Yoss

They are certainly not electric as they go up and down with engine speed which makes the noise even more annoying. So my guess was that they are on some sort of clutch that is somehow thermostatically activated but that's just a guess.

I doubt anybody at the airport knew this either. And whilst the tubes, buses and Elizabeth Line are all run by TfL I don't think they talk to eachother. And to be honest if somebody at the airport did start telling everybody where the 490 is it would get totally overwhelmed as it's only a single decker, Dennis Dart or whatever the modern equivalent is. The 285 to T1,2,3 is a full size decker so a bit more useful. But I can tell everybody on Autoshite without it overwhelming the service. But for future reference it goes from right outside the T5 entrance about 1 minute walk from where the escalator comes up from the Underground. It really is very convenient. Which is annoying as British Airways seem to have moved their European flights to T3 which is in the arse end of nowhere. It's about a ten minute walk along multiple moving walkways from the so called T1,2,3 Underground station Last time I used it was at 5am on a Sunday and it was full and standing by the time we got to Feltham. They must be the only buses in the country that are running full at that time of day. It seems to be mostly staff at that time.

These are smaller.

So that's pretty much TT gauge in railway speak at 1:120. I have lots of 1:87 ones for my HO gauge layout. This is some. There are lots more in here. Cost 99p each from Wilkinsons about 15 years ago.

It's of no use to you now I realise but the 490 bus goes from T5 to T4 (and on to Hatton Cross, Feltham and Richmond) and takes about 10 minutes. It's a normal TfL service but is free within the airport as are all TfL services from Hatton Cross to anywhere within the airport. If I'm using Heathrow I just park in Hanworth where there is unrestricted parking, then get the bus in. The 490 goes to T4 and T5, and the 285 goes to T1,2 and 3. Both are 24 hour services so even at 4am on a Sunday they run at 30 minute intervals and obviously much more frequently during the day. I know that won't work for everyone but coming from Southampton it's five minutes off the the end of the M3 to where I leave the car. At £1.75 each way why on earth would you pay to park at the airport?

Been having a bit of minor trouble with blue Favorit. About every fourth or fifth time you go to start it it makes a nasty graunching sound as if the teeth of starter and ring gear aren't quite connecting. I figured the solenoid might not be firing properly and it probably just needs taking out, cleaning up, lubricating and putting back in. So I whipped it out and judging by the state of the edge of the teeth this is exactly what has been happening. Not ideal but I figured that as long as the solenoid is firing properly this shouldn't be a problem as there is plenty of meat on the rest of the teeth. I checked the teeth on the ring gear and they still look fine. So I cleaned it all up and put it back but it was the same. It always fires eventually even if it takes a couple of attempts but the noise when it doesn't quite engage can be a bit embarrassing and scares passers by. This was annoying. I'd even made up a professional* test rig. The thin wire is attached to the terminal on the back of the solenoid and if you strike the other end of the wire on to the big terminal that the red jump lead is attached to it fires the motor. I fired it dozens of times and it worked every time so it was a bit disappointing when I refitted it and it didn't work every time. I have a Felicia motor in the garage. It's one of these newfangled high torque things so it's about half the size of the Favorit one. This came off a 1.6 but even the 1.3s with the same engine as the Favorit used them so I thought I'd dig it out. As you can see, it's tiny. It's barely bigger than the solenoid. But the mounting points and connectors are the same and both have nine teeth so I bunged it on. Fits perfectly. Spot the starter motor. It's in there somewhere. This also shows how spacious the engine bay is. You can change the motor over in under ten minutes so nothing to lose really. Well it didn't work. It just clicked as the pinion hit the starter ring but did not engage. I think the pinion might be slightly larger, I'm guessing they used a slightly different ring gear on the Felicia. So I swapped them back again and ordered a new one off eBay. £50 seems very reasonable for a new one. Low demand I guess.

We walked straight in. Though it had only just opened just after 10am. I'll be honest it took us about ten minutes to confirm that it was revolving as it goes so slowly. Took about 45 minutes to do a lap. Being only 10.30, and we hadn't long had a large hotel breakfast we only had cake and fruit beer. Fruit beers are big in Berlin. The views are as you would expect. The difference between what was East and West Berlin are obvious. That was taken with a hefty zoom, this is more like how it looked. 209m above ground level.

I don't actually know to be honest, I'm just getting irrationality annoyed. But certainly the VW engines that Skoda were forced to use weren't. The 1.6 that the Felly used was an iron block with only 75hp. The Škoda all alloy 1.3 was 68hp and much lighter. Škoda had their own 1.6 OHC ready to go. 101hp and all alloy so lighter, but they weren't allowed to used it. I'm still bitter. I should let it go, it was a long time ago but I'm still bitter. The Felicia could have been so much better with it.

Haven't seen that for a while. Somebody trying to claim something on a Felicia is from a Volkswagen when it plainly isn't. The engine is Skoda through and through. Volkswagen couldn't build aluminium engines at this point. This really really annoys me. I know nobody else cares if it's right or not but I do.

Wow, that's fabulous. That last picture is just a list of places that I either have been to or want to visit. I'll be able to cross two of them off in May, Braşov and Bucureşti. All those exotic places. And Droitwich.

Well that's sent me down a whole new rabbit hole. The first Tesla TV from 1953. And matching radio from the same year. By the 70s they looked like this. And the headquarters in Hloubětín on the outskirts of Praha. This is the tip of the iceberg. if you can think of an electrical device , Tesla made it. Right up to a military radar system that was said to be the first in the world to be able to detect stealth aircraft. It was mounted on eight Tatra T815 trucks that would park up in different places and somehow coordinate with each other to detect enemy aircraft.

I am genuinely impressed by that.

Favorit clocks are made by Tesla. Though admittedly mine needs replacing. I do have a spare one in the garage but it's not very high up the priority list. I'm not sure that the Czech company or Elon Musk have any real claim to use the name as Nikola Tesla the very clever inventor whose name they are obviously playing off was born in what is now Croatia and buried in Serbia.

Indeed, I think Škodas, and Tatras of course, were quite highly regarded before the war. And whilst they were held back during the Communist years, they must have had the same minds in the company. One of the reasons Volkswagen wanted them was because they were impressed by the engineering. Particularly the aluminium casting side. The Favorit engine was all aluminium long before that was normal. in fact they had aluminium blocks right back to the 1000MB. It used to annoy me (but admittedly probably nobody else) when there were still lots of Felicias around you would quite often see adverts stating that it was a Polo underneath (as if that was a good thing) when they are nothing of the sort. They are in fact Favorits with all the sharp edges rounded off.

Can I tease you with a front engine, rear drive Estelle? Or this front wheel drive one. Which is basically a reshelled Renault 12, as you tell by the 3 stud wheels.

I didn't realise it had become so rare. There were several others on eBay when I bought mine. Now I can find no mention of it anywhere. Even the authors own website, which has a list of his works makes no mention of it. I certainly won't be selling mine, sorry.

This book seems to have been written just for me. There is a brief history of the development of Škoda cars in general but the vast majority of the 118 pages are just about getting the Favorit in to production. Disguised test mule. Note Granada tow car. Not something I would have thought was readily available in Communist era CZ. And one of the first running prototypes used a Mazda 323 body shell. To me at least, it's a fascinating read, but I'd have to admit it's a bit niche.

Or for the same price get yourself a nice Maxus T90EV.

Came across this whilst out on delivery yesterday. These elderly Volvo's were brought in last year to boost the Bluestar fleet when First Bus pulled out. We have 13 of them, or we did, they've started replacing them with some marginally newer ex London General Dennis Tridents recently. These Volvo's are known locally as the noisy buses as half of them have their cooling fans stuck on permanently. There have been letters in the local paper about them and even my mum has noticed them! It's not often you see two of them together now. 6902 is the loudest of them all. You can hear it pretty much the whole length of Shirley Road. Oh, the shame. Not just for breaking down but for being rescued by an Iveco. I don't know how much longer they will be here. I'm sure we have more than 13 of the Tridents now and yet they are still using these. On top of that, both types were only supposed to be stop gaps until new buses arrived. First Bus pulled out almost exactly a year ago now. They announced they were pulling out about three months before that at which point Bluestar almost immediately announced they would be stepping in to replace a lot of the First Bus routes. I realise you can't order new buses in three months but I would have thought you could in 15 months but what do I know. They did announce they were going to be getting new buses but perhaps they have changed their minds.

I also wonder what team that is being sponsored by Japan.

Fiat Tempra?! I wish I could have heard the conversation where they agreed to that being used.

I know 1995 was a very different time in F1 and they didn't bring the safety car out for every minor accident or packet of crisps that blew on to the track. I remember when a broken down car would just get left by the side of the track until the end of the race. I can't remember when that changed but I don't remember ever seeing the cars driving slow enough to keep behind a Mondeo. Even a fast one.

Not entirely. Hated is probably too strong a word but indifference certainly. If I was at a car show I would walk straight past an MGB without even seeing it. I'm sure they are probably quite entertaining to drive but in my mind they are just too common to be of any interest. I know they're not as common as they used to be but when I started driving they were everywhere and my brain still sees them that way. It's not helped by the old MG Triumph rivalry of course. Back in the day it was like football, you had to pick your team and stick to it, you weren't allowed to like both and I was very much in the Triumph camp so my views might not stand too much scrutiny. Having said that, Spitfires don't really do anything for me either. And there's a couple of MGs I'd really like. The ADO 16 MG 1300 and Farina style Magnette with red interior.