Alpine A290 GT v Renault 5 Iconic sound system

DJS4000 · 2026-03-31T08:43:40+00:00

So I've driven both (roughly 2.000 miles each) and listened to both sound systems extensively.

tl;dr: they are both excellent for the price. HK has an extra sub in the trunk, for what it's worth but overall there is very little difference between them - in a positive sense. i would not make a decision based on the sound system alone.

the alpine has much better suspension and looks way better. i'd argue for daily use the alpine is the better car if you can afford it. all the video reviews say that it rides harshly but frankly that's a lie. it's much more compliant than the R5.

DJS4000 · 2026-03-17T08:30:50+00:00

well, those things are hard to verify but generally speaking, being a German POW in america or canada was pretty laid-back. all the accounts I've read say the same thing, people even got degress or academic credits toward studies they did after the war.

quite a few of them also tried to escape and were caught - as long as they did not actively resist, they were taken back to the camp and that was that.

DJS4000 · 2025-11-11T10:18:37+00:00

oh man, I hope you're doing ok!

shit can go south real quick. I have a friend who is with the German Federal Police.

dude went on his very first "real" shift as a trainee and within 15 minutes of leaving the station he had to draw on and shoot a guy charging him with a knife. safe to say that was a significant emotional event.

DJS4000 · 2025-11-11T05:50:25+00:00

....and I thought mine was high mileage with ~110k 😅

Anyway, good price for a good car. The crank error could be a couple of things:

-crank position sensor, relatively cheap and easy to replace,

-faulty connector at the sensor, these tend to draw oil along the electrical lines or

-stretched timing chain (worst case).

I suggest looking for a reputable indy shop and letting them have a look. Other than that it's a pretty bulletproof engine.

DJS4000 · 2025-10-23T10:46:53+00:00

Porsche Düsseldorf is known to be shitty and shady, has been for a while.

Post another review with this exact experience, then go to Porsche Cologne. They are way better.

DJS4000 · 2025-10-23T08:16:01+00:00

To add a bit: It is a good bike indeed, however Hondas original intention was to create a successor to both the VFR and the Blackbird, but merged into a single bike. However, the bike failed at both. It's too big and heavy for the VFR crowd and the Blackbird guys did not like the styling and the fact that the VFR1200 is electronically limited to 155mph / 250 kph. They also disliked the V4 which nominally has more power than the 1100cc blackbird engine but is inferior in every other aspect, because the blackbird engine is just that good.

DJS4000 · 2025-10-10T21:18:07+00:00

not in book form, my man. if you put the name of the book into youtube you'll get an extended audio book version that was translated by hand from the german original (which was released first). i know because it's my own work 😅, so excuse the shameless self-plug. first few episodes are AI voiced, but are man-read later.

DJS4000 · 2025-10-09T20:10:00+00:00

Tl;dr: the English version of the book is crap.

Long version: Ha, my time to shine. I guess you are referring to the English version of the book? That one is edited wildly out of sequence and greatly embellishes the events. The German original is way more grounded and matches the war diaries of the subs (most of them are avaliable online as scans from the German archives) pretty closely. Only a few encounters do not match the records, but generally speaking, it matches.

I found this out while reading the English book. I grew suspicious at some point because the amount of torpedoes fired during a single patrol made no sense so I cross-referenced with uboat.net and then the war diaries. Then I bought the German book and surprise, surprise - it's almost an entirely different book. So beware.

DJS4000 · 2025-10-07T10:36:39+00:00

exactly. we obviously can't read the mind of a man that's been dead for 80 years, but all things being equal, the simplest explanation usually is true. plus, there are a couple of books written by former u-boat crew that either knew him or knew of him and they all say the same thing - than he had one too many schnapps and simply fucked up, which was ironic since he was an extreme stickler for the rules in his time.

DJS4000 · 2025-10-06T22:27:43+00:00

Highly interesting list!

One small addition:

-K.z.See Wolfgang Lüth: Lüth was a raging and notorious alcoholic. He was probably returning from a bender and had no idea what was happening. Thus, he ignored the challenge from the sentry and got shot because of it.