Barry

Didn’t this start with Sheikh Mo doing it first then everyone else followed? I imagine the Sheikhs antennas actually work though. Any of the ones I see aren’t even connected to anything.

Nice work. The only change I would make would be to put a washer behind the pin, purely for the sake of spreading the load around the entire connection rather than have the pin rubbing directly. Most modern European cars use the washer and pin system since the push on ball joints are less than reliable. I have a story about a broken linkage on a company car and someone getting stuck on the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere in Ireland but that’s for another day 😂 Me and @Gaurav came up against a similar problem before on Mrs Gaurav’s Trailblazer where the main gear select linkage kept coming off although we took it to a more extreme solution, removing the ball joint completely, replacing it with a bolt and nut and fabricating an appropriately sized spacer to keep the clearances right.

Rubber is softer and prone to drying out and cracking. Polyurethane is a lot tougher and should last the life of the vehicle. The trade off is that rubber is better at absorbing vibrations and noises. The polyurethane ones will transfer more noise and vibration to the car. It’s not going be be a huge amount but if you’re used to rubber, you’ll notice it. It’s just something you’ll have to decide yourself. For suspension bushes I’d recommend poly, for motor mounts, rubber. The only time I would consider poly motor mounts is in a modified engine with high horsepower.

Yes it is stupidity and ignorance. Octane rating is the ability of the fuel to resist pre detonation and has nothing to do with power or economy. If you believe otherwise then I guess you fall into one of the categories I mentioned. Read this report from the American automobile association, http://newsroom.aaa.com/2016/09/u-s-drivers-waste-2-1-billion-annually-premium-gasoline/ Stick to the octane rating recommended by the vehicle manufacturer. Using anything higher is a waste of money. It will not produce more power or give you better economy.

Stupidity, ignorance, the belief that if it’s more expensive, it must be better. In reality, higher octane fuel is only needed in high compression and turbocharged engines. The purpose of higher octane fuel is to reduce the chances of pre detonation or “pinking”. Putting in the majority of road going cars is just a waste of money. Far better to save the extra cash and put it towards a box of beer.

I think Bugatti did it for the world record and notoriety of being the fastest production car in the world. I guess it didn’t pay off though. Everyone knows what a Veyron is, how many people outside the petrolhead circle have ever heard of the newer Bugatti Chiron? Technological masterpiece but at number 3, who cares?

With regards to downshifting in a manual, heel and toe technique and rev matching are king. Once you master the art of proper footwork, the clutch pedal becomes redundant in situations other than starting or stopping. I can shift up and down gears flawlessly without using the clutch pedal. Experience I guess. But I think Saleem is right. This coffin can never be nailed down. Everyone has their own experiences and their own style of driving. IMO manual will always be king but I can see from the side of girls who can’t shift properly

Gaurav I will always respect your opinions and experience but automatic gearboxes will never be for me in any driving situation. I don’t want to have to miss gears or push buttons to make the car do what I want it to do. I have been driving manuals since way before I ever got a driving licence so it’s second nature to me, it feels completely natural and I’m in control. With an automatic, I don’t feel in control, the car is. I’m just controlling the throttle. I’ve only ever owned one automatic car and I didn’t gel with the driving experience. Having a high revving engine and wondering wether the car will shift gear or stick and blow the rods out through the block wasn’t a nice experience for me. I have only ever driven a manual in the desert and it performed perfectly. I told the car what to do and it did it. I had 2 small stucks due to lack of experience but I recovered myself quickly and nobody even noticed. A bit of clutch control and I was out easy. If I had been in an automatic I would have been calling rahim bhai for a tow.

But that is kind of the point. If you need to override the automatic function at any stage for any reason, then the system is inherently flawed.

So if you have an automatic, you still have to use the manual gear select function to climb? Better just buy a manual then.

http://www.cargister.com/2009-honda-civic-1-8-i-vtec-vxi-138-spec Combined fuel consumption is supposed to be 6.9 km per litre. I think you’re doing well get 10 in city driving. In the real world 1.8 isn’t a small engine (not dubai where everything has a v8 and 2.0 seems small), I would be looking for something a lot smaller for fuel economy. 1.3 is plenty big enough for city driving.

Costs very little to polish headlight lenses if you’re willing put put a bit of effort in. Water and a few sheets of wet and dry sandpaper I used to split VW headlights to paint the reflectors black. I used to bake them in the oven for a few minutes. Softens the glue enough to separate them with no damage.

Only in America would you be allowed to have some of these ads. An advert showing a SUV doing burnouts? Race cars on the road? BMWs drifting roundabouts? Epic but back in the U.K. ads get banned if they think a car is cornering too fast or even if there is too much engine noise. I loved the Alfas dancing on the ice. Reminds me of when me and my friends were younger and the car park iced over in winter, we used to go there in the middle of the night and practice spins and drifts in whatever cars we had. The great thing about ice and snow, you don't need a lot of horsepower to have fun. For the most part, the police left us alone. Sometimes they even pulled up and watched.

Interesting old beast https://silodrome.com/tracked-cuthbertson-land-rover/

Here is a selection of cars which the manufacturer sold for less than the cost to produce. The loss on some are crazy 2005-2013: Bugatti Veyron – £3,887,051 per unit 2001- : Volkswagen Phaeton – £23,655 per unit 2001-2009: Renault Vel Satis – £15,751 per unit. 2004-2009: Peugeot 1007 – £12,947 per unit 2000 – 2005: Audi A2 – £6340 per unit 2001 – 2009: Jaguar X-type – £3945 per unit 1997-2006: Smart Fortwo – £3762 per unit 2006 – 2012: Renault Laguna – £2986 per unit 2001-2009: Fiat Stilo - £2297 per unit 1997-2004: Mercedes A-class - £1214 per unit https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/smart-fortwo-and-bugatti-veyron-head-list-top-loss-making-cars

Yaar it’s just soot. I wouldn’t worry too much about it as long as there’s no black smoke.

This looks like a useful bit of equipment for self recovery. I would imagine it wouldn't be too hard to make yourself with an old ratchet strap and a bit of solid material if you were stuck alone in the desert.

After wondering how horsepower is measured in high output engines that can't be accommodated by a dynamometer, I came across this very cool little sensor that measures torque which can then be converted to horsepower via some maths. Not sure how accurate it would be but it's a nice design.

I guess I better get my sharpie out and colour in the exposed bit 😂

Naif road for clamps. Youll just have to get the vernier caliper out and measure the size.

Sajaa scrap market https://goo.gl/maps/q55dDJnxK5o

The old mustangs were all open differentials as far as I know. The stingray rear end will be able to hold a lot of torque so it will probably be staying there. Ideally, LSD, wheelie bars and a parachute would be cool but cost is the issue. @treks I hope the hidden red earth lead meets with your satisfaction 😉

Yes. We'll be fitting wider wheels on the back and possibly skinnier wheels on the front. No power steering.

At a guess, maybe around 700kg. It's supposed to be 275bhp standard so we're talking 390bhp per tonne. It will be properly fast in a straight line. Good for showing up Mustangs and Camaros and a lot of other stuff up at the traffic lights but the handling won't be great. It's an 80 year old suspension design. There may be a chance that I'll have to raise the chassis up an inch and add some shock absorbers but we'll see what happens. I have a feeling that when there's a load on, that chassis is going to touch the differential.

And I might use black for the positive just to add to the confusion. In all seriousness though, it’s all I could lay my hands on. Terminals are stamped + and -. If anyone is stupid enough to mix them up, they probably deserve what’s coming.