Technical

Would You Ever Go Automatic?

August 29, 2010

These days, there are a wider variety of transmissions than just about any other time in history. There’s standard manual (with some cars offering six rather than five gears), there’s CVT (continuously variable transmission), DSG (a semi automatic double clutch setup) and even automatic cars with 8 forward gears! My question is then, would you [...]

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Average Speed Cameras – Coming To A Road Near You?

July 26, 2010

I’ve recently took a journey which took me quite a way southbound down the country. En route to my destination, I managed to have the misfortune of being in not one, but two average speed camera zones. If you’ve never been through one before, it’s a very simple setup. There are cameras positioned along a [...]

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Your Windscreen – Give It A Look Over!

February 20, 2010

Auto Windscreens is predicting a fourfold increase in vehicles that fail their MOT due to windscreen damage caused by the UK’s frost damaged roads. Already nearly 2 million vehicles (8.4%) fail their MOT test in the UK each year due to windscreen damage. The freezing weather has left the UK’s roads exposed to a damaging [...]

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What Are Suicide Doors?

January 15, 2010

In a welcome return to the ‘technical’ or explanatory articles, here I take a quick look at suicide doors and the reason why they aren’t used in many cars (yes, they do have some disadvantages. What suicide doors are Suicide – or carriage, rear hinged or reversed doors – are doors that open the reverse [...]

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On Driving Experience…

August 6, 2009

There’s nothing quite like repeating a journey day after day to dull your senses. This is especially true if you’re the driver of a journey that you take regularly. This can be dangerous due to being lulled into a false sense of security or driving on autopilot. It’s on just those occasions when you must [...]

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A Motorbike Is Like An Old TVR…

July 18, 2009

Or rather, driving any older, powerful sports car is quite like riding a motorbike. What do I mean by that? Power The deliver of power on a motorbike can be quite savage – much like the 4-5 litre V8s that appear in many older sports cars. Both need power meeted out in a sensible way [...]

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The Importance Of Tyres

May 24, 2009

Ultimately, the only thing connecting you with the road is four hand sized bits of rubber close to each end of the car.  Of course, I’m talking about tyres here and how important they are to overall performance, ability and safety for the car. Here are some terms that you might want to think about [...]

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Coil Spring Damage

March 27, 2009

A lot of modern cars are equipped with coil spring suspension – go and have a look at your car.  Have you done so?  Did you notice wound steel springs set up to take the up-and-down movement of the vehicle?  These are your coil springs. Coil springs are unfortunately one of the most frequently damaged [...]

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Buying A Mazda RX-8

March 14, 2009

Introduction There’s nothing quite like Mazda’s rotary engine coupe – that has a 1.3 litre engine under the bonnet that powers the car like a 2.5 litre.  Though some argue that it unfortunately drinks more like a 3 litre!  When the first models were available back in 2003, the unique styling of this interesting motor [...]

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Ethanol – A Green Fuel With A Human Cost?

March 8, 2009

What Is Ethanol? Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) is a clear, colourless liquid – essentially non-drinkable alcohol. It has around 90% of the emissions of standard petrol fuel when burned and is now added to standard UK fuel as a matter of course, to a certain percentage. How is Ethanol Made? Ethanol is created by fermentation of [...]

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