Month: October 2013

   

Turbo Vs Super

With the green eco people interfering with the car industry concerning c02 emissions over the past decade or so, manufacturers have been dabbling with technology taken from the world of F1. Chief among them being the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), variants seen on today’s hybrid cars. I wrote a whole article on KERS for Motor Ward if you need more information on the subject.

Turbochargers are also making a comeback for the 2014 F1 season, meaning the engine displacement shrinks from the 2.4L V8 to a 1.6L V6 – to highlight the influence Ferrari have over the F1 governing body, F1 initially wanted 1.6L 4-cylinders to be used but Ferrari complained and they ended up being V6.

Turbo technology has been used by manufacturers for years, cars like the Sierra Cosworth, Ford RS 2000 and Subaru Impreza prime examples covering three decades. However, turbocharged cars of past were considered as either boyracerish, yobbish (one of my parents’ words) or cars that attracted joy riders. My dad bought me an MGB GT for a first car but wouldn’t entertain an Escort XR3i. I crashed the MG on my first legal day on the road…

So with all this talk of turbocharging cars, boosting power whilst shrinking displacement, how many of you know exactly how they work, and the difference between turbo power and a supercharger?

Click the pic to find out…

Video    

The Fastest Way To Find A Parking Space

325i

Whilst I’ve been moaning about something as mundane as parking for the past few days, I thought I’d add a little excitement to the subject. Here we see a BMW 325i drifting the entire height of a multi-storey carpark. If you are stupid enough to try your luck in finding a space on a weekend, execute a drift and ask your partner to keep a lookout for any spaces as you rocket to the top.

   

Car Park Pt. 2

Following on from yesterday’s Parking Solution and a visit to the supermarket I managed to obtain further evidence to galvanise my amazing yet simple solution to bring harmony to all in the dreaded carpark. It was raining which always means a packed carpark (which it was). So what did I find when I arrived? For the sake of this article I parked in the Family & Children space, as despite the rain, there were a few going.

Happy I wasn’t going to return to a dinged car, I went on my way and did a bit of shopping. However – again strengthening my solution – I discovered a total of 22 unused disabled spaces just walking to the store front. At the store front I also saw many empty disabled spaces. Now unless disabled people multiply and turn into Gremlins if splashed with water and stay at home, I’d say there are too many spaces.

The planners are either expecting a Day Of The Disables or they were all in the special needs class in Maths. This might sound a little derogatory, but I’m only going on the blatant facts – I’m in no way suggesting that disabled people are the problem or trying to do them an injustice.

With the nightmare that is the supermarket completed, I arrived back at my car happy that no clumsy oaf had dinged it. And it looks like I’m not the only one who cares about their car.

   

My Amazing Car Park Solution

How many times have you circled a supermarket carpark looking for a space, passing rows of empty disabled spaces? And how many of you park in the larger Parent & Children spaces to avoid mindless and clumsy idiots dinging your car with their rusty heap’s door? I often see many of the disabled spaces empty right outside of the store’s front too – I mean, how many people do the planners think are actually disabled?

I have a solution…

First off, take a whole row of disabled spaces and a row of normal spaces and turn them into a separate category for people with expensive cars or cars in which their owners care for. The sign could look something like this:

Of course, this seems like a very elitist view and solution. But my idea would include having to pay to use these spaces. Once you’ve parked up in the wider space, you’d need to use a pay and display machine to obtain a ticket. Say, 60 pence for every 30 minutes of shopping.

I think this is totally fair – the disabled have nothing to complain about as their spaces are ALWAYS empty, the mums can stop throwing tantrums about people using their spaces, and for a fee, people are able to park safe in the knowledge their car won’t get dinged. Oh yeah, and the council or land owner will get paid.

Win win situation!

No need to thank me…

 

 

   

Customise (But for the love of God) Don’t Change Her Character

Gargling Gas truly believes that cars have feelings… which means a car has a character just like you and I. With that said, how many poor and distraught cars do you see trundling around town where its owner has decided against its innate character and forced a styling that compromises the car’s true personality?

There are many characters within the automotive world, from cute to angry, sensible to sporty, and to badly customise a car to the point of trying to make it something it isn’t should be punishable by law.

Take this Rolls Royce Phantom below, for example. It fell into the hands of a celebrity sports person (NFL), therefore was in imminent danger of being meddled with in all the wrong ways from the start. The Lambo just about gets away with it, as it is a menacing, sleek and aggressive supercar.

And then there’s this two tone effort below, which I am too distressed to talk about.

A Rolls Royce is a regal and proud machine, its heritage brimming with words like quality, opulence, comfort, perfection etc… It is the best of the best made from the earth’s finest materials. A Rolls Royce was designed to go from A to B silently, on a magic carpet, accelerating smoothly as though cutting through a cloud of silk. Hours should be spent polishing her, not hours of praying birds don’t defecate on her and ruin the matte finish.

“Murdering Out” a Roller is like forcing the Queen into leather and white stilettos – it doesn’t work, although I’d like to see that.

Wow, I may have to take all that back now… never mind.

   

£250,000 Time Machine

You might be wondering why you could buy 10 DeLoreans for the price of the above – you’d be right to do so as you can buy a perfectly decent example for £25,000 – but don’t worry, there’s a perfectly good reason… actually there are quite a few reasons…

First off, this DMC-12 was put into creation by a former NASA electrical engineer, and contractee for Universal Studios in Florida. Many many hours of research concerning electrics, materials, aesthetics etc were put into the build.

To put it into perspective:  30 fuses and 22 relays control the car’s electronics that all feed the props just as seen in the Back To The Future movies. The time drive handle activates all of the cars props – unlike other replicas, the special effects actually come from the individual  props themselves. Even the time circuits are fully programmable, and all the other memorable props have been created with extreme accuracy including the Flux Capacitor, Status Indicator, Mr Fusion and the Plutonium Gauges. To create atmosphere at events, there is a fog machine under the bonnet, with pipes running underneath the car to the rear vents with two exhaust vent lights.

I think the most unique trick up this DeLorean’s sleeve is it’s 2015 hover illusion. When put into action, custom wheels make the car look like it is hovering.

dmc4
The DeLorean also features a 12 channel wireless remote control, allowing you to activate many of those memorable theme tunes and sound clips from the key characters of the movies. They link to 2 discreet external speakers hidden under the bonnet and the engine bay or the car, as well as an internal speaker so that you can drive along to your favourite Huey Lewis tracks and provide entertainment with many quotes.

It’s a superb build and I adore the effort, dedication and craftmanship put into this labour of love.

Growing up in the 80s, I thought this car was great, although it had nothing on the General Lee – The Good Ole Boys were (and still are) my heroes.

If I could travel back in time, I’d go back to the time when the DMC-12 was actually considered fast…

   

A Coupe That Isn’t, Drifting And Dogs

For those of you following my blog you’ll know I like drift cars and wasting many many hours of my life surfing (window shopping) for cars. I also love small technology that produces big power. Well today I stumbled across a car that first grabbed my attention because of its suspiciously low price. Further investigation and my attention transformed into incredulity as I learned of its stats. This then led to total excitement as I read and watched reviews – had I found the perfect drift car that I could pop to the shops in with my girls (dogs) in the back?

So what is it, I hear you ask.

The Mazda RX-8

Before you snub it as just another Jap sports car, I beg you to stay with me for a little while. It doesn’t boast the same twin-turbo bhp as the legendary RX-7, but nevertheless, its displacement, power and redline numbers are beyond impressive.

This is thanks to its 1.3-L Wankel engine. That’s right… 230-bhp from a 1.3L engine that revs out at 9000-rpm. Sounds too good to be true, and in a way there is a draw back that attributes to its cheap second hand pricing. This 1.3-L unit doesn’t just drink fuel; it downs it as though in a drinking competition. You would expect an average 1.3-L engine to do around 45+mpg (combined) but the RX-8 will only do 24-mpg – that’s less than my 2.0-L turbo Subaru!

Apart from its thirst, the rest is all good. Due to the RX-8′s unique doors, it appears to be a coupe on the outside, but pull a catch hidden on the inside and rear doors open like suicide doors, albeit small (enough room for the girls though). The power is fed to the rear wheels via a (LSD) Limited Slip Differential, perfect for drifting.

So, all in all, this car offers looks, the right set-up for drifting and enough room for my dogs.

And before any animal lovers start complaining, my dogs like drifting – I had a lot of practise in an icy car park earlier this year and they loved it. They told me so…

Image    

Serial Killer Cars

My last post was a short piece on Acid Bath Murderer John Haigh and the cars he owned. I was going to do a feature on all the serial killers I could find whom owned cars, but ended up doing a feature for Motor Ward.

To discover the gruesome details and the various cars used, please read my article: Serial Killer Cars