Apple iPhone 3G - Could be for You!

The picture above shows the new 3G iPhone, for which there have been reports of people queuing for days to be amongst the first to have the new toy. Apple reportedly sold 1,000,000 in the three days following the launch.

Since then developers have been busy coming up with new applications for the phone and one I found yesterday really was quite a surprise and should be of great interest to those of you who are developing your cars - or who even just take a close interest in your Fulvia's performance.

The new application has the rather unfortunate name of Dynolicious (how do they think of them?).

As you can see from the pictures, all the performance data you could need are provided.

I learned about this from Gizmodo, from which the pictures came. The article explains that the iPhone has a built-in accelerometer which is used to generate the data.

Now all you have to do is a) get an iPhone; b) load up Dynolicious; c) find a police-free zone or a race-track to get down to some serious testing!

Best of all is the price of the application: $12.99!

A bientôt.

New Look

You will no doubt have noticed the new look: blue for Lancia and Yellow for Turin... Sadly this blog page is somewhat corrupted I suspect and I was unable to change the colour of the hyperlinks to something more contrasty; I have urgent need of someone who understands the nightmare that is HTML!

I have been sent some more restoration pictures and these will go up here this weekend. I shall do my best to try to post a bit more and once again, apologies for the dearth of activity.

One of my regular Fulvia correspondents is experimenting with programmable ignition, an excellent idea in my view although not entirely easy - unless one has a great deal of dyno time available. His car is highly developed with many exciting features; he knows who he is... I hope that before too long he will allow me to "lift the veil" a little and show off some mouth-watering developments. However, my readers will, I am sure, understand that it is perfectly natural to keep original ideas "under wraps."

À bientôt

Restorations

I am flattered that from time to time some of my readers take the trouble to share information about their cars and in particular details of the work that they are doing. Recently I have been sent two sets of pictures showing restoration work - either done or "to do". I have always found such pictures instructive and often inspiring, so, presuming no objections from the senders, here is the first selection I have chosen.

No doubt those of you who have worked on your cars will be familiar with the areas shown!

I await your comments with interest.

À bientôt

News from South Africa

Those who you who look at my "C Box" - RH side of page - might have noticed that I have received contact from Phil at the Cape Lancia Club located as their website says, in beautiful Capetown.

I recall meeting, many years ago in Harry Manning's place a splendid South African enthusiast who ran an early Flavia. I asked him how he managed for parts... His response in best pioneering style: "I make 'em - and I can fix your TV set too!"

Lancia at one time had an assembly plant in South Africa, which, I imagine, together of course with the perfect climate, accounts for the very considerable numbers of classic Lancias still in use there - see the beautiful Lambda in the picture above - sorry Phil, I couldn't resist...

I hope to hear from some of the Cape Lancisti - and I think if one of them would care to contact me with some information, I should be delighted to add a piece about Lancia's South African operations; and of course I hav added a link to the club's home page in my links list (RH side of page again!).

À bientôt

Fuel Consumption News

Hello.

I do not for a minute imagine that I have to remind you that the price of crude oil has now reached $145 per barrel, and nor do I have to point out the impact that this is having on our lives!

Nevertheless, "necessity is the mother of invention" so the old saying goes and now a chap in America is claiming that his 1987 Ford Mustang can do 110 miles per gallon. Not bad you might think; in fact since he is an American, he will be talking in US gallons; the equivalent in Imperial gallons would be 132 mpg - or for my continental readers, 2.1 litres/100km.

There is nothing like a pain in the wallet to stimulate development is there?

À bientot