Archive for 2013
Make Your Own Car Cleaning Products
We’ve all heard about the drive towards more environmentally friendly motoring. Hybrid vehicles seem to be coming onto the market left, right and centre, and (as I’ve mentioned in earlier posts), fuel economy figures are getting just as much attention as power and torque figures in car reviews these days.
But what about the other aspects of car ownership? Going green goes way beyond buying a nice shiny new Nissan Leaf or some other hybrid or electric vehicle. It goes beyond using ethanol blends (which come from a sustainable and renewable source) or biodiesel (ditto) to power your vehicle. It also applies when it comes to keeping that new vehicle shiny.
A lot of commercial car cleaning products contain a lot of fairly ferocious chemicals. These have a number of environmental problems associated with them. First up, there’s making them. If it’s made here in Australia, it probably has to comply with all sorts of regulations regarding emissions, so that’s OK, but if it gets made in some third-world country, the factory could be a bit dodgy for the environment. Next comes using the stuff. Some car cleaning products can be pretty rough on your skin or on your lungs. And last of all comes disposal – all that stuff goes into the water system and can take quite some time breaking down.
So making your own out of natural cleaning bits and pieces can be a good option. They can save you a couple of cents, into the bargain. A couple of recipes are given below:
Car body wash
- 1 cup soap gel (make by dissolving old bits of soap in boiling water and letting it cool – it makes a goopy sort of sludge)
- ½ cup baking soda or washing soda
- bucket of warm water
Dissolve the soap gel and the washing/baking soda in the water. Apply to the car body with a soft brush. Rinse off with plain water. This is a mild wash that gets the grub off but doesn’t hurt the wax or the paint – or your hands.
Window and glass cleaner
- 1 cup ordinary white vinegar
- 1 cup of plain water (preferably unchlorinated)
Shake together and spray onto the glass with a soft cloth (e.g. an old towel or a tatty old T-shirt). Buff off with another soft cloth.
Tar remover
- Cooking oil (any sort)
Tar is oil-based, and any good oil will soften it enough for you to be able to pick and peel it off the paintwork very, very gently, or scrub it off with an old toothbrush. If the tar is very old or stubborn, a little kerosene should do the trick, with the emphasis on “little” or you’ll wreak havoc with the paint.
Homemade wax (for enthusiasts only)
- 2 cups carnauba wax (found in some auto and hardware stores – look carefully or ask one of the sales staff)
- 2 cups beeswax
- ½ cup vegetable oil (olive, linseed, etc.)
Melt the waxes in the oil in a double boiler. While it’s still hot, pour it into a suitable tin or container ready for use. Then use as normal. It’s not tinted, but it will do. Carnuba wax is derived from a Brazilian palm tree and is the basis of a lot of commercial car waxes – make that most of them.
You could also give a microfibre cloth a go (e.g. an Enjo cloth). These are great if you are on water restrictions, as you only need enough water to get the cloth damp. The wee fibres get into those microscopic cracks in the paintwork (yep, they’re there) and grab the dirt. Because you don’t use any product, there’s no residue left behind, so the paintwork doesn’t go streaky.
Holden's Triple S Barina; Smart, Small, Slow.
Much like a birthday sneaking up on you, it’s a bit of a shock to realise that the Barina nameplate has been around for nigh on thirty years. Coming from a variety of manufacturers such as Suzuki and Opel, the current model is brought in from Korea. The current model has a two level strategy, the Spark being an “entry level: and the slightly bigger version sedan and hatch, CD and CDX. The main seller is the hatch, with a 1.6 litre petrol engine and six speed automatic transmission with electronic manual shifting, via a toggle button on the gear lever. There is a five speed manual option. I say option as most of these will be sold with the auto. Sadly. More on that later…
The CDX tested comes with Holden’s new MyLink system (http://www.holden.com.au/vehicles/barina/interior) 
allowing you to connect to Apple’s Siri voice assistant, Pandora internet based radio and more. It’s smart and fun and looks good on the seven inch touch screen. The driver’s dash view is of a motorcycle style readout (highlighted in electric blue at night time) whilst the layout is clean and simple to use. The heated leather wrapped front seats are ok in side and back support but would be a little lacking in comfort for a long drive. Bearing in mind it’s a city car long drives are not its forte. Nor is calling it a five seater a wise thing, unless the rear seat is populated by dolls. It’s a small car, just on four metres total length for the hatch (the sedan is slightly longer) whilst interior front shoulder room is 1360mm, giving more weight to a rubbing shoulders argument. Bootspace, unsurprisingly, isn’t huge, with the foldable rear seats up and won’t take a new flatscreen TV above 40 inches in size. On the outside it’s good enough, with a family resemblance to the Captiva by virtue of the quad headlight cluster, leading to a pert backside via some smooth sheetmetal on the four passenger doors.
The wheelbase is just on two and a half metres whilst the track (distance between wheels left and right) is 1495mm; this, plus the wonderful Continental tyres, sourced from Europe, give the Barina CDX a decent enough handling package and allow the car to run hard into a corner with a surprising level of ride comfort and grip. It’s certainly more capable on the road that the drivers that will buy it. It brakes well, handles well enough and is quiet enough around town……except 
when pushed hard…..the engine shows the lack of refinement with a buzzy, raucous cacophony, sounding like it’s giving you plenty of urge when, in fact, a drunken snail would win a drag race.
It’s a 1.6L fuel injected engine, needing 6000 revs to produce peak power and 4000 revs to give you peak torque. Matched with an electronically controlled six speed auto, it’s zero to one hundred in a calendar week. Using the gear lever mounted manual switch doesn’t help either, with a shift from gear to gear measured in tenths of a second, rather than blinks of an eye. In a market crowded with small cars, it’s unforgiveable. And sad, as the chassis provides a decent ride, the new MyLink system is pretty smart and economy is ok for what it is. In the market segment it sits in though, the buyers won’t be fussed by the lack of refinement and added aural assault, being swayed by its looks and chicness.
Click here: http://www.holden.com.au/forms/view-brochures?Vehicle=Barina for a downloadable brochure.
Racetrack or road and an introduction.
Hello there everyone, I’m Dave. Although new to Private Fleet, my background when it comes to the automotive area is pretty reasonable; I’m a freelance car reviewer with my own website (www.awheelthing.com), work as a motorsports commentator, interviewed some household names in Aussie motorsport, have sold cars and present a weekly wrapup on www.torqueradio.com.au. As such, I’ll be providing some reader friendly industry news & reviews on cars and invite you along for the ride.
Megan’s spot on post about indicating leads me to my first contribution. Around the age of 16 or 17, we learn, supposedly, how to drive a combination of metal, plastic and rubber that weighs over 1000 kilograms at speeds up to 90 kilometres per hour. Or, if you like, move at 25 metres per second (if we use 90 kmh) whilst, generally, gripping the steering wheel intently and looking straight ahead. It’s an increasing concern to those that work in the driver safety area that our new P Plated drivers haven’t really been taught to “drive”, they’ve merely been shown how to steer, select D and…..well, that’s about it.
Once you’ve been granted a license to drive, you’re not retested, as a rule, for potentially another half a century. Yet, in so many other disciplines, people have to undergo a mandatory test every 12 months. There’s generally constant 
training, updates and so on to take on board. Not with driving a car.
Some manufacturers offer, as part of their sales package, driver training and club days. Some dealers will entice a new buyer with a day’s worth of driver training. Frighteningly, all too often this offer is declined because “I already know how to drive” or “the car’s for the wife, it’s just to pick up the kids from school”. Invariably, the vehicle they were looking at was a people mover or mid sized SUV…..current car was generally a small hatchback.
Why is this relevant? Different classes of vehicle have different ways they need to be driven; a small hatchback sits lower to the ground and doesn’t have a lot of ground clearance. This means they have a lower centre of gravity than a SUV. Most of the time they’re not particularly a quick accelerator either. Most SUVs of a reasonable size have a diesel or V6 petrol engine. They’ll accelerate to 100 kmh a lot quicker. They ride higher, meaning their centre of gravity will be at a point most people coming from a small car will forget about when cornering. They’ll weigh more meaning they’ll require more braking effort or to be braked further back from the car in front if you don’t want to rear end them.
Driver training, driver education provides this sort of clear and easy to understand information. As driver training centres are few and far between, these courses are held at the safest venue possible. A motorsport racetrack. In Sydney, there are only, currently, two venues: Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek) and the Sydney Dragway. Unfortunately there are politicians, some police and some so called road safety campaigners that believe driver training is detrimental, that it will encourage people to exceed their driving ability. These calls are easily countered with one simple, unassailable, incontrovertible fact. The excessively overwhelming majority of crashes on Sydney roads are nose to tail and under the speed limit.
Driver training helps you understand what you can and can’t do; more importantly it helps you understand what your car can or can’t do. Knowing how your car will accelerate and get across an intersection can make all the difference between holding up traffic behind you or not, it can make the difference between getting across safely and in plenty of 
time as opposed to being hit amidships. Driver training will help you make your car more visible when it’s raining or dark because you’re now more aware your dark metallic grey car is near invisible to other drivers. Driver training will help you learn that the hammering from beneath your feet when you hit the brakes is merely the ABS (anti lock braking system) working rather than something wrong and then you take your foot off and you don’t stop and you crash……And yes, it will help you know when to use your indicators correctly.
Finally, the best way to prove that you’re not as good a driver as you think you are? Go do a driver training course.
Targa: Showcasing Tasmania
I have just returned from Tasmania, host of what is billed as ‘The World’s Ultimate Tarmac Rally’- Targa Tasmania.
In its 22nd year, the ‘Targa’ takes in roads across the breadth of The Apple Isle, over six days of intense competition. There was an eclectic mix of cars, with around 220 entries in this year’s instalment ranging from $500,000-plus Lamborghinis to a 1938 Dodge, the oldest vehicle in the event.
As much as it’s about the cars, Targa Tasmania does something else very well: It involves remote communities. Driving into George Town, I could see kids rushing from their school playground to the fence line as the competitors drove past. There was smiling, cheering, waving…some had even made signs up to support their favourite car or driver.
After the George Town stage, cars and crews assembled in the coastal town’s centre, where spectators thronged, music played and food was served. The camaraderie, not only between crews and crowds, but between rival crews themselves, is what sets this event apart.
In recent years the route has taken competitors for a second day of stages on the remote west coast. The stunning sea-side town of Strahan hosts the crews, and is overflowed with personality. It’s wonderful tourism for Strahan and the surrounding regions, which struggle to sustain themselves given their vast distance from major town centres.
While in Strahan it was sad to hear news of the Wilderness Railway possibly being closed down, simply via a lack of profitability. Sad, because its route reveals scenery so breath-taking in parts that it could rival anything in New Zealand or Switzerland.
Heading out towards Lake St. Clair on Targa’s final day, I was awe-struck by the perfect tranquillity of the landscape between the old mining centre of Queenstown and Derwent Bridge (seriously, try the steak at the pub). The barrenness of Queenstown is quickly replaced by deep, clear lakes, imposing mountain ranges and thick, lush forest, with 360 degree views interrupted only by birdsong. It’s truly idyllic; I haven’t been so moved by Planet Earth since I saw Lake Como in Italy, and it’s lucky that the most beautiful sections are not part of the closed road sections of Targa…as I’d bet someone would end up driving clean into a lake.
It’s an epic undertaking but if you can manage the logistics and love the outdoors, the west coast of Tassie- indeed, pretty much Tassie in general- is a wonderful place for a driving holiday.
Level 2, 9 Help Street