TomF

That's an idea many other cars already have (and it's a damn good one). And yes, pretty much every car has G-sensors these days, if only for the black-box accident recorders. A 3-axis G-sensor and 3-axis rotation sensor are pennies right now thanks to cell phone tech.

My other stupid car is a GT-R, and that's about as techno-filled as you can get at the moment. Driving it is extremely fun because it's extremely safe - there is absolutely no reason not to pound on the pedals and turn the wheel as hard as you like - you won't spin or blow a clutch. About the only thing you can seriously cock up is to have too much speed into a corner, and then the ABS will cook the tires, you'll run wide in a predictable way while the diff does its best to slowly get you around the corner. Of course, being safe doesn't mean you're fast - it is extremely easy to get this heavy car out of shape, and then you lurch from corner to corner burning tires, pads and fuel, feeling fast but just getting in the way of all the Miatas and E30s. So while it is a completely different driving experience to the Seven, there is still a lot of skill involved in balancing the car's massive performance envelope against the limits of physics and materials science. The other skill - and I suspect this crowd will think this is a completely pointless one - is figuring out how to tell the computer what you want it to do. The computer isn't a mind reader - it can only guess from your inputs what you're up to. The difference between "I want a touch more oversteer" and "oh shit I forgot this corner tightens half-way through" is a subtle one, but they want the power at different ends of the car. Learning how to tell the computer which it is through the controls available to you is interesting, and it's something I'm still learning. I guess as a computer programmer, that sort of black-box reverse engineering is fun in a way many people won't find at all entertaining. But of course that's why I have both cars. The contrast is fascinating. It's hard to say which I enjoy more. I think I understand the Seven better, and when you get it right, you really feel it in your gut. The GT-R is less physical and more cerebral - there are more hidden variables in play behind the scenes. But keep it calm and controlled, let the computer read your mind, and the magic torque vectoring appears and suddenly the corners don't seem as bendy as they used to.

Washington State is phasing out emissions tests, dropping them entirely by 2020. They say the air quality has improved hugely, car makers are now adopting such strict standards (largely under pressure from CA, mind) that it's no longer worth the administration costs of testing. Not that the Zetec has ever had any emissions problems (I have a full-length exhaust and cat), but every time I've gone for a check they've screwed up the paperwork in one way or another and it takes multiple phone calls to sort out. The MOT in the UK is very stringent. They check for a wide range of mechanical and electrical problems and any rust on the chassis will fail you. I had an R33 Skyline in the UK and we had a lot of hassle because they wanted to see the rear-wheel-steer working. It took a lot to persuade them it only kicked in at >40mph and >0.5g cornering - it's not there to make parking easier!

Very happy being in a household where the slowest, most practical car we own (by quite a margin) is a Subaru WRX.

From people I've talked to who have driven both, the Atom is much like an old-style 911 - the heavy tail makes it exciting but a bit twitchy on the limit. Evo has preferred the Cayman to the 911 for some time - they say the inherent stability means you can drive it up to and beyond the limit without being quite so paranoid. And I suspect the same applies here - we all know how easy and fun it is to step a Seven's tail out because it comes back so readily.

VAT is 20% for everything except things like food. And yes, it's included in the quoted price, as opposed to the US where they quote the pre-tax price.

For cars you basically just change the currency symbol from a £ to a $.

Great result for us Chapmaniacs, obviously. But the big story - Subaru really need to build something like that version of the car. I looked up the prices - £7.5k for the whole package (£3.5k for the supercharger, £2.8k for the brakes, and all the other stuff is pretty cheap). So you can get that for £35k? Bargain!

I have a Seven SV with the very nice Zetec 2.0 SVT in it. But I keep getting rusty plugs leading to lumpy idles and the other day I lost a cylinder altogether (sounded like a Harley!). The car's a daily driver, and I do drive it in the rain, and obviously the engine bay gets pretty damp when that happens. But I keep it in a garage, and I was assuming any water on the engine would evaporate off pretty quickly. The problem seems to be the plugs sit in a little trough (or rather, a bath!) under the cam cover. Of course the leads have big insulating rubber jobbies to close that off, but if the water does get past that, it can't get out again, and it can't easily evaporate off. So the plugs rust. I found a thread with some pictures of the same thing, though he's got it much worse, and it's from a completely different cause: http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/16039-water-in-plug-ports-issue-with-pictures/ There are little holes for a cover that is normally fitted in the original Ford, but the cover's too big to fit under the hood of the Seven. I could have one made I guess. I'm also not super convinced a cover's going to help that much - the other worry is that it's not direct water but condensation - and a cover won't stop that. This ringing any bells with folks?

...and still bench-pressed an SUV! Don't make him angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

Washington State Patrol do a similar thing. The officer asked politely about the car just out of interest, but didn't inspect it in any meaningful way, just wanted to check the VINs (which was a real pig to do - the one on the engine block can be hard to find, and I didn't know where it was). Certainly didn't care about safety or emissions or lights or the fact there's no front number plate or any of that stuff.

I've also heard of people using industrial-strength velcro to hold the fenders on.

#2 - that is so elegant - like a Feynman Diagram. Maybe it's a Chapman Diagram?

Is that a snozzle or are you just pleased to see me?

Rahul in post #7 already mentioned us, but here's picture of the ladies in my life: http://eelpi.gotdns.org/car_pics/seven_gtr_louise.jpg The wife and I are fairly regular visitors to the track and we always take both and drive whichever. I've had some really dodgy comments though. One conversation went something like this: "Hey - this yours? Nice." "Both these are." (pointing to GT-R and Seven) "You brought two cars?" "One for me, one for the wife." "You let your wife drive your cars?" (uh-oh - sensing trouble here) "What? They're OUR cars, WE drive them." "Oh. Well, I guess the GT-R has all the traction control stuff - she should be fairly safe in that." "She is driving the Seven today." ...and then I turned my back on him before I said something really rude.

Where did that pesky Seven go? http://eelpi.gotdns.org/car_pics/seven_gtr_hide.jpg Oh there it is! http://eelpi.gotdns.org/car_pics/seven_gtr_seek.jpg