Archive for June, 2012
Your Dream Ride: Classic or Modern?
Your Dream Ride: Classic or Modern?
Some of us have lived long enough that what were our daily drivers in our youth are classic cars today. Most of you, however, have only recent memories of some of the great classic vehicles you have seen at car shows, in old movies or some of the televised car auctions that are now the rage in some parts of the world. Those of us who owned and drove them daily have a different perspective of these so-called classics.
While many of these classics are beautifully designed and some of them have what were very advanced features in their day, they don’t hold a candle to modern vehicles. It is hard to find a vehicle today without such amenities as; electronic fuel injection, an automatic transmission, air-conditioning, power steering, power brakes, power windows, stereo radios with CD slots, traction control and sunroofs. Can we live without these? Sure we can, but do we want to?
Here are some of the items you lived with when you drove one of these fifties-sixties-seventies classic cars:
Maintenance – The type and quality of lubricants available then necessitated that the oil be changed every three thousand miles or five thousand kilometers. The chassis also had lubrication points that required a squirt of grease. Modern cars need little or no greasing and the motor oil is good for two to three times that as in the sixties.
Repairs – Sure, modern parts may be more expensive, but very few classic cars could be driven sixty thousand miles/one hundred thousand kilometers without a complete engine rebuild. The transmission and clutch were probably replaced long before this.
Tire and brake mileage – Most of the classical car tires would last about twenty thousand miles, with the brakes having worn out shortly before that. Modern tires will safely run four or five times as long, and the brakes as well.
Driving and handling – Most classic cars were softly suspended and rolled heavily when cornering. Only a few of the classic sports cars handled well, but most of them were expensive then and astronomically priced today.
Performance – In the sixties, a six second run to sixty miles-per-hour was very fast and any top speed over one hundred mph was good. Even the most sedentary modern econo-box will have a higher top speed and some of them will turn in sub-six seconds to sixty.
Given the choice, I would much rather drive a modern car than one of the classics, even some of the more exotic classics. Driving should be a pleasure and the trip, not the destination, should be the reason to get behind the wheel.
Whoops, I did it again!
Isn’t it just the worst when you think you’re all sorted, and then bang, you hit the letterbox on the way out the drive or scrape the front air dam at the supermarket? What about the runaway trolley that bumps onto the side of your car; doesn’t that just grate you? However, accidents do happen. What accidents to do with your driving experiences would you be bold enough to fess-up to? What about this one that recently happened in Turkey?
It was a normal day at the office for the forecourt staff at the gas station in Turkey, when, out of the blue, a woman driving a late model Porsche 911 Turbo popped her foot on the wrong pedal. Now we all no how quickly one of these cars can accelerate! She carried on passed the pump and bowled on up to the counter inside the gas station store. The achievement was captured by several security cameras, showing the footage of the white Porsche 997 pulling into the station before suddenly accelerating, crashing into a nearby car and then driving through the store. You can take a look on this video. The footage was posted on the Turkish website Haber365, which was first picked up by Carscoop. The driver of the Porsche and one female passenger were unharmed in the incident, though an employee at the gas station did, unfortunately, suffer some minor injuries which were treated at a local hospital.
Most bumps and dings are more mundane. Mine certainly have been. But you do get a few that are funny. One story I have of my husband. Always fun to share these tales about your nearest and dearest, aren’t they? He was backing off a church lawn, where he dutifully checked in the right wing mirror, then the left wing mirror. There was nothing behind that he could see, so back he went, straight into the oak tree. Oops, he forgot to look in his rear view mirror! Thank goodness for parking sensors and rear parking aids!
And if you think that just because a car has been owned by a respectable vicar with a string of degrees after his name is reliable (which the salesman is quite keen to tell you), think again. Our vicar has had a string of little bumps and dings, including one rather similar to the one in the Turkish video where the gearbox wasn’t in neutral when the accelerator pedal went down during some test at the mechanics.
So what have been your funniest car accidents? Drop us a line and let us know!
I want my car back! A legal stoush to end all legal stouches.
Now here’s a bonanza for lawyers.
Let’s have a quick look at the sequence of events that a couple of teams (at least) of international lawyers will be salivating over:-
1. A German is imprisoned at the end of World War Two.
2. American army impounds his car.
3. Car dispappears from view for many years and is bought years later by a Dutchman through a highly reputable US auction house.
4. Dutchman, thrilled with his new acquisition, proudly displays his car at a German Auto show.
So far so good,except, here’s the car:-
It’s no ordinary car. In fact it’s an extremely rare-and extremely expensive Mercedes 500K Spezial Roadster that the current owner paid $4m for recently. Here’s the story. The car has been around as a collectors item for the cognocenti for about 40 years, and nobody knew its wartime history. The car was originally owned by a German industrialist by the name of Hans Prym, who was understandably very annoyed indeed when he got out of jail to find the American Army had taken his car. He was unable to trace it, so gave it up as a lost cause. However his descendants didn’t give up. His 84 year old daughter actually now lives in the USA, but could do nothing until the car was in Germany. Now a German court has seized it from the unfortunate owner and the Prym family lawyers are preparing a claim for repatriation.
You can imagine the stoush that will ensue over two continents and two ‘owners’ let alone the auction house, previous owners and the US army!
Kids And Long Car Trips
We motoring enthusiasts choose our cars for comfort and when it comes time to go on holiday, whether it’s for a long weekend or for a getaway of a week or more, we prefer to take our cars. Load up the family, pack all the gear into the boot, hitch up the caravan and off we go! Now, a long-haul road trip is usually plenty of fun for the driver and those who can appreciate the changing scenery, but what about the younger members of the family? If you fail to keep them amused, eruptions in the back seat are inevitable – which doesn’t make for a very relaxing trip. So what can you do to prevent World War III from breaking out behind you?
For a start, you can position the potential combatants strategically. If you only have two kids and you have an averaged sized sedan such as a Honda Accord, you can stow something in the middle seat to act as a barrier (the esky is a good choice). The barrier can be used as a table for drawing or even for playing cards, but also stops the stupid game that involves squashing one’s sibling when going around a corner or the squabble involving He/She Is Poking Me And Hitting Me. This gets a bit harder with three kids in a sedan, for obvious reasons. If you have a larger MPV with three rows of seats such as a Honda Odyssey or a Mitsubishi Grandis (or a van or a large seven-seater 4×4 or SUV such as a Volvo XC90), you can space the kids out even more and/or put them right at the back where you can’t hear the bickering as much so it won’t drive you nuts. If you are the typical family with mum, dad, three kids and a Toyota Corolla, then allow plenty of breaks and rotate seats – put the non-driving parent between combatants from time to time if this is the only way to preserve peace.
But no matter where you put them, children are less likely to fight and grumble if they are entertained. Vehicles that have a rear seat DVD player are a modern solution; the older method was to hand out books and magazines. While these work a treat on straight roads, they are not so good if the road starts to wind, because if a child – or a non-driving adult – stares at something fixed rather than out the window, they are more likely to get carsick. This is where games like I Spy and audio books are useful, especially the audio books. It is possible to read while on a winding road without getting carsick – you make use of your peripheral vision to keep your brain informed of the movement around you – but this has to be learned. Possibly, the non-driving adult who has learned the trick can read aloud instead of playing an audio book.
Of course, no matter how much you like driving, you’re going to have to stop and have a leg-stretch every so often. The experts tell us that we should be doing this anyway, whether we have kids in the back or not, just so we don’t get fatigued. It’s especially important with kids, who need to burn off energy and get more fractious after long periods of sitting still. They also have smaller bladders, and you don’t really want the upholstery getting unpleasant stains if someone can’t quite hold on that long. Plan your breaks and take advantage of lookouts, short walks, picnic areas and the like. You’re on holiday, after all!
Level 2, 9 Help Street