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<img src="http://www.cf-cars.com/images/shuffles.jpg"> I think it is small enough to fit inside my helmet. Time to get the Dremel!

I have a brand-new never mounted set of Nokian WRs in size 225/45/17 if anyone is looking.

Why run Avid when you can run FCP? FCP is faster, better, cheaper, and has become the defacto standard within the industry. FCP offered true native HD support before Avid's Windows product did. If you look at the top schools, they're all teaching on FCP and ignoring the handful of Avid toasters they still have floating around.

Unfortunately, the small claims court limit isn't enough to cover the modifications to the car.

I actually got a set of RacOS delivered yesterday. Only play 9 holes with them so far, but I think I'm in love.

The driver who hit me was drunk. He barely even left skidmarks pre-impact. Insurance means I won't be out the full value of the car, but because insurance companies have the moral fiber of pond scum, I will still be out a few thousand $ once I replace the car with a similar one. That's a Fastlane/EZPass tag, not a laser jammer.

Actually, I didn't have a panic stop myself. It certainly wasn't a casual stop, but I didn't need ABS and I was well below my braking threshold. The problem wasn't that the van didn't stop soon enough, it was that he simply didn't stop. He left about 2-3 van lengths of skidmarks before the impact.

Basically, a ways in front of me, traffic stopped quickly, and then the second car in front of me ran up on the curb and into the guardrail avoiding the person in front of him. When I saw that happen, I knew I had to stop quickly. Neither I nor the car in front of me were tailgating anyone, so neither of us used ABS or left and skidmarks. We didn't exactly stop casually, but it sure wasn't a panic stop either. Knowing how these things generally go bad very very quickly, I turned on my flashers just in case and then checked my rearview. My rearview was filled with a Chevy van coming at me very very quickly. I informed my passenger that this was going to be uncomfortable by yelling the first thing which came to mind: FFFF********************CK And then, BOOOM, the van smashed into us, lifted all four wheels in the air, and turned us 45?. The impact was hard enough that we landed on the guardrail of the right lane. We started in the left. Did I mention that we were on a bridge, too? We ended up hitting no vehicles in front of us. When we did finally land, the impact was so hard that it knocked the front left tire off its bead, and bent the tie rod on the drivers' side. The guardrail took care of the front bumper, pass side front fender, and some stuff in the pass side front suspension. The car is now pigeon toed. One interesting thing is that the car didn't really run afterwards, likely because the intercoolers were ****ed. The tow truck driver tried driving it up to the flatbed, but it stalled. He left it in gear with the ignition turned on, and then hooked it up to the winch. As it was being pulled up the flatbed, it started up - probably because it was the equivalent of the push start. So the car was running, in gear, and drove itself up with nobody in it - all while I was in the cab thinking "Oh f**k, I'm going to get f**king rearended AGAIN." Fortunately, someone jumped in and stopped it with literally inches to spare. Neither I nor my passenger were hurt. Three golf clubs were snapped though. Without further ado, here are the pics: <img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/black%20s4/back1.jpg"> <img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/black%20s4/front.jpg"> <img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/black%20s4/side1.jpg"> <img src="http://audi.cf-cars.com/black%20s4/van1.jpg"> So, if you were stuck in traffic on 295N (in Maine) shortly before exit 17 Friday night, that was because my car got rear ended.

I run SolidWorks on my MacBookPro every day. It runs perfectly. There isn't a single piece of engineering software out there which can't be run on the current crop of Macs.

With BootCamp, you can run them natively.

How about allow an app like Photoshop to address more than 4GB of RAM?

They allow hot, raw, uncensored, and barely legal access to the Linux undergarments. Sorry, making Linux sound sexy isn't easy :)

How about form factor and price? Can't get PC laptops that thin, and you can't get equivalent ones for much less $. You can get cheaper ones, but they won't be as thin or feature-equivalent.

Can't go wrong with an Intel Mac. Competitively priced, fantastic laptops, serious horsepower desktops, and you can run Windows natively when you need to.

I used to rallycross mine - does that count? With reasonable snow tires (like Alpins), the A4 will be hands-down the best snow car you've ever driven. Its limits are very high, its behavior is very predictable. I brought mine to Stowe once before the lots had been plowed. The snow was higher than the hood, and the car just kept on going. It took a fair effort to open the doors once parked. The car is simply amazing in the snow.

Don't mean to piss in your Cheerios, but that's the deal that many dealerships will offer to anyone who walks in their doors. The way Subaru's pricing is structured, dealerships still turn profits on cars sold for "less than invoice."

The turbocharger isn't a serviceable item. When it's done, it's done. It is exhaust driven, so it has no belts that need to be replaced. It uses the engine oil and coolant with no extra mechanical bits to pump it. There is [probably] one extra sensor in the turbo setup (not sure if Subaru's NA motors use MAP sensors or not), and it is on the cold side of things and is a "for-life" item. The turbo really doesn't add any extra maintenance.

There is no extra maintenance with the turbo car until you hit 170k or so. But when you have 170k on the car, who really cares about resale value?

Actually, MB's deisel just failed the test and will only be legal in 45 states. The new deisel emissions regs are strict, but they are not the same as for gasoline powered cars. The Jetta TDi that we get right now does require low-sulfur fuel, but it isn't the latest & greatest deisel lump from VAG. Even so, it does get unbelievably good mileage - I think MotorWeek got 48mpg mixed duty in their test.

Yup, the Nokian winter tires rock. I'll be rolling on a fresh set of Nokian RSIs this winter. Never tried their summer tires before. I've been quite happy with the Kumho MX which is very grippy and also fairly cheap.

The LGT with a manual transmission is a heck of a value. It's a pretty nice car which offers pretty reasonable (but not mind-blowing) performance when equipped with a stick. It is very good (but again, not mind-blowing) in the snow, especially with proper snow tires. As has already been said, Subaru no longer offers the wagon with a manual transmission. You may still be able to find an 06 with one, but they're pretty rare. The manual transmission makes a very big difference in this car. The motor is somewhat laggy to begin with, and with an automatic you will have to deal with transmission lag as well. With the automatic, you could find yourself waiting as much as a full second between when you put your foot down and when you can make the pass. With the manual, you'll already be in 3rd and ready to go. Definitely get the turbo 2.5. Turbos rock (heck, my car has two!) at all altitudes, and the gap between turbo and NA grows the further you go up. The other thing is that with an auto and the NA motor, the car is a real dog. The turbo is essential for climbing and passing, not just for going faster. With more power, you can make passes in shorter distances. If you are a tweaker or don't mind dabbling in the aftermarket, the turbo is also a vastly better platform.

Those are mostly booked @ NHIS for the rest of the season. I think ACNA-NAAC has one scheduled in Sept and one more in Oct though, so those might be a possibility.

So what laptimes were you pulling?

CarveItUp - do you have any old radio gear you want to chuck? I'm looking for a cheapo 3+ channel setup that I can use in my hackjob of a foamie.

I have three AirHogs :D I'm also in the process of building my own 3D foamie.