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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   3041 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 21, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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This is why the only current vehicles I can stomach are full size pickups.

A while back when I was cutting firewood on a semi-regular basis and regularly overloading an early 90s Ranger, I found a halfway decent deal on a 2001 Dodge three-quarter ton with 5sp manual and 5.9 Cummins. Great hauler, great tank range (I've road tripped a fair bit of Mexico in it), sounds great for about half an hour, generally very cool. On the other hand, everything that isn't the motor has a remarkable tendency to require involved or expensive repairs, it's challenging to park on less than about 40 acres, loud enough inside that listening to music is just about doable but podcasts are right out, expensive to operate, and honestly kind of a pig offroad because of the weight and turning radius. I don't cut firewood anymore, and it would probably be easier to carry motorcycles in something with a lower bed, but I also don't want to sell it because I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to buy something like it again. Alas.

Stylish big, powerful, kind of useless cars are now, sadly, purely a rich man's novelty item

Verging on CW, but see https://www.avoidablecontact.com/p/brief-notes-on-the-meaning-of-the

they envisioned a future where you commuted to an open-plan office via a battery-powered penalty box while they blasted past with the frenetic mechanical symphony of a 9,000-rpm V-16.

I don't understand. How are they going to blast past when the average speed on the freeway is 20mph?

Love the Bugatti link.

This caught my eye:

I can’t see how they’re making money at that price and volume — presumably the platform will be used for several additional vehicles, because the total revenue of the Tourbillon won’t exceed a billion dollars.

In venture capital tech investing, a billion dollar company (enterprise value, not revenue) is known as a "unicorn" and is the indisputable marker of a fantastically successful investment. Anything over $100m is good, albeit a little ... pedestrian. It is intriguing to me that ultra high end car manufacturers (Bugatti, Lamborghini) may be thinking in terms of raw dollars and cents in the same way.

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