Antony Ingram
@antonyingram.bsky.social
Car geek | Words for hire | Cars (French and Japanese), gaming (racing and visual novels), photography (film)
Ugh. I've had people edit spelling and punctuation errors into my stuff before and add lines of their own volition, but nothing to this extent.
November 30, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Ugh. I've had people edit spelling and punctuation errors into my stuff before and add lines of their own volition, but nothing to this extent.
I think they benchmarked the E36. It's a close-run thing for me with the looks between those two, but I definitely prefer the IS styling to the E46 it ended up competing against.
November 30, 2025 at 12:20 PM
I think they benchmarked the E36. It's a close-run thing for me with the looks between those two, but I definitely prefer the IS styling to the E46 it ended up competing against.
Out in the sticks there's a lot of abandoned stuff, the valuable land is in the cities really.
November 30, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Out in the sticks there's a lot of abandoned stuff, the valuable land is in the cities really.
Ironically a GR Yaris is quite old-school in some ways, not as hyper-responsive as a lot of modern performance cars, but clearly there's not much of it left by the time it becomes a WRC car...
November 30, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Ironically a GR Yaris is quite old-school in some ways, not as hyper-responsive as a lot of modern performance cars, but clearly there's not much of it left by the time it becomes a WRC car...
Yeah, the modern cars are amazing technologically, but 30 seconds of footage of Group A is more exciting - the cars looked like they needed muscling around, they didn't have the insane control and ability of the new ones - parallels with the road cars themselves.
November 30, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Yeah, the modern cars are amazing technologically, but 30 seconds of footage of Group A is more exciting - the cars looked like they needed muscling around, they didn't have the insane control and ability of the new ones - parallels with the road cars themselves.
It's pretty funny how many crews still use old Evos and Imprezas as recce cars, it sort of suggests very little has been made since that does the job as well (or even the drivers are secretly wishing for a return to cars like that...)
November 30, 2025 at 7:36 AM
It's pretty funny how many crews still use old Evos and Imprezas as recce cars, it sort of suggests very little has been made since that does the job as well (or even the drivers are secretly wishing for a return to cars like that...)
Basically, the cars and drivers are too specialised, so a great driver in a car that's basically perfect will dominate if they don't get knocked out by retirements (and like all motorsport, that's mainly crashing rather than mechanical now, so those that don't crash don't retire).
November 30, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Basically, the cars and drivers are too specialised, so a great driver in a car that's basically perfect will dominate if they don't get knocked out by retirements (and like all motorsport, that's mainly crashing rather than mechanical now, so those that don't crash don't retire).
Also, the cars are very impressive but with no real direct road equivalents (the Yaris gets closest obviously), there's not much to care about as an owner, and little technology transfer - rallying making road cars better and evolutions improving the rally cars.
November 30, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Also, the cars are very impressive but with no real direct road equivalents (the Yaris gets closest obviously), there's not much to care about as an owner, and little technology transfer - rallying making road cars better and evolutions improving the rally cars.
...which meant picking up a title meant winning the ones you were good at and doing your best on the event you knew would be taken by a local hotshot or a driver of a particular nationality (French/Italian on tarmac, a Scandinavian in Scandinavia)
November 30, 2025 at 5:36 AM
...which meant picking up a title meant winning the ones you were good at and doing your best on the event you knew would be taken by a local hotshot or a driver of a particular nationality (French/Italian on tarmac, a Scandinavian in Scandinavia)
I think it's also just how the sport has gone. It's coincidental that it's been mostly won by two very talented drivers, but those drivers (Loeb especially, being one of the first) can win any rally. There's no specialism any longer, where certain drivers could dominate on certain surfaces...
November 30, 2025 at 5:35 AM
I think it's also just how the sport has gone. It's coincidental that it's been mostly won by two very talented drivers, but those drivers (Loeb especially, being one of the first) can win any rally. There's no specialism any longer, where certain drivers could dominate on certain surfaces...
Incidentally the Isuzu was sold as a Vauxhall here and regularly found itself at the bottom of the table in customer satisfaction surveys...
November 30, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Incidentally the Isuzu was sold as a Vauxhall here and regularly found itself at the bottom of the table in customer satisfaction surveys...
Dunno what parts are like in the US but the problems they do have are fairly easily fixed these days.
I'd go RAV4, though I do think the OG Freelander is quite a neat bit of design.
I'd go RAV4, though I do think the OG Freelander is quite a neat bit of design.
November 30, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Dunno what parts are like in the US but the problems they do have are fairly easily fixed these days.
I'd go RAV4, though I do think the OG Freelander is quite a neat bit of design.
I'd go RAV4, though I do think the OG Freelander is quite a neat bit of design.
I have to imagine that if certain Euro regs were relaxed a bit there are half a dozen countries that kei cars would sell in big numbers in, at the right price.
November 29, 2025 at 12:59 PM
I have to imagine that if certain Euro regs were relaxed a bit there are half a dozen countries that kei cars would sell in big numbers in, at the right price.
Doesn't help that in Europe nobody can really afford the things. Kei cars are absurdly cheap by European standards so there's always a ready market, helped by the MOT-style inspections being tough so I think people are incentivised to keep buying new.
November 29, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Doesn't help that in Europe nobody can really afford the things. Kei cars are absurdly cheap by European standards so there's always a ready market, helped by the MOT-style inspections being tough so I think people are incentivised to keep buying new.
It's odd but I quite like it, I've tried to let other people have a go in my cars when possible, part of the fun of owning something interesting.
November 29, 2025 at 12:56 PM
It's odd but I quite like it, I've tried to let other people have a go in my cars when possible, part of the fun of owning something interesting.
I'd love to know what the margins are on them. They're mostly the same car underneath so the tricky engineering stuff doesn't need to be repeated. And I guess there's never any wasted effort giving them more power/handling/brakes etc than they need, given the low power.
November 29, 2025 at 10:48 AM
I'd love to know what the margins are on them. They're mostly the same car underneath so the tricky engineering stuff doesn't need to be repeated. And I guess there's never any wasted effort giving them more power/handling/brakes etc than they need, given the low power.
Interesting, it's a similar thing between my 106 Rallye and a 205 Rallye! The 1.6 106 is already gone while the 205 is still waking up.
November 29, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Interesting, it's a similar thing between my 106 Rallye and a 205 Rallye! The 1.6 106 is already gone while the 205 is still waking up.
I'm not a big turbo freak but every time I get out of the RX-7 and into the MX-5 it's like... wow, where'd all the torque go? 😆 The MX-5's not even that bad for that but the RX starts really waking up from about 2500rpm.
November 29, 2025 at 10:46 AM
I'm not a big turbo freak but every time I get out of the RX-7 and into the MX-5 it's like... wow, where'd all the torque go? 😆 The MX-5's not even that bad for that but the RX starts really waking up from about 2500rpm.
Amazing variety in that market. Europe's struggling along with a handful of small cars, while in Japan every manufacturer offers at least six or seven kei cars in different styles or playing different roles, and some more than that.
November 29, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Amazing variety in that market. Europe's struggling along with a handful of small cars, while in Japan every manufacturer offers at least six or seven kei cars in different styles or playing different roles, and some more than that.
That's a heck of a good history!
November 29, 2025 at 9:42 AM
That's a heck of a good history!