Editorial: Goodnight, Sweet Prince

Earlier this month, Toyota announced that it was giving the axe to its youth oriented Scion brand in August of this year. What happened? This is supposed to a brand that is marketed towards the millennial generation which, in theory, should have been a very profitable gamble. Scion also prided itself on a very straight forward pricing plan (what you see on the window sticker is what you pay), which also meant that Scion vehicles were generally very well equipped without having to spend all day negotiating with a salesperson. People hate dealing with shady salespeople, so this should have been great, right? I will tell you what happened that led to Scion's demise, or at least what I believe to be the reasoning behind Toyota's decision.

Editorial: I Don't Get Dual to Single Exhaust Conversions

Image courtesy of FT86 Club user FreedE

Let me start by saying it is not that I do not understand why people do them. There are certain cars out there that come from the factory with a dual outlet exhaust system, but does not really benefit from it aside from looks. There is also the fact that most single outlet exhaust systems will weigh much less than dual outlet systems. What I do not understand is why people do the dual to single conversion, and then just leave the unused exhaust cutout on the bumper.

Image courtesy of S2KI user alexisthemovie

Take my S2000 for example. There are a ton of single outlet aftermarket exhaust systems for the S2000. Even though it looks much better, the S2000 really does not benefit from having a dual outlet exhaust system. Taking a closer look at the S2000's full exhaust system, you will notice that the exhaust headers feed into a single pipe. Besides the fact that most inline engines would never benefit from the exhaust header feeding into more than one pipe, the car was not designed for more than one pipe anyway. In this sense, doing the dual to single conversion makes sense. It also helps that many of the single outlet systems designed for the S2000 are much lighter than their dual outlet counterparts. However, look at the above picture and take a good look at the bumper. How unsightly is it to see a giant, unused gap in the bumper? It just does not look right. If the average Joe saw that, they would wonder why you removed a chunk of your exhaust system and left a big gap in the bumper for no reason. Another car this happens to a lot is the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ. Look at the first picture of that white FR-S. Again with the unsightly and unused exhaust cutout. The bumpers were designed like that because they were designed for dual outlet exhaust systems, folks!

Image courtesy of S2KI user dut

Thankfully, there are companies that make aftermarket bumpers that have the unused exhaust cutout removed. Ultimately, this makes the car look much cleaner without the big gaping hole in the bumper. Just take a look at this black S2000. It almost looks as if it came out of the factory looking like that! There are also companies that just make caps that go over the unused cutout. Frankly, slapping a cap over the unused cutout looks really tacky. It is the same with car manufacturers that are too lazy to make two separate bumpers for cars that are available with both single and dual exhaust outlets, and just slap a cap over the unused outlet on their single outlet cars. If you are going to go the single exhaust outlet route, at least do it right and clean up the look so that it looks clean and sleek, not tacked on and cheap.

Image courtesy of DSG Performance

Ultimately though, I believe that cars that come from the factory with a dual exhaust look best with a dual exhaust system. Whether you stick with the factory exhaust or want to enhance the sound and power output of your car with an aftermarket system, if it comes with a dual exhaust, I think you should stick with it. Yes, it may weigh more and yes, the car may not actually benefit from maintaining a dual outlet setup, but ultimately the weigh difference is usually not much and it just looks better. Besides, when the vehicle was originally designed, the designer probably designed it with a dual exhaust because in the first place. Why go undo what the designer spent months, or even years to create?

Thanksgiving: Things we are thankful for in 2013

It is Thanksgiving and there is much to be grateful for. To celebrate, we wanted to take the opportunity to give thanks for all of the things that we have in our lives and the opportunities we had this year.

East Brother

I am thankful for the opportunity this year to have had a chance to drive a number of amazing cars, but none were quite as memorable as the Tesla Model S and the Jaguar F-Type V6S. Each of these cars still sticks in my mind as the funnest test drives I had all year. The upcoming coupe version of the Jag is going to be a blast and should be on everyone's shopping list next year. Tesla's impressive Model S sets the stage for the soon to be released Model X SUV and as yet unnamed mid-size sedan.

I am also thankful that I got to participate in the Pan Mass Challenge this year. This was the first time I have ever done a charity ride and my first full century ride. Training for it motivated me to improve my cycling and focus on growing my skills as a cyclist. That has led to a lot more fun riding for recreation as well as for transportation and a greater appreciation of what it takes to be a cyclist year round.

West Brother

I am thankful to have met folks like Bronson Wright of Subaru Pacific. The  Subaru BRZ was easily the most fun car I had test driven all year and thanks to Bronson, I was able to get the full experience of wringing out the car in a supervised test drive that most salesmen would never even think about doing. But it is not just the test drive I am thankful for. The Subaru BRZ, and its sister car the Scion FR-S, have injected life into a car segment that has been dying a slow and painful death. With the success of these two cars, I am hoping that other car manufacturers will now get their act together and put out more enthusiast oriented, reasonably priced sports car.

This year, I am also thankful to have had the opportunity to visit the Honda and Acura Collection. This was an event that I had been looking forward to since the day the event was posted on Acura's Facebook page. It was great to be able to meet one of the long time veterans of American Honda, as well as get the history behind some of Honda and Acura's best known cars. It was also a somewhat sad event as well, as the collection tour served as reminder of an era of Honda when the company truly cared about its enthusiast following, and not just making money.

Finally, we are thankful to have had the opportunity to share our experiences and adventures with all of you. We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving with their friends and family.