Quote from ColeusRattus :

Another proof that you brits are the most optimistic nation! You not only own most convertibles per capita (IIRC, at least) for the one sunny day per year, but also sledges for the one snowy day per year

What else is there besides optimism here!? It sure isn't opportunity...

Depends where you live I guess, it's starting to build up on the roads here, and it's snowing pretty good. For my area it's supposed to snow into the night, 4-6 inches possible. It's supposed to hit 3-4 degrees tomorrow, so it will go fast, but it should be here tomorrow morning yet. Supposed to hit -2 tonight.

James lowrange for anything other than trying to get unstuck is pointless. It's meant for torque to the wheels, like tristan said, and would only be needed on the road if there was a foot of snow to push through. Your far better in high range and do 15-20 MPH, 30 on a stretch, but nobody really knows how to brake in snow, or more to the point virtually coast to a stop and waits far to long before letting off.

Last edited by Christopher Raemisch, Mon 2 Feb 2009, 11:48.

Quote from tristancliffe :

You just drive. No need to know 'how to use it'. You have the same controls and the car does the same things. It just does them better when pulling trailers out of ditches. Next you'll be saying that diesels have to be driven differently, which just isn't the case.

This is how most people drive, and want to drive. This is why RWD is not a good choice for them. They do not understand of the concept of counter steering very well and will end up in the ditch... With a FWD if traction is lost the car goes strait, with no correction required.

Quote from wien :

And they still struggle when the once-a-year snowfall, 110 times worse than what you're currently dealing with, hits. There's just no point in kitting your country up with equipment to handle that one day out of the year. It would be a pointless waste of resources, and calling that kind of common sense "disgusting" is just silly.

I would guess it's by far cheaper to shut everything down for a day, then have to maintain the equipment and people to deal with 1 days worth of weather, some years it never happens.

Last edited by Christopher Raemisch, Mon 2 Feb 2009, 10:57.

It's not just that, it's the risk vs. the gain. Chances are the snow will be gone by tomorrow and everything is back to normal, it's easier to stop everything for a day, then try to find a way to deal with it.

Whereas if you lived in a place that gets snow all the time the country can justify spending more on salt trucks/snowplows because it will keep the country running over the whole winter, instead of just 1 day.

Quote from tristancliffe :

The roads are laughable. It's not slippery at all on the main route or in the city, and housing estates would be if you did twice the posted speed limit. Yet everyone is driving around as though the slightest movement of the steering wheel will result in the death of millions of people.

Why can't British people drive in 'snow'?

Because it's not something people are used to =) I am not going out, but thats because I have 3 season tires. Wheelspin in 5th gear at 1000 rpm anyone? Can't be arsed to get winter tires for 1 day of snow.

It's not bad, but people use too much brake and too much steering to make driving on the road safe.. it doesn't help either with the roundabouts...

Hehe bad timing on my parth then =)

Helps if the site is up bud =)

Quote from Jakg :

So I want a larger more comfortable car, and you recommend a Mini.

Smooth.

Mini's are actually quiet huge for their 'apparent' small size.

But it sounds cool! =)

:munching_

I think my point has been made, thanks blueflame for making so starkingly clear to everyone. You made it really easy for me.
:doh:

You telling opinions and stating them as fact again Blueflame?

Has anyone ever led you to anything related to the scientific method?

Nice job Dan! That thing looks good enough I could ride it!

I would like to clarify something I stated in the pub after the event.

For people that know the question asked I did over 120 on hanger strait, not 130. I did over 135 in the Charger SRT8 on the backstrait at Road America.

Quote from Blackout :

And lorries having plenty of gears, well, you also need to consider that they easily weight 10 times more than a normal car with some load, but only have 3-4 times larger engines. I know the math might not work like that, but just pointing out that they need to pull a lot of mass with relatively low power to weight ratio. If you don't have a heavy load you only use half of the gears anyway, so it's there to ease thing up.

Having a small power to weight ratio doesn't necessarily change how many gears you need, you would need 1/2 that number if you had double the RPMs to work with. The reason why there are so many gears is because the power band is so small you constantly need to be shifting to stay in it, typically not more than 1500 RPM as a power band. At least this was the case with the 80,000 pound trucks I drove.

Diesel fuel per liter pump out more emissions than gasoline, don't be fooled that it's greener. IIRC it's also more costly to make as well due to trying to cut down on sulfur emissions. http://www.petrolprices.com/wh ... sts-more-than-petrol.html

Last edited by Christopher Raemisch, Fri 30 Jan 2009, 16:18.

Diesels are meant to be run within a very small rpm range. Their powerbands http://www.diesel-cold-air-int ... -results-Duramax-Dyno.jpg. Diesels are meant to resist changes in RPM over differing loads. Hence why they are compression driven.

Diesels are not meant to 'be run through the gears' and accelerate quickly. They tend to have larger, and heavier engines and internal components, to handle the massive amounts of torque they produce, part of the reason why they have such a low max RPM.

Will diesel get you better drivability? Maybe if you enjoy shifting all the time while accelerating because they are peaky with short powerbands. Will you have to shift going up hills? Probably not because this is what a diesel is designed for. Will you have to shift to pass someone on a single carriageway? Probably, when you run out of RPM. You will not have to shift to get into the powerband because you are probably already cruising in it.

If diesels did have such wonderful and wide powerbands what would be the need of having 16 or 32 gears in a lorry then? Surely if there was plenty of power available through the whole rpm range that 1/2 that would be needed? Don't tell me these diesels are different than car diesels, both run the same fuel and operate under same laws of physics...


FTR the pug had a powerband of about 1500. Anything before 1500 was useless, and while it did have a rev limit of 4500 the 1500 leading up to it was useless and flater than the bonnivlle salt flats. This gave me a whopping 1500 RPM to work with...

Now my petrol car.. I get max torque at 2200, sooner than the diesel in fact, My torque doesn't even start falling off until 4400 (all 250ft-lbs) by then I am well into my power which starts showing itself at about 3500. Max power is at 5200. Then from there they both slide off to a 6125 redline.

If I do my math right that leaves me with a powerband nearing 4k. Almost the maximum rpm of virtually every diesel.

Newer diesels will probably have a little larger band, but not 4k...

So you staying with the proton yet? There is nothing wrong with it, you know how it was driven and the insurance is cheap. Not to mention you get ok gas milage with it.

I have driven both diesels and petrol. I would say by far a petrol car has better throttle response over the diesel. The diesel had much more torque in the lower rpm ranges (afterall thats what diesels are designed for), but I was constantly changing gears to get anywhere because the powerband was so small compaired to a petrol.

Diesels were designed in trucks for a reason, and it's not for their crisp response...

Dan, compairing V-twin to a diesel?

Last edited by Christopher Raemisch, Fri 30 Jan 2009, 08:19.

JR Ran the 24 hour Rolex in a Vette, quite a few others have as well. Too tired to get a link... thought he won the GT division.


1 reason why they don't race anything else is they race virtually every weekend from February until October and do testing in between. I doubt anyone would have much interest to run anything else after running 4-5 hour races every week 9 months out of the year. This does not include the sponsorship duty time that most drivers will have promoting products for the their sponsors.

I don't disagree about 'washed out' F1 and other series drivers try to enter into NASCAR, but as you can see the competition is stiff between the teams/drivers, not many do any good in NASCAR either =)

I think the big reason why Tony Stewart did so well is because he's raced pretty much everything under the sun and could adapt well.

I donno, it's in the cop section, it's possible it's real, there are plenty of posts from other cops in that section.

I would stay away from the car with 8 owners. There was a reason why each of them sold it on and I doubt it was because each of them came hard up on cash all of the sudden, thats almost one a year?!

Being an revvy engine has nothing to do with it, it's purely how it's driven and how well the manufacturer designed the engine, IE tolerances ect. Civic engines last a long time if they are driven properly and they are extermely revvy, where my engine, mostly because of the increase in cumbustion chamber pressures from the turbo I am looking at a lot smaller of a fuse, but even then at the end of the day it was how it was driven and how well it was maintained. A revvy engine is not an indicator at all.

Last edited by Christopher Raemisch, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 14:04.

Quote from ajp71 :

Chris I have to say I really liked you're car, even if it is a front wheel drive impostor

Thanks! Yours had more character though! It is an imposter, but I can't complain, it's the best I could afford =) I got 30MPG on the way down, even with me booting it like I was!

I have to say that I didn't connect you to the car following me until we wanted to get off on the same exit, otherwise I would have slowed down for you instead of going like a banshee on slip roads. I didn't speed, honest =)

I had great fun, it's been a year since I have touched the racing wheel really and it took some time to get back into it and build my confidence back up. I did manage to squeek in the fastest lap of the day in the last race... on the last lap! Great fun, thanks Tristan for giving us the opportunity. So who's going to the Whales gokart meet? I am in need of a team!

It was nice meeting up with everyone, I see you on the forums here but now I can at least put faces to the names finally.

Quote from Minimaxman :

Yeh much too early. I'm just about to leave too. I'll be wearing a Nurburgring t-shirt.

Seeya in a bit.

This is too early!? Our lovely little alarm clock of a baby went off at 0700 =) Just on my way down now.

GPl isn't difficult, just be prepared to 'drift' every corner =)