reading up on the show, it‘s really shocking to discover || the entire thing was made “for the exposure”. Netflix paid nothing at all to the competitors, they weren’t liable for any damage to the cars or their drivers, they asked everyone to modify their cars without specifying what sorts of challenges they would face, and in many cases to send them over to the US months in advance, with no assurance that they would participate in the show at all. O.O when they showed that story of the working class girl in South Africa, and they said her dad had to sell his van to participate in the show, i thought they were just exaggerating for dramatic purposes, but no, turns out they asked that of everybody. they could afford to send Charlize Theron to South Africa, and camera crews all over the world, but not pay for their competitors‘ basic costs? that’s terrible||
@Neko#9190 their new game also looks good, looks like no targets tho
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQDq59aNRyU
btw @exodus what's the word on Oh Deer? is still in development?
I would love for oh deer to still be in development but I can't find a way to make it make sense. Here are the complications:
- I can't find a publisher to fund it
- we don't have a lot of time or spare cycles to do it ourselves
- its not going to be a worldbeater sales-wise (I‘m sure it’d do fine, but not like hundreds of thousands of dollars, and we DO need at least $100k to finish it)
- similar kickstarters recently have not done so hot.
- we have another game we're working on that needs all our attention.
all of this makes it tough to commit to finishing the game because of course we are a business and have to pay ourselves to live. I'm still searching for ways to make it happen, but I think it'll be like... when we're very financially stable and feel like burning a few months on it that we'll never make back.
argh! that‘s a shame. not enough drifting games out there, and it had so much style!! 
but yeah i guess that makes sense. hopefully you’ll have an opportunity to finish it in the future!
i just checked up on Drift Stage, another one of those 2016 kickstarters, and it turns out their only programmer bailed mid-development after spending the KS money and left it in a broken state, and then another company de-compiled the demo and tried to pass off the work as their own, and now the artist/designer is the only one left, fighting for the copyright, still looking for a publisher. seems like a common story with these small projects : (
yeah, it‘s tough with the real tiny ones, which is why I’ve sort of moved beyond that at this point - the amount of work it took to make something like gunhouse profitable, which ultimately it was, was basically keeping me from working on other games.
Lot of nice cars here! Unsurprising to see a lot of love for scrappy little Japanese cars and I'm very much on board with that.
If you like that kind of thing, then my job may be of some interest; I work for a Japanese car maker (obviously can't say which so don't ask) in a technical R&D capacity. I spent five years at their main R&D center in Japan doing testing, mostly power electronics systems on plug-in cars. So I spent a lot of time in rickety, janky test mules in freezers/ovens and I've been doused in engine coolant more times than I can remember. Nowadays I'm working on slightly different stuff, but still electric mobility related.
If anyone would like to know anything about how these cars come together or what it's like to work in the industry in Japan, shout me out I guess!?
Can't share my car history because it's just one car I got with my employee discount, but it's pretty boring anyway so don't worry.
Wow cool thread!
I would love a zippy little car from the 90s but I don't know enough about makes and models to know what to look for.
My car history has been buying whatever was within my budget from Craigslist and turning it from a complete junker to only kind of a junker.
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/3Xv10zw.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/3Xv10zwh.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
My very first car was an '87 toyota camry. I did really enjoy this car and knew nothing about cars when I got it. It started to shimmy and I was like "haha that's funny" and found out the hard way a tire had a bubble in it and it exploded on the highway while I was on a road trip. The next few hours were a fun adventure of me and the tow truck driver going around to every walmart and costco within 20 miles looking for the right tire before we eventually went back to his tow yard and dug through piles and piles of tires together before we found the right one. It was a really weird experience at the time, but looking back it was kinda cool.
This thing was also a tank. I slammed into my best friend's car and totaled his while mine didn't even look like it was in an accident. Oops. Bonus points: the girl I had a crush on was in the passenger seat. Boy do I know how to show em a good time.
I ended up selling it to some dumb kid that wanted to use it for street racing I think. A few months later I saw it abandoned on the side of the road with a coat of primer on it and one of those neon "we're gonna freakin tow this thing" slips on the windshield. I still had a spare key and seriously considered driving off with it but I didn't.
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/7LsHfeV.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/7LsHfeV.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Next car was a '97 honda accord. It was pretty reliable until the radiator cracked. My step dad and I swapped the radiator out in the pouring rain. That was kind of a cool experience.
I sold it to a friend for cheap and warned him that the axle bearings were starting to fail (it had the telltale clicking noise when you turned) but he ignored it and the axle exploded while he was driving it on the highway. Sorry Joey, but I warned you.
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/zXp5SzW.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/zXp5SzW.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
After that I had a '98 acura CL. This was a total gangster car (even had a skull shifter ornament that I never changed out). The guy that sold it to me said it passed smog and everything but when I went to register it they said it was throwing a bunch of error codes. My step dad and I took the dash apart and found out the people that sold it to me took the bulb out for the check engine light... Wow. We put a bulb in and sure enough it was on. I learned a lot about how to fix cars because of all the work I had to put into this thing just to keep it running. It had a sunroof and leather seats and I felt like a total badass in it.
Eventually the transmission started failing and it would stall between 2nd and 3rd gear so that was scary. I sold it to a guy on Craigslist for super cheap. I pleaded with him him to get a flatbed or tow it and he said he'd come back the next day with one, but later that night it was gone. It must have been all right because I found it a few months later in the parking lot of my mom's work.
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/OGQkRKK.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/OGQkRKKh.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
My current car is an '06 honda civic. Nothing special really, but it was the first car I bought from the dealership with my big boy money. It gets me from point A to B and the speakers actually work so that's cool.
I think after I pay this one off I'll try to get an electric car. But we'll see!
Cool idea for a thread!
I've owned two cars, though they are basically the same...
First was an orange Honda Element from the first model year (2001) back when the fenders were a grey plastic. I drove this until finishing graduate school in 2010, at which point I initially traded it in for a CRV. I missed the Element so much that I brought it back within a few days and managed to negotiate swapping it for a brand new 2011 orange Element (which, unfortunately, turned out to be the last model year...). This baby is what I continue to drive until this day, couple sets of brakes, couple sets of tires, a new hatch door, and a new exhaust/catalytic converter later it's still steadfast. Here it is after a recent (badly needed!) car wash:
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/rXzbB8k.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/rXzbB8kh.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
I would gladly buy a third one (I was really holding out for an electric until Honda dashed my dreams and stopped making them altogether). I've moved more apartments in these guys than I can remember and it just fits like a glove at this point. I had my eye on a Tesla Model Y, but there's something about the quirky rugged simplicity of the Element that I would miss, so I'm sticking with it for now.
@hellomrkearns#7654
>
Mitsubishi Galant - first car that I co-owned. Also learned to drive manual on
I cannot recall if he ever shared this sentiment publicly, but Insert Credit's own William Timothy Rogers once quipped to me that "the Mitsubishi Galant is a Lancer for grownups", after having rented and driven one for a few days.
I love this thread!
A quick rundown of my checkered automotive past:
'77 Chevrolet Caprice, matte yellow with green vinyl top and green interior, with rust accents - I will always remember that the first time I filled it up, gas was $0.97 a gallon. Drove into a ditch, somehow wrecking the transmission in the process. My stepdad sold it for scrap for $75.
'83 Chevrolet Chevette diesel, silver with blue vinyl interior - My first stick. Got 53 miles to the gallon, and topped out at a blistering 66 MPH. Wrecked it taking some friends home from youth group in high school.
'89 Chevrolet Cavalier, red with gray interior I pulled from a local scrapyard. Was an absolute unit. Got run off a backroad by a dually taking their half of the road out of the middle, and it rolled up on its side in an empty corn field. I climbed out the passenger window, pushed it over, and was only late to school by about 4 minutes. Had that lovely 'feature' of all GM cars of that era that you could remove the keys from the ignition while it was running. Once accidentally left it running in the high school parking lot for 8 hours. Eventually totaled both it and an unfortunate doe driving way too fast on my way home from a girlfriend's house a couple of weeks before graduation. Still remember it vividly, my life flashing before my eyes as I overcorrected and rolled nearly twice, eventually stopping upside down. The doors were so smashed I had to kick out the windshield to get out. Dr. Dre's Chronic 2001 blared out of a pair of Kenwood 12's a buddy helped me install all the while. Stepdad nearly got arrested for driving it home against the wishes of the cop at the scene. RIP
'88 Pontiac Grand Am, Gold-ish with brown interior - My buddy's dad sold it to me for $500 when the Cavalier died. It was a good little car, all things considered. Took me to my first few real jobs out of school. The second to last time I ever saw my real dad he helped me change the plugs and wires out on it. I took a couple weeks vacation in the winter of 2001, and didn't drive it. It didn't want to start the morning I was supposed to return to work, and was never the same after that. Eventually gave it to my stepdad.
'92 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, Silver with gray interior - Bought it from a coworker for $1500, and shouldn't have. First thing I did was buy a brand new head unit, and was planning on kitting out an entire sound system. The transmission gave out a month after I bought it. Let my stepdad give it to 'his guy', who sat on it for a month, and it was mysteriously (and conveniently) broken into the night before I was supposed to get it back. I never got reimbursed for the stereo or the glass. That was not the last stereo stolen out of this particular car. I lived in a buddy's basement at the time, and parked on the street. When I bought my next car, I took the plate off of this one to drive it to the BMV to get a new plate. In the half hour I was gone, an asshole neighbor had my car impounded. When I went to retrieve it, the stereo was gone, along with an expensive leather jacket and some other things that I have since forgotten about. Of course the impound claimed that was how they found it, and the police were no help either. Sigh.
'97 Saab 900S Convertible, Amethyst Violet with a tan leather interior and black top - This was the official car of Project FFDog. It wasn't a turbo model, but I loved this car. The top was fully automatic. It was always great putting the top down at a stoplight without having to get out of the car. This was my first car expensive enough to finance; I bought it in late 2002. I Thought I was going to pick up all the ladies in this car. I only ever picked up one, and I had to trade it in two years later when my wife and I needed a more practical car with the impending arrival of our first child.
2000 Toyota Camry, green with tan cloth interior - The workhorse. It is still running to this day. It bore witness to nearly every major event of my adult life. It brought both my children home from the hospital, and dutifully delivered me to work and back for 14 years. I bought it certified preowned with 65k miles on it, and handed it off to my father-in-law, a retired mechanic who had performed all the maintenance on it with 317k on the odometer. That was in August of 2017. It is still his daily driver. Last I checked, he's closing in on 340k. Broke down on me exactly one time, due to a faulty belt that snapped well before it was due to be replaced. Otherwise, only replaced brakes, tires, plugs, and oil for a decade and a half. Such a good car.
2004 Subaru Impreza WRX Wagon, World Rally Blue with black interior - Purchased in 2011 with only 55k miles. Was bone stock when I got it, and still stock when I traded it in in 2018. It got me home through a couple blizzards in that time. It was the ultimate winter car, and great for hauling the pooch to the dog park. It wasn't really _my_ car, it was my wife's daily driver, and really whet my appetite for the car I traded it in for.
I had a brief fling for a few months in late 2017 with a 2006 Toyota Avalon I found in mint condition for only a few thousand bucks. It's a big Lexus-y cruiser with a big sunroof that is comfy, sneaky quick, and dull as shit to drive. My wife loves it. It's her new daily.
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/CsZCIB8.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/CsZCIB8h.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
This was the day I brought it home. I've now got a set of 16" black Konig Dekagrams on it.
2014 Ford Fiesta ST Oxford White, with black Recaro package - Drove from Indianapolis to Cincinnati to pick this one up, it's only my second manual. I killed it twice during my test drive, and had a semi-harrowing drive home from out of state. It was purchased with 21k on the odometer in 2018. After the trade-in on the WRX, only paid $7900 for it. Heavily modified, Garrett GTX 2867R (gen 1, alas, don't make full boost until 4k RPM) turbo, ATP intercooler and pipes, Tial BOV, Injen Cold Air Intake, and thermal R&D exhaust, tuned by Adam at TunePlus. It is a FWD 1.6 liter making 292 HP and gets 28+ mixed driving MPG. Every time I put my foot down the torque steer tries to wrestle the wheel out of my hands. I love it and will probably drive this one until the wheels fall off. It makes a 45-mile-each-way commute infinitely more bearable.
I didn't really intend to sit down here and write out my memoires, but here we are. I hope someone enjoys reading this the way I've enjoyed this thread!
@deepblue#16316
>
I cannot recall if he ever shared this sentiment publicly, but Insert Credit’s own William Timothy Rogers once quipped to me that “the Mitsubishi Galant is a Lancer for grownups”, after having rented and driven one for a few days.
oh snaps. that's a good quote about it. it certainly did feel like a car for grownups. Never did I think anyone would steal it. The quote is mentioned in this article on Kotaku from 2010. https://kotaku.com/the-best-games-of-sort-of-the-decade-5450551
It was a pretty popular car here in NZ. They manufactured them in Porirua from 1975 to 1998.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_Prq5yCti4
@hellomrkearns#16359
The friend that I mentioned in my post whose car I destroyed ended up getting a mitsubishi galant from his aunt for cheap that he liked a lot better than his old car anyway. He ended up thanking me for rear ending him so hard his back end exploded... And out of context that is quite the sentence.
This thread reminded me that one time I saw a Mistubishi Delica roll into a campsite I was staying at and I just fell in love. If I ever get the chance I'm gonna buy one for sure. It's kinda weird, and maybe a little grandpa-y but I go camping a lot and haul big things around sometimes so I think it'd work... Plus it's got that 80s/90s box look that I like so much.
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/ZZA9Z32.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/ZZA9Z32h.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
@milo#16360 that van rules. I‘ve got a local car auction spotlight thread going on Twitter and I’ve mentioned that one twice:
https://twitter.com/HelloMrKearns/status/1355749460509290498
For more Van goodness, you should follow It's Van Time!:
https://twitter.com/itsvantime
@hellomrkearns#16368
Wooooow that's so cool! That's exactly what I'd do, too, is take the back seats out and put whatever back there.
jealous of the reasonably sized, fuel efficient, and low cost vehicles sold outside of the USA (still the best country though)
My automotive history is a bit all over the map, primarily Japanese, and 90s as hell.
[b]First car: 1997 Subaru Legacy Outback 5-speed manual (Oct 2006 to Apr 2007)[/b]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/vSJTbZ9.png[/img]
A few months out of high school, my parents weren't entirely thrilled with me borrowing the minivan to go do things an 18 year old has to do: go to my 3rd shift job at the grocery store, go to community college during the day, try to hang out with friends inbetween, and the list goes on. I liked this car a lot and I've been tooling around with trying to find another one and doing something dumb with it like an EJ20 based swap with a massive turbo; however Subarus are kind of a pain to work on. Luckily nothing went wrong during my ownership. Sold it and replaced it with...
[b]1996 Mazda Miata MX-5 in Montego Blue Mica with a hardtop (Apr 2007 to Jan 2008)[/b]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/6QiyRM1.png[/img]
Found this car right up the road, it was the right price, and it came with a hardtop! Rear wheel drive! 14" wheels! Cheap! Did I mention it's RWD?!?!? I got into an appropriate amount of trouble in this car, luckily nothing too bad happened. Started autocrossing in this car, but it met an untimely demise when someone took a late left and I put it into a Sentra's B-pillar. The airbag knocked my glasses off, and I thought that I had been wearing contacts and I was like "omg the airbags knocked my contacts out".
[img]https://i.imgur.com/aXFEkO5.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/sqRdUul.png[/img]
[b]1994 Mazda Miata MX-5 (Jan 2008 to Jan 2018)[/b]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/WAPn7ZA.png[/img]
This nightmare replaced the 96, the coolant line under the cam angle sensor swelled up and burst within the first 2 weeks of ownership and pissed coolant all over the header. I wasn't too handy at the time, so immediately had to drop about $1k at a mechanic to get it all buttoned up. I bought back the wrecked 96, so I was able to pop the hardtop on that, and a few other bits. Continued to autocross, did a few HPDEs in 2010; a real life race track!
[img]https://i.imgur.com/8TOp902.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/ZJ3eMpK.png[/img]
2010 ended with the neighbor across the street getting into a fight with his roommates and speeding off after some snow, which included tagging my car on the way out.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/W4bKL5Z.png[/img]
Insurance totaled it. After all it was a 1994 and every panel on the passenger side got tagged. They cut me a check for roughly $3k, so I bought it back for $400. New door skin: $20. Bodyshop to patch the rear quarter panel: $500. An hour at a shop to get the bolt out of the rear knuckle and some new-to-me A-arms: $250. I did what every responsible college kid with a racing habit would do: I bought a $1800 set of coilovers, a bunch of other go fast bits, and went back to the track.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/yEGGhOA.png[/img]
The car was now too fast in the corners; I had to brace myself in the seat by putting my knee into the door card. There was also some stuff where it broke two timing belts within the span of 3 months. Miatas don't break timing belts. This was weird and bad, but there was nothing I could really do about it. I had a desk job now, but I also kinda had to get to work...
September 2011 commuting to work:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/j6Fbxvr.png[/img]
January 2012 going to a meeting:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/d2beEqA.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/PmdgNDq.png[/img]
[b]1981 Honda Passport C70 Scooter - (Aug 2011 to Mar 2012)[/b]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/JnGIbDq.png[/img]
Goofed off a bit on this thing. Not entirely legal, but eh. It was good for getting to class and back, and going to fetch groceries. It's a "proper" motorcycle, but it doesn't have a clutch, instead the transmission is semi automatic: 0 down 3 up. Sold it in the spring to someone who had lost their license. Cool bike!
[b]2012 Mazda Mazda2 Touring (Jan 2012 to Oct 2015)[/b]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/yEPKgnG.png[/img]
Gotta get to work. I had a $600 Bank of America credit card that I paid off every month in full, so my credit score was unusually good for a young adult. $17000 flat out the door, financed at 2.99% for 60 months. One hundred whole horse powers. I bought a rear "sway bar" (it was a fence post with some plates) to firm up the rear, and drove the hell out of this thing. Easily got 33mpg in mixed driving, and could touch 37 or 38mpg if you kept it in the happy 55-65mph zone. Oh yeah, I also took this to the track, too. This car was the first one where I had tinted windows, and I could never go back. I miss this car a lot, it was underpowered but a lot of fun. It was noisy, but also 2300lbs.
[b]1994 Miata... Guess who has excellent credit and a real job lined up!?!??!?![/b]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/gyq2Vdw.jpg[/img]
I played Miata legos and put a motor from a 2002 into my 94. Aftermarket ECUs had made these previously "worthless" motors very worthwhile to have because of the variable timing on the intake cam, originally put on for emissions purposes, could now be used to advance and retard the timing for maximum torques. Well, as maximum as you can get out of a 1980s Japanese iron block motor. I was able to hit 145 [b][u]wheel[/b][/u] horsepower and 120 ft-lbs of torque with my pig rich tune with just a European market intake and full exhaust on this junkyard motor.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/jJBBc51.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/AXCL7ne.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/IRCA6Cv.png[/img]
I put in bucket seats and 6 point harnesses to actually drive the car, as well. I was using 15x9 wheels wrapped in 225/45R15 tires. It was a massive rush to get the car prepped and ready for the first track day of 2013, but multiple late nights got everything buttoned up in time.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/2tuzIlx.png[/img]
I sold this after not having the time, money, or passion after the next car in the list...
[b]1993 Lexus SC300 (Oct 2014 - Dec 2017)[/b]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/cslwqaQ.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/f9ip2Lo.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/fVn7rWJ.png[/img]
Made the jump to wheel-to-wheel racing by going in with a few friends for a Chumpcar ("cheap" endurance racing). We picked the SC300 because it was reliable and seemed like it was undervalued in the rulebook. It was a lot of work and I have a lot of fond memories and a lot of regrets about it. Probably the most formative car I have owned considering that it was a big source of stress. Watching how hundreds of hours of hard work can be erased by someone being careless in the span of seconds. My buddy got hit by a Nissan 300ZX going 100+ mph and we had to spend most of the year getting the car back together just for something similar to happen at our last race. I think I spent about $5000 that year to drive it for a total of 4 hours. This one hurt.
[b]2010 Sym Symba (Sep 2015 - Present)[/b]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/HS4ojvV.png[/img]
Oh hey, 2-for-1 here vehicle wise. I picked up this New Old Stock not-Honda Cub in 2015. I was itching for something to putt around the neighborhood and was missing the Honda Passport a bit. Bought it off of a couple who had a scooter shop that they closed down. I rode it around for a little bit, but it started running rough, so I parked it until Fall 2020 and got it back up and working. I still need to fiddle with the carb a bit, and I also have some other bits to see if I can make it go faster. I'll probably sell this sometime this year seeing how I didn't/don't really ride it, and my patience for messing with mechanical stuff is low these days. Same semi-automatic deal: 0 down 4 up and 101 cubic centimeters of horizontal air cooled power.
[b]2016 Mazda MX-5 Club w/ Brembo + BBS package (Oct 2015 - Present)[/b]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/nPNuuT9.png[/img]
I'm sure everyone's kind of caught onto me being into Miatas by now... Probably one of the first examples on the east coast. I've kept this car mostly stock and I finally paid it off a few months ago. My passion for cars has been dampened a lot over the years, but it's real hard to have a bad time in a Miata. I like this car and I've thought about maybe getting serious about auto racing again; however, I can't make the math work to see if the passion is still there by casually setting $10k+ on fire.
[b]2005 Chevrolet Silverado (Jan 2016 - Present)[/b]
<look up at the symba pic if you must know what a gross domestic half-ton looks like>
Bought off of a friend for $5500, financed it at 1.49% for 36 months because lmao the interest amortized over the life of the loan was $125. I picked it up because I needed something to tow the Lexus with. It's a big truck that drives like a truck. I've never washed it and it's pretty grody, but it's super useful. Everyone should have a truck.
[b]2019 Honda CB300R (Oct 2020 - Present)[/b]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/t4NC14C.png[/img]
I started window shopping real hard for another Miata or something similar to go back to the track, but I had gotten my motorcycle endorsement years prior... so this was a hedge against spending way too much money on car stuff. I've only put a few hundred miles on it, and because I bought it used... it started making worrying noises almost immediately. I need to get it ready for the spring so that I don't wind up as one of those people who buys a motorcycle, rides it for a few weekends, and then sells it on craigslist 3 years later with stuff like "I KNOW WHAT I GOT" in the body text. I plan on getting it to a mechanic soonish to check out the noise and maybe get newer tires on it.
that’s a nice bike you wound up with
@xct#16260 I‘d love to hear about how these things come together, but it’s tough to ask specifics without knowing who you work for!
I guess in general, some questions:
also @kory honda makes the honda e! not in america yet, but as far as I know they haven't stopped doing it altogether...
@deepblue really curious about the current state of american manual transmission cars, I haven't used one that was newer than like 1980!
@milo yeah, that delica sure looks like it was created by akira toriyama lol.
@phone I've never driven a sporty mazda. A friend has an RX-8, I've messed around with stationary miatas at auto shows, but I've never driven one. the clutch feels nice, that was about all I could say! I'm no race car driver but I'd sure like to just drive one around some time. Maybe when there's no pandemic (lol) I'll go round to a few dealerships and do a test drive or two.
@exodus#16520
The American cars you can get a manual transmission in these days are Mustangs, Camaros, Corvettes, and the Focus.
I highly recommend checking out a 2016+ Miata if you can wing it. On paper it doesn't seem too impressive, but it's lightweight and the torque comes on real low (like 85% of maximum torque at 2000 rpm). Very sharp handling and the steering feel is good, but some people don't like how light the electric power steering makes it. Amazing bolt-action rifleish feeling on the transmission too, just the right amount of positive clunk into each gear.
@xct#16260 I‘m wondering whether you chose to work for a Japanese auto manufacturer specifically, or whether the Japan aspect was a secondary concern. Also, how would you compare Japan’s current status in the world of auto production vs some other nations?
In my previous job, I worked with a number of different Japanese auto manufacturers as well as their parts suppliers, and I perceived that there is still a lot of pride in the industry, justifiably so. But there was also some insecurity about rising competition from certain American, European, and even Korean companies.
@exodus#16520 oh wow, I had not heard of the honda e, thx for bringing it to my attention!
Its a bit more compact than what I would be looking for, but I like the design. I really would like to get an EV, but I'm still in a bit of a holding pattern. The infrastructure is still not great (even in this relatively suburban part of NYC) and the best option seems to be Tesla, though I have misgivings about the product and the company. I'm curious to see if anyone else on the forum has experience owning or driving EVs