The blurb at the top of this blog describes one of my interests as human powered vehicles.  

Human powered vehicles are – and aren’t – a longstanding interest.

Huh?

Well, in the same way I am interested in ultra-light and home built aircraft – but have never turned that interest into a reality – so for a very long time I have been interested in machines powered by pedals.  But having now started to build my own human-powered machines, I soon realised that I know nothing about cycling technology. I don’t know my Rohloff from my Schlumpf, so to speak. 

So I figured I’d better do some reading… 

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Over the years that I’ve been driving, my respect for various road rules has, I have to say, varied.

I’ve always respected drink driving laws – in fact, after driving a car once after having had just a few drinks (and so being well under the limit), I noted how my prowess had faltered and resolved to never drive again with any alcohol concentration at all.

But I’ve never had the same belief in speed limits – they’re simply too arbitrary, especially in their ignoring of car competence, the road quality and driving conditions.

And as for laws regarding car modification, I must say that I often have little respect for these.

But there’s one road law that I’ve always had the utmost belief in – the sanctity of the white line in the middle of the road.

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Back in this blog post I wrote about a number of old books.

One was ‘Automobile Brakes and Brake Testing’, published originally in 1938. It is, I said, “The best book I have read on brakes – how they work, how to test them, principles of braking”.

I have the second edition, which was published in 1958.

The book won’t tell you how to fit new disc pads to your Ford’s brakes, but it’s a superb book on the fundamentals of braking.

Timeless in fact.

And the reason I am mentioning it here? If you’re quick, it can be yours also – see eBay.

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So now Ford in Australia is to close its Falcon/Territory engine plant and locally assemble the European-designed Focus.

The Ford engine plant termination follows Mitsubishi closing its engine plant a few years ago and Nissan shutting its Australian car manufacturing operation in 1992. Going back even further, we had (amongst others) Toyota, Renault and British Leyland products built locally. But no more.

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So it’s now being suggested that those who illegally street race should have their cars confiscated and crushed. Yes, you read that right: cars destroyed. This is, apparently, what happens in California and those police are now advising their Australian counterparts that this is a good approach to take.

“This is what makes them stop – when you destroy their cars,” Corporal Heiss [of the Rialto police department] told The Daily Telegraph.

“They spend up to $US30,000 making modifications on their vehicles and that loss is overwhelming for them – they are not going to do it again.

“These young kids are scraping their money together to put into their main asset and some of them break down when they see their car being crushed.”

That such a monstrous behaviour is even being discussed shows the utter demonisation of those who lack political power in our society.

There are three fundamental shortcomings of such an approach.

The first is that it is grossly inequitable. In effect, the fine for street racing could be $2000 – or $200,000. The person racing in cruddy old Commodore scores the two grand fine, while the Porsche pedaller pays one hundred times as much. In no other area of law breaking is the penalty set on the basis of the value of the user’s possessions.

Secondly, since when in our society have we destroyed assets when those assets have been involved in illegal behaviour? No not confiscated the assets but destroyed them. So the white collar criminal who has defrauded a bank via a computer in their family home is then forced to watch as their house is bulldozed? The fact that he might have a wife and kids living there is ignored – in just the same way that the street racer’s other uses of his car are ignored?

Thirdly, the intrinsic value of the vehicle is apparently seen as zero. What if someone driving a rare and valuable old muscle car gives it a big squirt away from a set of traffic lights? The car is taken and crushed, irrespective of its significance? Again, let’s apply the idea to some other items of historic importance. The paintings by old masters are destroyed if they’re found to have been involved in some form of fraudulent behaviour?

You need only apply the idea of crushing street racers’ cars to any other area of lawbreaking in our society to realise how utterly inappropriate such a sanction is.

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Arguably the biggest driver of car engine technology over the last 40 years has been exhaust emissions legislation.

The original Californian Clean Air legislation introduced in 1967 hastened the advent of electronic fuel injection (the pictured Bosch D-type system has just celebrated its 40th anniversary – and only 5 years after introduction, it was being used by 18 car manufacturers) and the march of clean emissions progress has barely slowed since.

These days, of course, the shift in focus has been from oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide to CO2 outputs.

But what actually are the standards causing so many engineers to pull out their hair? The laws rumoured to have lead to the foreshadowed demise of Ford’s Australian engine factory (more on Australian car manufacturing in an upcoming blog post) and which are making it so difficult to sell diesels in the US over the next few years? You’d think that getting a handle on all the laws would be damn’ near impossible – but that’s not so.

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Over the years I have often seen requests for tests on oils. Which is the best oil? Or, are there in fact any significant differences in oils?

In my opinion the best way of answering that question with a specific engine (eg the engine in your car!) is to have the oil that you are using analysed on a regular basis. That proves clearly whether or not the oil is in fact of sufficient quality for the job it is meant to be doing. (Oil analysis laboratories are as close as the Yellow Pages.) 

An allied subject is the efficacy of greases. In most – but not all – applications, grease quality isn’t as critical. However, there are still massive variations in price – and presumably, quality – of greases.  

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One of the weird things about cars is that they depreciate so incredibly fast. We’ve all heard how you lose 10 per cent (or more!) of the value of the new car the moment you drive out of the dealership. That’s bizarre enough, but the fact that sometimes the most expensive cars in the world are nearly worthless 20 years later is also quite amazing.  

I can remember the 1988 BMW 750iL being released; to me it represented a pinnacle of automotive excellence: a dream car of enormous expense. My priorities have changed, but even with my love of efficient hybrid cars, I’d still have a 750iL in my garage, if only just for cruising. But of course the sting in the tail is that, these days, pretty anyone can afford to buy the big BMW. (You’ll need about AUD$8000, probably nearer half that at wholesale auctions.)  

So in my memory of cars, I’ve seen cars drop 90 per cent or more in value: it’s what happens with nearly all cars. And it happens even more so with those cars fundamentally over-priced when they’re released. In Australia, that means the mid-sized and large Europeans. 

Time has a way of stripping away the bullshit and leaving just what is worthy; when a top of the line V6 Camry (Aurion today I guess, but I haven’t driven one) goes as well, stops as well and has similar equipment level to some expensive prestige Euros, well….. time will catch up with the value of the latter.  

But hey, look on the bright side. If you have your heart set on a car, you almost certainly will one day be able to afford it – except for those exotics made in very small numbers, that sentiment applies to any car.

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As I write I’m getting over a cold. I am well enough to be mobile but not well enough to work. Well, that’s what I tell myself anyway.  

As many of you will know, I am becoming more and more interested in lightweight vehicles. One of my cars is a Honda Insight – amongst the lightest of all production cars on the road – and I find the downsides of its design usually quite minor. (If I need to carry more than two people, I take Frank the Falcon.)  

Now the Honda might be light, but it still has four wheels when surely three would be enough. Using a tadpole configuration (two front wheels and one rear) would also allow the car to be nicely streamlined, something that would be helped by a front mount engine and front wheel drive. That way, the classic teardrop shape for low aero drag would be much easier to implement.  

The starting point for such a car would be a FWD half-cut, say a Mira or Suzuki 660cc 3 cylinder turbo. Use the complete driveline, subframe, steering and front suspension and brakes, add on a tube frame chassis and then run the single rear wheel and suspension from a motorbike.  

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