Road Rules That Time Forgot
Driving a car seems to be, for some people, one of the hardest things to do. Not necessarily the act of driving itself, but some of the legal requirements that will make your drive, and theirs, safer.
Some surveys state that the number one peeve of drivers is others that don’t indicate. That’s a fair point, as far too many drivers don’t do that on the straight road but did you know it’s also a requirement when merging from a freeway/highway on/off ramp? It also ties in with the relatively simple yet seemingly over complicated act of merging.
Road Noise
Noise levels inside a car can come from many different exterior factors, as well as from the car’s mechanical componentry. Are there ways to nullify the racket? When some cars get up and going they are just purely noisy contraptions. The road and wind racket inside a noisy car’s interior can be almost deafening; and even at the best of times, your conversations are kept short, sharp and to the point. Any lengthy journeys inside the worst culprits can be painful and wearisome.
Tesla: The Supergeek’s Supercar
Back in the 1880s, electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla tinkered around with using an AC motor to power vehicles. For some reason, the idea didn’t catch on the way his fellow inventor Thomas Edison’s lightbulb did, and cars kept mostly running on fossil fuels for another century while gaslights faded into the past. Tesla’s electrical car was sidelined into the realms of fiction, along with his ideas for wireless electricity transmission and death rays (yep, he’s the original “mad scientist who’s developed a death ray” beloved of sci-fi, superhero cartoons and steampunk, AND he predicted mobile phones). However, concerns about peak oil led to the ideas being dusted off again and considered seriously. Was it possible for electric cars to be feasible for everyday use? Could people invent a battery that would hold enough charge to power a car over more than just a few kilometres? Oh yes – and can electric cars be cool rather than geeky and boring?
Enter Tesla Motors, a company founded in 2003 with the long-term goal of making mass-market electric vehicles that could provide the fossil fuel market with some serious competition. The Tesla Roadster proved that an electric car could indeed deliver the goods, combining style and performance with purely electric motors. The Roadster was the first purely electric car to have a battery range of 320 km per charge. This award-winning design made the cover of Time magazine in 2006 and proved hugely popular in the USA. The Roadster had a 0–60 mph time of 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 165 km/h, which is more than the legal road limit (and what else would you want anyway)? Its styling was very classy indeed and used carbon fibre throughout for the bodywork.
Private Fleet Car Review: 2015 Jaguar XE S Supercharged V6
Once upon a time cars came in three sizes: small, medium, and large. Once upon a time you could buy a Jaguar in just one size. Large. Now there’s a choice of SUV, sports, small medium and medium large and of course, large. The relatively new and all alloy XE (compared to the bigger XF) fits into the small medium size. Why small?
It’s a compact sedan, with emphasis on compact. It’s just 4672 mm long, 2075 mm (with mirrors extended) wide and stands just 1416 mm high. That puts it right into the same ring as the BMW 3 series and Mercedes-Benz C Class. For two normal sized people in the front, there’s just enough room. For the two in the back, because it’s not really wide enough for three abreast to be truly comfortable, rear leg room is then severely compromised. With two sub ten year old children on the rear pews, the front seats have to be moved forward to provide some measure of comfort for them.
Odd given the wheel base is a relatively large, compared to overall length, 2835 mm, an inch longer than the 3 series and 5 mm shorter than M-B’s C Class. Also, the British contender has a slightly larger turning circle than both, at 11.66 metres compared to 11 for the continentals.
Those same front seats become a problem for drivers even of average height, with the seats needing to be lowered to allow some head space…but that then compromised, somewhat, forward vision and the need to look out the window in certain parking situations, regardless of the reverse camera and guidance lines, because sometimes cars go forward into tight spaces and there’s the lingering doubt about clearance for the alloys and scraping on concrete…
There’s also the matter of the steeply raked front screen, with the roof line meeting the glass directly over the driver and passenger’s head. Given the S had a glass roof, which drops the lining by a crucial inch or so, it just doesn’t work ergonomically. BUT, at least the designers have given the rear seat passengers a bit of extra head room.
The interior design of the XE also intrudes into space; the flying buttress wraps around into the bottom of the windscreen nicely however it also curves in at the top along the doors, potentially making driver and passenger a touch liable for claustrophobia. Even the power window switches are oddly placed, perched uncomfortably on the top level of plastic.
Level 2, 9 Help Street