Frederic

For some reason the Batmobile doesn't want to start. So Robin checks the car and tells Batman that the BATTERY has died, on which Batman replies: "What the hell is a TERY ??"

Well done Barry !

Hahaha, you could have asked them to completely cover your car with these stickers, it would never come off and would protect your nice paint

Looks great, I’ll probably join as I’ve been waiting a while for a relaxed drive and the opportunity to meet the lovely chaps on Carnity 😉

Radio 2 is indeed not too bad, the rest is just horrible to me. I just plugin my phone or USB stick and happily switch over to some: * Wilco, Johnny Cash, The Triffids, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, etc.. for a proper Route 66 feeling. * Air, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Sigur Ros, for ambient, electronica, late night driving. * Eighties Pop Classics to sing out loud and wake up in the morning ow yeah.. and Radiohead.... non stop

The iconic Trabant 601 which was the real commie-car from back in the days. 600cc two-stroke engine. An icon in Eastern-Europe. Not sure if well-known outside of Europe.

I happened to watched this new carshow on Netflix a few days back "Rust to Riches", where the team from Gotham Garage buys a replica from the original body and restores this one. Imho the detailwork with especially the glass cockpit was a bit shoddy but kudos for these guys to have the guts to take on this iconic car.

Creating a basic EV in your garage is indeed not so difficult. But the generation of electric vehicles that are popping up now have stuff on board like energy recovering brake systems, and a ton of software to keep all those things working properly, thousands of sensors, data cabling, etc etc... i’d love to get my hands on a scrapped Tesla to rip it apart and learn, but without access to the CPU it’s a black box with trial and error.

Pretty much anyone with a good grasp of engineering and electrics.... YES, i can include myself into that. But most independent workshops that i've encountered only have basic electronics experience, and i don't say that to bash them, but merely pointing to the fact that their training is currently still more mechanically inclined. And a guy that is just able to connect an OBD reader to the car is NOT an electronics engineer...

I partly agree with your statement, but have the following things in mind: Tesla technology is beyond anything what's currently on the market, which begs the questions: * Who is even remotely skilled to service these cars ? The battery packs are a potential bomb if not handled properly. * Every time something happens with a Tesla, be it in auto-drive or serious failures, we read about it in the news. Imagine the potential risks of a freelance company servicing these cars and fiddling with the software and settings. Serious deadly accidents could happen and it would again reflect badly towards Tesla itself. I think that in the future Tesla might create franchised workshops with trained people and might slowly open up a bit to the market. Especially now all the big players are coming onto the market with Electric vehicles. That brings me back to the same question: imagine we buy an electric BMW or Mercedes, to which independent workshop can we take it now to get it serviced/repaired ?? Nobody wants to burn their fingers on technology that is so advanced. (just thinking about the I8 now)...

Same in Belgium. We have the red Diesel for heating up your house and agricultural purposes, and the regular one which is heavily taxed. And yes in many industrial zones throughout the country the traffic department was checking vehicles. The fines for being caught using red diesel in your car were however very very hefty, so most people did not risk it. I have the impression that most European car manufacturers used all possible tricks out of the book to make people buy diesel, and the technology was pretty advanced, much more than petrol cars where no new things were coming onto the market. The common rule was if you do less than 20,000km per year, then a petrol car would be the cheaper option. Above that, the Diesel becomes more interesting, even taking into account the yearly taxes were higher and maintenance cost was also a bit higher.

Hahaha these are definitely not stock DTi's. I had an Astra 1.7DTI and it had 75HP stock

I'm hailing from a diesel country where it was practically subsidized in the past.. until they came to know that the fine dust particles really was an issue (remember the VW claims). Since then everybody is now shifting back to petrol cars. The diesel technology was imho superior in a way that the performance of turbo-powered diesel engines was very impressive, and at the same time wouldn't cost you a fortune at the gas-station. On the other hand i experienced more issues with EGR valves clogging up and other stuff especially on diesel cars that didn't make enough miles on the road. Without a turbo the cars were horribly slow yet super reliable and could go on for years. I still have good memories when my friend first came up with his Golf MK3 TDI that had magnificent torque and drove like a hot hatch. The cold 'knock-knock' however made it sound like a tractor sometimes

As i am often going for short and small trips in the desert alone (not ideal, i know, but i stay near to the road), i've spent some time looking at the self recovery possibilities for desert sand. Our Aussie friends seem to have extensive equipment and tools to deal with getting stuck in the sand. I'd love to hear your inputs and feedback on the available equipment such as: * Maxtrax recovery board. The original or alternatives, or selfmade. * Hi-lift Jack. * Deadman anchor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxnwAkMh9U8 .....or other anchor such as your spare wheel. * Winch on your vehicle * Others... Would love to hear what works best in our Middle-East environment without breaking the bank. I always carry 2 recovery boards made from scaffolding platform that helped me out a few times already.

If you have Google Maps on your Android phone, you might try the suggestion i posted to get the KMZ track in your phone.

Superb. Which map type do you recommend in Motion X to have the topography ?

OK guys, seems i was a bit too soon to worry, i found the proper way to get them into Google Maps (IOS): Do this part with a desktop computer, not phone: 1) Download the files on a desktop computer. 2) Google "My Maps" and select "Create a new map" 3) Click on the blue "import" on the upper left hand corner, and drag and drop the KMZ file in there. 4) Give a name to your map. It will be saved automatically. This part involves using your phone: 5) Now restart your Google Maps application in your phone. Open the menu with the three lines. 6) Click on "Your places" and select "Maps". You should now find that new map you made in there. it goes without saying that both your desktop computer as your phone should be logged into the same google account.

@Gaurav I tried to use both your files to see if they can be used in Google Maps and Google Earth for driving that same route (so to use the complete track as reference and do the exact same drive). Google Maps apparently doesn't support the import of both these files, but Google Earth does. After installing Google Earth on my phone i was able to open the KMZ file, but it seems that Google Earth does not constantly update my live location. So if i would try to use Google Earth as navigation device to do the same route, i'd have to push the "show location" button every few seconds. I found a workaround by emailing both files to my phone and opening then in Motion X, but still need to try if that works and updates my precise location permanently. I googled around and many people same to face these issues. The older versions of Google Earth seemed to work and update the live location constantly. No idea why they stopped doing that. https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/mMKBSrLU6u4

My first one was the 1989 Peugeot 205 XS which had all the typical "french" issues, but was such a fun car to drive. If i ever come across an affordable 205 GTI in mint condition i might break open my wallet for it. But they go good money nowadays. It had a 1.4, 80HP engine that loved to rev and it was pretty light and nimble. Installed quite a lot of sound-systems in those days and the car rattled as hell once the sub came alive. Where are all these good days

Heard good things from iserviceanycar and Powertech. I go to Max garage and they are ok too.

I’d probably buy at least three more pajeros, a huge toolbox with working area, and fill my days dismantling them and getting my first pajero in the best possible condition. Check this guy’s Instagram. Beautiful !

Any idea which type of car this was ? Brand or Model ?

Fantastic ! Thanks for sharing. As soon as the camping season picks up this will be on my list of trails to discover.