4 hours ago, skomaz said:

 

You have my sympathy!!!   I'm a born and bred Sheffielder and work in the city centre but still struggle to get to some locations given the mess the LA have made of the roads...   Hope you didn't get fined (I assume the M-car is compliant?).

I was trying to go faster than the trigger speed of the cameras  It is a nightmare if you come from the Northern side of the city and try to work your way around to Charles Street. I remembered the trick after a bit. You go down to the roundabout where the big Decathlon store is and work your way back up into town

4 minutes ago, Lady Elanore said:

I was trying to go faster than the trigger speed of the cameras  

I have a memory of them attempting that on TG years ago (before Matt le Blanc 🙄) 

The speed was rather high IIRC

 

28 minutes ago, @Lee said:

I have a memory of them attempting that on TG years ago (before Matt le Blanc 🙄) 

The speed was rather high IIRC

 

 

I was thinking of that at the time I was terrorising inner Sheffield. Wasn't it around 170-odd miles an hour? Or a tad higher even? 

46 minutes ago, Lady Elanore said:

I was trying to go faster than the trigger speed of the cameras  It is a nightmare if you come from the Northern side of the city and try to work your way around to Charles Street. I remembered the trick after a bit. You go down to the roundabout where the big Decathlon store is and work your way back up into town

 

Yep that's it.  I'm coming from the South West so not much better.  I don't head straight in but go round the outer ring to the south east and then in form the direction of the station to the Apcoa car park. 

We got a discount for the Q Park and it is a lovely thing on the higher floors. 

7 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

We got a discount for the Q Park and it is a lovely thing on the higher floors. 

 

Best Discount is the Early Bird discounts they do in some of their car parks.  £3 an hour normally but if one arrives by 8 am then it is £7 for ten hours, great deal.

7 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

We got a discount for the Q Park and it is a lovely thing on the higher floors. 

 

Yeah - I'm not a fan of that spiral entry lane though - it's a bit tight in a Kodiaq but OK in the Swift.  I get the Apcoa which is somewhat rough and ready for £6.50 a day.

6 hours ago, skomaz said:

 

Yeah - I'm not a fan of that spiral entry lane though - it's a bit tight in a Kodiaq but OK in the Swift.  I get the Apcoa which is somewhat rough and ready for £6.50 a day.

It's the exit spiral that's the killer. It's the inside loop, so even tighter (the easier entrance loop lulls you into a false sense of security). The M3 with its long wheelbase and rather wide track and body, is something that focuses the mind on exit

 

I got a discount for about £8 per 24 hours  

25 minutes ago, Lady Elanore said:

It's the exit spiral that's the killer. It's the inside loop, so even tighter (the easier entrance loop lulls you into a false sense of security). The M3 with its long wheelbase and rather wide track and body, is something that focuses the mind on exit

 

I got a discount for about £8 per 24 hours  

Just be glad we're not driving something like a Rolls Royce which I think besides being wider are around 5.3m metres long for smallest models🤔. The mk3 is also difficult in most carparks what with the narrow and short bays. Most of them around here make getting in or out of a bay at least a 2 step procedure. 

1 hour ago, Graham Butcher said:

Just be glad we're not driving something like a Rolls Royce which I think besides being wider are around 5.3m metres long for smallest models🤔. The mk3 is also difficult in most carparks what with the narrow and short bays. Most of them around here make getting in or out of a bay at least a 2 step procedure. 

 

If I had a RR my chaffuer would have the problem of parking it  

 

The front track on the M3 is almost 64 inches though, so it's not a slam dunk 

Actually looking at the wheelbase and tracks of the M3 it seems to be bigger than the Superb!! Shows how big cars are getting these days 😞 

Meet up with my Director boss during the week and he has taken the plunge, as he is based at Heathrow ie inside the new ULEZ zone, should not have been surprised at all really, as he is a BMW fan boy, and he has gone for the ubiquitous 530-e, as do many a senior manager not wanting to get too whacked for tax.  Got rid of his 2015 Euro 5 diesel which he would have been paying the £12.50 a day ULEZ charge upon. 

 

Reminded myself of the spec ie 290-ish hp, 0-62 in less than 6 seconds, 20 to 30 miles on electric.  PHEV with a 12 kwh battery since 2020 or so.  

Like the etch Clio I am picking up today I suppose it is self charging some of the time.

I expect many 530e and 545e drivers do not plug it in at every opportunity, just to much faff to save less than a fiver's worth of gas.

 

Whilst it appears that fully electric cars continue to increase their percentage of cars over both PHEVs and pure petrol cars.  BMW little X1 is the only BMW EV in the top 20. 

 

 

Sales of petrol only cars still the biggest section but diesels have now fallen behind pure electric......

https://www.acea.auto/pc-registrations/new-car-registrations-17-8-in-june-battery-electric-15-1-market-share/#:~:text=In the first half of,21% lower compared to 2019.

 

New car registrations: +17.8% in June, battery electric 15.1% market share

Fuel types of new cars

In June, the battery-electric car market share surged from 10.7% to 15.1%, overtaking diesel share for the first time. Hybrid-electric cars remained the second-most popular choice among new car buyers, representing 24.3% of the market. However, petrol cars retained the largest share, accounting for 36.3%.  In June, the EU petrol car market grew 11%, totalling 379,067 units. However, the market share decreased to 36.3% from 38.5% in June 2022. The growth was primarily driven by solid gains in the four largest EU markets, particularly Germany (+19.8%) and Spain (+11.9%). Over 2 million petrol cars were sold in the EU in the first half of the year, a notable 15.9% increase compared to 2022.  In contrast, the EU market for diesel cars continued to decline (-9.4%) last month, despite growth in Germany (+10.3%) and Central European markets, particularly Romania (+22.4%). Diesel cars now represent a market share of 13.4%, down from 17.4% in June last year.

In June, the battery-electric car market share surged from 10.7% to 15.1%, overtaking diesel share for the first time. Hybrid-electric cars remained the second-most popular choice among new car buyers, representing 24.3% of the market.

Grant Shapps MP says the Government will not be having a price guarantee on energy this winter.  We will see.

He is talking of Tax Cuts.   Well tax on Electricity for transportation getting cut for public charging is needed, not just business users getting VAT back.

 

VW need to get on and actually have for sale the VW ID2 and the very low prices they keep spinning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 5 August, 20232 yr by toot

The real big problem with any form of hybrids is the sheer complexity of them. It seems if anything on the electrical side fails, it will also disable the engine as well so a double whammy effect. 

The sheer complexity of modern diesels is frightening, not to mention dsg gearboxes. I can only imagine what a euro 7 tdi will be like. Toyota hybrids have proved to be mega reliable but the jury is still out on all other makes.

A major advantage of full ev is they are simple mechanisms, a major disadvantage is the lack of trained mechanics and equipped workshops if they do need anything.

Is a modern diesel engine really any more complex than a modern petrol engine? I doubt it really because you still have all the same items but with a petrol you also have to add in all the ignition system which way more complicated than it used to be with an old-fashioned coil and distributor.

1 hour ago, Graham Butcher said:

Is a modern diesel engine really any more complex than a modern petrol engine? I doubt it really because you still have all the same items but with a petrol you also have to add in all the ignition system which way more complicated than it used to be with an old-fashioned coil and distributor.

 

You have the Ad Blu system on Euro6 wiesel cars and as well as all the sub system of that, I gather Ad Blu is fed in to the exhaust system to try and bring down the NOX so there is both the install cost of the system plus on going cost of topping it up I gather typical consumption is about 2% of the volume of diesel fuel but can be between 1% and 6% I read.

 

Shame car makers did not adapt to use human urine so one could recycle one's own urine in to the Ad Blu system, bit of a cost saving plus saving the packaging and distribution costs of getting Ad Blu to garages etc. 

 

Can see petrol hybrids,  with strong battery components replaces diesel in all road transport scenarios, including 44 tonne trucks, so that only ships and trains, that are not already electric, being EV or hybrid by the end of this decade for economic reasons not just law enforcement to achieve climate change objectives.   

 

Edited 5 August, 20232 yr by lol-lol

The simple petrol engines being used by some manufacturers to have their Euro 6 mild hybrids might well be good for a decade or 3.

There are some very efficient ones out there and not great complexity, even the gearboxes.

 

We will see how well the smaller capacity Cylinder deactivation engines (ACT / COD) do from a decade or more use as it was 2012 that VW launched theirs.

As to DQ381 DSG's and 80,000 mile service intervals, that is not going so well. 

 

 

4 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

 

You have the Ad Blu system on Euro6 wiesel cars and as well as all the sub system of that, I gather Ad Blu is fed in to the exhaust system to try and bring down the NOX so there is both the install cost of the system plus on going cost of topping it up I gather typical consumption is about 2% of the volume of diesel fuel but can be between 1% and 6% I read.

 

Shame car makers did not adapt to use human urine so one could recycle one's own urine in to the Ad Blu system, bit of a cost saving plus saving the packaging and distribution costs of getting Ad Blu to garages etc. 

 

Can see petrol hybrids,  with strong battery components replaces diesel in all road transport scenarios, including 44 tonne trucks, so that only ships and trains, that are not already electric, being EV or hybrid by the end of this decade for economic reasons not just law enforcement to achieve climate change objectives.   

 

True, but I don't think that the Ad-Blu is all that complicated.

 

The car is being blamed for poor air quality when the air quality is quite good anyway, not that it does any harm to make it better other than inflict more hardship onto people who are already reeling with rising cast of living with wages lagging far behind what is required to keep the balance. Studies have shown that cars themselves only make up a very small percentage of the pollution from the transport group. Lorries, buses, aviation, trains, ships and boats create the lions share but once it is the ordinary motorist who is the one that gets clobbered. Currently, producing electricity creates more bad air than the ICE cars do. The largest amount of pollution is coming from both agriculture and industry, so by helping these 2 sectors improve their act would do massive good for air quality across the globe, but that won't happen because it is not a revenue earner that can easily targeted. 

1 hour ago, Graham Butcher said:

Is a modern diesel engine really any more complex than a modern petrol engine? I doubt it really because you still have all the same items but with a petrol you also have to add in all the ignition system which way more complicated than it used to be with an old-fashioned coil and distributor.

 

You are probably correct but using your "old fashioned" analogy with another name, traditional diesels were massively simpler than traditional petrol engines and as time went on the gap became even wider until the 2000's when diesels caught up, they are probably equal now, both far too complicated and potentially unreliable for me to consider anything newer and if my current EU5 engine becomes temperamental then I am going to go real old school and buy a diesel Toyota BJ40 jeep.

 

Modern ignition systems in practical and maintenance terms are light years simpler than a Kettering ignition system although now they have moved to individual cylinder coil packs the pendulum has swung back.

 

My first ever engine was simplicity itself, crankshaft, connecting rod, piston and glowplug, a single cylinder 2 stroke diesel.

Guys, the "complex bits" is the electronnicy control systems, and a Scalextric car has just as many of those as an ICE engine one does.

Back with the 'Scalextic car' stuff.

Changed name but the same old same old from the member 

On 03/08/2023 at 22:58, Lady Elanore said:

Wasn't it around 170-odd miles an hour? Or a tad higher even? 

 

174mph wasn't it?

 

Must've retained that for a reason.  Probably optimism and wishful thinking around one day owning a car capable of it 

 

Gaz

4 minutes ago, Gaz said:

 

174mph wasn't it?

 

Must've retained that for a reason.  Probably optimism and wishful thinking around one day owning a car capable of it 

 

Gaz

I found a vid. Crikey, I didn't realise it was that far back. 'New' TG series 1
 

.

7 minutes ago, Gaz said:

 

174mph wasn't it?

 

Must've retained that for a reason.  Probably optimism and wishful thinking around one day owning a car capable of it 

 

Gaz

Black Stig & Richard Hammond vs the speed camera round 3 - Top Gear - Series 1 - BBC - Bing video