Red Underwear, Cheap Fiats and Other Moto Stuff

[PYP]

9 minutes ago, Bill Brown said:

"You think you can hurt my feelings?  I used to hold a flashlight for my Dad."   

 

That took me back, way back    My older brother always had homework (he did, he just didn't do it).   Think this is why I never got interested in cars.  But there was an upside:  my Dad also assembled/built his own stereo and it was my introduction to great sound.  

[PYP]

40 minutes ago, Bill Brown said:

Built the case from scratch.  At least some of the "underwear" (wires and resistors) are red!

 

 

 

 

Looks familiar.  Some of my Dad's stuff was a bit funky (like his cars when he moved beyond US autos) -- his tuner required two hands to operate, one for the tuner selector knob and the other to insert an extended paper clip (can't remember what that did).  I never touched the gear,  just listened.  My parent's bedroom was the listening room.  His Bozak mid, with tweeter suspended in the middle, was in a cutout in their close closet.  A thin wire descended across the room (with the crossover, all of one component, suspended in air) to a very large cabinet with a woofer (the open baffle and sound dampening material made it multipurpose - our cat deposited her kittens there).  Simple stuff, but the sound was amazing and LOUD (a neighbor had a mishap when sitting on his throne and he heard what seemed to be a train coming through the bathroom door -- one of my Dad's test records).  My poor Mother     Oops, sorry, car thread.  The flashlight thing got me nostalgic...

[PYP]

The only car I enjoyed helping to fix because I got to ride in it.  With the top off, I could sit sideways on the back "seat," which was actually a padded shelf.  Even as I kid, I thought:  any sudden stops and I'm going to fly through the air.  The double Abarth exhaust could be heard for miles.  We always knew when Dad would be home soon.  The kids in my neighborhood not only put baseball cards on their bike wheels, they also added their own vocals to imitate the sound.  My Dad LOVED that car!

 

[PYP]

My nephew believes his new car will be a "chick magnet."  I'm not so sure.

 

[PYP]

15 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

If he manages to make her go inside, she will practically have no choice - there's too little space in there not to feel intimate, and from feeling intimate to being.. just one little step..

That may indeed be his logic.  I told him I liked the car for two reasons:  1.  he could park it at the curb in any direction and 2. it could fit in the trunk of his other car.  

 

He is one of those people who can fix anything, so he tends to look past some of what other people would see as impracticalities (NOTE:  this ability skipped a generation.  When he gets together with his grandfather they compare notes on, for example, the finer points about fixing points).  

[PYP]

3 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

   Is this the version with one rear wheel?

BMW version has four wheels.  Wow.  Count 'em - four whole (well, small) wheels!

[PYP]

3 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

Maybe this one too

 

 

reminds me of a southwest version of Mona Lisa Vito.  She knew her way around car engines too.  

 

[PYP]

Great trailer.  Thanks.  Now I don't need to see the movie.  Not all blood is family!

 

Regarding the "plot unknown" for the tenth one.  Four questions:  there is a plot?  Isn't the "plot" the same as last time?  Oh, and since when did Vin get the girl? Will any future versions include a flying electric vehicle?  C'mon guys, let's keep it current.  Gas guzzlers are out!!!

[PYP]

Regarding F&F:   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/movies/helen-mirren-vin-diesel-f9.html?searchResultPosition=1

 

From the article which is titled - Honk if Helen Mirren and Vin Diesel Should Have Kissed in ‘F9’

 

Q:  Your scene with Vin is the best one in the movie, and it’s clear that he adores you. Still, I have a note: There should have been a kiss, don’t you think?

A:  A very chaste kiss would be nice, yes.

 

Q:  Listen, I’d settle for that. Maybe part of the thrill of this pairing is that it’s so rare to see Vin Diesel riding in someone else’s passenger seat.

 

A: This is true. What an honor to find myself driving him, and also very intimidating. Vin doesn’t make it intimidating — he was so easy and lovely — but the technology of this kind of filming is very complex, and it’s a world I’m not that familiar with at all. So it was a great help to have a good friend sitting next to me, for sure. And just to hear that voice!

 

Q: Tell me about it.

A:  I mean, Vin has the most unbelievable voice. I go a bit gooey when I hear it. That velvety brown rumble in your ear is so fabulous to experience for a whole day or two. It is like hearing the most incredibly well-oiled engine.

 

Hey, honk if YOU have ever wanted to snog Helen Mirren (of any vintage).   I might watch this movie just for that one scene of their chemistry.  

[PYP]

44 minutes ago, Confused said:

I think you can just see the clutch pedal being depressed, then the left foot covering the break pedal.  So this looks fine to me.  Plus the footage is probably fake .....

Would you forget about the damn pedals?  This shot is about the boots.  Right?

[PYP]

17 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

I swear the reviewer has nothing to do with this...
 

 

Dude, I want to believe you, I really do.  But who doesn't love a girl in a lab coat?

[PYP]

6 hours ago, Confused said:

I love it when you're demanding....

 

Actually, they look quite nice, I shall get myself a pair.

Can you car lovers explain to me why you wear underwear when driving those beautiful cars?

[PYP]

6 hours ago, Confused said:

From this year's Goodwood festival of speed. This is a bit like with audio, where there is more than one way to achieve a great sounding system, analogue versus digital and so on.

 

This is well worth watching to the end, the fastest run is utterly surreal.

 

(The active aero on the Hoonigan Subaru is good fun too)

 

 

 

The bales of hay are reassuring.  The Jag looks like a flying beer can!  Would that be analog?

[PYP]

20 minutes ago, Confused said:

I know exactly what you mean by ridiculous. That said, from a design and engineering perspective it is rather impressive.

 

Some more details for anyone interested:

 

 

 

 

And this:

 

 

very cool!  Nice acceleration.  Do you need a forehead restraint?    

 

Years ago I read about an electric motor that could be fitted to each wheel, but have not seen any press on that lately.  Maybe not commercially viable.  

[PYP]

22 minutes ago, Confused said:

Most definitely analog, and nothing wrong with that!

 

The bales of hay are also analog, very analog indeed. 

let's enjoy everything analog before we enter the Metaverse permanently.  

[PYP]

23 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

Yeah, only hard core! 😉 I want this one:

 

 

They don't mention how many speakers it has.  Do you know?  Whatever the number, I'm sure it would be described as "insane."  

[PYP]

10 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

Sorry, I can only guess.. Atmos 7.1.4 with 3 speakers per channel.?

Well, knowing car audio aficionados love for bass, let me make it 7.2.4 with 4 subs per bass channel..

All controlled by that insane, wild and unbelievable gizmo embedded in the steering wheel.   Wow, that is insane, wild and unbelievable!  

[PYP]

"Shares in Porsche rose in their trading debut this morning, after the sports car maker priced its initial public offering at the top end of its expected range last night. The long-awaited offering was an increasingly rare bright spot for I.P.O.s, but it may not be enough to revive the moribund market on its own.

 

Porsche’s stock opened at 84 euros, up nearly 2 percent over its I.P.O. price. (Fun fact: The company’s stock ticker, P911, and overall share count of 911 are nods to its iconic 911 model.) Underwriters had expected strong demand for some time: The deal’s order book was oversubscribed within hours of being opened last week. Investors clamored for a piece of the I.P.O., with some going so far as to send pictures with their 911s to prove their Porsche fandom.

 

Among the points that Porsche emphasized during its I.P.O. roadshow were its healthy operating profit margins of 20 percent and the success of its battery-powered Taycan sedan, the first of what is expected to be many electric vehicle models in the modern era."

[PYP]

6 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

This is sick.. 😉

he probably doesn't drive with his anthropomorphic sex toy...

[PYP]

31 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

I always knew there was something weird about him.. 😉

we need contrarians too!  Give the dude some space... 😏

[PYP]

39 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

On Teslas, privacy and some other stuff.

 

"Tesla Inc assures its millions of electric car owners that their privacy “is and will always be enormously important to us.” The cameras it builds into vehicles to assist driving, it notes on its website, are “designed from the ground up to protect your privacy.”

But between 2019 and 2022, groups of Tesla employees privately shared via an internal messaging system sometimes highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers’ car cameras, according to interviews by Reuters with nine former employees.

Some of the recordings caught Tesla customers in embarrassing situations. One ex-employee described a video of a man approaching a vehicle completely naked.

Also shared: crashes and road-rage incidents. One crash video in 2021 showed a Tesla driving at high speed in a residential area hitting a child riding a bike, according to another ex-employee. The child flew in one direction, the bike in another. The video spread around a Tesla office in San Mateo, California, via private one-on-one chats, “like wildfire,” the ex-employee said.

Other images were more mundane, such as pictures of dogs and funny road signs that employees made into memes by embellishing them with amusing captions or commentary, before posting them in private group chats. While some postings were only shared between two employees, others could be seen by scores of them, according to several ex-employees."

 

Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by customer cars

 

 

yet they are selling more cars than ever...