G. David Felt

Thanks for Posting Ocnblu, sad that GM seems to be following Tesla with minimal colors now and everything premium up charge and requires a package to get. So Grey, white or Black is bacis no charge colors, everything else is an add on charge requiring up level packages. Sucks.

Today multiple Ford Excursions mostly with V10 but one was Powerstroke powered. All in good shape. Those SUVs seem to last .

America falls farther behind the world. China now has a detailed plan in place to reduce and ban all Single Use Plastics in China by 2025. Only 8 states ban single use plastics and we still do not have any leadership out of DC to get recycling going and be better stewards of our country. https://electrek.co/2020/01/28/china-us-single-use-plastics-ban/ If your curious as to how your state is dealing with Recycling especially since China stopped taking any recycling material starting in 2018. https://www.wastedive.com/news/what-chinese-import-policies-mean-for-all-50-states/510751/ Would be great if we could get people to recycle old auto's, steel, etc rather than just leave it on property rusting away.

Loving that GM is being very clear that they cannot survive on Vaporware and must deliver competitive priced class leading quality EVs. https://electrek.co/2020/01/28/gm-president-on-its-electric-future-we-cant-get-away-with-vaporware/

The AWD system can handle it as we have various 3rd party companies doing 800HP out of an Escalade. Hennessey is the one that comes to mind and when you look at the web page, it is all engine upgrades and brakes, nothing to the AWD system. http://hennesseyperformance.com/vehicles/cadillac/escalade/2015-cadillac-escalade/2015-2017-cadillac-escalade-hpe800-supercharged-upgrade/

Love reading these history write ups and this one is pretty accurate on the history of the Escalade. https://www.automobilemag.com/news/cadillac-escalade-years/ Love that GM is making room in their heritage collection and as such selling off concepts! Check out this Escalade V edition concept they did in 2007 using the CTS-V V8. https://www.automobilemag.com/news/barrett-jackson-scottsdale-2020-auction-2007-cadillac-escalade/

Yes, thanks for pointing that out as I had not had a chance to look yet.

Seems GM has their new Logo ready for the growth of Hammtrack and the product line.

The More I read and see of the Ram, the more I like it over the Ford or Chevrolet trucks. The Ram is really shinning brightly. Funny how often the writers at C&D compare the Ram to the S-Class being equal with more rear seat leg room. LOL https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a27634301/2019-ram-1500-reliability-maintenance/ Have to say it is a very sharp side profile. FCA has a NEW U-Connect 5 now with support for Apple and Android phones. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30656688/fca-uconnect-5-infotainment-revealed/ Late to the party, but the new 12.3 inch screen and demo that is shown at the link makes it look nice. About time they got this portion of the auto on par to the rest of the tech industry.

Be interesting to when I have time look at the past media reports from GM to compare 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 to get some sort of track on what the sales really are. Then compare to what the news is reporting.

Cool, please share the site for the material, always looking for options as I agree Dynomat while very effective, is expensive.

Seems even with the challanges of a cooling market, China still is growing for GM. 2019 report is out. https://media.gm.com/media/cn/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/cn/en/2020/Jan/0107_sales.html GM delivered 3.09 million auto's in China for 2019 with Cadillac having an all time high of 213,717 auto's sold followed by 850,007 Buicks sold, 418,000 Chevrolets sold, 608,269 Baujun sold and 1,003,611 Wulings sold the two chinese brands GM owns. For those that are not familier the Baujun brand is youth focused line of sub compact auto's. Wuling is their medium commercial line of auto sold.

Right now just up on the blocks, ski season is my focus, so will start taking it apart this spring. Agree with you on the Dynomat. Planning to do the whole auto, so from the roof to the doors, fire wall, floor, etc. dynomat to remove the road noise. Wife and I have gotten to the point where on road trips, we do not want the tire, wind noise, etc. want a quiet relaxing drive. As I start taking it apart, I am planning on doing a thread on the project so folks can see what all I end up doing to it.

Seems the Raptor has a competor from PaxPower as a 3rd party package for Chevrolet Dealers. 442 V8 power plant! https://www.motor1.com/news/395149/chevy-silverado-jackal-video/ Want to enter for a chance to win a Sharp looking C10 Pickup? Enter here. https://www.motor1.com/features/363506/win-custom-chevy-c10-truck/ Gotta love a good match up for a Drag Race, how about the Mustang GT500 versus Hellcat? https://www.motor1.com/news/395001/gt500-vs-hellcat-drag-race/

For sports car fans, seems Mazda is not giving up on possibly bringing back a new updated Rotary sports car. Head of Mazda R&D says they are not stopping the idea of a new rotary sports car for select markets even with the drive by Mazda to go PHEV/EV. https://www.motor1.com/news/395292/2022-mazda-rx-7-rendering/ Who knows those that like sitting on the ground might get a new RX7 yet!

How do you take a drivers enjoyable car with lack luster HP/Torque and make it a blast to drive? Convert it to Electric. Latest project is one that took a Toyota 86, a car well known for driving dynamics much like a Miata and removing the lack luster ICE powertrain and going Electric with one from a Nissan Leaf. Yes they say they could have gone straight 6 of LS V8, but in this case it was easier and more straight forward to change out to the Nissan Leaf EV powertrain. https://www.thedrive.com/news/31967/nissan-leaf-swapped-toyota-86-is-an-electric-torque-monster

Seems the up coming refresh of the MB E-Class auto got leaked, nice looking but still the bland look of all MB Auto's IMHO. https://www.thedrive.com/news/31984/this-sure-looks-like-the-facelifted-20201-mercedes-benz-e-class WOW Ferrari dealership attempts to cover up crashing a consignment 458 and then pressures to sell it for less than expected. Ouch. https://www.thedrive.com/news/31983/ferrari-dealer-tried-to-cover-up-customers-240000-458-spider-crash-lawsuit Ice Ice Baby Mustange from Video is Back, restored and upgraded. https://www.thedrive.com/news/31980/ford-mustang-from-vanilla-ices-ice-ice-baby-is-back-after-four-year-restoration Latest Ford Bronco Spy Shots, Looking good! https://www.thedrive.com/news/31982/new-2021-ford-bronco-spy-shots-check-out-those-tires Have to say that the pictures show this to be a true Wrangler competitor with some of the Raptors bulging fenders. Liking what I see so far.

EV News, Seems China Owned Karma is joining the ranks of everyone else with throwing their hat into the ring for a full size electric truck and suv. Concepts will be unveiled this coming fall of 2020 with production slated for fall of 2021. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-27/karma-fisker-s-reincarnation-plans-an-electric-truck-and-suv Looking to make a difference in PHEV Sales, Mitsubishi is bringing a much needed improvement to their Outlander PHEV with more power, longer battery life for pure electric drive mode doubling from the current 22 miles to almost 50 plus a much needed update interior and exterior. https://www.autoblog.com/2020/01/27/mitsubishi-outlander-phev-more-power/ Good News on the Battery front for EVs. In 2010 if you bought an EV, you paid an average price of $1,100 per Kilowatt Hour compared to at the end of 2019 the price had fallen to $156 per Kilowatt hour. 87% price drop in 9 years and expected for the 2023 model year of EVs the price will be at $100 per Kilowatt hour. Industry trends and goals is to get battery packs down to $61 per kilowatt hour by 2030 if not sooner. EVs are expected to be on price parity with ICE auto's by 2024. https://about.bnef.com/blog/battery-pack-prices-fall-as-market-ramps-up-with-market-average-at-156-kwh-in-2019/

Cool Auto News Cadillac has added auto lane change to their Super-Cruise system. 2021 CT4, CT5 and Escalade will get it. Next week is the reveal of the 2021 Escalade in LA. Sadly the CT6 goes out of production this week according to GM. 1/3rd of CT6 sales had super cruise and 85% of those owners say they will only buy their next vehicle with super cruise. https://www.autonews.com/future-product/cadillac-adds-automated-lane-change-super-cruise GM's investment in Detroit Hamtrack is actually $3.5 billion of which $2.2 billion is part of their deal with the state on the Mega Tax Credit and they got increased flexibility on how they count the 45k plus workers that are covered by their 10 year mega tax break package. https://www.autonews.com/manufacturing/gm-make-origin-d-ham-after-pickup

400 miles was $30k half the price. I honestly thought the same thing when I originally priced it out over the holiday break, but then thought about this as just like @balthazar auto project that he has been working on for years, this will take me a few years too and the last thing to buy and install will be the battery pack. As such, I expect big changes to happen in the battery industry over the next 18 to 24 months and costs to come down considerably by the time I purchase the batteries. I am also going to update the interior with new carpet, insulation, etc. All things bulbs will be replaced with LEDs, so this is a long term project for me, I am excited to start.

Seems the existing auto companies / parts suppliers have created a new auto alliance to work together for auto's of the future and reduce costs. https://www.autosinnovate.org/ Good read here is that this new alliance also allows them to focus and reduce costs of dealing with various governments around the globe. Some interesting info here to read, but one point was that 2018, most current year of reporting, $125 billion was spent on R&D globally. 5,000 patents were filed that year. https://www.autosinnovate.org/press-release/auto-industry-trade-associations-unite-forming-unified-voice-on-critical-auto-policy-issues-and-championing-innovation/ Karma is the latest auto company to join the alliance. https://www.autosinnovate.org/news/ Seems everyone feels the auto industry over the next 20 years is going to change not just revolutionary, but evolutionary. Hybrid/EV seems to be the focus point.

Very true what @balthazar and @ccap41 are saying that those with skills, money and desire for the project will convert. Perfect example is me. I have my 1994 GMC SLE Suburban up on blocks now, planning to pull the ICE powertrain and convert to AWD electric. Love my suburban, love the space, want a nice fast quiet ride and with the space between the wheels underneath, it will fit enough SCRiB Toshiba Solid state batteries to give me an 800 mile charge. Using in-wheel hub motors with dual controllers will according to the manufacture in Detroit give me 800 hp and 4,000 lb ft of torque. Cost of the motors, wiring, controllers, etc. comes in at $12K. Battery pack is almost $60K. Yes, $72K or buy a new ICE Suburban. But the new ones I do not like as much as my old one and it is paid for, I have my SS and Escalade, so why not have a cool project for me to work on and the wife once Rivian and Ford have their EVs out will get a new auto. That is my plans and focus. I do have to find a buyer for the custom built 402 I have in the suburban with trans, diff's and customer chip controller. Love auto projects.

Agree, the upgrades will come when 3rd party vendors build bigger EV motors and people take a Tesla S and put in a much larger EV motor.

Yup full story here it was all mock up as a joke. https://insideevs.com/news/328334/tesla-model-s-fitted-with-chevrolet-ls3-v8-engine/ QUOTE: "The guys over at East Bay Muscle Cars haven’t given out much info about the build, and that’s because it was a joke all along." "EBMC was actually recruited by Draper University in San Mateo, California, to take a Tesla Model S shell and turn it into a reception desk. It came out awesome, nonetheless, but during the early stages of the build, the guys at the shop couldn’t help themselves and dropped an LS3 into the “frunk” of the Model S shell."

Just finished searching YouTube and yup, all click bait, no complete or running Tesla S conversion to ICE. Clearly does not fit without major re-engineering. did find a few Skylines that had been converted to EV using Tesla Motors. Pretty cool.