ot car special editions

I have to ask, and I've been wondering now, but WTF is a Silver Tuddy?

They're only a standard CD/DVD drive, so no reason they won't last as
logn as a pooter one.

 

And the Japs of course, both Honda and Toyota develop their own. Mazda
and Nissan do not.

Hyundai do as well.

That'll be most of them I guess, the volume will also make a difference
too.

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember (Andy
Hewitt) saying something like:

About 18months then.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10

 

Silver Primera - new shape. Se trim level

Looks just like a tapered-at-both-ends tuddy to me.

Done about 1800 miles in it now - chassis is impressive, equipment no
less so, 2.2 DCI engine okey and torquey - potentially economical but
for the temptation to tonk it. It's doing about 37-40mpg overall. I had
hoped for slightly better.

 

Yes, absolutely.

Toyota sell millions of Corollas, for example. With big engines and
shorter production runs, you get problems. Like truck engines.

People moan about "loads of lorries on the road" but the number of
trucks on Uk roads has been falling for decades, as vehicles and
distribution systems get more efficient.

There are only about 400,000 trucks (over 3.5 tonnes) on UK roads,
compared with 21 million cars. But this means if you're devloping a new
engine that will only sell, maybe, 100,000 units globally, your
amortisation of devlopment costs makes you weep.

 

I get 30MPG out of my 150 BHP 2.2 Petrol engine, despite being driven
with a lead foot.. That's shocking for a diseasel.

 

I suspect your lead foot may not be as heavy as some other lead feet....

 

Not really. It's the old free lunch thing again. You can't have power
without using fuel, more power uses more fuel. It's all quite simple
really. If you get similar power from a diesel to a petrol, then they'll
most likely do similar consumption too. Most notably the BMW 5 series a
few years ago, the petrol was *more* economical.

 

They do normally rattle first, yes. It can be hard to decide if its the
chain or not though. Quite often you'll lift off the covers to find the
plastic guides are in peices in the sump, anf the chain has ground away
on the metal posts, leaving filings floating around the oil system.

That's done quite well.

I always liked those.

They all did that in those days.

Fucking ugly IMHO, otherwise I agree.

That's summin' like it

IIRC some of the early ones used the old Rover V8, which was an OK lump
to use. Then again, what do you expect from a bloke called Trevor?

It's just that final attention to detail really. Just look at even the
hidden castings. The Jap suff looks finished and smooth, others you'll
find sharp edges and casting lines left behind. They also think more
about the assembly as well, and use better quality fixings.

Believe it or not, but spending a little more on good quality fixings
actually reduces production costs. There was an article in a motoring
magazine a few years ago that showed that by spending a few pence more
on better screws, meant they could be inserted faster. The time saved
was greater than the cost to manufacture them.

It's really their whole philosophy, make it better, and it's better to
make IYSWIM?

 

I'll bet. I'd suspect that truck engines only evolve, rather than get
created.

 

Not convinced, Take my trip to the office, I do the 57 mile run to the
office in around an hour.. that's twisty country lanes (somewhere
between 4K and the redline), 3 junctions of crawl on the M42 in rush
hour (somewhere around 1200RPM, if I'm lucky).. then another stretch of
country lanes.

Admittedly I have had my fuel consumption down to 207 miles from a £38
tank worth of fuel too.. but that's not average, and was the result of
sustained 3 figure speeds.

 

Maybe... Your curious scandanavian automobile certainly is.

 

It's not that shocking considering it's power output. (130-ish bhp?).

 

It's only a posh Vectra....

 

Shocking when both the VW and Vauxhall 1.9's units do far better for
both power and economy.

 

Depends on the kind of driving. Urban cycle, which I suspect is where
TOG is racking up his miles at the moment, is under 40mpg for all of
'em.

Power is 12ps more for the Vauxhall, so that's not a million miles away
either.

I'd be amazed if any car I got my hands on managed to do 40mpg - even my
Cinq. would only average low 30mpg in my hands.

 

Hmm. Doesn't the diesel perform more efficiently than the equivalent
petrol by using a much higher compression ratio? Or is that a red
herring?

 

But it's an extra 12 valves and 2 cams. Added complication isn't good.

 

Bad form, but I forgot to add, there's also an additional camchain.

Sounds like an absolute nightmare to work on - as bad as the quad-cam
Alfa Boxer.

 

SteveH emerged from their own little world to say

Honda got it wrong with the VFR then?