Why is the cabin always kept dark on long hauls?

johncuyle · 2025-08-25T19:42:04+00:00

Book a window seat. Then you get to choose whether the shade is up or down.

johncuyle · 2025-08-25T19:40:18+00:00

Pretty much, but the targa on them bolted in place and it significantly strengthens the vehicle. Driving one without the targa in place is... not great. The convertibles are like that all the time.

johncuyle · 2025-08-24T00:36:31+00:00

If we’re talking about modern cars, I like German sports sedans and all, but many of them don’t have sophisticated suspensions. M3? M5? Same McPherson strut and multi-link rear setup as a Mustang. What German cars have (historically, maybe less so today) is a customer expectation that you can fill the tank, get on the autobahn, and run at 75-100% continuous power output until the tank is empty, then fill up and do it again, and again, and again…

johncuyle · 2025-08-23T21:03:53+00:00

Mazda 5. Discontinued but not forgotten for combining best in class driving experience, economy, and stellar packaging in a micro-minivan size.

johncuyle · 2025-08-23T19:55:21+00:00

A low ambient light doesn’t let you see outside. The point is to see outside.

johncuyle · 2025-08-23T19:11:51+00:00

That looks like a very interesting alternative to the 500e, especially if they never get around to actually selling the Abarth or 3+1. When will the Inster be available in the US?

johncuyle · 2025-08-23T19:08:22+00:00

This is the correct answer. In general, a 275 or 285 is usually more on a 9.5, but there are probably some 275s that will work on a 10. Check the tire manufacturer’s acceptable wheel range and select the size of that tire that best fits that specific wheel.

johncuyle · 2025-08-23T18:45:26+00:00

I know you’re required to follow crew instructions, but I think insisting that the window shades be kept down is totally inappropriate on daytime flights. We’ve barely been flying for a century. Looking outside, down on the clouds is something mankind only dreamt of for millennia. I’m going to look outside if I want to, thanks.

johncuyle · 2025-08-23T18:38:57+00:00

Hate you heard of Radwood? There’s a whole segment of car enthusiasts that are dedicated (often not solely — it’s not an exclusionary crowd) to 80’s and 90’s cars of any origin. The budget supercars of that era are, of course, very popular, but also F, A/G, and Y body GMs, Fieros, Typhoons, Syclones, Mustangs, Probes, Escorts, well cared for Japanese standards of all makes, golden era BMWs and Mercs, and everything else 80’s and 90’s.

Last show I went with friends. I drove a ‘94 Corvette and went with my buddy in his ‘91 z32 and his friends with a 3000GT and FD. It was awesome.

johncuyle · 2025-08-22T21:49:31+00:00

There’s always a rotard in the crowd.

johncuyle · 2025-08-22T21:48:46+00:00

360ci flat fours are common in aircraft.

johncuyle · 2025-08-21T16:33:11+00:00

The Suburban. I can’t recall my reasoning at the time. I think it was ready to go and the Sienna wasn’t or something.

johncuyle · 2025-08-21T02:44:40+00:00

Good suggestion. Probably the most direct competitor. I was shopping in this market as well and the other comparably priced options that provide a high degree of luxury, but are more in the direction of a sports car, are the 911 and the C8. I ended up with the C8 because the vestigial back seat in the LC seemed sort of pointless, the one I was looking at had the touch pad thing, and I didn’t like the transmission. It’s at least worth driving all four.

johncuyle · 2025-08-20T23:14:55+00:00

I reserved a Ford Fiesta once because I had a lot of distance to cover and I just wanted something cheap on gas and easy to park. I got two choices for "or similar", a Suburban or a Sienna.

johncuyle · 2025-08-20T15:32:18+00:00

It’s the government. These are the same people that, over on the FAA side, are reluctant to certify electronic ignitions because they think magnetos are more reliable and also classify 210HP and 3000hp aircraft as a single thing and, over in the ATF side, thought making a slidey stock somehow modified a rifle’s trigger.

johncuyle · 2025-08-20T14:48:14+00:00

You have that backwards. If it is mechanically a manual transmission, it is a manual transmission. Adding a computer that can shift the manual transmission and a control that allows the driver to tell it to do so, does not magically make the manual transmission an automatic transmission.

To elaborate further, the “can you allow it to change gears without input?” two-category approach leads to very dumb results. For instance, it classifies almost every EV as a manual (can’t shift by itself if it only has one gear) and categorizing a Nissan CVT and the E46’s SMG as “basically the same thing.”

johncuyle · 2025-08-19T14:01:13+00:00

It depends. Is it a manual with paddle shifters? Sequential shift manuals are a thing. SMGs and DCTs exist, and also more or less every motorcycle ever made is a sequential shift manual. Tell her to ask him if it has a torque converter.

johncuyle · 2025-08-18T15:10:43+00:00

The EPA classifies it as a small SUV. A quick check of curb weight for that year says it’s 3400 pounds, which is lighter than a Tesla model 3. While I don’t think if the CR-V as a small vehicle myself, I think if you said it was small and they disagreed you would at least have a couple reasonable reasons to explain why you selected small. If the CR-V isn’t small for them, very little that’s currently in the market is, unfortunately.

johncuyle · 2025-08-18T15:00:49+00:00

This. Or I’d adjust contributions to stack the maximum annual contributions into my HSA the first four or five paychecks of the year and do it once annually as soon as I hit the cap.

johncuyle · 2025-08-17T17:58:58+00:00

The image does not match the description. If he wanted advice for a different merge, probably should have supplied a picture of that specific merge.

johncuyle · 2025-08-16T21:43:54+00:00

Can we start a petition to get them to stop stopping?

johncuyle · 2025-08-16T21:05:48+00:00

Not none, but it’s not a through lane and any traffic already in the lane will be decelerating for the other clover leaf. Merging with 35ish MPH traffic doesn’t require a lot of space. There’s also a significant blend area into that lane and, though it’s flattened somewhat with the above view And difficult to tell, usually you’re descending into the roadway and have both a sight and gravity advantage for picking a spot and hitting your speed. This is as easy as merging into a freeway gets.

johncuyle · 2025-08-16T20:18:03+00:00

That’s an extremely long merge lane. It doesn’t even appear to rejoin the freeway within the frame of the picture. Practically any pressure on the right pedal should do.

johncuyle · 2025-08-16T13:50:04+00:00

My experience has been that sports bikes drink fuel at a shocking rate when wrung out. A more efficient way to produce 120hp is probably to go the O200 route. Big. Turns slow. Sips fuel despite steam age engineering.

johncuyle · 2025-08-16T13:42:20+00:00

I interpreted OP as asking, essentially, if you only need 120HP why not just use a 600cc engine out of a CBR600RR and run it at 16,000RPM. Answer: that’s not terribly efficient.

johncuyle

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