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This weekend, in the span of minutes from one another, I spied an orange 1976 Firebird Formula in the Lowes parking lot. It looked better from a distance, but it was clearly road worthy. And then a few minutes later I saw a perfectly pristine white 1987 (or 88) Fiero Formula. And it's not like these are cars you see every day anymore. What a weird coincidence, two cars Pontiac gave the Formula trim to. Both equally awesome and horrible at the same time.
Not saying going back 40 to 50 years is a next car goal, but it certainly creates an itch that wants to be scratched.
I completely understand. I often do the same, then realize one of those cars that make me feel all warm inside make no sense for me today.
Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days....
Hey folks - dipping back in for a day from crazy work schedule.
So some of you know my wife just got a 2024 Audi Q5. Apparently the smart cruise on those is LIDAR based rather than radar, and finicky to calibrate - we had the dealer do it twice and it re-failed within a week. This last time they got Audi engineering to weigh in and turns out the calibration board for the sensors was out of spec, so hopefully that's fixed now. Otherwise a really nice car.
Content: During this time they gave her a 2024 A3 loaner. Pretty sure it was FWD and not Quattro. Same 2.0T pushing ~200 HP as her Q5. Wife didn't want to drive the sedan so I got it for the week... it's nicely zippy. Handled pretty well although the front suspension stiffened up over expansion joints and potholes a little too much - more so than my G37 on Nismo springs and Koni yellows. But otherwise, a fun car. If I have to give up the stick, this might be an option.
Then I got to drive an RS3. Holy F'ing *****. THAT car is amazing. But a little uncomfortable. Wonder if you can tune up the S3 to RS levels...
Speaking of the wife's Q5... we almost hit a deer last weekend. (missed it, damn thing jumped out of the ditch at windshield height...)
So now I've got my first approved mod for it: It needs grabbier brakes. For those dealer-adjacent folks, is there an Audi RennSport or similar line of basically OEM performance options? I just want better pads, not to put the bigger kit from the SQ5 on it.
Z1 claims 11whp and 13wtq. And the engine bay still looks OEM+.
I always thought the 5AT in those cars (his is a 6MT) was more responsive than our 7AT as well. It's a light car, so the powerband of the VQ35 and chassis seem to respond well together. Our G37s are faster, but the 350s/G35s felt quick.
It feels like it's brand new off the show room floor, someone really babied it since it was still on original tires. I was expecting the transmission to be quite notchy (common on early Z/G cars) but it has to be the smoothest one I have driven.
He's went through all the fluid now, new Michelins, installed a Greddy SE axle back back and took it into the dealer for the fuel filler hose recall. Plenum spacer and other goodies planned for the future.
Speaking of the wife's Q5... we almost hit a deer last weekend. (missed it, damn thing jumped out of the ditch at windshield height...)
So now I've got my first approved mod for it: It needs grabbier brakes. For those dealer-adjacent folks, is there an Audi RennSport or similar line of basically OEM performance options? I just want better pads, not to put the bigger kit from the SQ5 on it.
Does it have the fixed 4 piston calipers up front?
Looks like it. Big blocky monoblock calipers. Hard to see both outer cylinder bulges due to wheel shape.
The angle of your picture, is kinda hard to tell. Those almost look like 6 piston brakes.
If they were to be 4 piston, I'm 99% sure they're the same as the base Macan caliper, which uses the same pad shape as the pre 2018 STI, which means you have a TON of pad options.
My vq37 **** out on me over the summer, literally a month after my charger engine seized. Infiniti is gone and replaced with a 2011 duramax dually. 341k miles when i got it, Previous owner saved me $3200 and did an emissions delete already. Taint half bad on mpg and don't scrape anywhere on our crappy roads, township had money to buy cops drones but can't repave our street. I do miss the handling of the g but the duramax puts down some good power in its own right. 4wd was a must for me, needs tires an actually 6 budget off road tires are cheaper than the 4 265/35 continentals i was running on my g. All in all I'm pretty happy with it, especially considering i came off 2 performance cars.
2024 Red Sport Review. This may the most enthusiastic review I've seen on the RS yet, but he spent more time on the performance features vs. infotainment:
