California DMV Is Proposing A Ban On 'Driverless' Vehicles

It’s been a cold, snowy January.  Highs have been in the 20s since the 1st, flurries every day.  I always start my Mustang once a week, got it and the Caddy out this morning.  Roads are salty so they went back in the garage…

First a bit of history for those that might not know much about the art of Drifting. This is a motor sport that was born in Japan by Keiichi Tsuchiya, the man known as Drift King. This is a sport where through artwork of handling the clutch, brake and accelerator along with pulling on the e-brake one can drift or slide through corners. The movie Fast n Furious Tokyo Drift covers this if you're wanting to see some amazing drifting caught on film. Hyundai Motors has given us an amazing performance EV in the IONIQ 5 N edition and Hyundai choose to take this to the next level by bringing in the DK himself. As such, Keiichi Tyuchiya worked with Hyundai to create the ultimate DK EV. The video above will show you how DK's experience was used in interpreting the ultimate experience in EV handling with a special DK Edition performance parts package that comes on the IONIQ 5 N DK edition. Hyundai performance team worked hand n hand with Tsuchiya-san in selecting the ultimate components, then tested and tuned the EV on Japan's legendary race tracks and Touges for the ultimate drifting experience. Performance on the IONIQ 5 N DK edition starts at the bottom with a set of 21" forged wheels, these wider wheels ended up giving a weight reduction of 10.6 kg with a wider rim width for superior grip. The next step is superior braking where Hyundai Performance put in a 6P Monoblock braking system fitted to precisely machined duralumin calipers giving a bigger pad area for improved brake performance. This is an increase of brake pad contact area by 54% with increased friction grip leading to superior stopping power. The final part of this bottom up approach to a DK edition is Lowering Springs. The DK Edition is an H&R performance spring kit that lowers the center of gravity, enhancing the driving performance and stability. This spring set lowered the DK edition by an additional 15mm over a stock IONIQ 5 N. Unlike the IONIQ 5N standard parts, Hyundai and DK has stated that the new lightweight carbon fiber aero parts that come on the IONIQ 5 N DK edition increased down force by 93 kgf at 140 km/h.  The new Aero parts are a Carbon Fiber front splitter, Carbon Fiber Rear Spoiler, Carbon Fiber side skirt, and a carbon fiber rear diffuser. Full details of this amazing ride can be looked at the official website here: IONIQ 5 N DK Edition | Hyundai N All the full videos can be looked at here at the dedicated Hyundai N Worldwide website: Hyundai N Worldwide - YouTube Now if your wondering why all the specifications on the DK edition of the IONIQ 5 are metric is that at this time, Hyundai has stated that at this time the IONIQ 5 N DK edition will only be offered for sale in Korea and Japan at this time. At this time, enthusiast will have to wait and keep bugging the executives to bring it stateside as I can see this EV drifting up the roads across North America.   View full article

@bobo Thank you for the great write-up, as usual. In a weird way, a lot happened in 2025, but it's mostly in big chunks of much the same. As he always intends to do, Trump dominates the spotlight, as would any megalomaniac.  The same has become more and more true for Elon Musk. However, the former has people finding all sorts of ways to defend him and support him when the evidence says they shouldn't.  It's not that way with the latter.  The public's opinion of Musk is mostly negative.  How can it not be after his jumping up and down?  Then there's his recent comment to Justin Trudeau.  Crassness seems to be more popular than ever. The deaths number much the same as they always do, but Quincy Jones, OJ Simpson, Phil Donahue (the father of a genre, IMO), Dr. Ruth (96), Bob Newhart, Shannen Doherty (yes, with an e), Richard Simmons (76, he fell in his home) and, of course, Jimmy Carter (100) stand out to me.  As for OJ, wow, a chapter of tabloid crap also went with him.  When working in the PacNW, the OJ disaster came on the news and the hateful locals in the office had to shake their heads and comment 'yeah, what you'd expect in L.A.' when he was leading the police in a chase up the freeway with people on overpasses cheering him on.  From what I could tell, the folks cheering were sort of ghetto.  Not one person I know, and probably anyone they'd know, would have been cheering on OJ escaping in his Bronco. It's great that Notre Dame in Paris reopened.  The trusses in older historic structures tend to be heavy timber.  Perhaps this will lead to greater safeguards to protect such structures.  As for a cause, they are offering an "or" scenario ... either a cigarette butt OR an electrical short circuit.   I, for one, will miss the steadfast Chevy Malibu.  It would be like guessing how many marbles as to how many I've rented and how many miles I've put on this car model ... enough to feel like it's my daily driver when I get behind the wheel of one.

There isn't much in the way of mixed fleets when it comes to airlines.  I'm referring to Boeing and Airbus.  Some do it out of loyalty (Alaska goes with Boeing, being in Seattle).  Some do it out of efficiency. In Europe, the bigger airlines buy from both manufacturers (British, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, Turkish ...) as they have both the Airbus 350 and the Boeing 787 in their fleets.  Lufthansa amazingly uses both superjumbos - the Airbus 380 and the Boeing 747-8. Slightly smaller but still international airlines are now going with one vendor.  In Europe, this would now be TAP Portugal, Finnair, and ITA (the successor to Alitalia).  They have all Airbus fleets.

Cleaning up bookmarks as some are no longer valid ... 10+ years of accumulating and tentatively archiving them ... Thought I'd share this beautiful photo I found in my bookmarks of an Iberia 747, which they no longer operate, taking flight.  I'm almost sure it's a home base departure from Madrid, but don't know where it's headed ... could be New York, Miami, Buenos Aires, etc.