1 BMW Introduces Heated Seat Subscription
In 2022, BMW introduced subscription options for customers in the U.K., allowing them to use heated front seats for £15 per month or a heated steering wheel for £10 per month.
2. The best-selling single model-year vehicle in American history is the 1965 Chevrolet Impala, with 1,074,925 units sold in one year-a record that remains unbroken. Of those, 200,000 included the SS package.
3. Major car brands often produce “halo cars” to represent their brand and enhance public perception, with little intention of generating profit. Examples of halo cars include Dodge’s Viper and Ford’s GT series.
4. The 2010 Lexus SC 430 was the last car sold in the United States to feature a cassette deck.
5. For over ten years, the Honda S2000 sports car engine held the highest specific power output for any mass-produced naturally aspirated piston engine, until the 2010 Ferrari 458 surpassed it.
6 Rolls Royce Chauffeur Training Program
Rolls Royce offers a “White Glove” driver training program, where if you own a Rolls Royce, you can send your chauffeur to their headquarters in Goodwood, England, to be trained in driving a Rolls Royce.
7. Just before an unavoidable crash, new Mercedes-Benz cars emit a brief blast of white or pink noise, triggering the occupant’s ears to shut off momentarily and helping to prevent hearing loss from the crash or airbags.
8. During Dukes of Hazzard production, filmmakers destroyed so many ’68-’70 Dodge Chargers that they had to conduct aerial searches among the populace to find replacement cars.
9. Although Toyota is headquartered in the city of Toyota, Japan, the company did not take its name from the city. Instead, in 1959, the city (formerly Koromo) renamed itself after the company due to Toyota’s fame.
10. Butzi Porsche, the designer of the Porsche 911, faced expulsion from industrial design school in his first year due to his apparent lack of talent. After joining his father’s company, Porsche’s design director rejected his ideas, so Butzi had the 911 prototype built by an outside contractor.
11 Toyota Reverse-Engineered American Jeep
The Toyota Land Cruiser originated when the Imperial Japanese Army captured an American Jeep during World War II and ordered Toyota to reverse-engineer it.
12. Unlike Chrysler and GM, Ford did not require a bailout during the 2008 financial crisis.
13. At the height of the 2008 financial crisis, Volkswagen briefly became the most valuable company in the world for one day, despite being on the verge of bankruptcy.
14. A 2020 study identified the most dangerous and safest cars. The Ford Fiesta and Hyundai Accent had the highest death rates, while the Volkswagen Golf tied with five other vehicles for the lowest death rate. Regular cars showed the highest mortality rate, whereas minivans had the lowest.
15. Some Jeep models feature hidden “Easter Eggs”-designs of animals or other symbols-concealed around the vehicle, such as on the windshield, dashboard, under seats, or near the gas cap.
16 Audi Strengthens Horns For India
Audi had to install more durable horns in Indian-market cars because their standard horns couldn’t withstand the frequent honking that Indian drivers do.
17. Toyota built only two convertible 2000GTs, specifically for a James Bond movie, as Sean Connery was too tall to fit in the standard model.
18. The “60 Minutes” whitewash of Audi wasn’t the first time a major news network rigged an automotive test. In 1992, NBC did the same to Chevrolet, but a firefighter at the test revealed the truth, forcing NBC to issue an on-air apology.
19. In 2006, Honda sent a letter to all their dealers instructing them to stop selling unnecessary maintenance services and explained that certain services, like coolant and transmission flushes, could actually harm customers’ vehicles.
20. In the 1990s, Subaru discovered it had a strong following among lesbians and decided to create a subtle but targeted campaign, which helped move gay and lesbian advertising from the fringes into the mainstream.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Rolls Royce Uses Bull Leather Exclusively
Rolls Royce uses 15 to 18 bulls of leather for each car, raising them in cold climates to prevent insect bite marks. They avoid using cows due to the potential for stretch marks from pregnancies.
22. Mercedes-Benz holds the credit for inventing the first modern automobile. In 1886, co-founder Karl Benz designed the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, widely recognized as the first gasoline-powered car. This three-wheeled vehicle launched the automotive era.
23. A 2011 UC Berkeley study found that drivers of Mercedes and BMWs were nearly five times more likely to cut others off compared to drivers of non-luxury cars.
24. Bill Gates purchased a Porsche 959 that was seized by customs and stored for 13 years. He later helped pass the “Show and Display” law, allowing the legal import of exotic cars that didn’t meet federal safety standards.
25. A team of master craftsmen known as Takumi once hand-assembled every Nissan GT-R in a dust and temperature-controlled clean room. Only five individuals in the world held this prestigious qualification.
RE: Fact #21 (Rolls Royce Uses Bull Leather Exclusively) – It’s cool that those cars are so expensive and unique, they don’t make many of them. It’s really interesting to see how much work goes into them though. This guy does the pin stripes freehand and he’s the only one in the world who does it. If you decide you want them later, they fly him to you.
So, there’s this crazy story about a dude in Egypt who had his Rolls Royce shipped over. Things went south when he hit some rough terrain and broke a part. He had it towed back, called Rolls, and they sent out a guy to fix it. Then, he figured he’d get a bill, but nothing showed up. He called them and asked about it, and they told him, “Nope, you’re wrong. Rolls Royce parts don’t break. Bye!”
Back in the 60s and 80s, a small group of women did all the pin striping for BMW motorcycles for years and years.
Makes sense, right? Years ago, studies showed that women generally have steadier hands and are better at controlling their breathing. So, the question is: are women better snipers?
I saw something about how they make things there, and they showed this guy. He uses brushes made from squirrel hair!
Squirrel hair is the only way to get the form he wants.
RE: Fact #30 (Record-Breaking Cannonball Run in 2016) – They tricked people into giving them space by making their car look like a cop car.
It’s crazy how this worked. Like, tons of people saw a cop car going super fast with no lights on and just figured it wasn’t a big deal.
I get that cops need to speed sometimes. But it’s kinda scary how normal it is for them to do it even when they’re not actually on an emergency call.
Cops around here are terrible drivers. They’re always speeding, tailgating, and never signaling. And they do it all with their lights off.
RE: Fact #20 (Subaru Targets Lesbian Market Subtly) – Beavis and Butthead’s teacher played this song on the show, “Fly High Lesbian Seagull.” My cousin had a white Subaru back then and we called it the Lesbian Seagull.
That song just randomly pops in my head sometimes. I can’t even remember where I heard it! Haha.
RE: Fact #42 (Hood Ornaments Discontinued for Safety) – Rolls-Royce cars still have those fancy hood ornaments, but they’re actually pretty safe. They have this special retractor system that tucks the ornament away super fast if there’s an accident. It’s also there to stop people from swiping the ornament!
Rolls Royce is also not a car company like Jaguar, Cadillac or Dodge.
That’s amazing!
RE: Fact #30 (Record-Breaking Cannonball Run in 2016) – So you’re saying it wasn’t some random ladies in a fancy car?
They’re not fast enough to escape the radio!
They totally did. They thought they were getting set up, but then they realized the cop car waiting for them was actually like five miles back.
RE: Fact #18 (NBC Caught Rigging Chevy Test) – Good for NBC, sticking to the high road! It’s nice to see they’re not stooping to that kind of behavior.
RE: Fact #32 (1919 Ford Case Shaped Corporate Law) – The worst part? Making the shareholders happy in the short term. So, if you can get more money for them by breaking up the company, selling everything off, and wiping out the pensions, even if it destroys a whole region, that’s what they’ll do.
Totally! It’s like the law forces companies to focus on making money right now instead of thinking about the future, which just makes things worse for everyone in the long run.
I get where you’re coming from with that comment, but I think you’re wrong about your original post. There’s no real rule that says companies *have* to make as much money as possible.
Back in college, we had this class where we ran a bike company using a computer program. Each group had to decide how much money to spend on things like research, quality, making the bikes, how much to sell them for, advertising, and how much to give back to the owners. The program then compared all the teams and changed stuff like the value of the company, how much money was made, and how many bikes were sold. The only thing that really mattered was how much the company was worth.
My group blew everyone else out of the water by goofing off most of the time. Our prices were kinda messed up so we didn’t sell a lot. But then, in the last week, we gave everyone a HUGE bonus and our company became worth way more than anyone else’s.
Big lesson learned there.
So, you couldn’t see the data, but if it never really sold much, you’d have been pretty broke by the end of the semester, right? Not much to give back as a dividend.
Plus, the simulator wasn’t adjusting for asset value, which is weird, because investors know dividends don’t actually change their assets. People who pay cash to get less cash plus a piece of something that just got rid of its productive assets are, well, not very smart.
And it sounds like the ex-div date was after the semester ended, so you got to take advantage of the “investors” who didn’t realize their simulated world would end before they got their money.
Clever move though, really sneaky!
Remember “semester?”
We ran the same simulator our freshman year. A senior saw us in the library and told us about this cool trick. We weren’t very good at it until the last week.
RE: Fact #4 (2010 Lexus SC 430 Cassette Deck) – Lexus knew who they were selling to. That car could have been amazing, but it ended up being a bunch of compromises.
RE: Fact #20 (Subaru Targets Lesbian Market Subtly) – The ads had slogans like “Get Out. And Stay Out” and “It’s Not a Choice. It’s the Way We’re Built.”
RE: Fact #12 (Ford Survived 2008 Without Bailout) – Alan Mulallay, the Ford CEO back then, was a real rockstar. He ran the Boeing 777 project in the early 90s and nailed it—on time, on budget, and the plane even came in at the right weight. The 777 has been a total winner ever since. He was in line for the CEO job at Boeing, but they chose a Jack Welch wannabe instead.
Jack Welch? He’s the poster child for how to ruin a company. He took a giant manufacturing company, chopped it up, sold it off for a quick buck, and bailed before things really went south. GE’s gone, and what’s left of it is just a few small pieces.
GE is gone, but the name stuck around in the new companies: GE Healthcare, GE Vernova, and GE Aerospace.
GE Aerospace is basically the new GE, it’s got the same brand and stock symbol.
I think one of those three companies is going to get pumped up, then split up and bought out. You can probably tell which one just by looking at the numbers.
Yeah, I actually took a class about this in business school. The big idea was that companies in the 80s and 90s started focusing way too much on making money, instead of what they were actually good at. It was easy to get money back then, so everyone just went crazy trying to grow as fast as possible. A lot of really good companies ended up going under because of it.
RE: Fact #34 (Dodge Stealth Example of Rebadging) – Back in the early 90s, they had the Eagle Talon, Mitsubishi Eclipse, and Plymouth Laser – all basically the same car, just with different badges.
RE: Fact #5 (Honda S2000’s High-Power Engine Record) – See you at Race Wars, you’re going down.
Don’t burn your NOS too early, man.
RE: Fact #26 (Mercedes-Benz SLR Sets Price Record) – CNN, seriously? One page about the car, fifteen pages of ads, and no pictures? Come on!
Seriously, who wants to see a picture of that car? They’re totally clickbait masters.
I just scrolled through for the picture, didn’t actually read the article. It could have just been the headline with a pic, most people would have been happy with that.
RE: Fact #30 (Record-Breaking Cannonball Run in 2016) – The team said they never got stopped by the cops because they had a bunch of people keeping an eye out for them.
RE: Fact #38 (Audi Delayed Airbag Adoption for Procon-Ten) – British cars were super safe, but they had a bit of a problem… they wouldn’t start!
It’s like that old joke about why the British drink warm beer, because their fridges are terrible.
RE: Fact #43 (BMW Sets Longest Drift Record) – An engineer must have been bored, huh?
It’s like, “Whatever, sounds fun,” right? But this actually happened twice, and BMW holds both records.
Engineers have some seriously fun times!
RE: Fact #33 (Warhol Painted BMW M1 Quickly) – I like some of Warhol’s work, but this one’s just not doing it for me.
Took only 24 minutes.
RE: Fact #11 (Toyota Reverse-Engineered American Jeep) – Yeah, they could totally call it an Imperial Cruiser, right?
That’s when things get interesting.
RE: Fact #49 (Chijon Family Kidnapped Hyundai Customers) – Just a heads up, the article talks about a Hyundai department store, not the car company.
RE: Fact #5 (Honda S2000’s High-Power Engine Record) – S2Ks are awesome, they get like 120 horsepower per liter, which is more than a lot of turbo cars these days, it’s crazy! The early ones only had like 155 ft-lbs of torque, so they feel like a Civic when you drive them normally, but then you step on the gas and wow!
That car was built to really rev high, but it doesn’t get great gas mileage. A Corvette from the same year is actually more fuel-efficient.
Honda makes their cars super easy to drive, you know? I think they’re way better off with “Drive easy, Drive Honda” than “Power of Dreams.”
I mean, it’s probably never happened, but I bet your grandma could totally drive an NSX every day. The only struggle would be getting in and out of it. It’s a breeze to drive and you can see everything, which is totally unlike any other supercar.
But seriously, what car nut wouldn’t want their grandma to drive a supercar every day?
RE: Fact #48 (Dodge Viper Discontinued for Airbag Law) – I used to see them all the time, and then they just disappeared. They were one of my favorites. I miss them.
It’s really easy to mess things up.
RE: Fact #16 (Audi Strengthens Horns For India) – I’m from Canada and I had an Indian friend growing up. When his family moved here, his dad got a few warnings and a ticket for honking way too much.
In Asia, people honk to let you know they see you and you’re doing things right. A few quick honks mean, “Hey, I see you, keep on doing what you’re doing.” A long, loud honk still means “Watch out, you’re about to hit something!” So, that’s pretty universal, no matter where you go.
I’ve driven in some parts of Asia where those wide-angle mirrors on blind corners were always getting smashed or stolen, so you just have to blast the horn.
It’s not like that everywhere in Asia, though. I came from Bangkok to New York, and I was surprised at how much people honked there. Here in Bangkok, people mostly honk if they’re about to crash into someone, but in New York, I heard honking for all sorts of reasons. People were honking just because they were impatient!
But yeah, you’re right about Vietnam and India.
A short honk is like, “Hey, I’m here!” Double honk and a wave is my way of saying thanks. And if you hear a long honk, you know I’m not happy about something.
You know, in India, honking is basically like saying “Hey, I’m here! Watch out!” because there are so many motorcycles and people walking around, it can be a real mess. And if you get into an accident, the person who honked first can basically say, “See, I warned you!”
My brother honks every time he passes someone on the highway. He thinks it’s a way of letting the other driver know he’s there so they don’t change lanes. It drives me nuts, but I guess it’s better than getting hit by a truck and then trying to explain to the judge what happened.
That would totally freak me out. If someone honked at me on the highway.
It’s really annoying, you’re just sitting there watching and all you hear is honking, honking, honking. You can’t even tell who it’s for! It’s like if nobody honked at all, but way louder and way more annoying.
The guy we stayed with in India had to take his car to the mechanic to get the horn fixed. He said he wouldn’t drive without it, the honking there is crazy.
It’s probably illegal everywhere to drive without a working horn, right?
Just got on this little three-wheeler in Delhi, headed to the airport. Guess what? The horn died! This guy pulled over in a heartbeat, found a loose wire, stripped it with his teeth, and fixed it right there. He said he wouldn’t drive without a horn.
RE: Fact #15 (Jeep Models Hide Easter Eggs) – The new Prius has that too, but it’s not about animals.
My Rubicon has flip flops.
My 2010 Prius has over 320,000 miles and it’s still going strong! No problems for the past 100,000 miles. Just got a new one ordered!
RE: Fact #50 (Volkswagen Beetle Could Float Briefly) – Let that sink in for a minute.
RE: Fact #23 (Luxury Car Drivers Cut Off More) – Feeling lost and like life’s pointless? Just remember, somewhere in Bavaria, someone’s paid to put turn signals on BMWs.
RE: Fact #38 (Audi Delayed Airbag Adoption for Procon-Ten) – That’s a pretty clever way to give the driver more space!
RE: Fact #16 (Audi Strengthens Horns For India) – They cranked up the honk, so you knew it was definitely the Audi giving you the horn. “Finally figured out which one was blasting my ears! It was the Audi, not one of the other million horns that have been going off in the past fifteen seconds.”
RE: Fact #13 (Volkswagen Briefly Became Most Valuable) – So basically, when a company’s doing bad and its stock is expected to tank, some folks will “short” it. They borrow the stock, sell it right away, hoping to buy it back cheaper later, and return it to the person they borrowed it from. They make money off the difference.
Volkswagen was in a rough spot, and a lot of people shorted its stock thinking it would go down. But it didn’t. Those who shorted had to buy it back to give it back to the people they borrowed it from, which pushed the price way up.
Crazy enough, for a day, Volkswagen was the most valuable company on the planet! That’s what’s called a “short squeeze.”
When you buy a stock, you can lose some money, but you can also make a lot. But shorting stocks is the opposite – you could lose a ton. Unless you really know what you’re doing, it’s best to avoid shorting.
It’s basically the horoscope for people who think horoscopes are too woo-woo.
Wait, so does this mean a rocket?
The price is gonna skyrocket, so hang on tight!
RE: Fact #15 (Jeep Models Hide Easter Eggs) – If you can’t make a good car, you might as well just slap some animals on it.
RE: Fact #6 (Rolls Royce Chauffeur Training Program) – Should I pack snacks for him, or does the school provide them? Are roller backpacks okay?
RE: Fact #35 (Honda City Turbo Included Scooter) – That’s so awesome. I wonder where it ended up.
RE: Fact #13 (Volkswagen Briefly Became Most Valuable) – That’s like how out of touch the stock market is – imagine someone like Bezos getting billions richer in a single day!
RE: Fact #44 (Los Angeles Killed Free Monorail Project) – What happened to public transit in Southern California back in the 20th century is a total disaster and a big reminder of how much influence big companies have on our lives.
RE: Fact #2 (1965 Chevy Impala Record Sales) – Two a minute, all year long? That’s wild!
They can start selling a model half a year before it’s even officially released, and sometimes they’ll keep selling it for a while after the new year if they have enough orders. So basically, they were selling one every two minutes, but they weren’t actually making them that fast.
Back then, GM made the same car at a bunch of factories across the country, so there was plenty of room to make more cars. And, if I remember right, the economy was doing well in the ’60s, so running some of those factories with two or three shifts wasn’t unusual.
RE: Fact #10 (Porsche 911 Designer Expelled Early) – Turns out Butzi was Ferdinand’s nickname! I was just about to say, “What the heck are you talking about, Ferdinand was the designer,” but I thought I’d better double-check before I opened my mouth.
Those cars are seriously iconic.
RE: Fact #8 (Dukes of Hazzard Charger Destruction) – So, Ben Jones and the folks who built the cars say 325 General Lees were used for the show. Some folks say it was closer to 255. I’m guessing Cooter’s got the right number.
I remember reading in TV Guide back when the show was on that they usually used up three of those things every episode.
That’s Congressman Ben “Cooter” Jones, alright.
The actor?!? You’re telling me Sonny Bono wasn’t the mayor of Palm Springs?
RE: Fact #26 (Mercedes-Benz SLR Sets Price Record) – I bet someone will offer more if that Ralph Lauren Bugatti ever goes up for sale.
RE: Fact #32 (1919 Ford Case Shaped Corporate Law) – Dodge went after Ford because Ford’s moves hurt Dodge, but Dodge said that stealing employees didn’t actually help Ford’s investors.
The Dodge brothers were in on the ground floor with Ford. They made a fortune! I bet they sued Ford to keep their big checks coming.
RE: Fact #31 (VW Beetle’s U.S. Launch Struggled) – The marketing agency they brought in totally changed how Americans felt about small cars. They went from being skeptical and resistant to loving them and driving them. It was one of the smartest and most influential marketing campaigns ever.
So, the problem wasn’t that it was a “nazi car”, right?
RE: Fact #22 (Mercedes-Benz Invented Modern Automobile) – It’s crazy, but Karl Benz didn’t even think his invention was that big of a deal! His wife, who basically bankrolled the whole thing with her own money, took their kids for a 12-hour drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim. It was her idea that made him finally get a patent for it.
RE: Fact #1 (BMW Introduces Heated Seat Subscription) – I’m totally against buying a car that comes with a subscription.
People need to think for themselves and speak up.
RE: Fact #32 (1919 Ford Case Shaped Corporate Law) – Dodge is basically to blame for everything wrong with corporate America.
Yep, used to be a mechanic.
Daimler-Chrysler can kiss my grits. I guess I’m pretty good with Mercedes heavy-duty diesels, though.
It’s actually kind of funny, the car companies pushed to make the government spend money on roads instead of public transportation. So cities like New York, they had their good public transportation built before the car companies had their way. That’s why it’s so much better there. It’s the same story with health insurance and banking, too.
That’s always been the rule, right?
RE: Fact #44 (Los Angeles Killed Free Monorail Project) – Years ago, oil companies and the major car makers got rid of the electric street cars in downtown L.A. How can we move forward when people with money and powerful politicians are against us?
They’re scared of change because they don’t know how to make money from it. They’ll act like it’s awful, just to make the old way look better.
RE: Fact #9 (Toyota City Named After Company) – It’s kind of interesting that Toyota, the car company, is named after the founders who used to run a loom company.
RE: Fact #45 (1986 Buick Riviera Featured Touch Screen) – So, this totally random thought popped into my head. Remember Epcot Center? That’s where I first saw a touch screen, way back when. I was a total nerd, into programming and all that stuff. Anyway, I was completely mesmerized by these touchscreen menus with pictures, videos, and links. They were like early web pages!
I couldn’t get enough of it. I was just so blown away. My family was all about the rides, but I kept going back to those screens, touching them, imagining how cool it would be to make a program with a touchscreen. I even missed out on riding Space Mountain a second time just to study those menus! It felt like the future, and guess what? It totally was!
Anyway, sorry for getting sidetracked, but I can’t even imagine what would have happened to my brain if I’d seen the inside of this car!
Those photos have a great retro 80’s feel. I’m also watching a video about it on YouTube.
RE: Fact #45 (1986 Buick Riviera Featured Touch Screen) – That would have been totally awesome in ’86, like straight outta Knight Rider.
That’s totally giving me Knight Rider vibes.
RE: Fact #47 (Shah of Iran Inspired G-Class) – Where I live, it’s crazy how many G Wagons you see, and I swear at least half the people driving them are total Karens or their dude versions. It’s way more common than any other car, even fancy Land Rovers and Porsches. I don’t know what it is, but it’s like the official vehicle for entitled rich people who aren’t really that rich.
RE: Fact #11 (Toyota Reverse-Engineered American Jeep) – You know, back in the Philippines, they took those old American jeeps and turned them into these awesome buses called “jeepneys.”
RE: Fact #42 (Hood Ornaments Discontinued for Safety) – Seriously, kids were making necklaces out of them all the time.
Aw, man, not the H! That’s the coolest part of having a Honda. What’s the fun in owning one if you can’t show it off?
RE: Fact #34 (Dodge Stealth Example of Rebadging) – Yeah, Dodge and Mitsubishi have a long history together. The Dodge Raider and Mitsubishi Montero were basically the same car, and the Dodge Colt and Mitsubishi Mirage were too. It goes on and on.
RE: Fact #25 (Takumi Crafted Every Nissan GT-R) – So, apparently it’s not the whole Nissan GT-R that’s hand-built, it’s just the engine.
No way one person could have done all that, right?
RE: Fact #17 (Toyota Built Bond Film Convertibles) – He rode a bike in Finding Forrester because he was too tall for the Honda Gyro Canopy, but Honda wouldn’t make a special one just for him.
RE: Fact #41 (GM Kept Dangerous Gas Tank Placement) – So, you figure out how many cars might have the problem, then you multiply that by how likely it is that they’ll fail, and then multiply that by how much we’d have to pay if someone sues. If the total is less than what it would cost to fix all the cars, we just don’t do it.
What car company do you work for?
That’s a big one.
RE: Fact #3 (Halo Cars Enhance Brand Image) – The Warthog is definitely my go-to Halo ride.
Go GaussHog!
RE: Fact #31 (VW Beetle’s U.S. Launch Struggled) – It’s all about hype, you know? The Rolex Daytona with the white face and square markers was a total flop when it came out. It was selling for like, $200 new. But then Paul Newman started wearing one, and now people are going crazy for them. A used one can go for anywhere from $250,000 to a million bucks.
RE: Fact #46 (Gamma Goat Preceded Hummer in Army) – I drove one for two and a half years, from ’85 to ’88. It was even older than I was back then! That thing could go anywhere you wanted it to, once you learned its quirks. I asked for all the parts to make it good for wading through rivers, but after I put them in, my Sergeant wouldn’t let me take it over a pond. Smart guy.
It was built tough, though, and could go anywhere our tracked vehicles could. I remember trying to shift gears in it and realizing you didn’t shift, you *shoved* the gears or you’d be stuck in neutral. We kept a copy of a PS Magazine maintenance booklet with our vehicle that had all the info you’d ever need about that old goat.
RE: Fact #10 (Porsche 911 Designer Expelled Early) – Honestly, putting the engine in the back isn’t the best idea.
It makes a lot more sense when you think about how cars were built back then. When putting the engine in the back was the common thing, it was easier to build cars that way and they got better traction. Plus, cars were super thin back then, so all that engine noise and heat would be way more noticeable inside. Putting the engine in the back let all that stuff go out the back instead of into the cabin.
It wasn’t just some weird thing sports cars like the 911 and the Porsche 356 did either. Lots of normal, cheap cars were built like that back then. The BMW 700, the original Fiat 500, and so on.
Porsche’s story proves it, man. You can’t build a winning sports car with an engine in the back. They always finished dead last. 😂
RE: Fact #21 (Rolls Royce Uses Bull Leather Exclusively) – For the past couple of decades, like most good British cars, the engine’s actually German.
Carroll Shelby showed us that a British chassis and an American engine make for a seriously awesome car.
RE: Fact #26 (Mercedes-Benz SLR Sets Price Record) – That’s a pretty penny, even if it does depreciate quickly.
It’s pretty much junk by the time you get home.
RE: Fact #24 (Bill Gates Helped Change Import Laws) – A billionaire basically wrote himself a new rule, you know? That’s how things work these days. A lot of these rich folks can do whatever they want. They’re probably doing worse stuff than letting in cars that aren’t super safe.
RE: Fact #24 (Bill Gates Helped Change Import Laws) – So, by then, it must’ve been driven around 30,000 miles after he got it, or the seals were all shot and he spent a fortune fixing it up.
So Bill Gates basically spent like ten bucks to fix it?
The average American’s got about $100,000, right? Bill Gates has like $100 billion. So, what $10,000 means to a normal person is like a penny to Bill Gates. $100,000 would be like a dime to him.