Despite what some might say in discussion groups, everything I ever write for AutoSpeed is carefully considered and thought-through, whatever the consequences of its publication.

So, for example, I was prepared to write content in Part 2 of our water injection series that showed, despite the good hardware, the results in some ways were disappointing.

“What a let-down!” said one discussion group poster.

That may well be so, but I don’t ever want to be in the position of claiming some modification benefit that others cannot duplicate.

In the same way, for our stories on advancing the ignition timing by tweaking the intake air temp sensor (see The 5 Cent Modification) modifying the action of the EGR valve (see Part 1 and Part 2), I was deliberately understated in my description of the potential benefits.

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I recently bought an interesting publication from the bookshop of the Australian National Library in Canberra. (Incidentally, this is a fabulous bookshop for all things Australian – political, historical, the arts, sport, and so on.)

The book is called Australian Tractors and subtitled Indigenous Tractors and Self-Propelled Machines in Rural Australia. It’s an interesting examination of the tractors that have been built in this country.

Written by Graeme Quick, an agricultural engineer and historian, the book covers some wonderful examples of Australian ingenuity and doggedness; people making – often with relatively primitive machine tools – tractors that could work the fields, day-in and day-out.

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http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/pricey-petrol-does-a-world-of-good/2008/05/28/1211654120229.html

“By pretending it can control prices, the Government is continuing to peddle the lie that it can control everything. It will also perpetuate the illusion that the way we have lived in the past – driving big, inefficient cars – is the way we should live in the future. Prices signal otherwise.”

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Bought a car the other day.

Regular readers will know of my pictured Peugeot 405 diesel turbo, a car that I have discussed in AutoSpeed and which has been modified in an effective – but very cheap – way.

In the short time that I have owned it, the 405 has proved to be a very good car – extremely comfortable, competent handling, excellent ride, and very economical. With the boost, intake, exhaust and fuelling mods, driveability improved dramatically. For example, the time to go from 80 – 100 km/h in 4th gear was halved. It was this sort of change, rather than a massive increase in peak power, that made the car so much nicer on the road.

In fact, the 405 has been doing everything that we’ve been asking of it – and turning in fuel economy figures of 5.5 – 6.9 litres/100km.

So why the change of car? The greatest problem with the 405 is its old diesel injection system. It’s a purely mechanical system that controls fuel and turbo boost and fuel injection timing. That makes it simple to tune – all you need is a screwdriver and spanner – but it also considerably limits the modifications that can be made.

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In August last year I wrote:

http://blog.autospeed.com/2007/08/14/local-car-makers-accelerating-towards-their-demise/

Read it again.

Less than a year later:

–  Mitsubishi manufacturing in Australia has gone broke

– Holden has said that within 2 years it will release diesel, hybrid and possibly four cylinder turbo versions of the Commodore. The company may also build smaller cars in Australia.

– Ford has released a ‘going on as the same’ FG Falcon, and then – oops, gosh, the world has changed! – announced a diesel engine version within 2 years.

– Toyota has said that they’re eager to build a Camry hybrid in Australia.

I wrote then :

The local manufacturers – especially Holden and Ford – need to show with locally developed product in the showroom that they can produce cars that appeal to more than Ford/Holden performance car enthusiasts, that they not only understand but also actively embrace the significant social change that is now occurring. Otherwise the Australian car will continue down the road to anachronistic irrelevance – it’s already on that path and accelerating as fast as its powerful and thirsty engine can take it….

At last, at last, Holden and Ford are stirring. Hopefully it won’t be too late.

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Today’s AutoSpeed article – EGR Comeback – is far more important than an initial glance might suggest.

In fact, it is the first of three stories that we will have on exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), a technique that is increasingly important in the chase for better emissions and fuel economy.

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“Japanese vehicle ownership has fallen for what is reported to be the first time since World War II as the multi-billion dollar industry battles a shrinking population and the waning popularity of cars.”

http://news.smh.com.au/business/japan-car-sales-drop-on-petrol-concerns-20080517-2f94.html

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As I canvassed in this blog, my wife Georgina and I have been thinking of going pedal touring. Carrying 3½-year-old son Alexander in a Burley child trailer, we originally were going to use recumbent trikes, machines that are stable and have a very wide range of gearing.

But getting the trikes to any distant location is an expensive exercise, so we reluctantly decided to instead ride Brompton folding bikes. (Disclaimer: Georgina’s business sells Burley trailers, Brompton bikes and Greenspeed recumbent trikes.)

The advantage of the Bromptons is that they can be folded into such a small package that on an airline flight they cost nothing at all to take with us. In fact, flying within Australia on Virgin Blue, we can take along two bike trailers, two bikes and all our camping gear – and pay not one cent extra over the three fares!

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In recent articles in AutoSpeed we’ve covered the major benefits of water injection. Without recapitulating those articles in full, water injection can improve power, lower fuel consumption and reduce exhaust emissions.

As recounted in one of those articles, the high pressure water injection system that I developed was tested on both my Honda Insight and Peugeot 405 diesel.

However, I haven’t left the water injection system installed on either of these cars – the Honda’s would have needed too large a water tank (the water injection was being used continuously in cruise) and in the Peugeot, the water injection system did not reduce post-turbo intake air temps as effectively as squirting the spray straight onto the intercooler core.

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