2 hours ago, Evolution13 said:

^^^ Not how i see newer BEV,s being driven thankfully. Reps have places to be and people to see.

When I go on a longish trip, that is exactly how I see many EV's being driven: tailgating large trucks, sitting in their slipstream and thus broadcasting that they are prioritising range over time. That spot, however, is also the most dangerous position to be in; they risk being crushed between the truck they're tailgating and the one behind should the front one become compromised.

I accept that in the case of reps, that is how they drive because of time constraints.

Edited Monday at 15:085 days by Graham Butcher

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

Goodwood festival of Speed over for another year.

Fastest times up the hill this year. McMurray did not run again this year.

Lots of ICE cars making lots of noise but not going that quickly. Quickest cars may surprise.

(Spoiler, not ICE cars but what you possibly did not want to see, or hear)

No surprise there at all, electric should dominate, certainly on the hill climb, but speed is not the only thrill factor at play which is why so many electric performance cars have fake sounds in their speakers to replicate the missing ingredient.

Edited Monday at 15:085 days by Graham Butcher

4 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

No surprise there at all, electric should dominate, certainly on the hill climb, but speed is not the only thrill factor at play which is why so many electric performance cars have fake sounds in their speakers to replicate the missing ingredient.

Hills ? I thought EVs are suppose to be so heavy that would affect their hill climbing. EVs are just so much quicker off the mark as their torque is at a nidge over tickover spinning revs whereas with an ICE car it is going to be mid or upper rev range. The ICE car loses even before the first 20m usually.

Noise is wasted power. Fine for a 4 year old child going brmm, brmm but must start to feel embarrassing when you have a crescendo of noise but keep coming second ie "first last".

I am reminded off poor off the mark of ICE cars many a day. Off to the pub Saturday night, Corsa draws up on my outside with us in the 5. My five is the Evolution model ie only 120 hp but what it has got is instant torque like all EVs. Race to the left turn almost over within the first second. Corsa might have been a 1.2 turbo ICE but no match for just about any EV off the line. Loud exhaust does not help but only gives the ICE driver more theatre not noticeably better acceleration, tailpipe between legs, again.

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

Hills ? I thought EVs are suppose to be so heavy that would affect their hill climbing. EVs are just so much quicker off the mark as their torque is at a nidge over tickover spinning revs whereas with an ICE car it is going to be mid or upper rev range. The ICE car loses even before the first 20m usually.

Noise is wasted power. Fine for a 4 year old child going brmm, brmm but must start to feel embarrassing when you have a crescendo of noise but keep coming second ie "first last".

I am reminded off poor off the mark of ICE cars many a day. Off to the pub Saturday night, Corsa draws up on my outside with us in the 5. My five is the Evolution model ie only 120 hp but what it has got is instant torque like all EVs. Race to the left turn almost over within the first second. Corsa might have been a 1.2 turbo ICE but no match for just about any EV off the line. Loud exhaust does not help but only gives the ICE driver more theatre not noticeably better acceleration, tailpipe between legs, again.

Hills?? The cars I would expect would be as near to fully charged as it is possible to get, in order to maximise the amount of traction power they can draw down. Don't forget that a fully charged one weighs just about the same as a fully discharged battery, unlike the equivalent fuel tank on an ICE vehicle. A full tank is so much heavier than an almost empty one; advantage EV.

That Goodwood Hill is only just over 1 mile long, and the elevation only rises by 93 metres, so it's not that onerous, is it?

As to that torque being there almost from the get-go, well, that is one aspect that insurance companies are wary of as that is the possible reason why so many older people are crashing into rows of parked cars, through walls in multistorey carparks and even into shops when they attempt to exit a parking spot.

Edited Tuesday at 08:094 days by Graham Butcher

This is a bit of good news and shows how batteries are improving.

Looks like a great fun car to have, and it demonstrates the point I made above about ICE cars with the soundtrack, this car tries so hard to emulate a ICE in so many ways that Matt Watson loves it.

14 hours ago, lol-lol said:

Hills ? I thought EVs are suppose to be so heavy that would affect their hill climbing. EVs are just so much quicker off the mark as their torque is at a nidge over tickover spinning revs whereas with an ICE car it is going to be mid or upper rev range. The ICE car loses even before the first 20m usually.

Noise is wasted power. Fine for a 4 year old child going brmm, brmm but must start to feel embarrassing when you have a crescendo of noise but keep coming second ie "first last".

I am reminded off poor off the mark of ICE cars many a day. Off to the pub Saturday night, Corsa draws up on my outside with us in the 5. My five is the Evolution model ie only 120 hp but what it has got is instant torque like all EVs. Race to the left turn almost over within the first second. Corsa might have been a 1.2 turbo ICE but no match for just about any EV off the line. Loud exhaust does not help but only gives the ICE driver more theatre not noticeably better acceleration, tailpipe between legs, again.

Oh dear... There you go again... On about sheer speed off the line in a childlike 'mines bigger than youts' way.

Driving enjoyment for most people who enjoy driving is about more than just speed off the line and 0-60. Which is largely irrelevant, albeit fun for a few goes.

Skoda's fastest accelerating production car available to the general public from dealers is the Elroq vRS. Lovely if everything has been fully sorted on these. A 10 year no quibble warranty on the complete vehicle would be 'simply clever'.

5 hours ago, skomaz said:

Oh dear... There you go again... On about sheer speed off the line in a childlike 'mines bigger than youts' way.

Driving enjoyment for most people who enjoy driving is about more than just speed off the line and 0-60. Which is largely irrelevant, albeit fun for a few goes.

Personally, I'd rather have more sedate progress but longer range in an EV.

23 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

Hills?? The cars I would expect would be as near to fully charged as it is possible to get, in order to maximise the amount of traction power they can draw down. Don't forget that a fully charged one weighs just about the same as a fully discharged battery, unlike the equivalent fuel tank on an ICE vehicle. A full tank is so much heavier than an almost empty one; advantage EV.

That Goodwood Hill is only just over 1 mile long, and the elevation only rises by 93 metres, so it's not that onerous, is it?

As to that torque being there almost from the get-go, well, that is one aspect that insurance companies are wary of as that is the possible reason why so many older people are crashing into rows of parked cars, through walls in multistorey carparks and even into shops when they attempt to exit a parking spot.

The 3 EVs i have had, all the Renault Zoe, Scenic and 5, give full performance across the entire state of charge range 100% to below 0%, some polite reminders from about 15% as to about how about using ECO mode. Mini is different, it has more power than any of the Renaults and it does start reducing available power down from the 181 hp from about 20%, not massively at first, but it does try and restrict power sage to extend range by a bit. Dont think it goes many miles past 0% unlike the Renaults and TESLA according to Bjorn Nyland.

Yes its about 300 feet up the hill which the EVs won out on or the Rally cars come down and sadly get much less attention than the road and road racing cars.

Some years ago I was a guest of Skoda for the Goodwood FoS rally, won a place with them from the Autosport show. Got to meet Andreas Mikkelsen who still does WRC for Skoda. one of the 4 of us got to copilot with him down the hill but it I missed out but a great experience for all 4 of us and especially the one who got to go with Andreas.

All the rally cars are ICE and I think the WRC has dropped the hybrid ie battery component until road and road race cars, F1 etc, which now heavily lean on hybrid.

Looking forward to the full electric Gen 4 race cars going on more of the F1 circuits and compare times. Formula e will still use road tyres I gather but 4 wheel drive should and the big increase in power and torque should give some interesting times, Circuit of America etc.

Edited Tuesday at 18:184 days by lol-lol

£2k Milltek body kit for Alpine A290 or Renault 5. Hopefully comes in yellow.

More roadblocks on allowing homes with no off-street parking, installing a gully across the footpath to allow them to drop a cable in the gully and then charge their cars. As I fully expected, it is getting loads of opposition on the grounds of safety to the public, not just from cables being a possible trip or entanglement hazard but also a real possibility of fatal electric shocks from earth problems.

It seems I was right that the big push and rush towards getting electric cars to become the major means of personal transportation are being driven by the policymakers who do NOT fully understand the implications of their policies.

Looks like best to under estimate one's mileage and then pay any difference either on selling the car or being forced to give full mileage at service / MOT time.

Certainly will look to behave differently when it comes in. Drive more short cut journeys through towns, A and B roads rather than motorways.

Pump tyres up, monitor more oft.

Would not be happy to have a TESLA where one report said they were over reading mileage by as much as 10% !

Still 20 months before it comes in and it will be interesting to see how it affects buyers / drivers decisions.

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

Looks like best to under estimate one's mileage and then pay any difference either on selling the car or being forced to give full mileage at service / MOT time.

Certainly will look to behave differently when it comes in. Drive more short cut journeys through towns, A and B roads rather than motorways.

Pump tyres up, monitor more oft.

Would not be happy to have a TESLA where one report said they were over reading mileage by as much as 10% !

Still 20 months before it comes in and it will be interesting to see how it affects buyers / drivers decisions.

Oh, come on, you have to admit on the running costs you had a few years of cashing it in big time; even with that PPM, surely you're still going to be better off than running an ICE car?

Anyway, I thought you always claimed that it was all about saving the planet and less about the cheapness of running and maintenance costs?

On 14/07/2026 at 21:48, lol-lol said:

£2k Milltek body kit for Alpine A290 or Renault 5. Hopefully comes in yellow.

God that's awful...

19 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Oh, come on, you have to admit on the running costs you had a few years of cashing it in big time; even with that PPM, surely you're still going to be better off than running an ICE car?

Anyway, I thought you always claimed that it was all about saving the planet and less about the cheapness of running and maintenance costs?

My concern was community nursing etc being asked to use their cars and being out of pocket.

Their role in the community is so important I am not too bothered what engine type they use but the EV salary schemes many employers are offering do make it tax efficient for some of them to choose EVs.

Since I am retired and no longer claim mileage its all down to myself paying any bills but with all the new solar and wind farms coming online one hopes electricity prices will fall as long as data centre demands for power does not drives the cost up of course. Negative pricing of electricity is great and I plan to keep expanding my solar and battery at home to further lower the energy running costs and this should offset the 3p per mile charge which already looks like there are a few methods to effectively reduce the cost to below 3p per mile.

@lol-lol Hmm.... As to the cost of energy coming down as more solar, wind and storage is added on the grid, I seriously doubt that either of us is ever going to see that in our lifetime. Perhaps now you've retired, you might take time to explore more investigative channels that explore and explode so many myths about the promises that are made. Then discover about just who is benefitting from the policies and how when it is time to deliver said promises, ducking and diving before doing a U turn.

Councillors have approved planning permission for the biggest Solar Farm in the Scotland in Perth & Kinross region. Not that there is a shortage of renewable electricity in the area, just a lack of National Grid infrastructure and electricity generating businesses being paid to not generate electricity. What is the potential generation already, 4 times what Scotland homes and businesses require. The UK Government have already approved the biggest and second biggest Solar farms in the UK, in England.

Edited Thursday at 07:032 days by Evolution13

On 14/07/2026 at 21:48, lol-lol said:

£2k Milltek body kit for Alpine A290 or Renault 5. Hopefully comes in yellow.

Boy racer mode, just wanting the go-faster stripes to complete the impression. Personally, if it was speed I wanted, I'd much prefer the wolf in sheep's clothing look.

Edited Thursday at 07:032 days by Graham Butcher

On 16/07/2026 at 01:00, Graham Butcher said:

@lol-lol Hmm.... As to the cost of energy coming down as more solar, wind and storage is added on the grid, I seriously doubt that either of us is ever going to see that in our lifetime. Perhaps now you've retired, you might take time to explore more investigative channels that explore and explode so many myths about the promises that are made. Then discover about just who is benefitting from the policies and how when it is time to deliver said promises, ducking and diving before doing a U turn.

it is more so homes, including balcony solar roll out, that the Grid will play less of a role in supplying domestic electricity.

Clearly the Grid will do more to supply EV charging stations with ever more charging, depending on whether EV charging stations and data hubs put more of their own batteries and possibly even diesel generator backup for outages or when pricing goes silly a £1 a KWh or more.

Octopus and Martin Lewis are our UK champions and what I follow. There are so many Youtube in-experts out there I don't waste my time. my retirement will continue to involve expanding my own electrical generation and storage using the new tech coming in and using the Time of Use tariffs to keep my energy bills low ie sub £2k per year despite having 3 EVs and a detached house which I am home most the time and therefore uses quite a lot of power ie over 20 MWh per year ie energy sub 10p per KWh cost !

This is a very interesting video; it's an interview of a couple who were driving their Tesla with FSD active at 140kmh when it was involved in a head-on crash and lived to tell the tale.

6 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

Oh, come on, you have to admit on the running costs you had a few years of cashing it in big time; even with that PPM, surely you're still going to be better off than running an ICE car?

Anyway, I thought you always claimed that it was all about saving the planet and less about the cheapness of running and maintenance costs?

23 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

This is a very interesting video; it's an interview of a couple who were driving their Tesla with FSD active at 140kmh when it was involved in a head-on crash and lived to tell the tale.

More about TESLAs tech of Self Driving than TESLAs as EVs.

TESLA use optical system i read rather than LIDAR which most car safety and self driving use. TESLA use TESLA vision which has had considerable criticism for being "fooled" in certain circumstances.

Adaptive cruise control is enough tech for me abd self driving a step too far at the moment but will probably use FSD in tHe future but not TESLA but with a European, Korean or Japanese manufacturer.

@lol-lol Yes, I think one of the issues with Tesla Vision is sunlight; fog is going to be another.

52 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

@lol-lol Yes, I think one of the issues with Tesla Vision is sunlight; fog is going to be another.

Mirrors, reflection, low sun shining beneath trucks flat bed area.

Amazed TESLA have not joined the rest of the automotive world with LIDAR.

Not perfect, I have had brakes come on with a large leaf or plastic bag blowing across the road and quite a few reports of mysterious braking for no apparent reason.

Not just an EV thing. I hit a some slow bird in one of my Octavia VRSs and it knocked that LIDAR detector plate on the front of the car and despite being "fixed" it was never the same.

Yes, I've had those bouts of phantom braking as well, and I've had the ACC fail to understand, without a fairly lengthy pause, that the vehicle in front has either turned off or has pulled into a layby before understanding that has happened and resetting itself back to the original setting.

It makes you wonder if things wouldn't be better without all of these modern driver aids.