Do some engines make you feel less hot?

[forddeliveryboy]

Reading all the posts about shiters' aircon working to cool them down, I felt a bit left out since the only car I have with fully working fridgeair is about to be used for bits then sent over the bridge.

 

But I do miss the sound of a 2cv/Dyane/Ami flat twin in this heat - I'm sure you feel less hot with the smoothness and noise quality of those little engines than a boggo diesel droning/clattering away in front of you. Straight sixes are somehow good in the heat as you grow more irritable, too - for me. Hondas work for me when it's hot, also, inline 4s notwithstanding. Perhaps it's the zinginess and zest of an Onda.

 

Anyone else noticed this or am I just weird? Would a silent car like an EV make you feel cooler?

[KruJoe]

FDB, mate, normally you talk a lot of sense, but tonight I think you've lost it, my friend.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Heatstroke, perhaps.

 

The engines in my cars rarely get hot,.  This is because they are all broken, usually.

[forddeliveryboy]

Yes, the heat has probably got to me. Tomorrow night there'll be an even madder post if the weatherman is right.

[dieselassist]

...if you ignore the engine getting hot, eh when its hot (the engine), when its hot (the weather), when your hot, pull over n open the bonnet n enjoy the immense 'fan propelled air' cooling properties viscous or electric fan at work with a T-shirt on, again ignoring the engine, tho taking due care to avoid any near split cooling hoses, fugged rad caps, busted rads etc.... 

[the judge]

I enjoy the odd joint too of a night. Warble away

[dollywobbler]

The heater is stuck on on my 2CV, so it always seemed quite warm. Not quite as warm as the footwells of a Jaguar E-Type V12 though, as I recently discovered. Toasty!

[sierraman]

My aircon hasn't worked for ages. So I just resort to winding the windows down.

[Taff]

can't beat a V8 when it's hot. Probably

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

Reading all the posts about shiters' aircon working to cool them down, I felt a bit left out since the only car I have with fully working fridgeair is about to be used for bits then sent over the bridge.

 

But I do miss the sound of a 2cv/Dyane/Ami flat twin in this heat - I'm sure you feel less hot with the smoothness and noise quality of those little engines than a boggo diesel droning/clattering away in front of you. Straight sixes are somehow good in the heat as you grow more irritable, too - for me. Hondas work for me when it's hot, also, inline 4s notwithstanding. Perhaps it's the zinginess and zest of an Onda.

 

Anyone else noticed this or am I just weird? Would a silent car like an EV make you feel cooler?

 

 

I agree with you!

 

In very hot weather diesel 4 pot is a dastardly grim thing to have to sit behind - they're even worse than a droning petrol four. Just thinking of being stuck in a traffic jam one day in the early 1990s near Bracknall for hours in a Sierra 2.0GL, its plastics off-gassing right left and centre has reminded me so strongly of the headache I developed back then that I'm left with a suggestion of queasiness. I quite liked the car in other weathers.

.

I have been in a 2CV in hot weather in France a few times. Flaps up and gung-ho with freedom and joie de vivre. Though it must be said, I was going to a vineyard rather than a meeting.

 

I have wondered about this myself - and what causes it. Some cars are very unpleasant places to be when they are hot. Do some cars use glues and plastics which give off fumes to which I and Forddeliveryboy are sensitive? Does the 2CV lack these plastics? Or is it down to the smoothness of the engine? The tiny engine in the Citroen is indeed a delightful thing; smooth and sonorous. Maybe the gruff vibrations and droning sounds emitted by every 4 cylinder diesel I have ever travelled in - and most of the 4 cylinder petrol engined cars (with only a handful of honourable exceptions) - is more misery than I can absorb, stuck in traffic in the heat. That said, 4 pot diesels are joyless things in any weather - and I can't imagine being in a 2CV stuck in traffic in a tarmac-melter would be memorable for the right reasons .

 

Or is it the plastics and glues used in the kind of cars which are fitted with a 4 cylinder diesel engine? A friend's VW Golf diesel was a grim thing in which to sit in the heat. I soon feel hot and irritable in it in a way which never happens in my Jaguar. Both cars have air conditioning so it isn't that, but the Jag has no modern 'soft touch' plastics in it. Perhaps these materials give off fumes?

[mouseflakes]

I have been in a 2CV in hot weather in France a few times. Flaps up and gung-ho with freedom and joie de vivre.

 

In a similar vein, I recall a holiday in Cornwall in the summer of '76. An 850 R4 wasn't such a bad place to be in that weather. The buzzy little engine didn't seem to contribute anything to the heat inside and the open air vents under the screen kept the things nice and cool while on the move. I wonder if the large underbonnet space and lack of sound (and heat) insulation just let all the hot air escape more easily?

[forddeliveryboy]

Great, someone knows what I'm on about! Excess heat is a bit like being very tired, so cheap and nasty cars become (way more) irritating. What I was hinting at in particular was the quality of noises made by a car, but there must be loads of other factors. It's just that some cars which appear quiet at first get increasingly loud on a long journey, and vice-versa. Much more so in the heat.

 

Noise quality (as opposed to quantity) is something few consider when it comes to tiredness, but there's loads of research showing that a lower frequency is (subconcilously) very, very tiring and even bad for blood pressure and general stress level - the brain is programmed to filter it out and wears itself out trying to do so. Wide tyres and gruff 4 cylinder diesel are almost the norm, today, so possibly a car with narrow tyres and a higher frequency engine note is ideal? Wind noise, if it's a general sound and not localised, is perhaps a good thing if it combats a low drone.

 

Perhaps an amazing ride is the icing on the cake, but I was always amazed at how in hot weather I could cover long journeys, flat out in a 2cv or Dyane, and get out at the other end way less tired than if in something like a Golf.

 

I reckon it's loads of other things too, like vibration. So nasty engines get much nastier in the heat and vibrating pedals are particularly unpleasant when your back's wet through. Combine that with heat soak through the tranny tunnel and bulkhead (as well as the floor and roof) and it's a recipe for much displeasure.

 

Also, controls which don't work things in a progressive or linear way - so brakes which snatch at first then fail to work brilliantly, steering which is both woolly and allied to cheap suspension bolted to a twisting, flexing shell and even nasty cheap indicator stalks which are unergonomic and not sweet to use?

 

I haven't even got onto the subject of the nasty gases (mainly VOCs) which come off plastic dashboards in higher temps - air con or not, a dark dash will heat up massively in the sun and the concentration of carcinogens in a modern, newish car is off the scale. Yet another reason we don't all drive around in new BMWs, innit?

 

http://www.scancomark.com/Competitiveness/Road-noise-makes-induces-fatigue-in-drivers-behind-the-wheel-093931072013

[twosmoke300]

Fdb , im not sure if im reading this right but do you like 2cv's ?

[forddeliveryboy]

In general, no - nowadays they're nastily rebuilt pieces of "I'm so eco, look at me" bling or sprayed-up wrecks reassembled by lads on less than the minimum wage, sold to secretaries. The former drag along, owners crippled by bills and still dreaming of how they were in the 70s or their childhood fascination with the whirring beasties in daft colour schemes (hello, Dolly and all that bollocks), the latter are unceremoniously ditched as soon as the rust comes through the 2 pack. They're usually mechanically shagged and replacement parts quality is abysmal, as is the case for loads of old cars. Few specialists really know how to make them good again.

 

They used to be owned by people who appreciated the better things in life, whether lawyers, brickies, vicars, bikers, teachers, architects or engineers. Then they acquired the social worker owner, for all the wrong reasons. then the nerd who is more interested in motoring oddities (= 'collectable') than driving good cars. It's been downhill for them ever since, even though values are stupidly high.

 

But find a good one from the 70s on its original chassis which has been properly serviced and then they're really quite awesome. These I do like. Only available in the south of France, now.

[PhilA]

Despite the rich fuel smell and extra heat, there's something fairly pleasant about sitting behind a V8 that's got an uneven lope at idle, stuck in traffic, rocking you gently side to side as it fires on the pots with the best compression.

 

Then once you clear the traffic, getting to the warble and thrum most seem to be tuned for at about 2000RPM is therapeutic.

 

 

I agree that a 4-pot diesel is evil, even worse a modern electronic one that has that unnervingly even idle and smells of hot charcoal.

 

--Phil

[HH-R]

Diseasels in front make me feel more hot, as the cabin fan gets turned off to avoid being gassed by the horrible, filthy, stinking things.