balthazar

THAT'S NOT LUXURY. You've wandered way off topic, yet again. Remember what you replied to? The current SIlverado base truck comes with a 40/20/40 front seat- in that the armrest can be folded up & if there are center belts, I believe that's certainly akin to a 'bench' 3-abreast seat.

• I really like the GC styling. Walked by a GC SRT at the dealer recently, I think I did a 'sharp inhale- slow exhale'. If I cared to spend that kind of money on a vehicle, it'd be a top contender. • DD- the Roadie WagonMaster was 218" overall- even a mid-60s GTO is 207-ish. Most garages are too small, period. I did cram my '65 Bonneville in my house garage, and that was 222". Didn't have to touch the wall, but there was no squeezing around either end of it.

Since there is no production Urus currently, it's not it. But what's more telling is you compare a concept-only SUV to an established one & judge merely on a price tag. Different buyers are going to value different criteria in judging "more luxurious". To many it's features, room, comfort- that's why the Germans built '3 sausages, different lengths' and charge more as they get larger. You surely don't think a Urus is going to ride better or be more comfortable than an Escalade, do you? It's a lifted Gallardo with AWD. Does anyone commonly associate luxury with Lambos? No.

Is BMW going to finally step up to Tier 1 with this, their 7th PHEV effort?

Are you comparing luxury SUVs to sports cars?

A MB s-class is bigger in width & length than a Ford Ranger. And there's a plethora of big rigs criss-crossing Europe every day. It's not the age-old inner city street widths; it's purely a home market demographic.

I've sat in a Lotus Exige once. Only rear engine cars I've ridden in (don't recall driving them) were an old Beetle and a '65 Corvair. Not quite the class of the aforementioned...

Moltar is a bit too literal at times.

Plus dimensions are a component of luxury. It's why a C-class doesn't start @ $95K. Most modern sedans are generally tight, what with overstuffed consoles, convoluted door panels, etc. Some people don't find it comfortable to spend any considerable time wedged into a singular position.

No doubt that was a refreshing experience! I took a short spin in this today, also column shift/ bench w/ pull-down armrest. Comfy- and also more width than a MB GLS inside :

Kind of amazing how different auto markets can be. For perspective, lil' GMC first surpassed 200K units in 1977 (223K).

The penalties & consequences of short-life lightweight materials.

Issue is the GLS is only mid-size in width. GLS shoulder room, frt/rr : 58.5" / 58" Escalade shoulder room, frt/rr : 65" / 64" That's a whole different size class right there, so of course it's going to feel tighter in the GLS.

Earliest mention I can find is XP-719, 'Chevrolet Corvette rear engine proposal' (this preceded XP-722, the engineering program for the '63 A-Bodies, so likely would be circa 1960-61). More rear-engined Corvette programs: XP-789, XP-817, XP-819, XP-844, XP-882 ('Astro II'), XP-895. That's off the XP list which only goes to the early 70s. As posted above, there were many more. It'll be an amazing 'coming home' of efforts of over 50 years when the RE Corvette finally comes out. Personally, I'm not a fan of RE sports car proportions.

Probably true; meaning any economies of scale WON'T be passed on to EV buyers, and IC buyers will get gouged in tandem.

I've never cared for the 'fenderside' versions of any truck of any generation after the early 60s- they just look like 2 different trucks welded together IMO. Even the '57 F-250 I owned was a Styleside (first year).

The official list at Nurburing, I believe, is all production/semi-production vehicles, not one-off custom race cars. Sure others have run, but this is a discussion about the upcoming production ZR1. I'm sure the CR7 could be run there too, but these cars are another discussion. Has Subaru or a sponsor run a production STI there?

GLS needs more width, and to address the 5 " frt legroom advantage Escalade has to become more competitive. Question is, will the Navigator eat into GLS sales?

C'mon- that's not a production WRX STI, it's a full-cage modified WRX STI Type RA NBR race car. It has 600 HP vs. the OEM 305.

Dedicated race car on different road course entirely. I see no one has bothered to run a subaru on the ring... And there are Corvettes faster than the production times mentioned above, as you surely know, Mr Fantastic Times.

Your clock spring may be over-wound.

Pontiac's anti-abduction option, 1940 :

When the Camaro ZL1 ran Nurburing in 2011, it posted a 7:41 time (#61 on the top 100 list). The '18 Camaro ZL1 was just run at 7:16 (#15 slot) - a time decrease of .25 sec. The last Corvette ZR1 run was 7:19 in '12 (#19 slot), 22 secs quicker than the '11 ZL1. Will be tremendously interesting to see how far Chevrolet cut their baby's lap time down. I predict they get a 7:00.

Don't forget the honda clarity. The issue in general with auto design is that the basic envelope is locked it- that hasn't changed in decades now. If you look at a decade-decade changes, the industry has slowed to a crawl. For example, these are 10 years apart; we'll never see this degree of change again. A 1995 Camry & 2015 Camry are the same basic proportion/size. So what's left? increasingly (biazarre) & polarizing detailing. Until the pods get here.