Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we've got reports from Petrolicious, Autocar, The Truth About Cars, and Vice.
Riding Sideways In A Ferrari F40 Changed My Life — Petrolicious
Alan Franklin over at Petrolicious recounts a ride he took in a Ferrari F40 when he was just a boy. Shocklingly, it was amazing. Who'da thunk it?
Twist the key one notch and hear the fuel pumps whirr for a second or so, then turn it a bit more—a conventional sounding starter motor spins for a moment before a twin turbo, 2.9 liter V8 explodes with a deep and bassy flare of guttural, dry-throated revs far larger than its modest displacement would suggest is possible. Pull the shiny black ball rubbing your kneecap left then back until you hear the chrome stick it sits atop clink into first gear, and slowly let out the clutch—gearwhine and the sound of thousands of tiny rocks pinging against the uninsulated floor are the predominate sensations… until you drop that massive hammer.
The Caterham Seven: Old vs. New — Autocar
Hey, the Caterham Seven turns 40 this year! It hasn't changed much since it began life as the Lotus Seven. To find out how it has, Autocar pitted a new one against a 1981 Super Seven Twin Cam.
What strikes you straight between the eyes the moment you see the two together is how different they look. They share a wheelbase, but very little else. The older car looks far prettier and more dainty, whereas the new Caterham majors on pugnacious presence.
Its headlights are smaller, lower and further forward and no longer appear like Mickey Mouse ears in the driver’s sightline. The nose cone of the new car is entirely different, shorter and more snub, and at the other end, where the older car carries a spare wheel and tyre, the rear of the new Seven is unrelieved save for, in this case, a pair of go-faster stripes.
Snow Drifting — The Truth About Cars
When the weather outside is frightful, it's drifting time, motherfuckers. Isn't that how the old song goes? It is when you live in Japan and a buddy is teaching you the art of getting sideways in a Nissan 200SX Turbo, writes TTAC's Thomas Kreutzer.
In one swift, smooth motion, Kazu whipped the wheel and with a quick heel to toe movement of his feet pitched the Nissan into the curve. The back end slipped out and the nose of the car pivoted towards the inside ditch. Kazu mashed the gas, found the groove and held the car there on the edge of control as we slipped through the corner. Upon our exit, he straightened the car and raced towards the next curve here he completed the process in the opposite direction. The curves came faster and Kazu continued to navigate them with remarkable skill, the car always on edge but never out of control in his capable hands.
Here's Who's Making a Buck Off Citi Bike — Vice
New York's Citi Bike is about to bring cycling to the Manhattan masses! As someone who's been using a similar program in D.C. a lot lately, I'm excited to see if this works out for you New Yorkers like it has for us Washingtonians.
Ideally, more cycling means less traffic congestion, so it could be potentially awesome for car enthusiasts like us. No one likes traffic.
So who stands to make money off the new program? Vice's Motherboard blog has the scoop on that:
This corporate investment means the bike program is actually expected to turn a profit (this is New York, people!) from the fees it charges users. Non-sponsored models, like Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C., are struggling to generate any revenue (thanks to expensive operating costs you don’t think about, like redistributing the bikes at the end of the day). Already 15,000 people have signed up for Citi Bike, whose pricing model targets tourists and locals alike.