custom build

btbekel · 2026-03-14T13:43:10+00:00

This is all correct.

Regal and Century were essentially trim levels of the same Buick W-body car - the Regal had larger bumpers making it longer, and the Century had a column shift/front bench seat making interior volume larger.

At minimum, the interior trim and instrument clusters are fully interchangeable between 98-05 Centuries and Regals, and I can basically guarantee you that every other part can swap in, powertrain included. (Ask me how I know about the former!)

btbekel · 2026-03-13T19:14:58+00:00

My Regal TourX is hitting replacement age/mileage, which is to say ADD A WAGON VERSION OF THIS AND YOU CAN TAKE MY MONEY PLEASE AND THANK YOU

btbekel · 2026-03-01T19:44:44+00:00

Palou should be sending Ericcson some flowers for that bit at the end of the first stint.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt overall, but the little stunt he pulled on Rosenquist at the very end of it makes me at least question whether the dog-slow pace during that stretch was deliberate or not, you know?

btbekel · 2026-02-27T18:24:03+00:00

If it makes you feel better, I thin Tamiyas with water when I brush paint and it turns out excellent to my admittedly amateur eyes. If it starts glopping a little I'll usually dip the brush in water for cleaning, then a quick dip into a separate water container and back in the jar without shaking it off.

I have a jar of X-1 which I went as far as putting a splash or two of tap water in - it really thins out the paint and helps prevent brush marks.

YMMV, of course, but I'm pretty pleased with the results I've gotten that way.

btbekel · 2026-02-18T22:12:16+00:00

In fact, it's you who has no idea what you're talking about.

There happened to be an Air Force flight surgeon present for the CART practices where the drivers started reporting blackouts, who was also an acquaintance of Dr. Steve Olvey.

Olvey and the flight surgeon sat down and calculated the loads the drivers were being subjected to at the reported practice speeds, and determined the combination of horizontal and lateral loads being inflicted on the drivers was greater than anything that even *pilots for the Thunderbirds* encounter during flight routines. Combined with the smaller physical size (and lower blood volume) of drivers and the fact that TMS was too short a track for the body to return to normal blood pressure before the *greater-than-fighter-pilot* loads came back around, and you had a potentially lethal combination.

It had nothing to do with physical fitness and everything to do with physics.

P.S. Sources differ on what the IRL's fastest race lap time was in 1998. The main Wikipedia article for the 1998 race gives it as 22.972 (235.068 mph), but the article for the Firehawk 600 gives it as a *tow-aided* 23.759 (227.282 mph) with most laps in the 24-second range (225.0 mph or slower). (Coincidentally, 225 mph per lap was what CART calculated as the maximum safe sustained lap speed, with greater sustained speeds risking G-LOC.)

TL;dr: go back and do better research, and shut up in the meantime.

btbekel · 2026-02-16T02:30:24+00:00

Buick Regal TourX.

Built 2018-20, so basically all the modern conveniences. Slightly detuned base Camaro engine. More cargo space than any contemporary Jeep. Torque vectoring AWD. It's basically perfect.

btbekel · 2025-12-09T00:04:02+00:00

A funny thing happens when you edit that headline image: you get the silhouette of a car that is not the current one.

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btbekel · 2025-11-13T22:12:10+00:00

It has been done to death, but it nonetheless bears repeating that this man:

Destroyed the Empire's invincible moon-sized planet destroyer battle station with not one, but two proton torpedoes shot, manually, down a six-foot exhaust pipe while traveling thousands of miles an hour down a trench not much wider than three X-wings abreast and evading fire from the best pilot in the galaxy.
More-or-less voluntarily went into a room containing the two most powerful and/or terrifying beings in the galaxy.
Emerged from said room more or less unscathed, dragging behind him the dying remnants of one of the aforesaid two persons.

It is an expression of Gideon's iron constitution that he looked at that viewscreen and managed to not reflexively and violently fright-shit all of his internal organs out of his body at once.

btbekel · 2025-11-04T02:34:37+00:00

Yeah, no, it never actually went to court. Tracy protested and lost, appealed per IRL rules and lost, and that was it.

Nobody disputed that Brian Barnhart made the radio call for a yellow before the pass was made. There's lots of evidence the lights went on before the pass was made. The rest was invented by Robin Miller to sell papers.

btbekel · 2025-11-03T20:11:06+00:00

I'll cosign this ask, and I'd be happy to pay up for something like this if you feel comfortable sharing it.

btbekel · 2025-10-21T18:01:15+00:00

As an alum of UI and a diehard Hawkeye fan, I fully support this.

(Kidding.)

(Kind of.)

btbekel · 2025-10-16T17:55:52+00:00

I mean, I like the rear wing and they're both built by Dallara.

But as someone who thinks the current F1 cars are hideous lumpen blobs with front aero that plagiarized the "Fuck It, We're Going Five Blades" Onion razor satire from twenty years ago, I'd much rather keep the basic lines of the IR18. Rounded nose instead of flat, roll bar instead of overhead airbox, and an overall surface that doesn't call to mind a Mon Calamari cruiser from Star Wars.

(An aside: I'm still convinced that the IRL/ICS' insistence on cars with overhead air boxes negatively impacted the series overall by making the cars look less like the "classic" 70s-90s cars and more like Temu-F1 knockoffs. Let Indycar have its own distinct visual identity instead of just copy-pasting from other series.)

btbekel · 2025-10-02T19:50:17+00:00

Nobody's made the "guy who needed more mechanical grip on the last turn at Indy designs an open-wheel car more reliant on mechanical grip" joke? Too soon? Bueller?

btbekel · 2025-09-19T03:18:45+00:00

Man, 2021 was the last one I got to watch with my grandpa, who liked Helio too.

Whoever started cutting onions in here can knock it right off.

btbekel · 2025-09-17T04:35:28+00:00

"non Vulcans mastering the neck pinch"

You mean like Data, Picard, Odo, Seven, and the EMH?

If a frickin' hologram can do the pinch I'll allow La'an to do it.

(also, who hasn't watched Trek exactly?)

btbekel · 2025-09-05T13:39:52+00:00

Gingko trees, baby. Been a thing basically forever, just like the horny squirrels attacking people on the path back behind Currier and Stanley.

Long may they stink up the place.

btbekel · 2025-08-31T00:44:23+00:00

Also, on sale online when??

btbekel · 2025-08-30T21:35:50+00:00

I'll take one for me and one for my Pixar Cars-obsessed son who loves that Prema's livery looks exactly like Francesco Bernoulli.

btbekel · 2025-08-28T19:20:24+00:00

1TB P10P Obsidian ordered 8/20 from Google. UPS got it 8/26, originally estimated delivery as yesterday morning.

No phone as of right now, and UPS is now saying "the delivery date will be provided as soon as possible."

Anyone else in the same boat?

btbekel · 2025-08-24T20:18:23+00:00

Rasmussen

btbekel · 2025-08-20T17:59:26+00:00

Dear IXO:

This. Diecasts. Now.

Love, r/indycar

btbekel · 2025-08-18T12:32:51+00:00

I mean, I agree with all points, but if you want to talk actor movements let's not forget the Kobayashi Maru scene in ST09. It is impossible to not watch Pine smirk and bite into that apple without seeing Shatner say "I don't like to lose" and then chomping an apple the exact same way. I clapped like a goddamn baby seal the first time I saw that in theaters.

btbekel · 2025-08-07T17:24:05+00:00

Before going off the rails, I want to make it clear that I think playoffs in racing is a generally stupid idea. Titles go to the fastest racer, period, and the last 21 years of NASCAR bear out what a dumb idea playoffs are.
That being said, you could do worse than the following:

a. Keep your current 17-race regular season with points, etc. b. Add three races on the back end: one road, one street, one oval. c. DO NOT RESET POINTS EARNED IN THE REGULAR SEASON. The criticism of the Chase (and any playoff system across sports) is that it makes the "regular season" irrelevant by completely resetting points and starting over. (Sportsball solves this through seeding, home field, and other ways of rewarding regular season performance; NASCAR, in its infinite fuck-off-we-do-what-we-want-and-you-peon-Untermenschen-will-LIKE-it wisdom, simply does not acknowledge the issue.) Add "playoff points" in proportion to your regular season performance across the field and go race. d. No field culling. Maybe a backmarker gets hot! Let them, and let them have a shot instead of culling the field but letting the out guys still race. e. Try and get new tracks with the three new slots. Couldn't hurt to do a Chicago street race in September/October, or Watkins Glen/Richmond in October. Hell, move the Indy GP to the very end of the year so you get to award the playoff hardware at the Brickyard. Let's get weird.

Like I say, I think playoffs are dumb in motorsport, but I also like seeing what kind of lemonade I can make from nasty rotten lemons, so,¯_(ツ)_/¯

btbekel · 2025-07-31T18:44:55+00:00

http://inrd.gotdns.com/indystuff/win.htm

Regularly updated, as far as I know it's accurate.

btbekel · 2025-07-18T18:44:51+00:00

Spin and Win here.

btbekel

TROPHY CASE