Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we have reports from Los Angeles Times, ASME and HitFix.
Answer this, Elon Musk: 5 tough questions about Tesla profits – LA Times
There was some information in Tesla's earnings report today. We got some info on the materials shortage Tesla potentially faces, as well as the timeline for Model X sales. But there are more substantial questions the company needs to answer, eventually.
Each Tesla Model S sports sedan — retail price of $70,000 to $100,000 depending on options — gets up to $10,000 in government tax credits and rebates, depending on the state. What happens when those go away?
Mechanical Engineering Marvel Resurfaces – ASME
One deep secret left from the Cold War, this is a great look at one interesting piece of technology from 1968.
Speculation has followed Project Azorian through the years—the CIA did not even reveal the mission's name until 2010, when it released declassified information and documents. The Glomar Explorer's details were well-known before that; ASME in 2006 designated the ship as a historical mechanical engineering landmark.
20 years later: An oral history of 'Reality Bites' – HitFix
Let's run though the car issues in Reality Bites: Winona Ryder's dad gives an old E23 7-series because his wife just got a new Infiniti. Then Ben Stiller crashes into the BMW with his classic Saab 900 convertible. No really, it's a good movie.
It was February 18, 1994. Kurt Cobain was still with us, but the grunge revolution had already begun to morph into something more palatable: "alternative." A generation labeled "X" was struggling to enter the work force amid a recession, that economic reality yielding "slackers" and "sell-outs" in equal measure — labels that would soon enough become little more than pop cultural shorthand.
Photo: Getty Images