Comments by "John Luetjen" (@jehl1963) on "Tedward" channel.

  1. K-cars???
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  2. Maybe it was just the rain, but the exhaust sound at idle reminded me of standing behind Correct Craft.
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  3. At about 11:30 you go blasting down the road and I thought that I could hear God. Than I recognized that it was an ad with Morgan Freeman in it. :-/
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  4.  @TedwardDrives  touche'.
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  5. As far as being "irreplaceable", keep in mind that the entire bodywork is made up of hand-fitted aluminum parts. It's not like you can buy off-the-shelf pieces to fix a parking lot ding. It would have to go into a craftsman who will fabricate and fix a replacement. Old Astons are super cool, but the repair prices are mind boggling.
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  6. Tedwards next adventure -- Macan Turbo up Pikes Peak!!!
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  7. "...And though it's essentially a Taycan underneath..." -- eh, what's wrong with that??? It's a lot better than say a -- Leaf?!
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  8. It's not really about clean-air or CO2, it's about telling you what you can or can't do. The air is cleaner now than it was 40 or 50 years ago. Look at how clear the sky was in this video. If it was about clean air, we'd be all over the Chinese, Russians, Indians and 2nd world countries because that is where the bulk of the pollution is coming from. I've seen it 1st hand. But the fact is that we're not doing that. So arguing pollution statistics with people who don't care or know is a waste of time. If it's not about pollution, then what? Power - specifically the power to take from you and give to someone else. That's what's going on.
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  9. Now you have to try to finagle a ride in a Hayabusa powered version. https://youtu.be/AgwzHJo3IXM
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  10. "Servicing a Lotus is servicing a Toyota" --... until you ding the chassis. :-/
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  11. 986 Boxsters are the answer to your question. Just like a 911, but less so. They don't have as drastic of a transition from understeer to oversteer (i.e. as much of a rear weight bias), they don't have quite as much HP, Their top speed is a little less and they cost about half as much as a 996 911. Basically 90% of the qualities at half the price. On the other hand a Boxster is a better convertable than any 911, and some Boxsters come with hardtops. Boxsters with tiptronic automatics usually are cheaper too! Such a deal!
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  12. At 10:26, the classic Massachusetts street sign! The road that you're about to be on? I95N Rt1S Just to confuse tourists. Love it!
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  13. Is it me or does the interior seem strangely BMWish? The arrangement of the rear cupholders, the center console and some other aspects seem strangely familiar.
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  14. What was the red light at the base of the speedo that seemed to come on occasionally?
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  15. Never mind!! The fuel light.
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  16. "... Very familiar if you're used to a Perfimonte..." Ohhhhh! Now I know what you're talking about! ;-)
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  17. It sounds like you need to take a vacation to Germany. Because of a business trip, I've spent the last two weekends driving around Bavaria, where many of the B-roads have 60 mph speed limits, and many of the Autobahns still have unlimited stretches. The cars are so competent! Even my humble 1.5 liter turbo'd VW T-Roc ( aka Taos in the US) was a comfortable 110-plus mph cruiser. You will also see many of the cars that you cover on your channel being driven around. Just this weekend, I've seen a Merc 300SL Gull-wing, a BMW 3.0 CSL, a few Lambos, Aston Healys, a Merc Pagoda, A BMW V12 coupe, and countless other Mercedes AMGs, BMW's and Porsches.
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  18. I've learned to just open the steering a bit if you have to back off the throttle mid-corner. But slow-in/fast-out trumps everything else.
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  19. Beware New Hampshire. In addition to the forest green state police cars, they can also clock you while driving in the other direction on a 2-way road.
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  20.  @clayton8or  Residential roads are something else completely. Also "not being the fastest car" in a highway situation does not mean being second in line travelling at extra-legal speeds. Let the car that is in a hurry get at least 300-500 yards ahead of you, and be mindful of his brake lights.
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  21. Depending on the car, I have found that one of two techniques will generally work. In my 911 that has a hard, un-boosted brake pedel and a well aligned throttle I will brake with the ball of my right foot and breath the throttle with the outer portion of my heel. In other more modern cars with soft, boosted brakes I may brake with the arch of my foot and use my outer toes to breath the throttle. In either case I don't "blip" the throttle. That spins the engine up and down too quickly. I've found the analogy that they used to use in Skip Barber works well. You want the engine to swell as you match rev's. You want a sort of "YOUnggggaaaa" sound from the engine that lasts 2 to 3 seconds, not a stab that spikes the revs (a Zoom!).
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  22. In 2008 in the real world (as opposed to F&F or video games), Eric Curren got 3 wins (4 podiums) in a Cobalt SS in Ithe Grand Am, Koni Challenge GT series, against Acura TSX's and RSX's, Mazda RX5's and RX8's, BMW 330s and Mini Cooper S's.
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  23. It seems like the type of car where I can picture you stopping after your drive, looking around and discovering that you're in Vermont someplace. Aside from that, the reflection from the silver speaker logo was annoying, but something a couple of pieces of electrical tape could resolve.
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  24. Who cares if the switches are Mondeo when they are mounted in a lovely wooden panel like that!
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  25. Whenever I see these racing on TV, the back-end when driving away looks like it was taken from a Porsche GT3.
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  26. Everybody should go through a German driving class. Better yet, everybody should drive in Germany for a week or two. Nothing gets your attention like having another car come bearing down on you with a 60 mph closing speed. A related point -- when you are in the left lane, be aware of your "6 o'clock" (i.e. your rear view mirror). If you have car(s) in your rear view mirror -- you need to move to the right. If there are no cars in the lane to your right -- you need to move to the right! BTW - speeding isn't dangerous. Stopping is!
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  27. Yes. Very 1970's German car. In the day there would be tons of these on the Autobahn. Most Germans if the time couldn't afford the 6-cylinder versions of of the BMW, M-B, Opel or Ford product lines. VW didn't have any. The neat thing is that it's still a 100 mph car. German cars of the era would happily cover miles and miles at ~5000 rpm .
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  28. I'm sorry Tedward, but getting a GT3 RS with body colored seat-belts, and omitting the contrasting stiching?!!! What were they thinking???!!! The car will never sell! </sarcasm>
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  29. Even in that time people could see the resemblance between the two cars, but dared not mention it since the A-M cost about 10x the price of a Mustang, if not more. Maybe the A-M wasn't really any faster than the Mustang, but the quality and attention to detail in the engineering and finish were worlds apart.
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  30.  @76Aston  Well yeah, if you were comparing it to a 1977 Mustang, no kidding!!! The model to compare to are the 1969-'70 Fastback Bosses, either the 302s or the 429s.
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  31.  @76Aston  I pulled out an old "Road & Track's Guide to Sports & GT Cars for 1979". Per the summary table -- the A-M V8 would go from 0-60 in 7.4 seconds, which was beat by the Pontiac Firebird Trans AM, the Chevy Corvette L82, the Porsche 911SC, the Porsche 928, the Ferrari 308, the Porsche Turbo (3.3 liter), Maseratii Khamsin and the Ferrari 512 BB. In the 1/4-mile, the A-M V8 could do it in 15.7 seconds and was matched or beat by pretty much the same list of cars. As far as the top speed, the A-M V8 could get to 140 mph, which was still matched or exceeded by the Maserati Merak/SS, the Ferrari 308, the Porsche Turbo, the Masarati Khamsin and the Ferrari 512 BB again. But none of this detracts from the Aston Martin, because it really wasn't trying to compete with any of those cars. Aston Martin was trying to make the best gentleman's GT, that could effortlessly cover great distances with speed and comfort (for about 230 miles until the 9.5 mpg had drained the tank, thus requiring 25 more gallons of fuel. But a gentleman who could afford an Aston Martin didn't worry about things like that!).
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  32. (lol!) My thought exactly!
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  33. At 21:00 you mention "...being stuck in traffic in what may be close to a $500k car", are you referring to the 997 or the red vehicle a couple of lanes further over?
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  34. Since my car isn't galvonized, I usually wait for a couple of days of heavy rain to wash all of the salt off of the roads -- so I'm most likely still a couple of weeks out from the first drive.
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  35. Upon reflection, the 10-speed gearbox (or maybe it's programming) seems to make the car bipolar. In some respects it reminds me of an Southeast Asian buffet restaurant near me, where every dish was labeled either "Mild" or "Blazing Hot". It seems that the engine in the RDX is always either a couple of RPM above idle (max MPG), or else with the RPM maxed out (max HP), but with little time spent in between.
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  36. The car sooo cool that needed to be posted twice! In the words of King Crimson: "I repeat myself when I'm under stress! I repeat myself when I'm under stress!"
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  37. Wow! My 3 favorite car channels all review the Z3M in the same week?!!! Maybe it's time to buy a lottery ticket!
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  38. I think it's fair to point out a few things. 1) EV's are not "Emissions Free" vehicles. The emissions are merely outsourced to a different location. So while this Tesla was not emitting any emissions while Tedward was driving it , the Covanta Haverhill power plant was emitting emissions generating the electricity needed to charge up the car prior to the drive. 2) Kilowatts per mile, electric cars are no more efficient than gas or diesel cars. You could argue that they are cheaper to operate than internal combustion vehicles because electricity is cheaper, but that is because (at least in Massachusetts) electricity is not taxed, but diesel oil and gasoline are. Specifically gasoline is taxed $0.24 per gallon by Massachusetts, $0.026 for a fuel clean-up fee and another $0.183 cents of Federal tax. None of them apply to electricity. The difference in the tax policy is because it's politically difficult to tax the way that people heat their homes. If you subtract out the taxes on road fuels, the dollars/mile costs of an EV are not significantly different than a gas powered hybrid or an diesel vehicle. Once people stop buying gasoline and diesel fuel, you can be sure that governments will start to tax electricity to make up for the last revenue. 3) Finally, as Tedward points out, this is a $70,000 plus car. The reality is that Teslas should actually be even more expensive if costed fairly, but instead US tax policy has chosen to use taxpayer money for subsidies to Tesla (in the form of tax credits for EV purchases), as well as mandating increasing the overhead costs of non-EV vehicles by forcing their manufacturers to buy carbon tax credits from Tesla -- even as I have pointed out above -- Teslas actually do consume carbon based fuels -- just not within sight of their owners. If these credits and subsidies didn't exist, this $70K Tesla would be even more expensive. Regarding the product, I think that a big oversight is the lack of a Heads-up Display, which should be "slam-dunk" for Tesla. Forcing the driver to take their eyes off of the road to pick-out information in a large, cluttered and constantly changing central screen is a big ergonomics goof. Even in the video ( for example at 4:00) you can see Tedward splitting his attention between the road and traffic ahead of him, and the touch-screen display.
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