treks

1 hour ago, Barry said:

I'm sure we have all heard of this car. I saw it up and close at the last Dubai international motor show and it looked like a hyper car,

But.....

5007hp?

Why 5007? Most Dynos can't measure more than 2500. 

There are no real videos of this thing running, no proper videos of it on the road, no proper Dyno videos.

Is the devel 16 a scam?

 

There is a nice write-up of the engine here- 

https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/a27580/devel-sixteen-5000-hp-quad-turbo-v16-steve-morris-engines/

If they'll ever make it work in an actual, driveable car, well, that is another matter entirely...

Shoes stolen from mosques? Now that is the worst kind of thieving..

Who among these three will be Captain Slow? I'm going with the guy on the left.

3 hours ago, Barry said:

@treks write a book. I will buy it. 

I have often thought of doing just that, but  never seem to find the time.

I've not had this happen to a car of mine.

However, many years ago during my military service I did a stint as a convoy driver, and during one overnight stop, someone stole the transfer case off of my truck. It could only have been someone in the convoy, since we were in the bush and many miles from anywhere. There was a major hullabaloo about it and I ended with a black mark on my record. 

It was only two years later, when we were all drunk in the mess one night that the thief confessed. It turns out that he had destroyed the transfer case on his truck when he did something stupid, and bribed the convoy mechanics to steal a transfer off another truck- which happened to be mine.

It must have been an interesting exercise in bush mechanics- removing two transfer cases that weigh nearly 300 kg each, and doing it so that nobody noticed. I might also mention that the destroyed transfer case was never found.    

19 hours ago, Mighty Mike said:

Oh finally some shots of the soon to be launched Rolls Royce Cullinan. I was expecting a nightmare after seeing how retarted the The Bentley Bentayga looked, specially the front end! 

But this I think looks snazzy, mostly because it looks like a Phantom Station Wagon more than a new SUV as if you ever seen a Phantom up close ( who hasn't it Dubai ) it is a pretty large a tall car in itself. And mostly because I am biased towards Rolls Royce and specially the Phantom. Although finding the dashboard a bit iffy and although I have no doubt it is like wafting on a cushion of air surrounded by the best materials money can buy, but I hate to admit it the Bentaygas interior looks a lot more plush than the rolls. A perfect combo would be the Rolls exterior with a Bentley interior. I do like how they have gone a step ahead of range rover by not just having the splt tailgate which is now iconic for its use as seating for two or even a table outdoors. Rolls have actually included two seats and a tiny table to make the tailgating experience even more fun!  

 

 

 

Would be great fun to go for a drive around the local sandbox for some dune bashing bufoonery in one of these

What is that in the left of the footwell? Is that a foot rest, or is it the brake pedal? If it is a foot rest, where is the brake pedal? 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, shadow79 said:

@Barry actually there are two types of people one who says that "no no no need i am going to sell this car...or i am going to keep it just till end of this month then i am getting another car"

and the other goes like "ok so what has to be done to fix this problem " and does exactly that work and fixing few other things which surface on the way fixing the first problem and goes happily ever after until next trouble comes up...

And then you get used car salesmen who will do anything underhanded to get a car passed, so he makes a bit more profit, and the buyer gets stuck with the problem.  

10 hours ago, shadow79 said:

just disable the update it simply rapes the computer 

You're talking about disabling updates on Win 10? Can't be done. 

A car could be driven through a steam turbine very easily, but the problem with nuclear energy as a heat source is that there is no way to dispose of spent nuclear fuel safely, unless it is removed from the earth's surface. 

Maybe Elon Musk should top wasting time, money and energy building cars that can catch fire at any moment, and focus on ways to shoot small, spent nuclear reactors into the Sun.  

Governments will always find a way to make up for shortfalls in tax revenues- it's what governments do, and they are very good at it.

I agree with the experts who say that we are not ready for alternatives to fossil fuels. It's like Gaurav says, we need to replace an entire industrial ecosystem, and if we are to believe that some European cars plan to stop the sale of conventional cars in a couple of decades, they'd better get a move on in establishing the alternative parts suppliers, training technicians, building power stations, and building distribution networks for electricity to charge millions of cars. 

As far as I can see, none of this will be in place for at least the next several decades anywhere in the world. The internal combustion engine will be with us for a long, long time to come, simply because we have no viable alternatives.  

I've been doing the same thing since I can remember, but with thick wheel bearing grease instead of bread. Beats a puller every time.  

19 hours ago, Barry said:

https://www.thatcham.org/car-safety/automatic-braking/

Thatcham claim that 1,100 lives could be saved and 122,860 casualties could be prevented in the UK over the next 10 years if autonomous braking was implemented by all manufacturers on new cars. 

Whatever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

The problem is that millions of drivers should not be on the road at all. Many, if not most drivers have no idea how efficiently a car can be stopped, so they don't apply the brakes hard enough to avoid a crash. Most drivers are used to the sort of brake applications that stop their cars at a stop sign in town, which does not require the kind of driving skills most people are never taught before they are let loose on the roads.

Autonomous braking on the other hand, uses braking and other capabilities no average driver even knows his vehicle has, so yes, many lives can potentially be saved if the vehicle's control modules are allowed to do what most drivers are not trained to do.

As a practical matter though, autonomous braking will only make sense if all cars  are fitted with it. There is little point in having it available on your car, if the idiot in the rust bucket behind you does not, and rear-ends you as a result of not having it.   

On my expeditions through Africa I have on occasion seen people use 3/4 inch steel chain instead of rope on 15 and 20 ton winches. Although they can't fit the same length of chain on the winch as a rope, some claim that a high quality, properly rated  chain has  the same breaking strength as I/2 inch steel rope, but with the added advantage that a chain does nor fray. 

According to one party of Australians I once came across in the DRC, a chain works great for recoveries in mud, since since you don't have to wash the chain to get the mud off, which if you don't, makes the hemp core rot which in turn, causes wire strands to break. 

Personally, I've always used aluminium ropes before switching to synthetic ropes, but trust the Australians to always find another way of doing stuff. Can't imagine what would happen when a steel chain breaks under a pulling load of 10 or 12 tons, though.   

7 hours ago, Gaurav said:

Totally agree

9500 lbs are pulling strength and not breaking strength, usually breaking is much higher so that rope or cable doesn't snap if load exceeds, then simply will stop pulling as per winch limitation.

Last week I have encountered this winch crying when recovering an FJ uphill so I'm sure 2 ton FJC must have become 4-5 ton and that's the first time I heard winch literally crying for help. In that scenario, I rolled the winch in a very small interval and stopped on every cm we have recovered.

You are right, they are not the same things, but it was not clear from your comment which rating you were referring to.

10 hours ago, Gaurav said:

Fraying is gonna occur in metal or synthetic rope equally as per usage. Mine is aluminum cable, better for high load strength and has better breaking limit.

Price was just a tad expensive 3500 for aluminum cable and 4000 for synthetic rope, but TJM seller told me that 9500 lb Aluminium cable has better breaking limit than 9500 ln synthetic. For same breaking limit, I need 12000 lb synthetic rope and that will be a bit tight for the roller.

I don't understand- If according to the seller both the aluminium and synthetic ropes have breaking strengths of 9500 lb, how can the aluminium rope have a "better" breaking strength? 

You are right though that fraying will occur on a synthetic rope as well, but the difference is that when it does fray, it does not draw blood like frayed steel or aluminium ropes do. 

3 hours ago, Barry said:

So vlad looks like a stretched out Johnny 5?

Absolutely. 

3 hours ago, shadow79 said:

if synthetic rope was better then all the wiench and cranes would be using it...we have to take the better with its flaws here guess it means the bleeding hands..we could use cover for the entire length but then it would be thicker then it already is..guess the only option remains is using good fat gloves then

Maybe not everyone is using synthetic winch ropes because it is so expensive, as opposed to not everyone using it because it does not really work on cranes?  

13 hours ago, Mighty Mike said:

I'm sure most of you have heard about the beast. the limo of the President of the United States, but don't think the Russian presidents ride is any less. Unlike The Beast its not based on some ready made cadilliac truck chassis, but a specially made bespoke car made from the ground up. Powered by a 4.6 liter V8 592 Porsche Engine attached to a 9 speed Russian transmission. Not cheap either costing around 85GBP million.

Obviously costing so much, it probably has a lot of tricks up its sleeve, along with the obvious being heavily armoured, jamming devices, air tight with its own oxygen supply, run flat tyres, specail foam cell fuel tank, protected engine bay, but we can only imagine what the full extent of these are are as they are keeping it all under wraps  for obvious security reasons.

Looks like a love child of a Maybach and a Rolls though. 

 

I wonder if the very strong resemblance that Vlad's face has with the front end of this car is intentional, or purely coincidental? 

Grease or rope oil is a bad idea in sandy conditions. The sand sticks to the grease and after a few uses of the rope, the sand/grease mixture turns into a sort of grinding paste that will destroy the rope in very short order. 

I agree with @desertdude though, a synthetic fiber rope is far less hassle, and if you buy the right rope, you get one that is stronger than a steel rope of a similar diameter.  

3 hours ago, Barry said:

This is the simplest video I could find on it,

basically, it's a hybrid engine. Jet at the front, rocket at the back. I don't know why anyone didn't think of it before. Imagine if a modern Concorde or Tu-144 equivalent was running these engines, I could fly home and see my family in an hour instead of a cramped 9 hour flight with screaming children, people reclining their seat onto my long legs, people who have been traveling for 3 days with no shower etc. The short time would make it so much more bearable. Just like taking a bus to Al Quoz.

There are many possible uses for this. The primary one I can think of is space tourism. As in space tourism, I don't mean proper going into space, seeing the dark side of the moon, more like a Virgin Galactic scenario. Get up above the atmosphere, see the curve of the earth and come down again. The photos would be awesome, great fuel to retroll the flat earthers.

Don't mock the flat earthers. Some of their proofs that the earth is flat are brilliantly stupid.

1 hour ago, desertdude said:

Good to know, there are charts available as to what amount of beads to put for what tyre size.

These charts are very handy when the wheels/rims are in perfect condition. If the rims are slightly out of round however, it takes some experimenting to get the total weight of the beads right, but it can be done.

This "expert's" analysis can only be accurate if he had tested every automatic on the market against every comparable manual within the same model range for every manufacturer. 

In my experience - 400 000+ km completed in several overland expeditions through Africa - automatics are just not up to the task in these conditions; in fact, you'll be very hard pressed to find an automatic expedition-grade vehicle- anywhere. 

However, I do agree that (some) automatics have (some) distinct advantages over (some) manuals in the local (UAE) environment, simply because in local off-road conditions, automatics are generally not pushed as hard, or for as long as they would be in a heavy expedition vehicle. Automatics have come along way in the past two decades or so, and if the driver is experienced and knows his vehicle's capabilities and limitations, he can do pretty much everything an experienced driver with manual  gearbox in a comparable vehicle can do. 

Having said that though, the trick in successfully comparing automatics with manuals involves comparing comparable vehicles- anything else is just stating personal preferences, which serves no purpose in a discussion of this kind.    

43 minutes ago, desertdude said:

You know I will, IF I can remember to that is, as you know I just need to a certain amount of research before I'm satifised and will just go ahead and do it, and not listen to the naysayers, be it diesel oil, water injestation, fender trimming, sawing off bumpers etc etc And till now none of my DIY hacks or ghettos mods, even if they didn't add anything, did not have any negative effects. At least they killed my curiosity on a certain subject.  

You can rest easy- the beads do actually work, although the trick to making them work is to know how many to put in if your rims are slightly less than perfectly round. Try and try again, but I've seen beads balance tires on damaged rims that could not be balanced in any other way. 

1 hour ago, Gaurav said:

Thanks Barry for putting out in nice words, what I was avoiding to say without having any technical knowledge but just based on end-user experience.

Second good point I also like to mention about the heat resistant is the main key for any engine oil to live or die in offroad extreme usage.

The third point of that debate of winter/summer month has too little as engine inside temperature is far above 150 degrees and I'm sure at 6k rpm during off-roading same engine oil must be cooking at 200+ degree. So with those temperature Synthetic oil stand a better chance of survival than the mineral blends. And also provide consistent lubrication to all engine part when under extreme stress.

Yep, because all the molecules are the same size, which means that all the molecules in the oil share the load equally- which is not the case with even the best mineral oil. 

1 hour ago, desertdude said:

What I would do is run a couple of cycles of the "getting dark soon" oil and change it every 3000kms, just because a oil is dark or opaque doesn't means it lost its capabilities, and see if it makes any difference,  A slow overtime long term flush if you will. 

Also another old mechanics trick is a 100km or so before you change your oil drop in 300 to 500ml of ATF, since ATF has much stronger detergents and it will give the internals a good wash and in such low quantity it wont effect you other oil properties. But hey do it at your own risk, I'm a known rebel and do stupid things like use diesel oil in flat tappet motors and feed water down the airtake! 

ALSO very important. Semi Sythentic oil is a crock, not because there is anything wrong with the oil but because most companies even well known ones are crooks, what one usually thinks is a semi syn blend is a 50% syn oil blended with 50% regular dino oil. But thats not the case as there is no standard as to whats qualifies as semi-syn oil. There could be as little as 10% syn oil in regular dino oil and that qualifies as semi-synthetic oil unless the % mixture is mentioned, which I don't think anyone does, 

So better to fork out a little extra and go full synthetic rather than have to deal with dubious blends. ( I know I know before anyone gets to it, I know even fully synthetic oil is formulated from a mineral oil base )

It's not. It's distilled from hydrocarbon-rich gases like methane, carbon dioxide, and others, depending on the properties the final distillate must have. Once the gases are distilled into a liquid, the additives you also find in mineral oil are added. As a practical matter though, synthetic oil is not synthetic in the sense that it does not contain hydrocarbons- it is synthetic in the sense that it is not refined from crude mineral oil. 

If you find mineral oil in oil that is labelled as fully synthetic, you are being ripped off. You are right about the blends though- there are no standards to define a mineral/synthetic oil blend, so better stick with the fully synthetic stuff. 

However, some synthetic oils cannot be mixed with anything else, not even other synthetics- if you do mix these oils, you end up with an engine full of Jello. I have the details of this somewhere- I'll look it up and post it later. 

32 minutes ago, Gaurav said:

Watch again from 11:45 - 12:26 as a bottom line and close this topic on that note - without being Einstein or a chemistry teacher.

 

Nonetheless, it helps to know a little chemistry when you deal with lubricants.