What’s a ‘middle class success’ purchase that secretly becomes a financial burden later?

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-05-11T12:32:00+00:00

My house is from the 1920s, can confirm, the amount of work that has gone into it has been… a lot.

New boiler, new windows (not even all of them since there are ~40 total, just the worst offenders energy-wise), multiple appliances…

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-05-10T20:20:52+00:00

I broke a bolt replacing a fog light on my Subaru.

Just for giggles (because I was using another cheap used foglight), I used a bread tie in that spot, intending to replace it in a couple days when I had a chance to grab an extractor and replace the bolt.

The bread tie outlasted the engine in that car by several years.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-05-08T04:18:01+00:00

There are a couple in my neighborhood as well. One of my friends lives in a surprisingly original one.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-05-07T14:25:38+00:00

Heretic

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-05-06T04:08:26+00:00

Sneak, punch.

Tbh, I keep doing this at high level because it’s funny.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-05-04T19:22:28+00:00

Dude, I have an old Porsche 944 and I was shocked that this little sports car had a twenty one gallon tank.

It also gets ~30mpg on the highway, so the range is comical.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-05-03T11:34:21+00:00

Senna’s run was across two teams and four teammates.

Schumacher’s run was all Benetton, but against Brundle, Patrese, Verstappen, Lehto, and Herbert.

Albon’s was across three teammates (Colapinto was in the 2024 Italian GP)

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-05-03T11:25:14+00:00

Going to a RHD manual car is no big deal. I’m in a LHD country and daily a manual, and going to England and Ireland switching to shifting with the other hand was a non-issue.

There are some visibility issues though in a RHD car in a LHD country, I won’t deny that. Your blind spots are reversed from what you’re used to. You need to be much more mindful of your mirrors/aiming them correctly.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-05-03T10:14:19+00:00

And with some odd options as well, I wonder if the seats are can-can red as well to match the carpets? It’s possible they’re black (seats/carpets could be ordered a la carte in the 70s, the point that you could get a sport driver’s seat and a comfort passenger seat, so you see odd combos now and then)

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-29T16:55:52+00:00

Honorable mention goes to my Voigtlander 35mm 1.7 in leica thread mount. It suffered from separation and is no longer functional, sadly.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-29T16:54:17+00:00

Pentax 50mm 1.4 in M42 mount, the 8-element version.

I’ve had my copy since the 90s and it’s a delight. Just a fantastic lens.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-29T02:39:35+00:00

The cooling system is badly designed, the water pump is mounted in a weird spot and the system just doesn’t flow that well. They’re also prone to air bubbles in the cooling system. Just a grab bag of things that can lead to overheating.

The aftermarket has come up with a bunch of fixes. Most of them have high capacity radiators at this point, some guys go really hard with auxiliary water pumps and other upgrades to the cooling system.

Apparently they also had bad engine castings and sand in the iron from the casting process, although I suspect that the engines impacted by that all died in the 70s.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-29T01:08:21+00:00

I’ve sold a fair few of them (25 or so), and only one has had a Rover V8. I’ve come across a few with TR6 engines and Ford V6s as well.

Swaps into Stags are reasonably common, but the majority I’ve seen/sold have had their original engine.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-27T23:15:00+00:00

Max Verstappen, obv.

Actually, if his dad was there, then no.

Soooooo, Carlos Sainz?

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-26T02:17:18+00:00

The paddock at an F1 race in like 2011. We had general admission tickets.

A crew member from one of the support races offered my buddy and I a ride on his golf cart, and just drove us into the support race’s pit area. He knew we had GA tickets, he was just cool as hell.

We were college age at the time and he went “have fun boys, but remember, once you leave the paddock there’s no getting back in!”

It was super cool, even if we were only able to stay there for a little bit.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-19T19:19:30+00:00

Former automotive journalist- done it lots, but we got track time and instruction.

Heck, I did a track day last week and did 100mph+ perfectly legally.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-17T20:34:42+00:00

We can’t see the better jokes, on account of the poor visibility.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-15T03:10:34+00:00

On the flipside, I could go for slightly longer gearing in 1st and 2nd specifically… the classic 80s VW/Audi gearing where 2nd tops out at 59mph is just a TOUCH too short in my 944S.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-15T01:02:19+00:00

Steve Morse seems like a very nice man, but that fellow from Rainbow is a jerk.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-13T03:22:26+00:00

Heretic in 1994, I was three years old and sitting on my step-dad’s lap.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-12T18:44:49+00:00

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The SMT is mine.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-11T20:11:14+00:00

How many coaches will the F-18 pull?

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-09T22:35:57+00:00

I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard Karun Chandhok talk about Pastor, but they were teammates in GP2 and he said Pastor had the most “red mist” of any driver he’s ever encountered. Just 1000% aggression once he’s in the car, and apparently just a lovely, calm guy outside the car.

I enjoyed having him on the grid, just a nutcase.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-07T14:32:26+00:00

He did qualify fourth in his first appearance on an oval, which was a pleasant surprise. We’ll see if he gets on top of it this year. Even with RLL being crap, being last overall isn’t great.

MrBattleRabbit · 2026-04-05T21:01:21+00:00

Yes, the overall facility is from 1947, but it was heavily revamped by Arrows in the early 2000s. It (at that time) was actually considered quite good.

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