Comment by not_kurt_godel | Hacker News Reader

Comment by not_kurt_godel | Hacker News Reader

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> It is also, believe it or not, possible to own a moderately loud car (even with a modded exhaust)

Not legally in many places. California limits exhaust levels to 95 dbA or less, and I'm betting that OP's mods violate that given that "ATAK exhaust systems produce the highest dB (decibel) levels in the Borla line" [0]. Washington state prohibits modifying exhaust "in a manner which will amplify or increase the noise emitted by the engine of such vehicle above that emitted by the muffler originally installed on the vehicle" [1]

> Have you considered that maybe this guy just likes the car?

I'm inclined to give the same amount of consideration for this guy's preferences as he is towards the thousands of people he chooses to subject to unnecessary, annoying, unhealthy[1], and likely illegal noise.

[0] https://www.borla.com/products/atak

[1] https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.37.390

[2] https://noiseawareness.org/noise-hurts/impact-on-health/

If people want to roast this guy for installing annoying aftermarket noisemakers then I will not try to stop them. I mean to address the (plenty of) more generic comments like this one:

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A GR Corolla goes 0-60 in 4.9 - 5.4sec.

My unexotic stock electric does 0-60 in around 4.8sec, +/-.

So the same performance that requires a stupid amount of wasted energy as heat and noise can be had from stock electric, with a couple hundred ms leftover. Do you care about performance, or do you just want to just fart out a bunch of noise?

I get traditional car culture, but electrics embody the "money talks, wealth whispers" truism.

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and this one:

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My midlife crisis car would probably be a land cruiser. No need to go fast. Space and chill is best.

A 3 cylinder Corolla, regardless of how fast, is just people transportation at best and in the worst inefficient way possible. A normal base 23k usd Corolla , not saying anything against the car mechanically it is a great machine for what it is.

Just, overkill. Can’t go fast, need to have higher insurance, it’s more at risk for theft, and it’s not easily replaceable as compared to a 23k corolla.

Do you mean a real Land Cruiser, like the ones that can cross deserts? I'm with you.

Land Cruisers are great! If this guy wants a Land Cruiser then he should get one. His interest in Land Cruisers is not my issue with his comment.

There is more to performance than 0-60. But Elon told normies that's what matters, now suddenly everyone quotes those times like gospel.

It's meant for spirited driving. If it wasn't so expensive it'd be an amazing car for tooling around on gravel roads with some skidplates. Electric won't take you out to the boonies, you can't bring more juice with you and ultimately an electric package that will consistently produce 300hp while weighing 3200lbs does not exist. As far as Land Cruisers's I feel that the externalities of those and other neo-vintage boxes on 33" tires are greater than anything else on the road. Horrible mileage, makes everything less safe, less agility, less visibility, all to cosplay.

> If it wasn't so expensive

It's too bad that Toyota and Honda don't have a WRX analogue sitting below their STI analogue, but I guess the demand for that kind of car isn't what it used to be.

I'd settle for the Civic SI having a bit more power on tap. Budgetizing the GRC might be a bit more problematic.

If they could shoehorn the Prius drivetrain into a Corolla hatchback (not sure of packaging, a Corolla hybrid sedan already loses 2 gallons of gas vs the normal car, maybe with solid-state batteries), that could be a great, if sonically unpleasant, middle ground. The hybrid Civics already give the Si a run for the money (though the 6 speed and LSD are great). I could see Honda being able to punch the engine out to 2.3 (they shrank the bore on the hybrid to 81mm for efficiency) and with updated battery tech eek out 230hp. Add an LSD, type R control arms/spindles/sway bars and that'd be an incredible 40mpg combined daily though dangerously close to $40k.

The US Corolla Cross Hybrid pretty much has the Prius AWD drivetrain.

I didn't think I'd live to see a $50K Corolla. No disrespect to what's under the hood, but it's still a plasticky Corolla. It does its job at $25K for A to B. Stick to Priuses, Toyoda-san. VW Golf R still exists, thanks Odin.

Have you driven a Land Cruiser? They’re substantial better than the average pickup truck on most of the issues you listed. For example, the current F-150 crew cab which is the most popular vehicle in the US is 3 ft longer and has a taller hood. So it’s a little weird to single out a niche SUV as the worst thing on the road. Modern Land Cruisers handle pretty well, while the old ones with live front axle are harder to drive but also smaller. Everyone I know with that type of car uses it to go see cool stuff in the mountains, although I’m sure cosplayers exist.

I'm mostly just lamenting people gravitating towards living rooms on wheels. Makes roads worse for everyone, esp peds and cyclists.

If you're talking about the US Landcruiser it's actually what we know as a Prado over here in Australia. My dream midlife crisis vehicle is a 2025 Landcruiser 79. Mostly for towing capacity and being able to access more offroad areas of Australia, but admittedly a lot of the appeal is just how awesome they look when decked out for "adventuring".

My midlife crisis car is a Mercedes Sprinter.

That's more of a bliss than crisis, eh?

> So the same performance that requires a stupid amount of wasted energy as heat and noise can be had from stock electric, with a couple hundred ms leftover. Do you care about performance, or do you just want to just fart out a bunch of noise?

The flaws are the point. Keeping within power band while rowing the gears while the engine is yelling is entire point of manual ICE sports car. Or a motorcycle for that matter

Also GR Corolla is for zooming around the race track, not hitting 0-60 times, and it has roots in GR Yaris which is homologation special WRC car.

>I get traditional car culture,

I don't think you do

> but electrics embody the "money talks, wealth whispers" truism.

And I don't think it does. Raw performance (at least the straight line one) in EV is after all cheaper.

It looks like all three Borla ATAK catbacks for the GR Corolla are active exhuasts[0], so you can dynamically switch between quiet operation and loud operation.

[0]: https://www.borla.com/2023-2026-toyota-gr-corolla-exhaust-sy...

I'd be okay with those if they were geofenced to be quiet in a 6 mile radius from my current GPS coordinates.

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