December 2005
Following on from another thread, some people have mentioned cornering as one reason to own a fast car.
I seem to remember a magazine test (CAR maybe?) in the distant past that tested this theory. It had a variety of cars - slow, fast, exotica - and a number of tyres on test. I think it included some non-road tyres also.
The conclusion was that in terms of cornering, all of the cars/tyres broke away at pretty much the same point/speed, no matter what tyres were used or what the car was.
Have I recalled this correctly? I didn't really think it possible at the time but I suppose the test must have been accurate.
I have often wondered why tyres are generally only marketed for their water clearing performance. They never seem to promise faster cornering or better stopping (except in the wet). Maybe this is the reason?
HV Read more
hi, i've managed to get some touch up paint and lacquer for my megane, but there is nothing to clean up excess paint should i overfill etc. I've already spoken to chipsaway and they said it wasn't economical to do properly (in terms of recouping value), so they told me to touch it up myself.
Any tips/tools for cleaning excess paint from scratch/bodywork?
Also would i have to do the same with the lacquer? How do i blend that in?
thanks Read more
put the lacquer on so it just overlaps the new paint and leave it alone to fully harden for a week then t/cut/compound in.dont forget to make sure that all old polish has been removed from area before you start
Hello
I was driving from nottingham to sheffield a couple of nights ago, when I came off the motorway the cars steering became very heave (worse on the right). I have checked the power steering fluid, and all is fine. What else could the problem be?? And does anyone know a decent garage in sheffield that isn't gonna charge the earth
Many thanks
Zoe Pearson Read more
Hi Zoe
This does sound a bit like your power steering has gone, but other things could cause heavy steering. Have you checked the front tyre pressures? A tyre with very low pressure would give a bit of resistance. Could possibly be stiffness in ball joints or suchlike - but that wouldn't happen all of a sudden.
It would be useful to get both front wheels jacked up to see what it feels like with both wheels clear of the ground.
It's also just conceivable that a steering rack boot has split letting in water. (My mums Clio had a split boot - I changed them for her - really fiddly job on the Clio because for some odd reason the boots are interconnected with a rubber hose. I imagine this is to relieve air pressure within them as they expand and contract. Anyway, getting the hose back onto the boots needs 6" long fingers - preferably of something not covered in skin!)
Get it checked - for your own safety.
Graeme
Hi all,
I came across this forum and looks quite helpful and informative.
I'm having a problem with a Vw dealership from which I bought my car. I have recently moved home and started taking the car to another dealership closer to home.
Last time I took it in I had a problem with my central locking and the car is still under warranty. I informed them of this fact and they said they would repair it. Once repaired they presented me with a bill for over £300 which I told them I was not paying due the car being under warranty. They then said they would contact the branch I bought the car from and ask why the warranty was not loaded on the system. I took the car home meantime.
I did not hear from them for about 2 weeks. Suddenly I get a call from the branch that repaired my car and they said the other branch was not paying for the repairs so I had to. A few call to the original branch and the sales manager said I should have taken the car to them becuase they are not willing to pay London's inflated labour rates. I disputed this on the grounds that the when I bought the car the salesman had categorically stated that I could take the car anywhere in the country as long as it was a VW dealership to fix any repairs under warranty.
Eventaully the caved in and paid for the repairs. The problem is now I have another issue that needs resolving under warranty and I'm expecting the same trouble.
Please could someone confirm that the second-hand car warranties given out by VW should be nationwide and not tied to a specific dealership.
Thanks for your help in advance.
Regards,
S
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The VW approved warrenty is an insurance backed scheme which covers certain risks depending on mileage. There is another warrenty with VW approved cars that covers nearly everything for the first month/1000 miles (even if you don't like the car IIRC). If the warrenty work was covered by the former, then the fixing dealer (I guess) would deal with the insurer. For the latter, it is at the supplying dealers discression.
I know when I needed some work doing under the intial 1 month portion of the used warrenty, the supplying dealer had to give permission to my local dealer to fix the fault.
HTH
Joe
Here we go; the cars my wife and I have owned and their monikers:
Mini = Oscar
Lada = Larry
Cavalier = Cap'tn Cav
Punto = Peter
Mondeo = Monty
Fiesta = Fast Freddie
Capri = Caspar
Capri No. 2 = Caspar 2
Escort = Essie
Volvo S60 = Vinnie
(Soon to arrive) Almera = Alfie
Quite a few of the cars have had other names at other times, most of them rude and said whilst trying to get them started.
Should I be stood in the corner of the backroom in shame or is anyone brave enough to admit their fondness for their car has spilled over into naming them?
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Had an old Renault 4, in white, looked like an ice cream van, Reg number ELV..... Called it Elvis Whippy.
Generally stopped naming my cars, once my testicles had dropped.
Hi I am currently running my 96 2.8 lwb on 235/85/16 Colway AT.Does any one have a cheap and simple idea on getting an extra lift.ie longer springs on the rear,ie from another jeep.And how could I lift the front as it has torsion bars,shocks/spacers etc.cutting and welding jobs no problem as thats what I do for living....thanks Read more
My son who reads various magazines about Land Rovers has missed the December edition of 'Land Rover Enthusiast'. Which has a competition for a Series II Land Rover, WWU 283.
Has anyone got a copy.
What is the Question for part one of the competition.??
Also to note, they have closed their forum. A new address will be announced on the Web Site, when up and running.
Thanks Read more
Some of us on here do (or did) read Land Rover magazines. I used to be a Land Rover enthusiast and did RTV trialling in my old 90. I had several year's worth of Land Rover Owner magazines, some of which I Ebay-ed, some I threw away and a few I kept.
The Land Rover had become a third car and when it had reached the end its life I couldn't justify replacing it as we need two economical, sensible cars for daily use.
Cheers, SS
The recent thread about Keith S wanting to know what the CAP value of his Renault Megane 225 was reminded me of my enjoyable test drive of this model a few months back.
However on Sunday I drove from Bath to Hereford, taking the A466 from Chepstow northwards. This used to be one of my favorite roads, being not too busy and having an enjoyable variety of tight bends and straights. However the road now has quite a few speed cameras along it which has made this road pretty dull. My Megane dCi provided all the fun that I could expect with keeping within the limits, on the odd occasion when I could overtake, its turbo engine giving more than adequate punch to get safely past anything.
So what is the point in these really fast cars like the 225 and Golf GTi? Most of the time we suffer from a 30mph dawdle along congested routes; and when the roads free up there seem to be cameras all over the place. Even in France the Police seem to be getting stricter on speeding. Maybe this is a good thing but it seems to make fast cars a bit pointless. Read more
"It's a bit like these top-end music systems that could burst your eardrums while still producing perfect, undistorted sound. No point."
Except that, after years of buying relatively cheap stereo systems and replacing them every 2 or 3 years, we decided to buy a Technics system which cost (at the time) a fortune - well, £600. 20 years later (yes really) I listen to it nearly every day and it sounds great, and never a thing has gone wrong with it - ok it's bulky compared to today's mini systems but it still sounds good, handles well and is very cheap to service!
Phil
It has been announced today that Essex Police are to reintroduce a motor cycle section, a reversal of the decision five years ago to scrap them, a decision which it was predicted would see an increase in motor cycle deaths in the County. Strangely enough today's decicion uses the high death toll amongst motor cyclists on the county's roads as a reason for their reintroduction.
At present they are only adding 6 machines to the 2 currently in use for 'educational reasons' when there were previously 30 before the disbanding of the section but it is a step in the right direction towards getting more traffic police eyes out on the roads where they can be effective against the bad drivers on our roads that aren't caught on camera.
Many of us could be saying 'told you so' today but I am just happy to see a positive move being made toward more sensible policing of our roads.
tinyurl.com/934ne Read more
As an Essex lad and as i live literally just a few hundred or so yards from where the Squadron will be based I can only support the decision. Only disapointment is the number (or lack of).
This will be big local news in the next few days.
A nice German lady went into a test station and asked for an MOT on her 3-y/o German-regd Corsa. It - predictably - failed on LHD lighting issues. She then said that she needed an MOT to renew her [German] car tax as she was working as an NHS nursing sister over here and wouldn't be returning to Germany until the spring at the earliest.
What should she do? Re-registering/insuring it here for, possibly, only a few months seems a bit like over-kill. Does she even need to pay German road tax if it's here?
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For a limited period of time she doesn't need to change the headlights, she can drive it with beam deflectors. Of course getting LHD beam deflectors in the UK is not the easiest thing to do so I had to make my own from a RHD set and some blck sticky back plastic :)
I needed them because I had imported my Berlina from Italy. It passed it's MOT with the beam deflectors as well BTW
JaB
Browse
Yes, the formula you mention is usually given as;
Friction force = Coefficient of Friction * weight force
The thing to note about this equation is that there is no mention of area. This is because the formula is limited to pairs of surfaces which are relatively rigid - it's fine for brake shoes and pads and clutches. In this case, the two rigid peaks only contact on the tips of the microscopic asperities. So, the tiny true area of contact isn't related to the apparent area of contact. This has memorably been described in text books by asking the reader to imagine one mountain range turned upside down and loaded against a second mountain range - only three or four of the highest peaks would touch.
Tyres, of course, conform to the road surface, so there is a benefit to be had from increasing contact area. The friction behaviour of a tyre needs more than F=mu*N to describe it.
The characteristic of maximum grip, when expressed as a function of vertical tyre loading is not linear. If it were linear, load transfer in a corner wouldn't be too important, the loss of grip from one tyre would be exactly compensated by the gain in grip on the more heavily loaded tyre. Owing to the non-linear nature of the characteristic, the information given by the tyre bible is spot on - the tyres can develop their optimum when the vertical loads are as even as possible.
Again, the amount of lateral load transfer for cars is not going to vary much between models. Aside from any coupling between lateral and longitudinal load transfer from anti-roll bars, lateral load transfer is governed by only the height of the centre of gravity and the track width. For most cars, these two parameters aren't going to be vastly different. I didn't see an A35 in the list for example!
Number_Cruncher