The Semi-Unofficial Pistol-Forum Car geek, gearhead, hot rodder, and vehicle thread

[Ed L]

That third episode was just amazing. It is rare for someone to fail on camera and Idris has my respect for taking that risk. I am also crazy jealous!

Yes, from about 29:30-32ish we see Idris Elba's professional driving teacher tell him to brake more, and then we see a bad result that thankfully Idris and the professional race driver with him were able to walk away from without injury.

I find all of the videos with Idris to be very watchable. The thing that strikes me about Idris Elba is that he seems very genuine, driven, and willing to push himself to the limit in a non-chest thumping way. Contrast this with the typical celebrities or actors trying to do something out of their field on video which often comes across as contrived and phony.

Idris also trained and fought as a professional hard core Kick Boxer. It was the real deal, not a vanity, reality TV BS. I know that this is a car topic, but these three videos of Idris training to be a pro kickboxer and boxing in the ring against a professional kickboxer.

[awp_101]

[rob_s]

Various mental rabbit holes led me to thinking about the Acura NSX. Apparently the current version is e ding production this year, mostly due to poor sales, which are mostly due to price vs what you can get for the same money.

It got me thinking this morning, before my first cup of coffee has even sunk in, are there any re-boots that car companies have ever gotten right? Or, even improved?

I had a 2005 GTO, Which I loved, but as-evidenced by the fact that they only sold that version from 2004-06, arguable didn’t get “right”. Main objection seemed to be the styling, although funnily enough it was faster than any previous production GTO AND the fact that it looked like a normal car was actually very on-brand.

When the Dodge Charger reboot was first announced everyone was excited, then everyone was pissed that it was a 4-door sedan.

The Challenger was better, but was kinda too late. Although both cars are still in production to DODGE is obviously doing something right, in spite of the names.

Thunderbird? Dumpster fire.

VW beetle maybe a success?

New Dodge Dart, obviously a joke (but, again, in some ways on-theme to the original).

Ford GT is pretty good.

I didn’t realize until googling for this post that the Camaro was out of production from 2002 to 2010? So I guess that’s a “win”?

The new Bronco is obviously getting a ton of positive press, even if plagued by issues (albeit many of them not Ford’s fault).

The new Supra seems to have everyone mad?

The Mini seems to be a success, in spite of perhaps straying from the original quite a bit?

The 2nd Gen F150 Lightning was a win vs the first Gen, I’d argue, but the new electric version (even though I have a deposit on one) isn’t really on-brand IMO. Can’t really blame them for re-booting the name though. How do you own the rights to “Lightning” and NOT use it for your electric truck?

[BehindBlueI's]

I think the early 5th gen Camaro was done right, and sales reflected it. Retro styling that was both immediately recognizable as tied to the original, but updated and not just a line-for-line redo. The interior is very well done, right down to the essentially useless 4-pack of gauges down low in the center. The early 5th gens will, I think, be one of those cars that attains classic status sooner rather than later. The 6th gen, while a better car in any performance metric (faster, lighter, slightly up on power) became more 'euro' and less Camaro.

As far as revived nameplates that don't evoke the original but are market successes: Maverick. From econobox car to mini-pickup is a pretty big swing form-wise, but Ford is going to have no issues selling every one they make for awhile.

[rob_s]

The Mini seems to be a success, in spite of perhaps straying from the original quite a bit?

Speaking of, I had no idea they’d finally given one balls. I’d love to take one for a spin.

[hufnagel]

Biggest problem with the Mini is it's no longer british... it's german (BMW). Amazingly that was a step in the wrong direction in terms of reliability and serviceability.

[OlongJohnson]

It got me thinking this morning, before my first cup of coffee has even sunk in, are there any re-boots that car companies have ever gotten right? Or, even improved?

I had a 2005 GTO, Which I loved, but as-evidenced by the fact that they only sold that version from 2004-06, arguable didn’t get “right”. Main objection seemed to be the styling, although funnily enough it was faster than any previous production GTO AND the fact that it looked like a normal car was actually very on-brand.

When the Dodge Charger reboot was first announced everyone was excited, then everyone was pissed that it was a 4-door sedan.

The Challenger was better, but was kinda too late. Although both cars are still in production to DODGE is obviously doing something right, in spite of the names.

VW beetle maybe a success?

New Dodge Dart, obviously a joke (but, again, in some ways on-theme to the original).

Ford GT is pretty good.

The new Supra seems to have everyone mad?

The Mini seems to be a success, in spite of perhaps straying from the original quite a bit?

Quote is trimmed some for brevity.

How does this post get made without including the 2005 Mustang? That's the reboot that made reboots the thing everybody did. A (much needed) quantum leap in performance and style for what was still essentially a well-refined '76 Fairmont under the skin.

New Beetle was objectively a worse car than the Golf and Jetta that were its mechanical twins in every way I can think of.

New MINI was brilliant, in its original form. Until the warranty expired. All the updates just look like they took the previous generation and added more psi to the styling buck.

The GTO had some basic utilitarian deal breakers due to having been engineered as a four-door, but only given two doors. The best thing about it, I thought, was the 100-mph kangaroo-finding headlights. Those were the best available at the time, by far, and probably since.

The Charger and Dart were, as you mention and like the GTO, really only reboots in use of the name. The Charger was just a sportier but no better looking version of the 300 "Homermobile." Both cars have evolved into good looking, good performing cars since the Europeans started calling the shots.

Challenger was the response to the Mustang (as was the Camaro). It was as small as they could make it simply by trimming the existing stampings for the floorpan used on the 300 and Charger. No new stampings were in the budget.

First Ford GT was cool, but overweight. Everything about it was just too big and heavy. The beauty of the original was its 2200-2300 lb weight and compact size. New GT is just recycling the name onto Ford's version of a modern supercar. Not really a reboot.

The NSX should have been the small-Ferrari killer that the original NSX was at the time. They should have joined a pair of K24s at the crank to make a 450-500 hp V8 and made the car as light and simple as possible. But looking at the original NSX and S2000, that's not how Honda does "performance cars." They only do that when making Civics. Or used to, anyway.

I'm not emotionally invested enough in the old Supra to be mad about the new one, but the styling does zero for me and everything under the skin is BMW. Old Supra was the pinnacle of most of what was good about Toyota, when it stood farthest above the rest of the industry in the ways that it did. New Supra offers none of that and isn't even enjoyable to look at. I don't know who buys it. If you're going to own a BMW, at least get one that's styled like a BMW.

Summarizing: As I remember it, the New Beetle and MINI were just quirky Euro companies doing something quirky and Euro. The '05 Mustang was Ford doing something that made people care again. And then its competitors did. So in a way, it revitalized the entire performance automobile segment, making non-exotic cars something people who weren't just car nerds cared about. While individual examples may be misses, I would say the reboot practice has, as a whole, been a success.

[TGS]

Speaking of, I had no idea they’d finally given one balls. I’d love to take one for a spin.

It has a harsh ride and some of the worst torque steer of any production automobile, ever.

ETA: Wait, check that. I didn't realize at first your video was referring to the Clubman, which I didn't look into. I was referring to the Mini Cooper JCW.

[Suvorov]

First Ford GT was cool, but overweight. Everything about it was just too big and heavy. The beauty of the original was its 2200-2300 lb weight and compact size. New GT is just recycling the name onto Ford's version of a modern supercar. Not really a reboot.

Just added to my ignore list 😏

[OlongJohnson]

Just added to my ignore list 😏

Just my opinion, but it is based on actually driving one back when they were in production.