Car Chat

[CaminoRacer]

Love that car. Saw it in person back in May and it's absolutely stunning. The leather matches the wheels nicely

[Laconian]

What does a track day with someone else's car typically cost? I'd like to try more track driving but I don't want to put the RF at risk.

[MrH]

At the Nurburgring, it's $Texas.

[giant_mtb]

Why are they using a multimeter on a brake caliper?

[Laconian]

0 volts, no wai

[Soup DeVille]

Why are they using a multimeter on a brake caliper?

Or on the insulated jacket of a control cable? Or anywhere in those examples? (At least they're near electricity in some pictures)

Now, different leads for those have thermocouples which can be used as contact thermometers, but that's not what that is.

[68_427]

What does a track day with someone else's car typically cost? I'd like to try more track driving but I don't want to put the RF at risk.

The local shop to me has spec Miatas they rent out for Track days, and are currently Audi V8 swapping a first gen Boxster to rent out as well.  No idea on cost so I'm of no help.

[MexicoCityM3]

What does a track day with someone else's car typically cost? I'd like to try more track driving but I don't want to put the RF at risk.

What does a track day with someone else's car typically cost? I'd like to try more track driving but I don't want to put the RF at risk.

Prices vary a lot but it is expensive. I think you'd be better off simply getting track insurance for the RF.

[68_427]

[MexicoCityM3]

On your next trip to Europe get to the Nürburgring. You can rent a track car for around 500-700 Euros for the day.

[12,000 RPM]

Saw a guy in a legalized JDM Toyota... Soarer? I thought it was a Nissan and when the guy corrected me I blurted out "those JDM hardtop sedans all look the same" It was really cool though, I regret saying that

[Soup DeVille]

Saw a guy in a legalized JDM Toyota... Soarer? I thought it was a Nissan and when the guy corrected me I blurted out "those JDM hardtop sedans all look the same" It was really cool though, I regret saying that

Yep. The Toyota Soarer was what eventually arrived here as the Lexus SC300.

[12,000 RPM]

Sorry, not Soarer... Mark II. Wow, I used to know these things.

[Soup DeVille]

Sorry, not Soarer... Mark II. Wow, I used to know these things.

Well, that one is pretty forgettable.

Hardly worth the effort I'd think.

[12,000 RPM]

But JDM!

[FoMoJo]

A new player in the EV field...http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/mobility/2017/09/26/dyson-build-electric-car/106017150/

Dyson wants to build 'radically different' car by 2020

Dyson Ltd., best-known as a manufacturer of vacuum cleaners, hand driers and air filters, will build an electric car by 2020, founder James Dyson said Tuesday.

The company is investing one billion pounds ($1.34 billion) to develop the car, plus the same sum to create solid-state batteries to power it, Dyson said. These investments will dwarf money the company is spending on research and development for its vacuums and air filters.

Dyson is joining a crowded field, with manufacturers from Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG to Toyota Motor Corp. and Elon Musk's Tesla Inc. all competing to popularize electric vehicles. While most of these companies are using lithium-ion batteries in their current models, Dyson said its car would use solid-state batteries that are smaller, more efficient, easier to charge and potentially easier to recycle. Toyota is also working on solid-state batteries and said earlier this year it hopes to have them in electric vehicles by the early 2020s.

Dyson said his electric car would be "radically different" than those being designed by other car makers, including Tesla. "There's no point doing something that looks like everyone else's," he said. "It is not a sports car and not a very cheap car."

He said he hopes the vehicle will be just the first of a line of electric vehicles from Dyson and predicted that within a few years electric cars would be the largest source of revenue for the company, eclipsing its existing products.

Dyson has been investing in battery technology for several years. In October 2015, it bought a startup called Sakti3 for $90 million. TheAnn Arbor, Michigan-based firm had claimed major breakthroughs in the design of solid-state batteries. But these were disputed by other battery researchers, and in April Dyson said it was abandoning its agreement to license Sakti3's patented battery technology from the University of Michigan, which had spun out the company.


Dyson said Tuesday that his company now has two competing solid-state battery development groups: Sakti3 and a separate team working on a different approach. The U.K. government has given Dyson a 16 million-pound grant to help it do battery research.

Dyson said the company already has 400 engineers dedicated to its car project, which has been working in secret for the past two-and-a-half years. In the past year, the company has made a number of prominent hires from Aston Martin and Tesla. Dyson employs about 4,000 in the U.K.

The founder said Dyson was going public with its project now — even though it does not expect to be able to deliver a car to its first customers until 2020 or early 2021 — because secrecy around the project was constraining its ability to do deals with auto parts suppliers for the new car and also hampering recruiting.

One of the biggest impediments to electric car adoption has been the lack of charging infrastructure, and some manufacturers including Tesla are building station networks. But Dyson said his company did not have enough money to build its own charging network as well as the cars and the batteries.

"Tesla has $5 billion, I don't have that kind of money," he said. He said he hoped the U.K. government would provide money to help subsidize the installation of 21 kilowatt plug points in people's homes, allowing them to rapidly charge an electric vehicle in their own garage. Today, only a handful of homes have these hook-ups.

While design work for Dyson's car will be at Hullavington Airfield, a former training site for Britain's Royal Air Force in Wiltshire, England, battery and car manufacturing facilities will likely be in Asia, the company said. Dyson currently makes products in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.

"We will make it wherever it is best to make it," Dyson said of the car. The largest market for the new electric cars will be in "the Far East" and this argues for putting the manufacturing facilities there too, he added.

[MX793]

Will it use one of their patented "digital" motors?

[giant_mtb]

It'll have PWM control at 3200Hz square wave to annoy the ever living shit out of you.

[FoMoJo]

It'll have PWM control at 3200Hz square wave to annoy the ever living shit out of you.

You have to admit that it really sucks.

[Payman]

Yeah, fuck technology.


https://jalopnik.com/tesla-says-model-x-automatic-door-getting-ripped-off-by-1818779882

[CaminoRacer]

Sad day when we need automatic doors. I understand tailgates that open when you wave your foot under the bumper - lots of times your hands are full with grocery bags and it makes it hard to open the hatch. But the driver's door? C'mon.

[Soup DeVille]

Dyson, eh?

Well, we didn't need another con man, but I don't suppose it'll hurt much either.

[Soup DeVille]

Yeah, fuck technology.


https://jalopnik.com/tesla-says-model-x-automatic-door-getting-ripped-off-by-1818779882

Not only that, but there have been problems with them not opening when the car is on fire, or opening on their own at 65 MPH.

http://www.carbuzz.com/m/Article.aspx?Id=39647

[12,000 RPM]

Not only that, but there have been problems with them not opening when the car is on fire, or opening on their own at 65 MPH.

http://www.carbuzz.com/m/Article.aspx?Id=39647

What is the big deal? Burn wards have never been more advanced and you should have your seatbelt on on the highway anyway *r0tor shrug*

[AutobahnSHO]

Rode in a 2008 Liberty the other day. Seems adequate, although cargo floor behind the rear seats seems like it's up at my waist. Super high.

[68_427]

But JDM!

my favorite gen:











done spamming for now

[12,000 RPM]

People

Buddy of mine came out karting with us.... there were 4 of us, he was the slowest by like 4 seconds. I saw him yesterday, he's gonna drop 20K to supercharge his Challenger SRT8

[MX793]

People

Buddy of mine came out karting with us.... there were 4 of us, he was the slowest by like 4 seconds. I saw him yesterday, he's gonna drop 20K to supercharge his Challenger SRT8

Karting is about corner speed.  Challengers are about straight line speed.

[giant_mtb]

People

Buddy of mine came out karting with us.... there were 4 of us, he was the slowest by like 4 seconds. I saw him yesterday, he's gonna drop 20K to supercharge his Challenger SRT8

Yes, because unless you're the fastest karter in your friend group, you're not allowed to mod your street car. 

[CaminoRacer]

20k is a butt ton though