Archive for February, 2019
In Praise Of Old-School Windows
I’d find myself rather pushed to find a car that’s new onto the market that doesn’t have fast glass or automatic windows or whatever else you want to call them. You know the ones: the ones that have a little button, one on each door for the appropriate window, which gets pushed one way to make the window go up and the other way to make the window go down. There’s usually an array of similar buttons on the door of the driver’s seat, which controls all of the windows in one handy place. And if you push the button in the right way, it whizzes all the way up or down in one go.
If you remember electric windows when they first came out, they were very, very cool. The early types, however, had some snags, especially if you had small bored children (or slightly older bored children) in the back seat. If you weren’t careful, small children could operate the buttons and put the windows down all the way, letting freezing cold blasts of air into the cabin of the car and allowing the possibility of precious objects being dangled outside of the window and eventually dropped, requiring sudden halts and U-turns to retrieve Teddy after Teddy had had a flying lesson. The other snag was that small fingers could get pinched very easily as the window closed. Not so small fingers could get pinched as well. This happened to me and gave me a very painful insight into what the Medieval torture device known as the thumbscrew felt like. Had a black thumbnail that couldn’t be covered properly by polish for at least a week.
These problems were overcome by a few simple tweaks. The problem of small children opening windows was overcome by the driver’s side override button that shut off the other buttons, meaning that Mum or Dad was the one who controlled the level of the rear windows. The other important development was the introduction of a pinch-sensitive mechanism that detected if something was stopping the window going all the way up and wouldn’t keep trying to squeeze all the way home. These stopped fingers getting pinched but this mechanism is no good at all for long hair that’s been blowing in the wind or for silk scarves. Believe me, suddenly discovering that your hair is trapped in the closed window when you try turning your head is pretty painful, though not quite in the league of the old thumbscrews without pinch sensitivity.
So all’s well, right? Modern automatic windows are safe and convenient, aren’t they? So why am I hankering for the old-school windows that wound down with a handle?
The first thing that I miss about them is their precision. You see, when you had to wind it up or down manually, you could stop at the precise point where you wanted. OK, this was a pain when you wanted to go all the way from fully up to fully down – which is what fast glass is good at doing – but there are times when you just want a little bit of window open. Getting it exactly right so that you can let a bit of ventilation into the car while you nip into the supermarket but without offering an invitation to sneak thieves was pretty easy with manual windows but it can get frustrating with fast glass. You poke the button and it moves down to about three centimetres from where you want it, then you poke the button again and the window flies all the way down to the bottom. Then the reverse happens when you try to ease the window up again to stop at the right place. It probably takes a couple of goes until you get it right. Similar things happen when you want to do things like let enough fresh air in but not so much that a gale buffets the people in the back seat or you can’t hear what the other people in the car are saying. This really makes me wonder if it’s really worth having a mechanism that goes from top to bottom in one hit after all.
Next comes the fact that automatic windows work by electricity, not by magic. This means that in order to make the windows up or down, the key needs to be in the ignition so the car knows that it’s all systems go. If you are in a parked car and want to put the windows down to stop them fogging up (oh, put that dirty imagination away – I’m talking about waiting in the car while your kids are at football practice on a freezing cold day) then you have to switch everything on to do this. It gets even more annoying when you find that you’ve left the back window wide open and you’ve just locked the door. OK, even with old-school cars, you had to unlock the door (which you could do by reaching through said window if there wasn’t any central locking) and wind up the window but now you have to unlock, put the key back into the ignition and then put the windows up. Then as soon as you’ve dealt with that and locked back up again, you realise that there’s another window open…
The driver’s window lock switch can also be a nuisance at times. They are wonderful things when your children are small because you don’t want Teddy to have flying lessons, the interior to receive an Antarctic blast and the mechanism to be worn out as the windows go up and down and up and down during a traffic jam. However, if your rear passengers are teens or adults, the window lock is a pain. Uncle Alfie in the back seat has just let off after a meal of cabbage and pickled onions, and by the time Uncle has tried to surreptitiously let the fart out of the cabin, discovered that the window mechanism is locked and asked “Excuse me, can you open my window? I just farted,” it’s too late and the car cabin will smell of Eau De Uncle Alfie’s Fart for the next hour. It’s kind of like leaving the kiddie locks on the doors and is rather insulting to the adult passenger in question.
The other thing that really makes me hanker for old-school windows is when I drive along roads that have a sharp drop-off into water or deep water below a bridge. You see, if your car goes into deep water, you only have a very, very small window of time to open the windows before water hits the electrics and the fast glass won’t budge. In this case, you have to try breaking the window, which is easier said than done, as car windows are tougher than, say, your windows at home. The windscreen is especially tough, so don’t even try this. (They say that the edges of the window are easiest to break and that at a pinch, you can use the metal spikes of a removable headrest to do this). Manually operated windows keep on winding in water, so breaking the glass isn’t necessary. I’m getting the heebie-jeebies just thinking about this, as having the car going into deep water is one of my worst nightmares. Just so you know (and to remind myself), here’s what to do if it happens to you:
Lastly, if you or someone in your family is into doing their own car repairs whenever possible, it’s a darn sight easier to repair a manual window mechanism, as this is a screwdriver-type job. With an automatic window, you’ll need to know something about electrics and wiring things up, which most of us don’t, so it’s down to the local mechanic you go!
Besides, what on earth do younger people who have seldom seen manual windows do if they want to mime opening a car window during a game of charades or when playing theatre sports?
Safe and happy driving, especially near deep water!
Jaguar Land Rover Six Straightens Up
Jaguar Land Rover is expanding its Ingenium engine family with a new six-cylinder petrol engine designed and engineered in-house, and manufactured at its £1 billion Engine Manufacturing Centre (EMC) in Wolverhampton, UK.
The 3.0-litre straight six cylinder petrol engine, which will debut in 2020, is available in 265kW and 294kW versions with a torque capable of up to 495 and 550Nm, is more responsive and better balanced than the outgoing V6 petrol.
It features a unique combination of an electric supercharger to deliver immediate response supported by a twin scroll turbocharger and Continuous Variable Valve Lift, which boosts power and help the engine to breathe with maximum efficiency.
These performance-boosting technologies, combined with Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle (MHEV) technology, optimises performance, fuel economy and reduces emissions. The MHEV 48V system uses a small integrated electric motor to harvest energy lost during deceleration, and then intelligently redeploys it to assist the engine to maximise efficiency.
The in-line six-cylinder petrol engine is 20% more fuel efficient than the V6 petrol engine it replaces and is fitted with a Gasoline Particulate Filter, reducing particulate emissions by up to 75%.
Nick Rogers, Executive Director of Product Engineering said: “From the outset we always intended Ingenium to be a full family. That is why we chose to engineer our own flexible engine architecture to meet our bespoke needs, allowing Jaguar Land Rover to adapt and stay ahead of changes in regulation and technology. This second wave of engines, with a Mild Hybrid 48V system and performance-boosting technologies, is engineered to be cleaner and more efficient than ever before.”
The new Ingenium engine has been designed and developed in-house and will be manufactured at Jaguar Land Rover’s £1 billion EMC in Wolverhampton, alongside the current four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines.
The 200,000 sqm site is a ‘zero waste to landfill’ facility with everything used being recovered and recycled. Jaguar Land Rover sources 100% renewable electricity for its UK facilities and over 21,000 photovoltaic panels are installed on the roof of the EMC plant, allowing it to generate up to 30% of the site’s energy.
The EMC is fitted with state-of-the-art equipment featuring precision manufacturing technology, including machinery that can work to tolerances of three microns (a human hair is 50 microns).
In addition to being committed to delivering clean diesel and petrol engines, Jaguar Land Rover is investing in electrification with next-generation Electric Drive Units (EDU) starting production at the EMC from 2020.
JLR wants to enable customers to make an informed decision on the best Ingenium engine technology for how and where they drive, whether that is fully electric, hybrid, petrol or diesel.
The company’s latest diesel and petrol cars are amongst the cleanest in the world and meet the new regulated laboratory and real world tests (WLTP and RDE). They are EU6 compliant and can be driven anywhere, and are, for example, exempt from London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) daily charge, which applies from April 2019.
Fiat Goes Rare With 500C Spiaggina ’58 Edition.
Rare indeed will be the Fiat 500C Spiaggina ’58 Edition, as just 30 units will be be released. Priced from $25,990 (manufacturers list price) the car pays tribute to the 500 Jolly Spiaggina, the first special series of the Fiat 500 which was on sale in the late 1950s through to the mid 1960s. It was the embodiment of ” La Dolce Vita”, with its quirky styling, 22 horsepower engine, and doorless body.The 2019 version will feature both manual and auto transmissions, and will come with $3000 worth of extras at no cost. Outside will be the brilliant Volare Blue body colour, 16 inch white painted wheels in a classic and vintage look, and a white “beauty line”.
Splashes of chrome add extra “bling” on the bonnet, mirror covers, and inserts in the bumpers. Bespoke Spiaggina branding is part of the look, with a rear quarter badge, plus “500” logos shown inside the compact yet comfortable cabin. Extra airiness comes courtesy of the beige fabric folding roof.
The design itself is based on a concept car which featured no roof, a roll bar, and no rear seat.
Power for the 2019 version is rated as 51kW from Fiat’s peppy 1.2L engine. The manual is a five speed, with the auto also a five speed. That option will be priced at $27, 490 (manufacturer’s list price). A seven inch Uconnect touchscreen will be standard, as will Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, climate control, and rear parking sensors.
Fiat Australia has the car on sale as of February 12, 2019. Contact them here.
BMW Unveils 1 Series M140i Finale Edition
Rear wheel drive and a front mounted engine has been a BMW hallmark for decades. The 1 series hatch has been a comparitively new part of the configuration’s history for the iconic German brand, and with the model’s end in sight, the company has signed off on the Finale package for the 2019 BMW 1 Series M140i.
The Finale package on its own is worth $3000, and with the M140i priced at $62,990, it’s a reasonable ask. Here’s what the spec list, built on an already well specified car, looks like.
M branded alloys of 18 inch diameters in 436 M Orbit Grey will underpin the Finale, whilst on top is a glass sunroof. At each end are darkened lights with the front end getting a high gloss blackout look that complements the black chrome tail pipes. Bespoke badging sets off the colour work outside. An extra tech piece is added in the form a smartphone charging pad.
Motorvation is from the 250kW, 500Nm, straight six engine of 3.0L capacity. Hooked up to an eight speed auto there’s enough grunt to see one hundred klicks in 4.6 seconds. Fuel consumption is rated as 7.1L for every one hundred kilometres driven. And the standard equipment list is pretty good too. Blue painted calipers hold the M Sports brakes, there are adaptive LED headlights with BMW Selective Beam, and Adaptive M Suspension.
There is BMW’s Navigation System Professional with the built-in 8.8-inch display, plus BMW ConnectedDrive system which can be enjoyed from the seats complete with Leather Dakota upholstery, along with BMW’s Comfort Access System.
Contact your BMW dealer for more details.
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