Re: stock tires do not suck(oh yes they do)

[Khan Klatt <khan@mediaaccess.com>]

At 10:02 PM -0500 1/31/2000, Bill Hussey wrote:
>Go with a 3 series from BMW.  Don't get the 328, its a waste of money.  The
[snip]
>that's not a bad price, only about $8K more than a similarly decked GLX.

Well, that's all fine and dandy, but you still paid around $30K for a 
2WD car when you could have gotten a A4 Quattro.

>Don't forget that an AWD vehicle will only help you accelerate better, it
>doesn't help you corner or brake any better.  There are advantages to both
>configurations.  If you get really good, you can learn to pitch your car
>sideways and mash the throttle to the floor.  It's an extremely 
>interesting way to corner =).  Some problems though, it's very hard 
>to properly throttle-steer an AWD car through a turn.

Again, you're assuming I'm on a track, or that I would consider 
driving like that on the street. I've been on a track once in the 
past three years, and I might make it back on the track one more time 
in the next three years.

>Also, when it comes to having fun in the snow .. nothing beats out
>RWD =).

Your definition and my definition of "fun in the snow" are clearly 
completely different. In my opinion "fun in the snow" is what you do 
when you get out of your car, which means you want all-time four 
wheel drive to keep you safe and on the road away from the other lame 
and pathetic drivers.

>You may not be into the track now .. but go once, and if it's in your blood,

Clearly for me it's not more than a once every three years kind of 
thing. I like my car fast, elegant, stylish, with leather all around. 
I'd rather get it fast from the factory than even buy one bolt on 
mod. This is why I lean towards the S6 and the M5 because I want the 
car company to have done the hard work.

I could give a damn that I could buy a A3 and turbo charge it and 
bore the cylinders, and get different heads, and change the exhaust, 
and upgrade the chassis, and add tie bars, and sway bars, and add 
garrett chips, and add oil coolers, and swap motor mounts, and put in 
nitrous, and add an aftermarket airbox, etc. Sure, I might save money 
that way, but I'd prefer it "that way" from the factory, without 
voiding the warranty.

My first computer I bought was a 486DX/50. I took it apart, I 
reformatted the drive, I became a Windows expert. Then I dabbled with 
Linux, ported Apache to Linux when it became available, and then with 
installed NT, and then Windows 95 came out, and then I dabbled with 
that, installed the BeOS, did all this junk to it, installed 
everything imaginable, rebuilt it, took it apart, upgraded, 
overclocked, you name it.

Today, I have a Power Macintosh. I never open it, never take the case 
off, never disassembled the binaries, never hacked my apache daemon 
to take advantage of preforking, I never overclocked the CPU.... I 
know how to fuss with my computer like you can't believe to trick it 
out beyond imagination. But I'd rather not.

And I like it better that way. In other words, I want someone else to 
do all the detail work, because I've "Been there, Done that", and I 
want someone else to do all of that for me. I want all of the fun, 
and none of the hassle. That is why I use a Mac, and that's why I'm 
looking forward to an unmodified sportscar directly from the 
manufacturer.

I liked IKEA furniture in college (as I did my Jetta) but now, it's 
time to move on to "no assembly required" components in my life. :)

-Khan


Khan Klatt                                         khan@mediaaccess.com

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