Lady Elanore

I've never been convinced by people who sell me the 'electric dream' based on cost. If fuel keeps coming down and electricity costs hit projected numbers, it's definitely cheaper to run a diesel. Personally, I think my colleagues who go on about the cost savings haven't really understood why EVs are coming. I'm trying to persuade my father to fill his coal bunker for this winter, as he can still purchase coal for a decent price. Could save him a lot of money, but he won't get his finger out

I'm sure I have a portable Sony 1 bit CD player somewhere in my 'cave of frightening old bits of tech'.

Trying to move big heavy boxes is a lot harder than I remember. Definitely an age thing. I do like to buy hifi by weight, though. 30kg or so, in a big smooth cardboard box with no handles is a bit of a nightmare really, as is unboxing and moving into position without scratching the speaker or destroying everything a knee height with the ridiculously large (after fitting) bolted on plinth. That was a faff too, as you can't easily tip the speaker upside down and you can't fit the plinth while the speaker is upside down in its cardboard box either. I had a similar problem with my telly. Still, it's amazing the solutions you come up with when you have to. Obviously, I refuse to have anyone help me The other slightly odd thing is I suspect these will be the last front pair of speakers I ever buy, as my age means they will probably last me until the point when I can't really appreciate fine hifi 😞 Figure I need to sort all this sort of stuff over the next few years and while I am still earning a living. Maybe my hifi will appear in a thread like this one many years into the future, when everyone has an inductive coil fitted in their cochlear and google contact lenses. It does raise an interesting question as to what will be desirable in the future. Cassettes are even making a comeback today, but I see no love for early CD players for instance. Quality amps and speakers (assuming parts are still available) will always be worth something, but will people really care about DACs for instance?

I was funnily enough, but it wasn't me as I wasn't in the Beemer and I don't have a private reg. I was also travelling much closer to the speed limit

Spent the day (actually the last couple of days) testing loudspeakers. Having only had a couple of days off in the last eight weeks and nearly all of those days were well over 12 hour long ...and saying in shoddy hotels 😡 I have treated myself, or rather, (cough cough) my business has acquired some new monitors. There is a small chance I may listen to them in a personal situation rather than a professional one of course . But it was great to listen to the differences in some of the last bit of truly analogue kit left - speakers (Obviously vinyl and tape still exist, but there isn't as much of it about and pretty much all new recordings are done as digital masters these days). The great thing was I could listen to a recording I actually helped make!! It wasn't my ears that made the magic happen on those recordings, I was just the hired help for rigging and editing annotations with the orchestral score, but I was there when it was created, so it was interesting to see (or hear) how close I could get to the original sound. Ended up driving to Carlisle to listen to some today and wanted to buy an opened box set, which this morning I had asked to hear. When I got there, I was told they were sold!!!!! Luckily, they did a great deal on a brand-new pair of the same model for only a small increase in price. I did still try some other speakers and Peter Tysons were kind enough to even open a brand-new set of Monitor Audio 300 Golds for me to listen to (I didn't buy them in the end). The open box set of those M.A.s that I had also was interested in, had just been sold that morning too and once again Peter Tysons offered to match the price of the opened box set if I wanted them. Excellent pricing and they were super easy to deal with. Thoroughly recommend them at their Carlisle branch.

You know what they say about Death and taxes.... https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/future-bmw-m3-be-‘groundbreaking’-ev-traditional-feel It will be a sad day indeed (not just for the BMW fanboy/girl brigade)

Btw the car is a Peugeot 3008 hybrid 4 and is on a 4 year PCP. Robins and Day did a deal that discounted the car and finance by a total of around £17,000 off list, which made the PCP quite attractive

I have a PHEV and do longer trips in it, ie 200+ without stopping. With a full charge and sticking to limits on the motorway 50+mpg is easily achievable. The key to the best economy seems to be to make sure you use the Sat Nav as I've noticed without this, the car tends to chew thought the battery pretty quickly until you get up to motorway speed, at which point the petrol engine kicks in as long as you are going at a reasonable speed (say above 50mph or so). I recently did a trip to London and the car retained some charge, seemingly for the built-up bit once I got to the 'Smoke'. With my car you can also do something similar by tapping on a virtual button to request a preset amount of battery to be left unused (6miles, 12 miles or maximum mileage possible) this has a similar effect to the Sat Nav and you also have the option to charge the traction battery as you drive - BUT the fuel consumption is horrendous if the car is being driven and charging at the same time. I estimate the car charges from empty to full in around a third the time it takes to do so on a 16amp supply, say, roughly using 12kW/hr (possibly a bit more, as there will be some sort of inverter loss I guess?) which is very roughly translated into using about 16hp. That's quite a lot of juice required. But I tried it on a return trip from London as I knew I would be stuck in the Heathrow traffic Jam on the M25 and could switch to EV mode whilst crawling along. It seemed to work out quite well, so much so the 6 hour return trip (it took 3 1/2 hours a few days earlier) still averaged around 45 mpg and this included more traffic jams later on and a bit of 'rather high speed running'.

Still only 1 EV that I am excited about though

Original Beyond Economicrepair

One day you will receive an OBE or similar for your efforts

Short but sweet review from the passenger seat of the 130RS https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-reviews/skoda/130-rs/

I think they stopped at least 35 years ago or so. I have a colleague with a '318i E30' and it was a 1.8 litre just like the '316'. The difference in the numbers signified the drop in power that the 316 (not injected) had when compared to the 318i. It sort of makes sense I suppose. They've been doing it with nearly all cars since ( I had the 3.0 litre M135, which gained a little more power and was reborn as the M140 etc). I think it's why Audi seem to have gone to just going ascending numbers to many of their cars when they want to denote more power or a larger engine. My 123D was a 2 litre (roughly 14 years ago), but as it produced 200+bhp it gained the bigger number to differentiate it from the 120D (it was also the first mass production diesel car that broke the 100bhp/ton )

It's amazing where the interweb leads you

It was somebody with one of those Kia 350kW charge capable machines. I think the highest speed chargers can peak at 900 volts. so a bit of maths says if the voltage is at max and the car is a 350kW one, then the current is almost 390 amps, multiply that by the two cars that could be charging from the same station and assuming that there is one cable set, run into the charge point/station, thats 780 amps needed for two cars on peak charge!!! That's an awful lot of juice and big copper like that is terrifically expensive.

yes @roottoot There is a YoooTooob video of it somewhere (probably on YouTube) I think it's because the current demand of a twin charge point could be outrageous if a couple of modern mega fast charge cars used adjacent facilities run from the same charge station

Aren't the thing that most of us think as Wigwams, really teepees (Tipi?) ?

What I didn't realise until recently, was that if two cars are charging from a singe dual type charger, the maximum charge rate is shared between the two vehicles, thus reducing the rate potentially up to 50% or so (not sure if one car can cripple the charge rate of another?)

Found the run. The start is utterly crazy and so addictive to watch. I would love to know how many Gs the driver is feeling.

The front looks vaguely like a love child between a Lancia Delta and an Audi Quattro, whilst the rear looks very, very Lancia Delta. The weird air brakes made me laugh though

I still can't get over the mini Batmobile. I know that EVs have a party piece of short term acceleration, but the lightweight and incredible downforce of the McMurty is astonishing, even compared to old school racers. It could do with flames out of the back, as it looks like it's jet propelled with the dust plume it drags around with itself. I suspect it doesn't have a great range though Btw does anyone else think the Travis Hoonigan thingy looks like a Lancia Delta?

I'm currently running a Phev and charging at home is fine for me luckily, but then I travel a long distance to work and the battery is flat. I can't charge in 95% of the places I go to, which is why I won't have a full EV until I am forced to, as it simply can't work for me. It's a shame I can't charge at my work places, although I get the outward journey with electrical assistance and the car is pretty economical as a petrol-engined vehicle. I averaged around 50mpg going to South London a few days ago (I travelled at a very 'good' speed-read into that what you will) and 42mpg on the way back (I had reported 3 miles of range in the battery as I set off). I took the decision to charge the battery on the fly, using the petrol engine, something that plummets the fuel economy to under 30mpg, but knowing I would be stuck in an hours worth of traffic jam trying to get past Heathrow on the M25, it was a great decision as I managed that portion entirely on electric power. Where I was staying in London, had chargers nearby, but the cost was exorbitant (thank you London) so it was cheaper to run the car as a petrol vehicle. Also, if I charged overnight, once the car was 'full' and the charged turned off, I would be charged for the idle time that the car was taking up the charge point it would still be plugged too. Sadly, or annoyingly, I've not seen a single car use these chargers in the several visits I've made to that area (probably because of the cost), but it all adds to the minefield that electric cars and hybrids potentially present. If I was retired, I suspect I could manage fine and work around the compromises needed.

The McMurty mini Batmobile. What a weapon! Fantastic small size and apparently under 1,000kg. 2+ tonnes of downforce. It also goes like, well, nothing I've seen recently. Its small size at Goodwood has been an absolute advantage, as has the amazing, committed drive by the two racers that share duties in it. Max Chilton drives it tomorrow in the hill climb and today, Alex Summers became the second fastest man up the hill. I can't find the run from today - yet, but it's worth looking for as it will become available soon. Yesterdays run is below (unfortunately you can't see the fan assisted start, it's simply nuts). Also note the cameraperson is confused at the speed of the thing at the top of the hill!

I tried to watch Part 2 but gave up as the sound levels are awful. I left a comment whiles the video still hadn't too many replies, but it didn't seem to be noticed. Shame as it would be a very quick fix.

...and it's not as daft as fake radiators on an EV. Plus, it does look a bit like a cubists' interpretation of a bum