March 2002
Merc Gullwing for Goodwood
[How's that? MBRM] Read more
Source Nickel Development Org
"In response to increasingly stringent emission standards in the United States, several European car manufacturers are fitting certain models bound for U.S. markets with stainless steel tanks.
Building the fuel tanks requires about 6,000 to 8,000 tonnes of 304 stainless steel annually.
The tanks will help car manufacturers conform to environmental laws designed to control smog. The state of California, for instance, has introduced legislation that limits hydrocarbon emissions to two grams per day per vehicle. That limit is set to drop further by 2004, while other states and some European countries are expected to follow California's example.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S., vehicles account for about 60% of the country's total emissions of carbon monoxide, 31% of nitrogen oxides, 30% of volatile organic compounds, and eight percent of particulate matter.
One source of these emissions is fuel vapour that permeates the walls of conventional plastic tanks at a rate of about two grams per day. Both carbon steel and stainless steel prevent this leakage, but stainless steel has the added advantage of longevity because of its resistance to corrosion -- and since the California legislation requires car manufactures to guarantee zero emissions for at least 15 years or 240,000 kilometres, longevity is a crucial feature. Stainless steel tanks are 100% recyclable.
For years, plastic has been the material of choice for fuel tanks because it can be blow-molded to fit into almost any space. But new techniques such as parallel-plate hydroforming and hydromechanical sheet forming now allow steel to be manipulated into equally complex shapes.
At the moment, only the vehicles for the U.S. market will have the stainless steel tank, and that's only cars from the European manufacturers.
But as "zero emission" legislation continues to spread beyond Californian borders (and as long as viable alternatives to the internal combustion engine, such as fuel cell technology, remain a distant goal), demand for stainless steel tanks is expected to grow."
Discuss:- Read more
Julian
Quite!
The words 'Deckchairs, Titanic, the, on, rearranging' come to mind, but not in that order.
Regards
John
Brother in law and sister are expecting their first child in June and as a consequence their 88F 325i Convertible has to go, (being replaced by a 92K 325i touring) I've been offered their car for £2,000 bearing in mind it has done at least 125,000 miles (speedo broke before Christmas and has yet to be fixed). It doesn't use any oil or water however may need a new water pump as a squeak/rumble coing from the front could possibly be power steering pump. It is in black with black leather and a new roof 18 months ago. I'm very tempted anyone got any ideas. Read more
Tom SS,
If you decide against it, I would be very interested in buying it seriously !!
Let me know
Marcus
Does anyone know when this car will be launched in the UK.
What will the price structure be, any general comments on the existing Micra please.
Thanks. Chris. Read more
Spud found the answer: A Toyota Yaris D-4D. See news item and entry in car by car breakdown.
HJ
I work for a company that is organising a prize draw - the prize is the £6,000 car of the subject line.
Our current favourite is as much Yaris as we can get for that money.
Does anyone have any better ideas ?
We'd thought of a Smart but we don't want someone in the windswept Highlands of Scotland to win a car that's better suited to someone living in a big city, so all rounders are better.
Thanks
And no, I can't fix it so you win. Read more
I assume so that takes us up to the £7,000 barrier inclusive of VAT, which is how most car companies quote isn't it ?
Is it just my computer, or have the date & time of posts to the back room suddenly become very large font? Read more
Thanks, 'cured' here also. Just shows what you can learn
Jim
If you receive an e-mail apparently from Norton Antivirus, it is itself a very nasty virus. Do not open it. Delete it immediately.
HJ Read more
Are you talking about creating an image of the drive(s) using e.g. Norton Ghost which runs in DOS? Software such as Nero can create an image file on CDR although some files may be missing as it runs within Windows. More reliable and much quicker to use e.g. Norton Ghost to write an image to an extra hard drive rather than CDR + a hard drive (20GB say) is cheaper than a CD-RW drive. I certainly wouldn't trust my data to a CDR.
Morning,
The time is coming to replace my faithful Cavalier V6 with something more modern. I like 6 cylinder cars and as I don't do many miles to worry about fuel and have good no claims bonus to keep the insurance tolerable I fancy another one. That said I don't want to pay the earth maintaining it and it must have 4 or 5 doors. I would prefer if it was R reg or newer which probably excludes German stuff from my budget (up to £7.5K)
I am favouring the Mondeo GhiaX/ST24 but also considering 406 V6. I don't really want another Vauxhall as the servicing cost of the Cavalier have been high and the Vectras that I have driven have been awful, in fact they seem a worse drive than my current car!
Has anyone got any useful advice on any of the above or indeed other cars of a similar ilk that I should be considering.
Thanks very much in advance
from Jason Read more
Don't rule out 5-cylinder engines. I used to think they were weird, but I love my Audi one - the sound is the next best thing to a V8...
Sister in law got stuck outside her local chipper last night in her fiesta (mid 90's I think) she could turn the key in the ignition, but with no resistance, there was no electrical activity and the steering lock would not come off, so the car could not even be towed. Sods law kicked in and where it was parked turned into a clearway in the morning! I was surprised to find how easy it was to ' hot wire' the car (can be done with a screwdriver and no damage, any wonder car theft is such a problem!!) however the steering lock was a pig to get off, and I really did not want to break it just to get it home... with alot of swearing and fiddling we got it off and got the car home, only to find that the spare key worked fine, and the key was at fault not the ignition barrel, DOH! a wasted hour and a half! I have never liked fords, or their keys. At least it was cheap to fix, a new key costing less that an ignition barrel, and possibly a busted steering lock if my patience didn't hold out!
Any body else had a problem with worn keys on Fords or other marques? Read more
No, 842 AYU (1961) if I remember rightly. Of course, in those days you could leave the thing unlocked and no-one would interfere with it.
Finally died when plates at the top of the front shockers rusred through. Replaced with an older (1959) 105E! Fond memories of those vacuum wipers though.
Back roomers,
In late December 2001 the engine blew on my 12 year old car.
The tax was out too on 31/12/2002. I filled in the SORN and posted it at X mas
I kept the car on my drive, it would not even run, but it was still insured
In early Jan I scrapped the car - got £5 for the car at the scrapper, and swapped the insurance to my 'new' car.
This week the DLVA sent me a bill for £35.00 {or sim} for not taxing my car.
I don't own the car - its scap.
I filled in the SORN in late Dec 2001 and scrapped it in early jan 2002
What should I do ?
I bought a replacement car in early Jan 2002, and taxed it from 1 Jan 2002.
I have two cars, both taxed for 12 months. We do the government not persue the tax dodger / professional criminals?
Thanks
Paul Read more
yep, I did mean that the road tax ran out in 2001
Ta all
Will get onto DVLA at the tomorrow
Browse
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I am sure it made a fine display but what an outcome for the owner... As sold they had only one pipe about 3" or 4" in size and it came down the right side of the car (looking forward ) made a 90 deg left turn into the huge silencer which was behind the rear bumper and provided some protection to the rather large fuel tank that took up the boot space and then another 90 deg turn aft and out under the bumper... some owners fitted a dash controled Buterfly valve in the 90 deg bend where the pipe entered the silencer and thence out the race position so from the rear these looked as if they had twin pipes...the engine made a wonderful sound when the under dash lever was pulled (VBG)
A fun side note on the Gullwing's silencer was that it was an exact copy of a US WW II 2 1/2 ton truck silencer... made for a cheap replacment item (one of the few).
The full belly pans made for other service problems/costs so my Dad replaced all the fastners with Aircraft Deuzits... reduced the remove/replace time for the full pans by well over an hour...
He also made more access ports in the pans so that things like the laminated camel skin/rubber/camel skin diaphragm in the fiuel injection system (which compesated for alititude/ atmospheric pressure in the mixture and when it failed provided a VERY rich mixture) could be replaced with a few special tools he also designed in just an hour ... a huge reduction from the m-benz 'book time'
He raced on Dunlops as best as I can recall and used Mich-X for the street
A friend of dad's took his stock Gullwing to the salt flats and set the 3 liter stock production record at 162.4 mph (I think... it's been many years) and I was told that the record stood into the 1980s
the Aero package on them was astounding for the time as were the drum brakes... with huge deep mag fins on the outside of the drums for heat disapation (once called the finest drum brakes ever used on a production car ... (I never had fade problems even drivng in mountains of Colorado)
with the 4.11 rear end it would do 0 to 100mph and back to 0 in about 14-15 sec
All the best and thanks again for bringing back these memories
Randolph Lee
Nantucket Island, U.S.A.