Archive for August, 2012
Making Cars The Old Way
The Morgan Automobile Company
Until Henry Ford developed the assembly line approach to mass production, automobiles were assembled individually by hand. Each part was painstakingly machined, fitted and finished by workers who were more artisans than they were mechanics. Even the body parts were hammered out on wooden bucks and then carefully fitted in place. No two vehicles were exactly the same and parts were not interchangeable. In the early days of the automobile, blacksmiths were the mechanics. Most parts were individually forged and machined with the smith being the only craftsman skilled enough to do the job.
Along came that Ford guy with his mass production and the world of the automobile changed for nearly all the participants. Modern cars are not only produced where everything is interchangeable, but there are so many electronic “nannies” that they almost drive themselves, too. In fact, there is work being done on a totally automated vehicle that will travel on an electronic roadway while the occupants busy themselves with other tasks while on the way to and from work. For those who to whom the trip is the reason to travel, not the destination, it will be a sad day when most motorways are automated.
There is still one car manufacturer who has not changed the way they produce cars since the day they built their first car in Great Britain in 1911. Founded by Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan, the Morgan Motor Company is now run by his grandson, Charles Morgan. The company is still independent and still makes cars by hand. Their vehicles sell for between $44,000 and $300,000 USD, depending upon the model and equipment.
The beginnings of a Morgan are carefully assembled wooden frames over which are formed metal structural members. The bodies are individually crafted, fitted and assembled and just like in the early days, no parts are interchangeable with other vehicles of the same model. Every finished car is an individual work of art.
A Morgan purchaser is a special type of motorist. They are an enthusiastic driver who likes to be connected with their vehicle and be aware of the roadway under their wheels. They look forward to winding roads with great anticipation. They appreciate fine craftsmanship and are willing to pay for near perfection. Their friends are also auto enthusiasts and they share stories and the location of interesting stretches of highway on which they exercise their steeds.
Seagull magnets?
The exterior colour of a car presses many a person’s button but I wonder if the colour of a car has any other flow on effects?
Something a little funnier, though. Britain’s Daily Mail has recorded some results that some scientists have found out about car colour. Crimson coloured cars are much more likely to be splattered by bird poo! In a study, the scientists found that 18 percent of red cars were found to be poohed on, compared to just the 1 percent of green cars. Green cars were the least soiled of the car colours. I wonder if the red colour of a car spells danger for birds, which results in the bird having a bowel movement.
Silver is a very common colour for a car, and it’s amazing to see the number of times it takes out top spot for colour. One of the reasons for this is that silver does show off the car’s exterior lines very well. Choosing a grey car also helps to hide the dirt. So if you happen to live in an area with a high bird population, either buy a green car for a low hit rate or grey to hide the droppings. White and red are the worst for displaying bird droppings, though!
To the issue of safety: white cars are safest, so too are yellow cars. Green, black, blue and grey cars are not so easily seen, particularly in some lighting scenarios. The colour of your car does play a role on how easily seen you will be on the road.
Now, what about other sorts of grub and the car colours that suit them – or don’t suit them – best. Let’s take the type of car that’s most likely to get grubby: a 4×4 that actually goes bush rather than just transporting the family around town. Ideally, the best colours for these would be sort of brownish greens – khaki would be good. And you do see some green ones around. However, they tend to be darker green, which shows off all the light coloured dirt and mud. This may actually be the idea. Worst colours would have to be white and black. As many people have said, there are two sorts of dirt: the light sort attracted to dark objects and the dark sort attracted to light objects. So black and white 4×4 (meaning black ones and white ones; zebra striped Safari styles are good dirt-hiders) are mud magnets.
Trade vans also end up looking shabby. The ever-popular white van might be great for displaying logos and advertising but if the job involves anything dirty, there’s a chance you’re going to get it on the paintwork. So maybe white may not be quite so good after all. This is a good topic to mention a mate of mine who was an interior plasterer. He couldn’t find a cheap white van – not even a good old bog-standard Mazda van – but saw a dark pink one (Metallic Rose would have been the description if it had been a lipstick) that nobody wanted because pink isn’t the colour for a Real Man. He bought the pink one and is now very recognisable as The Guy With The Pink Van And The Bulldog. It’s good advertising, I guess. But white would have suited a plasterer.
The final word? Well, it really depends on how often you want to head to the car wash or spend time with a bucket of warm soapy water!
The Latest Vehicular Danger: Distracted Drivers
Five teenage girls were enroute to a school athletic function. They were all chattering away, both with their friends in the car and on their cellular telephones. The driver was even texting to her boyfriend, whom she expected to meet at the game. The car was traveling too fast, but not so fast that the driver couldn’t have reacted in time had she not been multi-tasking. She pulled out to pass a slower moving tractor-trailer just as she was sending a text and ran head-on into a loaded dump truck coming the other way. All five girls were killed, snuffed out before their lives had really begun. The oldest was sixteen and the youngest was fifteen and all were dead.
According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, cell phone use is responsible for 28% of the traffic collisions. Many people assume that hand-held phones are the culprit, but testing has shown that regardless of whether the driver is using a handheld or hands-free device, their reaction times are equally diminished. The real culprit is a distraction of any sort. Extensive testing has shown that the human mind is not capable of focusing on more than one thing at a time, despite what busy executives would have you believe. Multi-tasking just isn’t humanly possible, not with full attention to any of the tasks being undertaken. The report says that cell phone users are four times more likely to crash than a driver who is not distracted. Quite simply, driving should occupy 100% of the driver’s attention and any fractional reduction of that is courting disaster.
The younger the driver, the more likely they are to be on their cell phone. Eighty-nine percent of teenagers admitted they used their phones while driving. At that age we all think we are bulletproof and immortal, but we aren’t. Not only do teenagers lack the experience and skills, but they are more likely to be driving distracted. It is more a matter of luck rather than skill, when they avoid a vehicular collision while using their cellular for talking or texting. Thirty-six percent of the teens surveyed admitted to texting while driving. Texting not only distracts their attention, but it diverts their eyes from the road.
Many jurisdictions are banning the use of any hand-held cellular phone while driving. Some of them are even banning all cellular usage by the driver while the vehicle is moving. What is the answer? Should there be a device on vehicles that blocks cell phone use? This would probably not be well accepted by most and viewed as just more governmental intervention in our lives. Much like smoking, everyone knows that it is harmful, but people still light up. But, something has to be done.
Small SUV's Flavour Of The Year
Figures released today by the Federal Chamber Of Automotive Industries (FCAI) reveal that small suv’s are outpacing their bigger counterparts , showing a sixty one per cent increase in sales over last year against thirty two per cent for the whole segment.
Cars in this smaller SUV segment include the Suzuki Grand Vitara, Nissan X Trail, Mazda CX5 and Hyundai IX35.
The sales performances for last month still show the Toyota Hi Lux as the best selling vehicle, followed by the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla. Toyota as a brand outsold Holden by almost two to one with Mazda snapping at Holden’s wheels in third place.
Level 2, 9 Help Street