As I write this I am back in my home town of Adelaide. I lived here, and also in various parts of country South Australia, until seven years ago when I moved to the Gold Coast hinterland.

Adelaide is a strange place to drive in. Long ago, in the Sixties, it was decided that the city would better prosper without a freeway network. The MATS plan, which laid out freeways across the suburbs, was abandoned with the smugness with which only Adelaideans can reject change and progress. For many years it didn’t matter: the grid-like network of secondary roads sufficed, and the clever sequencing of traffic lights improved arterial flows considerably.

But now, especially with the widespread introduction of 50 km/h speed limits, car travel in Adelaide is mind-bogglingly slow. It’s a fact that a city trip that in Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane non-peak-hour might take half an hour, takes in Adelaide a full 60 minutes. Every time I come back, I am late for appointments because I simply miscalculate how long it takes to travel even a short cross-city distance. It’s not even any use looking at public transport: the bus service is as slow as the traffic (except for one dedicated route, there are no bus lanes) and the suburban train and tram services are awesomely inadequate.

However, I have found a solution.

• » Continue reading or Comments (10)

F1 technology being relevant again to road cars? Surely not! An interesting series of press releases:

First application of mechanical ‘kinetic energy recovery system’ with major Formula 1 team

On the 5th June 2007 Torotrak Plc announced a licence agreement with Xtrac Ltd to use Torotrak’s traction drive technology to develop highly efficient and compact continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) for application in a new mechanical kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) proposed for Formula 1 (F1) motor racing.

Further to this, Torotrak Plc is pleased to confirm that a major F1 racing team has become the first customer for the mechanical KERS system. This F1 team will be supplied with KERS technology through Silverstone based Flybrid Systems LLP, an innovative engineering company focused on research and development of hybrid vehicle technology, who will source Torotrak’s full-toroidal CVTs used in their KERS systems directly from Xtrac Ltd.

Dick Elsy, chief executive at Torotrak, stated: “the rapid movement from concept to application with a significant F1 racing team highlights the benefits of the mechanical KERS system and its ability to contribute to improved performance. This is also a significant step towards acceptance of Torotrak’s technology for use in mainstream road cars to provide improvements in performance, fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions.”

• » Continue reading or Comments (2)

It’s amazing how ‘normal’ is such a flexible term. That idea can be applied as broadly as you wish – normality in society simply depends on majority behaviour, nothing else – but here I’m applying it to fuel consumption.

The main reason I picked a Peugeot 405 diesel as our project car is fuel consumption. Like the hybrid petrol/electric NHW10 Prius that I turbo’d, the Pug has to maintain good fuel economy, even with the performance modifications that I’m doing.

Basically, if it starts to drink like a Commodore, the project’s a failure. [Where oh where is the Commodore diesel?!]

And I am not talking about fuel consumption in some economy run; nope, I’m talking my real-life consumption. Most of my driving is up and down the steep mountain where I live, plus a little urban and a fair serving of freeway.  Over long experience I have realised that this driving regime penalises small engine cars – they have to work really hard climbing the big hill – and so no economical car gets optimal fuel consumption in these conditions. That’s especially the case with the air con running. But that’s where my cars are driven, so it’s the fuel consumption that applies to me.

My hybrid Honda Insight, capable in the right freeway conditions of turning in a real-life 2.8 litres/100km, gets in the high Threes / Low Fours in my normal use. The turbo Prius, off the road now with a defective high voltage battery, got in the mid-Sixes.

Frank the now departed modified EF Falcon, got in the mid-Tens to low-Elevens and my standard Lexus LS400 (also now departed) got similar consumption.

And the Peugeot? The first tank, with the car driven on my local roads, yielded a measured economy of 6.9 litres/100km.

A 700-odd kilometre country drive, two adults, one child and a fair amount of luggage resulted in 5.7 litres/100km.

Another tank involved lots of performance testing, dyno runs, draining of fuel from the filter to remove water, and up and down the hill and some freeway work. The result was 7.0 litres/100km.

Now these results are pretty damn’ good. The Pug, while certainly no performance demon, is a comfortable car with room for four, a big boot, very good air conditioning (in fact, with the heavily tinted windows, amongst the best air conditioning systems of any car I’ve ever driven!), and – most critically – it cost only AUD$6900 to buy. (Even the cheapest hybrid is roughly twice the dollars.)

But today when I punched the calculator’s buttons to work out the consumption of the most recent tank, I was rather disappointed. After a whole bunch of mods (which we’ll detail in due course in AutoSpeed), mods which have revolutionised on-road performance, I saw the fuel consumption number and felt a bit miserable.

Yes, the tank might have included towing a 6×4 trailer loaded with two large bookcases – the aero drag on the freeway was like a giant hand pulling the Peugeot back! 

Yes, it also included the climb up the hill with the trailer, air con running and two adults and a child in the car; the 1.9 litre Pug was certainly working hard. (I’d love to know how hot the intercooler got!) And the air con was running for basically the whole time this tank of fuel was being consumed.

So 6.6 litres/100km is actually quite fantastic: but when I saw the digital numbers, I was disappointed. That’s what looking at the Honda Insight’s fuel economy read-out does to you… it changes your definition of ‘normal’!

• » Comments (2)

To:

Tiffanny Junee
Manager, Corporate Communications and Media,
Hyundai Motor Company Australia

Tiffanny,

Re today’s telephone conversation in which you expressed unhappiness about this blog post http://blog.autospeed.com/2007/10/05/the-gravy-train/#comment and suggested that as a result of the post, you would need to carefully consider before deciding whether or not to make available a previously booked press car.

I believe that all that is written in the blog post is factually correct. I take note of your point that the iPod contained the i30 media kit (something that was not apparent when it was switched on); however, since the same material was available on the provided CD, I still believe the gift of an iPod to attending journalists was completely inappropriate. I have added a ‘PPS’ to the blog post to cover this matter.

Your expressed perspective that, as an independent journalist, I am free to write whatever I wish appears at odds with your apparent horror at my blog post. You said to me that you thought the blog post was an attack on Hyundai; I consider it to be utterly appropriate that readers should know how your launch was conducted.

That other new car launches may be held in a similar manner simply confirms to me that journalists are doing their jobs poorly by not communicating such corporate behaviour to their readers. I am certain that all readers would like to know when journalists are presented with gifts and other benefits.

If you believe it appropriate that on a new car launch journalists should be given an iPod nano to communicate your press package, and be treated to a four-course, chef-prepared lunch, then clearly you would have no problem with my disseminating these points to readers.

Regarding the long distance drive in a Hyundai i30, a proposal that was discussed at the launch and in a subsequent phone conversation. After giving this some consideration, I have decided to withdraw my offer of undertaking an 8000 kilometre test drive in your car. Simply put, after our conversation this morning, it would leave a bad taste in my mouth.

I stated to you at the i30 launch that I believe Hyundai is likely to achieve great success in the next five years. That remains my perspective, at least on its cars.

Julian Edgar B. Ed, Dip T (Sec), Grad Dip Journ
www.autospeed.com
www.autoweb.com.au

• » Comments (17)

It’s an obvious thing, but not so obvious that I haven’t been caught twice in the last month. When buying a secondhand car, or just the secondhand tyres off a car, check every tyre!

To the latter first. Recently someone in the small town in which I live advertised the tyres from an EF Falcon. ‘Near new’ said the ad. Since at that time I still owned an EF Falcon, I rang up. The seller didn’t know the tyre size but dutifully went away and checked. The size was right, so I went off to inspect the tyres.

Much to my surprise, I found that the tyres – and wheels – were still on the car! A wagon, it had spun and hit a tree. The car was a write-off, but the owner was trying to recoup more than she’d have got from a wrecker. So, the tyres (and wheels) were for sale, as was the engine. Trouble is, she didn’t tell anyone that you’d have to get them off (the wheels) or out (the engine) on your own!

This flummoxed me a little, especially when I pointed out that if I took the wheels and tyres off the car, it’d be awfully hard to move around her steep, grassy backyard – that’s where the car was. So, I suggested, perhaps she should place the car where it would be easy to winch, wheel-less, onto a truck when it was time for the car to finally go. I looked at a couple of the tyres, saw the brand-new tread, and made an offer. She accepted, so I went off for my trolley jack.

It was only when I was taking off the wheels that I noticed that in fact only two tyres were near-new. The other pair was probably half worn. But it was too late to complain… I should have checked the tyres more carefully before making my offer…

And blow me down if the same thing didn’t nearly happen again! This time I was buying a complete car. With the incident of the Falcon tyres still very clear in my mind, I checked with more than usual care the tyres on the car I was buying – a Peugeot 405 SRDT. And, again, there was a surprise in store.

Incredibly, the sizes front and back didn’t match. Now that might not be a shock on a Porsche 911 but it certainly is on a Peugeot 405! The correct standard tyre size for the Pug is 185/65 14. But lo and behold, on the back were 185/70 tyres! I quizzed the owner and he waved away the problem with a sweep of his hand. But why were they different? Oh, he said indifferently, perhaps his son had been responsible for getting those put on the car…

So, as I said, always check all four tyres….

• » Comments (3)

Yesterday I reckon I spent more time eating than driving.

I attended the launch of the Hyundai i30 in Sydney, an event paid for by Hyundai. And ‘paid for’ meant flying me down to Sydney from Brisbane (normal class), bussing me to the Sebel Pier One hotel for an overnight stay, giving me breakfast (normal hotel dining room), walking to a reinvented warehouse, watching a presentation on the car, driving it a short way before food and drink refreshments, driving it back to the starting point for a 3-course celebrity chef prepared meal, taking a stretch limo back to the airport, and then flying home.

I have real problems with this approach to launching a car. If a car company wishes to gather journalists at one location – and there were something like 20 present – then I guess paying for the flights is fine. But for a single day event, surely an overnight stay is not needed. Maybe even the refreshments at the drive stop are acceptable – although it seems to me that if the stop was placed near a shop, anyone who needed food or drink could buy them for themselves. After all, if they weren’t attending a Hyundai new car launch, everyone there would still need to eat.

But I can see no reason for a three-course lunch (In fact, when I think about it, four courses – there were deep-dried dates wrapped in some pastry or other to start with), waitresses at hand, preceded by a spiel from the chef. I think that this clearly falls into these categories warned against in the Australian Journalists’ Code of Ethics:

4. Do not allow personal interest, or any belief, commitment, payment, gift or benefit, to undermine your accuracy, fairness or independence.

7. Do your utmost to ensure disclosure of any direct or indirect payment made for interviews, pictures, information or stories.

And if you think a swanky lunch could not be construed as a ‘gift or benefit’ and certainly not as an ‘indirect payment’, you might also want to know that every journalist that attended the launch was handed, as a gift, a 4GB iPod nano.

So if you’d like to win a brand new iPod nano, tell us below how you think a 1-day new car launch should be run. I’ll announce the winner after a week.

PS: And the car? The diesel version looks like a genuine groundbreaker – and one that we’d like to do a long drive in…

PPS: Read widely and see how many journalists who covered the launch of the i30 disclose the gift…

PPS: When switched on, the iPod shows itself to be empty. However, when plugged into a PC, the full press pack for the i30 appears. But as far as I can see, the entire contents were also on the provided CD…

• » Comments (11)

EBay is a weird and wonderful place. As I’ve implied previously, I love it. I bid on eBay probably every day of the week – and my greatest love is buying books. Unlike so many other secondhand (and, for that matter, new) goods, at least with books you’ll know that they’ll ‘work’ and the freight bill is unlikely to be huge.

I especially like automotive books – or, more generally, transport books – and so when I come across a cheap gem, my fingers bid as fast as I can strike the keys. But unfortunately, over the last few years, the starting price of many car books has risen dramatically.

When I am selling a book on eBay – any book – I figure the minimum price needs to be around $5; if the books are clearly worth less than that, I bundle them. So I am not expecting books to start at 50 cents. But when books are listed with a starting price of fifty bucks – and the next week another vendor has the same book at $10 – you start to wonder at the book’s true value.

This was the situation when I first saw on eBay The Last Onslaught on Detroit. The book, which appeared to be about the demise of car maker Kaiser-Frazer, appealed to me in much the same way that books about the demise of the British car industry in the period after WWII fascinate me. The subtitle – An Intimate Behind the Scenes Study of the Postwar American Car Industry – looked promising… more than a marque history; perhaps context and manufacturing pressures and commercial competition.

• » Continue reading or Comments (5)

Those of us who are not full-time workers on cars, but instead are enthusiasts who don’t get their hands dirty on a daily basis, are most likely to benefit from this product.

So what is it? It’s an antiseptic liquid that you dispense from a pump-pack and then wipe over your hands. The stuff dries quickly and doesn’t leave a sticky residue.

I find it particularly effective when I cut my hands (looking now I can count six minor cuts, three of which are open) as very often heavy duty hand cleaners have the unfortunate side-effect of infecting cuts.

So you’re working on brakes or an engine or bodywork and, at the time you inflict a minor cut on yourself, your hands are filthy. If the cut or abrasion is of little consequence, you leave it and then later clean your hands with a heavy duty soap or dedicated hand cleaner.

And if that’s all you do, it’s likely the open wounds will get infected.

But if after cleaning your hands, you give them a wipe-over with Dettol Instant Hand Sanitizer, the later infection is avoided.

There may well be other products that work in the same way – it’s just that I haven’t come across them. For minor cuts and abrasions it’s much better than the antiseptic cream you might apply to a more serious wound – you can quickly and easily spread the sanitizer over both hands by just squeezing some of the liquid onto a palm and then rubbing your hands together. It doesn’t need to be wiped off – it then evaporates.

The product costs $5 or $6 and it’s available at supermarkets.  Note that it’s highly inflammable, so use it on your hands only after you’ve left the workshop…

(And no the sample wasn’t a freebie – I bought it just like anyone else.)

• » Comments (1)

I needed to pick up a press car in Brisbane and drive it home. Living inland from the Gold Coast, that seemed easy enough. Get dropped off at the railway station. Hop on the train from Helensvale to Bowen Hills in Brisbane, then walk to where the new car was. Trouble is, that walk is about 10 kilometres…

So, rather than walking, why not take the Brompton M6R Plus with me?

This small wheeled bike, that folds into an incredibly compact package, had arrived in the Edgar household the previous week. A demonstrator for my wife’s business, I’d ridden it only a few hundred metres, long enough to find the seat rather uncomfortable (but perhaps that’s after the luxury of a recumbent trike seat!), that there were six gears and that the frame felt surprisingly stiff on the road. Oh yes, and despite having rear suspension, the actual available travel is pathetically small.

• » Continue reading or Comments (2)