Lets talk about cars/motorsports

Spyker was never bankrupt... for now.

Still can't turn corners — and too big for our roads, in any case.

Well that's Europe's fault for not accommodating our American land yachts.

Neither can a Limo, doesn't make em less comfortable

Jaguar C-X75 for SPECTRE's villain confirmed.

Excellent. <steeples fingers> Some traditions are worth maintaining.

Guys, can I ask a story-related question?

Yeah sure, this thread is slow as balls anyway.

Anything would be welcome

Cool.

Okay so, I'm working on this story featuring Japanese mountain pass racers.

And one of the main characters, specifically the uphill racer, is a super rich kid.

And I'm wondering if I should have her use a fancy car.

Keep in mind that the other racers will use older Japanese cars, due to the fact that they aren't wealthy.

edited 14th Feb '15 9:55:19 PM by Rosvo1

If you want her to look like a stereotypical rich kid, you put her in a 2015/2016 model with all the bells and whistles.

If you want them to look like they've got money but also know what they're doing, they could easily have an older car that's pristine and fixed up nice.

I don't know much about mountain racing though so I can't say much more than that.

EDIT- looked into it a bit more. OK, unless you want them to make a fool of themselves, do not give them an American car at all. They're not meant to do S turns at high speed. Or at all really.

edited 14th Feb '15 10:04:27 PM by Joesolo

Yeah, mountain pass courses are pretty technical.

Here's a map of Akagi from Initial D.

...Alright I gotta go watch some of that.

Give her the latest Nissan GT-R I guess?

Then you can have the other drivers er, drive mostly cars from the 1990s ('95 Impreza WRX STI, '95 Integra Type R, '96 Sylvia S14, '93 RX-7 FD, '95 Eclipse, '94 Celica GT-Four, etc.).

edited 14th Feb '15 10:33:30 PM by entropy13

Not exactly, the C6 and later Corvettes actually handle pretty well. And they're about the size of a Porsche 911 as well.

But they're not exactly common in Japan.

Yanase does import them to Japan.

edited 15th Feb '15 12:19:22 AM by Rosvo1

I know, but as said, even a "rich" Japanese person would be extremely unlikely to own one of those, especially for mountain racing.

Well, your story dude. You want the chick to have a vette, give her a vette. It's certainly got the horsepower. and the 2015s are BEAUTIFUL.

edited 15th Feb '15 12:30:41 AM by Joesolo

I'm not saying that.

Eh?

Jaguars for bad guys.

Question: One of my wipers is currently having serious motivation issues and will only swipes halfway or not at all.

Is that a thing any half-wits can fix themselves or I should get a mechanic?

It looks like it is functional but it doesn't have enough 'strength' to push all the way up or is otherwise blocked by ice (we have a bit of that now).

On an unrelated note, I also would like some mechanical advice: my clutch is slipping and I have a replacement date booked with a garage, but that's still a couple of weeks away. Should I try and expedite it? The clutch going whilst I'm on a dual carriageway is not a particularly appealing prospect.

So I'm guessing that Inspector Morse's Mark 2 was the exception, rather than the rule.

edited 15th Feb '15 9:55:54 AM by Deadbeatloser22

@mark- Generally you're not supposed to use the wiper to move ice. You scrape it off the windshield before you start driving. You're putting a lot of stress on the wiper's motor moving anything more than water or snow.

If it's only going halfway without anything extra on there, then there is a problem. I've never had to change one myself, but going by ehow, it's not a hard thing to do.

@pagad-Can't give any real input, don't know manuals. If it's only two weeks I'd say just be careful and stick it out, unless you're really concerned.

edited 15th Feb '15 10:19:00 AM by Joesolo

@ Marc: Are you sure it's not a wiper motor problem?

@ deadbeat: And Ian Ogilvy's XJS in Return of The Saint?

edited 15th Feb '15 2:26:45 PM by Greenmantle