automotive editorial standards

[Brett Dikeman]

Quote from Forbes:

"This silky power plant, which gets a boost of 10.5 pounds per square 
inch from an intercooled turbocharger, is shoehorned into the 
Beetle's front end and is attached to an equally righteous six-speed 
manual transmission that has final drives in both fifth and sixth 
gears. This combination propels the Turbo S to 60 mph in 7.4 seconds 
and to a top speed (computer-controlled) of 130 mph."

I've heard of final drive -ratios-, but... what the heck are "final drives"?

Note to Forbes editorial staff- this helpful equation.

(reporter x thesaurus) + (manufacturers spec sheet) < Automotive reporter

(apologies to Clarkson)

Seriously- Forbes auto reviews read just like the dealership 
booklets, only fruitier.  You can see some reporting thinking "hmm, 
how can I spice up this sentence talking about how much boost the 
turbo thingy makes.  I know, I'll spell out PSI!"

Oh well.  At least they didn't attribute the TT's 1.8t to...someone 
else.  Royal Ford of the Boston Globe installed the 1.8t into the Z3 
in one of his columns, gushing about how BMW "brought it to the 
states".

   Answered my email saying, and I quote, complete with missing 
capitalization and bad grammar: "total brain fart on my part is all i 
can plead. was juggling notes,installed an audi engine in a z. that's 
the problem when the results of your daily labor are seen every 
sunday by 2 million people."

Cocky #$@!....ever heard of proofreading your work before you send it 
to 2 million people?  Or knowing enough about the automotive industry 
to know that BMW hasn't turbocharged a production engine in what, a 
zillion years, and in fact considers turbos 'cheating'?

And I dunno about anyone else, but "a z" means a Nissan, preferably 
with things that go 'round(not up and down)...not a underpowered 
chick car made by a German company that should have known better.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr....

Brett
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