Decent car YouTubes

[Matty]

Out of the two supercars, younger me on the release era of these two would have probably taken the GT.
Older more cultured me would now take the LFA.

[mik]

Jayemm performing a marmite review of the 997.1 GT3 owned by @scotta 's mate/acquaintance Stephen.

I hadn't realised it was quite so unique. WANT!

[Jobbo]

It’s not mythical - it’s just a an engine transplant. If Porsche had made a couple of factory 997.1 GT3s with the 3.8 engine, that would have been noteworthy.

[mik]

Yeah it doesn’t qualify as mythical for me either. It does qualify as unusual though, and it does qualify as desirable (to me).

[Jobbo]

I’d still probably rate the 997.1 GT3 as the GT3 I’d most like to own. Though a PDK 992.2 GT3 Touring with rear seats would potentially be more likely at some point.

[mik]

Porsche apparently made weight savings in the floor pan of the 997.2 GT3 (single as opposed to double skin in the rear cabin area) that make rear seats rather trickier - possibly more of an insurance challenge than a technical challenge (?)

997.1 is prettier to me and doesn’t have the centrelocks that I don’t desire on a 911, yet have no issue with on a CGT

[scotta]

It’s not mythical - it’s just a an engine transplant. If Porsche had made a couple of factory 997.1 GT3s with the 3.8 engine, that would have been noteworthy.

It’s the same 3.6. Rebuilt to 3.8 and the cost of many many pounds.

He’s also got a stripped caged 996 turbo and a stripped and caged r53 cooper S with about 280 bhp.

Likes a Kei car. Has a Autozam AZ-1 and a Suzuki cappuccino.

His daily is a G20 D3 Alpina Touring.

[Jobbo]

Porsche apparently made weight savings in the floor pan of the 997.2 GT3 (single as opposed to double skin in the rear cabin area) that make rear seats rather trickier - possibly more of an insurance challenge than a technical challenge (?)

997.1 is prettier to me and doesn’t have the centrelocks that I don’t desire on a 911, yet have no issue with on a CGT

I didn’t make a typo - I was referring to the 992.2 rather than 997.2. The 992.2 GT3 Touring can be specced with rear seats from the factory. But I’m more interested in it being a bargain S/T alternative.

[mik]

I didn’t make a typo - I was referring to the 992.2 rather than 997.2.

Ah. It would appear I made a reado.

[nuttinnew]

[nuttinnew]

[Matty]

Going back to me moaning about how stupidly difficult it is to recover modern cars - see below for an incredibly painful recovery process. I can't believe the AA agreed that this was the only way to recover it (no wheel dollies??). But that little lifting machine is incredible considering it's lifted well over 2T!

Should be timestamped, but skip to 19:08 if it doesn't as the first part is the review.

[mik]

(no wheel dollies??). But that little lifting machine is incredible considering it's lifted well over 2T!

That was indeed horrible. I didn’t see your comment until after I watched, but I was also wondering why TF no wheel Dollie’s were deployed. Would have saved all the damage….

That machine is superb, but it must weigh something like 5tonnes to allow it do do that without toppling (?)

[mik]

Looks like it’s one of these.

https://www.trackedmachines.com/towtracken/towtrack/

I can’t easily tell if it’s the smaller model (rated at 2.2tonnes capacity - so around 500kg overloaded) or the bigger one (the “XL” rated to 3.5tonnes capacity)

Edit: as there are only 4 support wheels between the main track wheels, I think this is the smaller machine. The “XL” has 7 support wheels. Bit risky then….

[Mito Man]

Just from quickly viewing.
Why not remove the carbon aero covers before chucking a strap on?
Why not remove the rear wheels, unplug the electronic handbrake, apply 12 volts to release it? Then tow it as normal.
AA looking rather stupid here imo.

[integrale_evo]

I presume the recovery people are just that, they can’t do anything mechanical or remove wheels etc.

Seems absurd that they have such a fancy recovery machine (which looked overloaded by the way it was rocking) but nothing else other than a couple of plastic wedges. No proper dollies etc.

I assume the recovery companies insurance will pay for the damages which is why they didn’t seem particularly worried about it.

Yet again, no way to get a stuck car into neutral.

[Beany]

I'm more amazed at the utter incompetence of Lotus for not suggesting changing the fob battery, turning a two minute fix - ten minutes if you have to walk to the local corner shop to buy one - into a an all day job that ends up damaging the car and the guys drive....after they've been told he's making a video review about it and it's a press car.

Nice one there Lotus, really helping yourself shed that Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious reputation you have.

I am surprised the AA didn't have dollys, given how many cars these days tend to 'lock up' with a flat battery, but then it seems Lotus didn't tell them much about any car specific stuff when they set the contract up given that they're now going to 'provide sufficient product information' to the AA about it from here on in. I sort of assumed manufacturers did that beforehand so that the AA doesn't mangle their well heeled, discerning, customers shiny new cars up.

I'm still amazed it doesn't clearly warn about a low keyfob battery (he shows a lotus FB group where people are saying "I always carry the second key with me/I make sure I have a spare coin cell in the car with me/I've only seen the warning about a low battery flash up once, every other time it's just been dead without warning") given that without it, the car is a fucking paperweight.

At this stage, I'm not losing sleep if Lotus go fully, properly bankrupt - that's what happens when you make shit products, badly. At this stage, they're just British Leyland with a six figure price tag and if they can't make a competent product at that level of the market, they don't deserve to exist in it.

[nuttinnew]

Never mind all this replace the battery bollocks, why isn't it a rechargeable that does so when you place it on the mat as requested?

[Beany]

Fact is, it appears it's not - and if it is, then the recharging for it isn't working.

End of the day, it's is still a Lotus problem.

(IIRC rechargeable coin cells are at different voltages to regular ones (3.7v nominal vs 3v, max charge of >4v etc) which means they're typically not safe to switcheroo with a regular system and also have different discharge characteristics, making them less suitable for single-cell usage - I've never used one at a time, certainly - only in cell piles, those packs of coin cells wrapped in plastic that typically have a connector to go into an alarm system etc for battery backup)

[integrale_evo]

BMWs from the early 2000s have a single, ignition barrel recharged battery in the key which typically lasts 20+ years.

Why a key type device that asks you to leave it in a specific place isn’t recharged in that place is bonkers.