only 15 more horsepower than the blown SC (485 tvs 470), the Dodge is viscerally more thrilling.
Maybe naturally aspirated engines are like analogy audio or photography. Digital produces results that are good enough, but it’s not quite the same.
“blown SC”, should read blown XF.
Jack, what happened to the blog post about the cycling douche who attacked the woman in the car?
Here or on TTAC?
Ahhh… I forgot that you put it up on TTAC. I was looking for it here.
Btw, do you know what happened to thelastpsychiatrist? I’ve been missing his posts, and it seemed like the blog was gaining momentum before it dropped off last year.
I made the mistake of reading the comments in the VW diesel article on TTAC. “Best & Brightest” indeed.
It’s funny, I’ve had quite a few discussions with friends of mine on the “future of performance cars”, and it’s really a tough one to explain to people. It’s nearly impossible to argue on paper that my old 328is is a better car than a new 428i, but it’s certainly a more engaging driving proposition. Most people check out as soon as you start down that road though. Sort of like our friend Johann in New York going on about how manual transmission oriented buyers are “stuck in the past”
Reminds me of San Dimas , Ca. in 1972 ~ my buddy and I were riding Motos alongside some abandoned fields with waist high grass , he decided to have fun zooming along in it , I said don’t , he found a free stump at about 35 MPH .
Bent the crap out of the handlebars and forks but didn’t break any bones….
-Nate
On sports cars. There is an Ass for every seat. Trying to rank sports cars on seat of the pants feel will always leave you open to some criticism. Basically it’s not an argument worth having just say what you like and why and move on.
Hey, Jack. I have your old 190e (just picked it up yesterday) and was reading your time capsule article and decided to let you know where it ended up.
It’s in Michigan and still in what I’m presuming is the same state as when that shop first got hands on it.
Just thought I let you know
Cheers
What’s he growing in there anyway, looks like potatoes?
did you two dig any up during the noseplant?
brings a new meaning to “Mr Potato head”