Early Risers.

[polybear]

20 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Some hire cars seem to, going by our experiments on the unlimited Stuart Highway between Darwin and the RAAF base at Katherine.

 

The Hertz Ford Falcon with the 4L straight six Barra motor in it  had a limiter that cut in at 180kmh, and  very dramatically , the car just pulled up - we though at first we'd stuffed the motor. The Eurocar Mitsubishi Magna with the 3.5L V6 didnt, we got to 230kmh but the wind noise from the chunky side mirror was overwhelming. Likewise the Eurocar Toyota Camry got to 220 but felt dangerously "floaty" over 140kmh which slowed us up.  The most interesting was an Avis  Ford Territory, a Ford Australia designed SUV with the same motor as the Falcon. It got to 200kmh then the limiter cut in -  the fun thing was having the trip computer set to show instantaneous fuel consumption which showed that at that speed we were using 22 Litres per 100km (10.6miles per gallon in Ye Olde countrye.)

 

Had to slow down because we were a bit worried about running out of fuel before we made the next fuel stop at  Pine Creek

 

(Hire?) Cars in Kuwait have a bluddy annoying "ding....ding....ding.....ding" sounder that goes off when you exceed the 120km/h motorway speed limit.  After 2 weeks out there driving a Dodge Charger a certain Bear had Tinnitus for weeks afterwards.  Can't imagine why....😉 🤣

[Tony_S]

19 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Some hire cars seem to, going by our experiments on the unlimited Stuart Highway between Darwin and the RAAF base at Katherine.

 

The Hertz Ford Falcon with the 4L straight six Barra motor in it  had a limiter that cut in at 180kmh, and  very dramatically , the car just pulled up - we though at first we'd stuffed the motor. The Eurocar Mitsubishi Magna with the 3.5L V6 didnt, we got to 230kmh but the wind noise from the chunky side mirror was overwhelming. Likewise the Eurocar Toyota Camry got to 220 but felt dangerously "floaty" over 140kmh which slowed us up.  The most interesting was an Avis  Ford Territory, a Ford Australia designed SUV with the same motor as the Falcon. It got to 200kmh then the limiter cut in -  the fun thing was having the trip computer set to show instantaneous fuel consumption which showed that at that speed we were using 22 Litres per 100km (10.6miles per gallon in Ye Olde countrye.)

 

Had to slow down because we were a bit worried about running out of fuel before we made the next fuel stop at  Pine Creek

My Astra instrument panel used to flash just before the speed limiter cut in. The rev counter used to change colour to red as you approached rev limits in any gear. The hot hatchback Astra was traded in for a much more sedate Renault Scenic which trundled us round Europe on many holidays. 

I can assure you I really don’t like my Evoque showing instantaneous fuel consumption when on short journeys round town. I leave it  on the consumption since last reset option now. 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, BoD said:

I’m away for a few days and so may not be up to date with ERs or even life in general.  I will try to catch up on return.

 

Where are you? I here you ask.

Or perhaps not.

Here’s a clue anyway …

 

Handy clue. 

[Dave Hunt]

Maybe he was a para?

 

Dave 

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

(Hire?) Cars in Kuwait have a bluddy annoying "ding....ding....ding.....ding" sounder that goes off when you exceed the 120km/h motorway speed limit.  After 2 weeks out there driving a Dodge Charger a certain Bear had Tinnitus for weeks afterwards.  Can't imagine why....😉 🤣

The audible over speed warning isn’t something I have set on my car. I think it gets the information from GPS and scanning the road signs, but it can be set to silent. However, Aditi likes to tell me “don’t forget it is now 50 here”.  I think her speed awareness course made a lasting impression.  

[monkeysarefun]

7 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

can assure you I really don’t like my Evoque showing instantaneous fuel consumption when on short journeys round town. I leave it  on the consumption since last reset option now.

In 9 years of ownership I have NEVER -  NOT ONCE  - dared to look at ANY of the fuel consumption display options  on the 6 Litre V8 ute!

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

In 9 years of ownership I have NEVER -  NOT ONCE  - dared to look at ANY of the fuel consumption display options  on the 6 Litre V8 ute!

My Evoque is only 2 litres, 4 cylinder. JLR use the same basic engine for a number of vehicles, but with various degrees of turbocharging. Mine has 290bhp but when it is in a Jaguar gets another 10bhp squeezed in. 

[Erichill16]

3 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

On one of my Grandads final voyages on the Aircraft carrier it was used as an aircraft taxi. He told me that they ended up pushing crated up aircraft over the side as they were no longer required.

This was in the far East somewhere iirc

Istr that at the end of WW2 Lend/Lease equipment was supposed to be returned to the USA but it wasn’t really want ‘back home’ so was just dumped.

Wasnt there a story, recently debunked, that steam locos were buried in part of Doncaster Plant?

Edited November 8, 2022 by Erichill16
Add second line of thought

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

The forum was down for a while a few hours ago.

It sometimes became 'unavailable' for a few minutes but not for long.

[Adam88]

3 hours ago, Tony_S said:

The stuff that makes bangs is ordnance as in Ordnance Survey. The maps were originally for accurate artillery fire should someone naughty like the French invade. Though I suppose some religious ordinances could be a bit noisy. 

 

Speaking of ordnance and Ordnance Survey in particular did anyone else see this?

 

https://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2022/11/02/bearing-up-unique-event-for-britain-as-three-norths-align

 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Adam88

[big jim]

Dad to see the passing of Leslie Phillips today, met him in 2006 at a comic-con at the g-mex where he signed his autobiography for our then 2 year old Dominic who lived watching him in old films, cracked him up when he used to say ‘ding d0ng ’ (swear filter won’t let me use an ‘o’!)

 

 

 

of course my wife got a kiss from him and he said his catch phrase to her too! 

 

 

Edited November 8, 2022 by big jim

[Erichill16]

1 minute ago, PhilJ W said:

It sometimes became 'unavailable' for a few minutes but not for long.

My access to this site is very slow of late and sometimes I have trouble responding to post. - I blame the 8loody Russians and their cyber offensive!

 

Evening All,

Another day absent from here due to the usual……….

Anyway been to MRC to discuss final arrangements for THIS weekend’s  exhibition.

Picked up a couple of extra jobs.

Goodnight

 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Arthur Itis seems to be asleep for the time being but it doesn't take a lot to wake him up. Time for a snack and a hot drink before bed.

[Erichill16]

19 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

For Underground/Metro adventures I would recommend Berlin: both the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn are absolutely amazing to travel on and to explore – with the aesthetic bonus that most of the U-Bahn stations in the former East Berlin  are pretty much as they were built in the 20s and 30s (albeit modernised in terms of signalling et cetera).

 

I love metro systems an got a couple of books on them. Some lovely stations in St.Petersburg (Russia) and this rather nice one in Berlin.

ARGH! 8loody Russian hackers, the images won’t load.!

Having seen pictures of the Moscow metro I’d have loved to go there but I’m not sure if/when that’s going to be possible. SWMBO never fancied Moscow even before the latest ‘special operation’ so can’t see her wanting to go ever now.

[monkeysarefun]

30 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

Wasnt there a story, recently debunked, that steam locos were buried in part of Doncaster Plant?

Prior to opening, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was load tested with 96 obsolete D50, D53 and Z25 class locomotives, 7000 tons worth. Luckily it held up ok  or the harbour would still  be full of them now. 

 

[Erichill16]

Edited November 8, 2022 by Erichill16

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well they lied about the weather, it started to rain whilst I was in the garden, but only lightly, so I did manage to get the buddleia moved and I also pruned about 50% of the hedge, which created 2 wheelbarrow loads of clippings. I also managed to get my muggertea drunk whilst sitting on the under the workshop window, before I had to pack up for the day to to the rain. 

 

After dinner, I decided to try and repair the dispenser tray of my printer, so I headed down to the workshop. The dispenser is a telescopic type tray and one of the retaining catches snapped off when I backed into it, doh. Anyway, I’ve made a new catch from plasticard, slightly bigger than the original. I then cut a section of the tray out so I could glue the new catch in place. It’s now under pressure of a couple of clamps and hopefully I’ll get it finished and refitted tomorrow.  About 15 minutes after I’d come back inside, it chuckinitdarn again. 

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

(Hire?) Cars in Kuwait have a bluddy annoying "ding....ding....ding.....ding" sounder that goes off when you exceed the 120km/h motorway speed limit.  After 2 weeks out there driving a Dodge Charger a certain Bear had Tinnitus for weeks afterwards.  Can't imagine why....😉 🤣

 

Last time we went to visit friends in San Diego they had organised a car for us on loan to be picked up at LAX. It turned out to be a Dodge Charger and pootling down I 5 at 60mph was something of a frustrating experience!

 

Dave 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Erichill16]

Finally beat the hackers but can’t edit post to add details so 

Pictures are of Heidelberger Platz  station in Berlin.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Ozexpatriate]

50 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

pootling down I 5 at 60mph

You got to go 60mph???  The traffic on I5 can be so bad that's a good thing.

[Ozexpatriate]

Starting to see this again:

 

It is intermittent.

 

Edited November 9, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[simontaylor484]

1 hour ago, Erichill16 said:

Istr that at the end of WW2 Lend/Lease equipment was supposed to be returned to the USA but it wasn’t really want ‘back home’ so was just dumped.

Wasnt there a story, recently debunked, that steam locos were buried in part of Doncaster Plant?

The Carrier he was on was Lend Lease that was returned in 1946 he stayed with her until handing her back at Norfolk Virginia.

 

@polybear I have seen that footage istr it was South Vietnamese aircraft that went into the drink first especially because their pilots were flying out their families to the US fleet

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, PupCam said:

Fat tyres (especially but not exclusively if under-inflated ) = More drag. 

 

 

The fatness of a tire alone has nothing to do with the amount of drag (energy loss). You could replace the tires with solid steel tires of different widths and the energy loss would be exactly the same for all widths. That's because the friction between two materials, for example, a steel tire and a steel rail is independent of the contact area.

 

Adding more driving wheels to a locomotive increases the contact area but it only improves the adhesion if there is also an increase in the locomotive's weight. Coupled driving wheels became necessary to spread the ever greater weight over a greater area of track. If the engineers could have got away with it they would never have advanced beyond a single driven axle.

 

In the case of a pneumatic tire it's the amount of deflection as the tire rotates under load that makes the difference in terms of lost energy. (The energy has to go somewhere. It can't just disappear.) Fat tires are intended to deflect a lot as it allows them to handle rough surfaces. If you (could) inflate a fat tire and make it as deflection resistant as a Tour de France bike tire there would be little difference in the energy required to cycle it. (Although the hardness of the rubber would make a bit of a difference too.)

 

If you want to improve your MPG keep your tires at maximum pressure. That reduces the deflection and the work that's only going into heating up the tires.