u/Taco_Frend

Someone got on me for having low reliability in a sports car I made. So I made the most reliable car possible.

Also the way reliability is handled in this game is kinda dumb. You car is less reliable because it has four doors instead of two. It uses fuel injection, so it's less reliable that carburetion. There are safety features? Unreliable!

So I took all of those things out. Bare bones. Zero features. Maximum reliability.

In 1990, Japanese Kei car manufacturers made a gentleman's agreement that kei cars should have no more than 63 horsepower. In 1992 Chōten decided to be a bunch of rascals rather than gentlemen and break that agreement.

Probably the homologation car for a small Japanese rally team.

I've done several performance cars with low displacement engines, but never an inline 4 cylinder, so I decided to make one. Twin charging helps make up for the turbo lag and give better throttle response.

The Ford Songbird aka Bruce Jr! With a kei compliant version of the Barra inline 6!

Turns out shotglasses are very small. And of course running it entirely on ethanol because it's an alcohol themed "muscle car."

In 1999, Andrew Lawrence put forth the idea of the skyscraper index, the idea that the world's tallest building is planned or built right before a recession hits.

In 2006, Chevrolet began planning and designing the GM equivalent of the world's tallest skyscraper, a luxury sedan with their first ever V10. A team led by Chief engineer John Motorman created the LX1, a naturally aspirated V10 that made 472 horsepower at 6,000 rpm.

"We basically got some guy to cut two cylinders from one LS2 and weld it to the end of another LS2 and got another guy to machine new crank shafts and stuff," said Motorman. "The whole thing was done in a week or two and we just spent the rest of the time the bosses gave us drinking mimosas and investing in subprime mortgages. It was pretty great."

The engine was then planted in a long wheel base sedan with power sent through a six speed automatic transmission to the rear wheels.

"We wanted something kind of like a Chevrolet Impala or Malibu but elevated to a higher, more luxurious style without going full Cadillac, a return to the sports sedans of old. We looked at the names and realized that Chevrolet has a thing for fancy places in California. There's the iconic Chevy Bel Air, the Chevy Malibu, and so we went with Beverly Hills. It was going to be a new era of luxury for all."

The Beverly Hills was unveiled at the New York Auto Show in March of 2008 and marked the beginning of a century of prosperity and- what's that‽ It's the 2008 financial crisis with a steel chair!

"Yeah. Everyone on the Beverly Hills team got canned in all the layoffs. Not just because we made the most hubristic thing any of us had ever seen at GM, aside from the Hummer, but because we put all those mimosas on the company card. The bosses weren't exactly happy about that, and the IRS said those didn't count as a real work expense."

Motorman says he doesn't regret the experience.

"Listen we were given a job to make an automotive skyscraper, and we did it on time and under budget if you don't count all the champagne and orange juice. And honestly, a number of us made out like bandits on those subprime mortgages others held on a little too long. We got reconnected over zoom back in 2020, started a jazz band called LX1, and we're about to drop an album titled High Octane Champagne."

Started working on a car and it reminded me of a certain little guy.

Sometimes when I'm on the phone with someone on speaker phone I can hear little snippets of my voice and yeeeikes.

Dodge's answer to the Miata, the Copperhead. Same bore and stroke as the Viper V10, but you make it a four cylinder. And then you make it look like a smaller Dodge Viper instead of whatever hellish monstrosity they came up with for the Copperhead originally.

Not even mine. I just thought it was a great photo opportunity and if they find it, that's rad too!