The Night Mail

[AndyID]

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I had a 2.8i Capri for a while and also used to do that trick. I once had a bet with a colleague that I could drive from Lincoln to Coningsby without using the clutch and won £20 - and that was a fair bit in those days.  

 

Dave

 

Strictly speaking, unless it was a crash box (no synchromesh), that's not completely "clutchless". The synchronizer rings are cone clutches that bring the input and output shafts to the speed that matches the gear being selected before they lock the gears to the shaft.

 

But that's probably far too much information 😄

[AndyID]

During our recent trip to "the other time-zone" my celluloid-phone (aka mobile) was knocked off a table and landed on a concrete patio. The glass screen was totalled but it was still working otherwise.

 

I sent for a replacement screen and actually managed to install it without banjaxing any other features. Just waiting for some skinny double-sided tape to secure the screen.

 

I had so little confidence that I'd be able to fix it that I also bought an identical used phone as a backup and it works too, so now I have a spare.

[jjb1970]

My ideal car would have a switchable gear box. Most of the time I much prefer an auto box and leaving the drive train to look after itself but there are times when I like to drive for fun and when the combination of a slick gear box and engine that liked to be revved is a lot of fun. The Honda Type R VTEC engines were notorious, at lower revs they felt flat and boring but as the revs went up and the lift increased they came to life and were some of the finest petrol engines ever made for people who like engines. Another one is the Mazda MX5, it's never been a fast car but in a lightweight car with a superbly set up chassis it didn't need to be and was huge fun at road legal speeds. 

[jjb1970]

The worst I drove was a Mitsubishi Evo, I don't know which one it was but the clutch was an on/off switch. It had a trick ceramic clutch set up which was probably technically superb for driving hard but there was zero slip, either in or out. Which made stop start driving around town an awful experience. However on the open road it was a staggeringly capable car with brutal performance (and an equally brutal ride). The car belonged to one of my wife's friends, when her husband died (it had been his car) she sold it and I was kind of interested as it was undeniably a glorious car to drive once you got onto an open road but the ride quality, fuel consumption and limitations for town driving put me off. I found it quite funny, I hope this doesn't sound patronizing or anything but the lady in question was a very elegant middle aged Chinese lady who was always immaculately turned out and I just used to find it funny to see her driving around in a Mitsubishi Evo hooligan mobile (she ended up with a Toyota Camry which was much more her style).

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

My ideal car would have a switchable gear box. Most of the time I much prefer an auto box and leaving the drive train to look after itself but there are times when I like to drive for fun and when the combination of a slick gear box and engine that liked to be revved is a lot of fun. The Honda Type R VTEC engines were notorious, at lower revs they felt flat and boring but as the revs went up and the lift increased they came to life and were some of the finest petrol engines ever made for people who like engines. Another one is the Mazda MX5, it's never been a fast car but in a lightweight car with a superbly set up chassis it didn't need to be and was huge fun at road legal speeds. 

 

My Fiat Spider is a thinly disguised MX5. Made on the same line in Hiroshima. Different body panels with a slightly bigger trunk but the engine is a turbocharged 1.4L by Fiat. Performance is pretty much the same as the Mazda. I have the sedate version with an automatic transmission - my knees are too old for a clutch. It does have a sort of manual mode but it's not the same as a stick. Handling is superb. I chicken-out long before it starts to complain 😀

[jjb1970]

Italian style with Japanese engineering and manufacturing, a perfect combination!! Unlike the evil Nissan Cherry Europe and Alfa Romeo Arna..........

[jamie92208]

8 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I had a 2.8i Capri for a while and also used to do that trick. I once had a bet with a colleague that I could drive from Lincoln to Coningsby without using the clutch and won £20 - and that was a fair bit in those days.  

 

Dave

We used to have competitions on noghts to see how farcwe could drive Mk1 Escort panda cars without using the clutch.  No money involved though.  I was once tryi g to get to the hospital in Leeds in a bit of a hurry when the clutch cable broke in my Citroen  Xantia.  I did manage to get through the city centre but then called the rescue service once I got to LGI.

 

jJamie

[polybear]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

 

My Fiat Spider is a thinly disguised MX5. Made on the same line in Hiroshima. Different body panels with a slightly bigger trunk but the engine is a turbocharged 1.4L by Fiat. Performance is pretty much the same as the Mazda. I have the sedate version with an automatic transmission - my knees are too old for a clutch. It does have a sort of manual mode but it's not the same as a stick. Handling is superb. I chicken-out long before it starts to complain 😀

 

And the MX5 is basically a rip -off of a Lotus Elan.

When I were but a young cub you could look at a car an instantly know what model it was.  Nowadays that's nigh-on impossible (to this Bear at least) to even know what Make a car is, let alone what model.  It's like an attack of the clones.

[AndyID]

58 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

And the MX5 is basically a rip -off of a Lotus Elan.

 

Well, if you want to go back almost as long as I've been married (50 years next month) I suppose it was. The bigger question is why could Lotus not keep it going or even revive it? I'd have been more than happy to buy one if they had.

 

Going even further back in time a former school pal (nickname Fred Lawnmower ) had a running MG TA and he offered to sell it to me for, I think it was, 50 quid. We lived in a very small flat then and I knew the thing to do with it was crate it up and store it until I had the means to restore it, but even that was beyond our means. I was a tech at the uni and MrsID was a nurse and she earned a good bit more than me 😀

[Dave Hunt]

10 hours ago, bbishop said:

 

But was it white?

Nah, silver. I wanted a red one but at the time the only one I could get was silver.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

The only auto gearbox cars I've owned were a BMW 525i and an Oldsmobile Cutlass when I was in the States. Both of them, IIRC, only had three forward gears and ate petrol but driving in town traffic was more relaxing than manually changing gear every few seconds. I did, however, get so used to driving them that I drove two footed, I.e., right foot on the gas and left foot on the brake and even when I swapped, as I frequently did, from the BMW to Jill's manual Nissan it didn't bother me.

 

Dave

[jjb1970]

I think Mazda were quite open when they developed the first MX5 that it was inspired by the Lotus Elan and the idea of a no frills small and lightweight roadster was lifted from Lotus and other classic British cars of the type. Something remarkable about the MX5 is that as it has evolved it has been highly unusual among modern cars in remaining faithful to its original design philosophy of keeping it simple, light and fun. Most other cars of its era became steadily more bloated with each generation.

I've always avoided the Ford Capri, when I was young I lusted after models like the 2.8i and Tickford Capri and I really don't want to destroy my illusions by experiencing the reality, oh dear......

[Tony_S]

Hanging basket installation?

 

[New Haven Neil]

13 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Two trailers?

 

Dave

 

Spot on, Dave - a charter.  Not many on it, (at £12 not surprised) but many photographing it.  Always an issue for these things.  The railway was heaving all day, never seen it so busy. 

 

There were two railway holiday company groups, and one blue-rinse group vying for places,  One of the railway groups contacted railway management in advance and arranged reserved seats/ chartered trains etc, the other didn't, and then there were tears due to granny not being able to get a seat.  It's not rocket science, it is both summer tourist season and the transport festival, what did they expect?

 

So where was the duty manager to sort it all out, call extra trains etc?  Playing trains driving the two trailer charter out in the backwoods doing photo runbys etc.  D'oh.  Prat.

[simontaylor484]

Quick question 

 

Did the esteemed members who owned Capris have a Bodie or Doyle haircut?

[Happy Hippo]

53 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Quick question 

 

Did the esteemed members who owned Capris have a Bodie or Doyle haircut?

They did when they started driving them............... 

[Happy Hippo]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Hanging basket installation?

 

I thought it was an advert for WD 40.

[Tony_S]

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I thought it was an advert for WD 40.

There is an aroma of WD40 around the property today. All our gutters were cleaned and sprayed before the hedgehogs were inserted. 

[Tony_S]

5 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Quick question 

 

Did the esteemed members who owned Capris have a Bodie or Doyle haircut?

Students at the last college told me they like winding staff up by telling them that they looked like one of "The Professionals " . The usual response was "Bodie or Doyle?" which of course produced the "nah, the old Scottish geezer" .

[polybear]

23 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

There is an aroma of WD40 around the property today. All our gutters were cleaned and sprayed before the hedgehogs were inserted. 

 

If Harry's din dins goes untouched tonight I'll know who to blame...

[SM42]

It is  the annual quart into pint pot festival today as I pack the car for the trip to the motherland.

 

This year's competition  is made extra challenging by having both Mrs SM42 and her sister arriving with surprise bags after all luggage has been declared present.

 

I've spotted a couple more MrsSM42's keeping back just for some extra fun.

 

The addition of two passengers in the mix also adds to the challenge. 

 

Andy

Feeling overloaded

[Happy Hippo]

20 minutes ago, SM42 said:

It is  the annual quart into pint pot festival today as I pack the car for the trip to the motherland.

 

This year's competition  is made extra challenging by having both Mrs SM42 and her sister arriving with surprise bags after all luggage has been declared present.

 

I've spotted a couple more MrsSM42's keeping back just for some extra fun.

 

The addition of two passengers in the mix also adds to the challenge. 

 

Andy

Feeling overloaded

And some folk wondered why I bought a BMW X3 when there's only two of us!

[Northmoor]

I had a small wrist-slap from my manager today. "I've received a complaint....."

Last week I wrote something on a internal Yammer group that someone (anonymously, as it should be) took exception to, but fortunately they only found out who my manager was instead of going straight to the guy two levels above (who is a such a nice guy I couldn't imagine him dressing anyone down).  To be fair, what I wrote was just one of those where if I'd waited 30s before hitting "send", I'd probably have deleted it.

 

Handled very well, my manager was sympathetic but probably gave the right level of admonishment, just making it clear it had been noted, here's a copy of the house rules to re-read, etc.  

 

However, considering what some people write on there about senior managers (some of which is libellous) it is surprising what bothers some people.  I also heard recently from a colleague (who I know well, he would never intentionally offend anyone) that he has been complained about by the same person something like SIX times.  Apparently this person is a serial complainer about things people have said (usually to other people, not to him) which were supposedly sexist, racist etc. and not one has ever been upheld.  At some point, you'd think someone senior would tell him to wind his neck in or consider working somewhere else.

[Winslow Boy]

4 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

I had a small wrist-slap from my manager today. "I've received a complaint....."

Last week I wrote something on a internal Yammer group that someone (anonymously, as it should be) took exception to, but fortunately they only found out who my manager was instead of going straight to the guy two levels above (who is a such a nice guy I couldn't imagine him dressing anyone down).  To be fair, what I wrote was just one of those where if I'd waited 30s before hitting "send", I'd probably have deleted it.

 

Handled very well, my manager was sympathetic but probably gave the right level of admonishment, just making it clear it had been noted, here's a copy of the house rules to re-read, etc.  

 

However, considering what some people write on there about senior managers (some of which is libellous) it is surprising what bothers some people.  I also heard recently from a colleague (who I know well, he would never intentionally offend anyone) that he has been complained about by the same person something like SIX times.  Apparently this person is a serial complainer about things people have said (usually to other people, not to him) which were supposedly sexist, racist etc. and not one has ever been upheld.  At some point, you'd think someone senior would tell him to wind his neck in or consider working somewhere else.

 

Why is it that when you have these set ups there's always one who gets annoyed at anything that's said.

 

I'm afraid that this sort of person would say they were being bullied and take the company to tribunal. Professional complainers out to make a buck.

[Winslow Boy]

On a lighter note I believe Big H stated that he'd received a new orbital sander.

 

Well I'm pleased to say that I to have one. It's not top of the range but quite 'handy' as it can be used with various attachments.

 

I did consider a cheaper version, one with fewer  'attachments' but having heard Big H experience's decided against it.

 

Today I've been sanding some timber that is going to used for three new fence panels. I made full use of all of my 'attachments'.