The new news 24 thread

[RobT]

 

I've been asked to display it at the final touring cars race at Brands Hatch in a few weeks on the Honda racing teams stand which induces 2 days free hospitality tickets so I thought i better get it looking all nice!

 

Sounds like fun Trig, how did you score that one?

[vulgalour]

Seriously thankful my brakes and stopping distances are what they are otherwise I'd be making a post in the GOM thread about the Princess having a Focus bonnet mascot.  The Focus' tiny high level brake light was the only indication he'd stopped just after some parked cars I was checking my mirrors pulling in front of.  Thankfully I managed to catch up with the driver and let him know, he looked like a very, very overworked Dad.

[trigger]

Sounds like fun Trig, how did you score that one?

 

I've been doing a "readers rides" thread over on the 1st Gen Civic forum and a chap on there as been approached by either Brands Hatch or Honda to make a small stand of 15 classic Hondas for displaying over the weekend and he's asked if I'd like to show mine, of course I jumped to the chance!

[Pete-M]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-24204080

[trigger]

Wow, have you seen some of the other stock, 67 mile Dolomites too! http://www.eama-norwich.co.uk/the-classic-lid205.html

[worldofceri]

Or just spray easystart in the carb.

 

No Easystart required.  After charging the battery she fired straight up.  Woot!  

 

My joy was short lived, however - after backing out of the garage and switching off for a while she wouldn't start up again at all.  A bit of experimenting later and it seems that it will start OK, but will quickly die again unless I rev the nuts off it for about twenty seconds or so.  After that it will settle to a reasonably nice idle.  If I let it die, it won't fire up again unless I tip pez straight down the carb and rev the nuts off it even harder for even longer, after which it will settle down and idle nicely.

 

Years ago, before it was laid up, I was having similar problems, but my memory;'s hazy.  I think in the end I decided (with help from someone who 'knows what they're doing') that the distributor is probably mullered, because we couldn't get the timing set properly.  Hopefully I can get it to run well enough for long enough to procure an mot pass, and then get it sorted properly.

 

Anyway, here it is with the soon-to-be-departing Argenta.

 

 

Oh yeah, last pre-mot job was to refit the front anti-roll bar.  One of the original clamps had rusted through and broken off, so I bought a full set of replacements.  Managed to embed a hacksaw blade in my thumb tip getting the other three off!  Fitting the new ones on was a piece of cake once I'd realised that the rubber bushes aren't symmetrical...  I was on the verge of taking a hammer to the anti-roll bar to 'straighten' it when I realised what I was doing wrong.

 

Whilst I was grovelling around under the front of the car I had another look at the bottom of the fuel tank.  It's definitely seeping petrol out the bottom.  Is there any sort of suitable sealant I could use to gunge up the unions a bit, I wonder?

 

With the car out of the garage, Mrs_Ceri got a bit enthusiastic and made some replacement mats from an offcut of our new stair carpet.  Stripey!

 

 

I think I'll take it for an mot now and see what happens.

[dollywobbler]

Went greenlaning. It went badly. Got very stuck, lost some paint and an indicator. That's now held in with string. May have to rethink my preservation plans for the Disco! Pics to follow in a bit.

[Honey Badger]

RAng a guy in Wigan about an accord coupe he's selling on Sunday, we arranged that I would view it on Tuesday afternoon while driving from Wellingborough to the lake district.

 

Called him again on Tuesday morning before I left telling him that I would be there at 2pm to look round and test drive it.

 

Called him at 1:30 to let him know that I would be there in 30 min.

 

Got to the guy at 2pm to look round the car and take a test drive to be told we could only drive round the fucking block as he couldn't be arsed to get any petrol, but if want to put some in I can.

 

No your quite alright pal, Id rather fucking walk than buy your car now if that's ok with you......

[Craig the Princess]

My Citroen AX is back on the road (well will be from 1st October, a full month's tax for six days can fuck right off). MoTed again after 6 and a bit years off the road. Rear brakes are still borderline and the number of dodgy electrical connections discovered so far to corroded connectors mean a daily commute in it will have me playing breakdown roulette again.

 

But still, first love that car.

[vulgalour]

Wedgister micro update.  Cars that are untaxed are known to exist or have become untaxed within the last 24 months.

 

Princess and 18/22

Austin - 2 taxed

Morris - 1 taxed - 4 untaxed

Wolseley - 6 taxed - 6 untaxed

Phase 1 (Leyland Cars & Austin Morris) - 11 taxed - 5 untaxed

Phase 2 - 34 taxed - 17 untaxed

 

Ambassador

8 taxed - 1 untaxed

 

So that means there's 9 Ambassadors and 86 Princesses of various types I've been able to locate.  There's more out there, I just don't have their details.  If you spot a Princess or Ambassador drop me a line with it's reg number and, ideally, a photograph so I can add it to the Wedgister.

[cort16]

I got up early (very early) to do this Honda Civic MPG challenge. 100 miles round trip to Abington services on the M74 averaging 86.5mpg! Beat that Suckaz!

I have to say it was a very painful experience and quite stressfull as what doesn't look like a hill has a massive effect on your over all speed and MPG.

I think what really ramped up the MPG was long periods of clutch in coasting down the hills. The car was actually quite nice although I'm not sold on the looks. I recon +60mpg could be seen it it pretty easily.

[barefoot]

That's quite good but I still feel that you should have switched off the engine on the downhill bits.

It's completely safe so to do*

[cort16]

I was a bit worried the start stop was going to kick when I was coasting as it's got electric PAS. I'm sure that would have been fun.

[dollywobbler]

Actually, on the over-run, engines these days cut the fuel entirely, so you may have used marginally more fuel by putting the clutch in. 

[cort16]

Not on this thing, you could see a marked difference in MPG on the computer when I put the clutch in. This car is all about MPG so it's constantly telling you how good or bad you're being in several different ways.

Because the hills aren't that steep I couldn't lift off like you'd do on a steep hill because of the engine braking and even feathering the throttle on a slight downhill section in gear saw the mpg dipping. If I just let it coast in little increments my average MPG went up noticably (well 85.1 to 86.5).

 

The dashboard contains a lot of information. A bit different from Triggers Civic i recon.

There's another sort of heads up display thing behind the top of the steering wheel you can't see.

 

Civic Dials by cort16, on Flickr

 

MPGZ

 

IMG_0039 by cort16, on Flickr

 

This button is what makes the Magic* happen. I'm not sure why you'd ever drive it with this off?

 

Econ by cort16, on Flickr

[Mr Livered]

Presumably for better performance? A bit like on some auto boxes where you choose "e" or "s"?

 

(on my Merc for example, though "e" is far from economical and "s" definitely isn't sporty)

[trigger]

The dashboard contains a lot of information. A bit different from Triggers Civic i recon.

 

Not that different, I also have blue dials!.

 

Yesterday whilst at the O2 arena I got talked into taking a new Nissan Leaf out for a test drive, they are running some promotion where you can see what effect fuels are using on the environment and what have you, all very boring and at the end you get asked if you fancy a test drive which involves driving around the arena, up the main road to some dead end street and then back again.

 

The Leaf, if you don't already know, is one of these wanky electric cars, it's every clever in theory in the way it works but the 125 mile range really make it useless for anything other than city driving, especially when the cars nearly £17000, This was my first experience of driving an electric car though.

 

You sit in it, it's all keyless, foot on the brake (It's a automatic), press the start button and all the dash lights up and it plays a tune, move a ball type gearlever right to "D", realise the foot brake pedal and then realise the foot brake and off you go, no noise, no vibrations, nothing, It's very eerie.

 

The salesman told me to floor it and by christ it's quick, it shot up to 60mph in seconds and without any sound what so ever other then tyre noise, I did ask if it comes with a CD of engine noises but apparently not, It has some fancy reversing cameras all over it and even Google on the radio.

 

I wasn't convinced but I can see there being more electric cars on the road in the future.

[dollywobbler]

You say there's no point in a car that has a range of 145 miles, but how often do you drive more than 145 miles in one go? The biggest problem is how you charge the sodding thing unless you have a garage/driveway with electricity. Lots of people don't, so how do you charge it? I've still never driven an electric car. I really must.

[cort16]

I think if anythings going to swing the elecy car market it'll be the new BMW i3, which will charge to 80% in 30 minutes with a heavy duty DC charger, 3 hours using standard AC 240v, it does 60 in under 8 seconds, you can specify petrol range extender, which takes the range up to 200 miles (you can always add more petrol)  and best of all you can tailgate other road users in almost complete silence.

[trigger]

Apparently supermarkets still have free plug in points and in London where places which have free packing with plug in point solely for electric cars, It's take 4 hours for a full charge for a you can give it a power charge which takes a 1 hour IIRC, Still if you was spending £17k on a large 5 seat family saloon you'd like to be able to go on some kind of holiday in it without having to charge it up 2-3 times on the way.

[Rocket88]

You say there's no point in a car that has a range of 145 miles, but how often do you drive more than 145 miles in one go? The biggest problem is how you charge the sodding thing unless you have a garage/driveway with electricity. Lots of people don't, so how do you charge it? I've still never driven an electric car. I really must.

 

 

 

And how about the ONE time you do have to drive more than 145 miles..........in an emergency...............at night............when the bloody things only a third charged.

[cort16]

DW, Nissan will pretty much do anything to get you in a Leaf for a test drive although they'll probably pester the life out you afterwards.

 

On pure fuel consumption I wonder what's overall more efficient, that diesel Civic doing 80mpg or an Electric car?

[beko1987]

 

You say there's no point in a car that has a range of 145 miles, but how often do you drive more than 145 miles in one go? The biggest problem is how you charge the sodding thing unless you have a garage/driveway with electricity. Lots of people don't, so how do you charge it? I've still never driven an electric car. I really must.

 

 

 

And how about the ONE time you do have to drive more than 145 miles..........in an emergency...............at night............when the bloody things only a third charged.

 

It's bad enough doing that in a normal car when all the petrol stations are shut forcing you to detour 20 miles in the wrong direction to get fuel before going to the hospital...

 

Around here anyway1 After 10.30 its Asda or stay in bed!

[trigger]

DW, Nissan will pretty much do anything to get you in a Leaf for a test drive although they'll probably pester the life out you afterwards.

 

 

Or just do what I did and give a fake email address and phone number, there's some 12 year old out there now getting pestered for a new car!

 

It might be worth contacting Nissan saying how your a motoring journo and would like to compare one to something else and they might lend you one for the weekend.

[trigger]

Oh and the battery has a 8-10 year working life in the Leaf too!

[DVee8]

Now i quite fancy a Leaf as im interested in how it works but i don't want to own one,now my idea is.Loan me one for 3-4 months.Why now i have driven petrol/diesel for 20+years but i would hate to px my trusty for new some what unproven  tech and maybe hate it.So Nissan loan me 1,leave me alone to get on with it,then have it back.Don't think it will catch on but you never know.

[vulgalour]

I have seen a Leaf in the Real World and it looked really odd.  Quite distinctive things, but without the appeal (to me) of an early Honda Insight in that green.

[dollywobbler]

I could always convert the 2CV. It's been done before...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLtltVFNYtI

[oman5]

when electric cars become mainstream, I reckon people will lease rather than buy them. of course, what you want is a quick-change battery where you pull into a filling station, pull flat battery out and swap for a charged one, but for this you'd need a universal fitment and thats far too simple.

[Mr Livered]

I have a Mazda 323 diesel (53 plate) that's mainly for Mrs Livered's daily commute to work and back. It's 13 miles each way so an electric car would be fine. Just plug it in each evening, and in the morning unplug and go. I bet the batteries would cost pennies to charge back up.

 

However it's like lpg isn't it: you'd have to do a lot of miles to justify the upfront cost. OK so we'd save 3 or 4 quid a day, but the Mazda is worth less than a grand so the payback time would exceed the life of the vehicle. I bet it's going to be a gazillion years before we start seeing secondhand electric cars at a price to compete with little diesel ones.