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Got the correct cable for my Sync 3 upgrade and now officially have Apple CarPlay for my phone.

Of course major surgery is required. I knew a guy who put a 426 Hemi in a Dodge Omni. Numerous people have put a blown big block Chevy in a Nash Metro. You guys forget that torches, grinders and welders aren’t just for angry peasants.

Rivian seems like it has the most potential to succeed, esp. with it's Amazon and Ford deals and having a plant...moreso than many of these other electric truck startups, a lot of them seem to be smoke and mirrors, more hype than substance..and anything with Chinese funding I'm skeptical of..

Yep, I have really high hopes for the R1T. Hopefully my hopes aren't becoming too high and then I'll be disappointed but I think their whole business plan and partnership(s) have me thinking they will be very successful.

Amazing that a tiny town like that would be the hub of a worldwide photo sharing entity. Still waters run deep!

^ there are some numbers / facts worth consideration. Oils, greases and petrochemicals are required to build a wind turbine, a 2 MW unit costs 3-4 million & only lasts 20 yrs (with 3 gearbox changes along the way). Any discussion of efficiency must also take into account base costs and longevity. There’s a hydro-electric turbine that at least circa 1990 was using the same main bearing installed circa 1902. I believe the turbine was of mega-tonnage. Sorry I don’t recall the details, but it may very be still running. It was a major disappointment for me to learn a modern, new millennium turbine, that turns so incredibly slowly, isn’t built to last 75-100 years. That’s unquestionably, an inefficiency.

And of course that’s your prerogative. Most people don’t want/know how to work on vehicles.

Agree, the upgrades will come when 3rd party vendors build bigger EV motors and people take a Tesla S and put in a much larger EV motor.

Pffft- it could go faster. 'Making sense' is seldom part of radical re-engineering automotive projects. That's not the goal. My brother is getting I think his 4th engine HE put into his Firebird finished up, and it was a fine running & looking 400CI powered car when he bought it. I drove it and it would burn the tires off (too small/street tires). It hasn't been street legal since I think the 1st engine replacement, but he keeps re-doing & re-doing it. His prerogative, but basically it's driven by wanting to go faster. Engine 3 was already way faster than a Model S in Ludicrious; best (lightly modified) time I've seen was 10.41 sec and he was already at 9.6. New mill should be good for right around 7.9-8.0, which would equal the verified world's fastest EV doorslammer. Top EV performance is light years behind top IC performance. And an IC competition engine can still be torn down/rebuilt faster than it takes a Model S to fully charge & bring the batteries up to ideal temp for Ludicrious Mode launches.

I'm sure someone will ICE an EV at some point, but it doesn't really make sense... seems pointless. With a Tesla, for instance, no performance advantage would likely occur from a lot of work to ICE it, since it's so fast the way it is in ludicrous mode.

Nash metropolitan: wheelbase : 85". Original weight : 1800 lbs. Nothing there structurally could handle even 150 HP, never mind the possible 800 this might have. Basically you hang the Nash sheetmetal and interior on everything else custom.

You are thinking about cars with normal unibody structures, though...the Tesla doesn't have that..it has the giant battery pack and some simple aluminum and cardboard tubes attached to it with glue and spot welds, it sounds like.. I could someone doing some redneck engineering and mounting a Model S body on top of a truck chassis, though...

@surreal1272 That is awesome, Congratulations for getting the updated system and phone capability. Life is way better this way.

Just like there will be 'EV junkyards'...no one is going to keep an EV for 10 years or 150k miles...they will be obsolete and expensive to repair, just lease for a few years then junk/recycle...

Rivian had originally stated much higher starting prices that were in the high $70,000's, but at the San Fransico Road Show this last weekend RJ stated this: Company founder RJ Scaringe told Reuters in a chat that the electric R1T truck and its R1S SUV counterpart would cost less than originally announced. He didn't provide full pricing, but he indicated that a mid-range R1T with 300 miles of range and an electrochromic glass roof would sell for $69,000, while a comparable R1S would sell for $72,000. The automaker had pegged the starting prices for the R1T and R1S at $61,500 and $65,000 respectively. https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/26/rivian-ev-prices-lower-than-first-announced/

Saw a black late model Range Rover Sport with huge custom wheels, a custom body kit and custom grille, no RR badging, only 'ASPIRE' across the hood. Googled it, apparently Aspire is a UK brand of Range Rover aftermarket customization. Sitting in a Walgreens parking lot, I guess even the local Ukranian gangster soccer moms go to the drugstore...

Working out of the house with a 4x4 in the garage I usually don't even bother to shovel the driveway....but if it's not too bad out I'll shovel a path up the driveway to the front door so the USPS and Amazon can deliver...

Was in Flicksville PA today, I'll be generous and call it 'painfully rural'. Not that I don't like that, but where to even get a pizza. I didn't take this pic in/of Flicksville (tho I did drive down this road); I stole it from.... Flickr.

I feel privileged when it snows over night and my vehicle is tucked in the garage, so I don't have to clear it off, I can just back out and go.

One would think they would have.....

No electric motor; pulled 76,000 lbs 82 feet:

For sure, I like the Rivian R1T a lot better, it's actually the best BEV truck so far in my opinion. Cybertruck is definitely more gimmicky if it's even the actual production truck Tesla would bring out.

As far as fleets, postal and parcel delivery seems like the use case where EVs could work the best. Lots of stop and go low speed daily use.

Cops of course are the extreme. But not all fleets run that high; school buses average 12K but some are only 8K. Regardless, it has to be the north end of the extreme to idle away $10K of fuel.

RIP Kobe. Its even more tragic that his 13 year old daughter also had to go. This event truly saddened me tonight.