Are Electric Cars Boring? - Not this One!

Picture source: here

As my regular readers will know, I have never made any kind of statement about my "green" credentials for two reasons: first I do not feel inclined to and second, because I do not have any! However, this does not mean I am in favour of filthy coal-burning power stations or for that matter, beer cans and half-eaten kebabs dumped on the footpath. A little more thought and perhaps a little less greed, laziness and selfishness would work wonders I am certain.

I have to say that seeing a Toyota Prius in the "flesh" for the first time made me want to reach for the sick-bag (in fact much of the rest of Toyota's range has this effect on me); I am sure that many who feel like me may be subconsciously put off "green" vehicles by such monstrosities.

Fortunately, as the picture at the top shows it really doesn't have to be like this. The car is a Tesla from the USA; the makers claim a 0-60 (0-100kmh) time of four seconds and further claim that the cost of the power works out at two cents per mile, equivalent to 135mpg. Range is 220 miles.

Based in Silicon Valley, the company was established in 2003 and currently has 200 employees; as of August last year, 550 cars had been reserved and the company has raised $105million in capital. More information about Tesla may be found here.

At present the car is available only in the USA although ironically, final assembly is carried out by Lotus in Norfolk who were also involved in some of the design aspects.

I think that this is an exciting project and hope that the impending economic slowdown in the US does not have too much of a negative effect on this brave venture.

Here is a link to the company's website.

À bientôt

F1: The best-laid plans of mice and men...

Test drivers have shorter sideburns!
Gary Paffett, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Pedro de la Rosa, January 2007
Image source: http://www.autosport.com

It was that famous crook, Harold Wilson, British prime minister ,who coined the phrase "A week is a long time in politics". No doubt this is true, but equally so is the fact that a year is long time in F1. The above picture should be a reminder, but this article from a year ago, with of course the invaluable benefit of hindsight, is hilarious.

À bientôt

Isn't it Great When Things just DON'T Work?*

*Thanks VW

People have laughed at me when I have finally lost it with some piece of rubbish that is supposed to work but doesn't; they think that my reaction is illogical or even childish. I have mentioned this sort of thing hereabouts before: the printer that never worked (I jumped up and down on it); the second printer that worked for three months (I threw it across the room - it disintegrated beautifully) the new VCR that refused to play videotapes that played everywhere else (a 4lb club hammer dealt with that one most satisfyingly) the later VCRs that had the same problem (down the rubbish chute with a satisfying crash at the bottom).

Surely some of you when working on a car have felt the strongest desire to put a hammer through the windscreen? No? OK watch the video - no not me, just another bloke who has obviously "had it"! Thanks to CM who found this gem.

Edit: I found a YouTube response to the video:





À bientôt

The OTHER Keynote Speech

Yes, friends, Fulvias in France is nothing if not fair and balanced (despite the occasional rant) so as the other day, Steve Jobs had his moment here now it's the turn of his opponent.

This year marked Bill Gates's last keynote speech and thanks to the excellent Techrepublic site and of course YouTube, I am able to present this video which is a little bit of fun. Enjoy it.

À bientôt

More Apple

Source: www.itrafik.net/le-futur-d-Apple.html.

Yesterday Steve Jobs CEO gave this much-anticipated 90-minute "keynote" speech about Apple's latest developments.

Anticipating that unlike those who queued up from the small hours to see it, many would prefer not to see the entire thing, someone has cleverly compressed the whole thing to show the salient points in 60 seconds: here it is:

À bientôt

More Political Correctness/Incorrectness

Not about tobacco this time, although I expect I shall return to that topic (there is a café owner on hunger strike here in France).

This time it is the interfering EU (European Union): they want F1 to be "greener". Now the fact that modern cars are so fuel-efficient compared with their predecessors is related to the fantastic progress made in developments by FI and also other categories of the sport (rallying for example). And if the designers are exploring new technologies such as energy recovery and so on then I say this is an excellent thing and if the EU wants a "greener" world then they should concentrate their attention on the likes of China and India, but saying "boo to a goose" has never been the EU's long suit has it?

Here is an extract from an article on Autosport.com

The European Parliament has called on the FIA and Formula One teams to make the sport more environmentally friendly, as part of a move to change public attitudes to green technology.

In a report supported by the European Parliament about a competitive automotive regulatory framework, called CARS 21, the call is made for several changes in the automotive industry in relation to reducing CO2 emissions.

However, it also made a separate note discussing the impact that motorsport could have on helping increase the popularity of green technologies.

A statement detailing the findings of the report, which was adopted with 607 votes in favour, 76 against and 14 abstentions, made it clear that it wanted moves made to make F1 'greener'.

The statement said: "MEPs recognise the role motor sport can play in changing attitudes and customer behaviour towards environmentally friendly technology.

"The House therefore asks the FIA and others involved in Formula One to change their rules accordingly, so that environmentally friendly technologies like bio-fuels, four-cylinder engines or hybrid can be more easily applied."

Four-cylinder engines? They must be joking: this is F1, supposedly the pinnacle of motor engineering; call me an old fart and reactionary if you like, but a four-cylinder engine is not a good engineering nor æsthetic solution for the "ultimate" in motor engineering (I often used to wish that Lancia had made the 1600 Fulvia as a compact, high-revving V6!).

But it's all window dressing isn't it? I realise it is symbolic and intended as an example, since the total energy consumed by racing cars and their manufacture is of course tiny - miniscule. However, what about all the air-freight and road transport involved? I doubt if the EU is planning anything soon that might have an impact on Airbus!

[Edit]

I see that The FIA has "welcomed the EU statement": again from Autosport.com here is an extract of what Max Mosley had to say:

In a statement issued on Wednesday, he said: "It is immensely satisfying that the European Parliament recognises the role motor sport can play in the advancement of green technologies and supports the work undertaken by the FIA in its policy campaigning to make motoring more sustainable in the future.

"With the support of the motor manufacturers competing in Formula One and, with the engineering expertise unique to the sport, we hope that new technical regulations will encourage a transfer of energy efficient technologies into the domestic car market for the wider benefit of society."

Nothing new in the second paragraph, as there has always been spin-off: "Racing improves the breed" we used to say.

Otherwise it's all just spin of another sort in my view!

À bientôt

AdSense

Hello,

Typical! I just made a post about AdSense (valves) and now you will see that the space is blank! This is a result of a misunderstanding. The ads will be back soon.

A bientôt

Valves: It's Worth Watching Those Ads!

I don't know if any of you have tried clicking any of the links that appear in my "Adsense" box. As the host I am not permitted to click on them, but I did notice one and copied over the web address.

And I found this:

The company is called Sinus; the firm produces about a million valves per annum, and based on what they say, of very high quality.

The valves appear to be made from Nimonic 80A, Nimonic being one of the Wiggins-developed "super alloys" that were invented for gas turbine blades.

As may be seen in the picture above, the company offers special coatings, for example the gold-coloured titanium nitride; other super hard-wearing coatings such as zirconium nitride are available and in the "ultimate" range, a specially-developed oil-retaining surface finish. Stellite-coated faces are also offered.

On the company's website, apart from details about the products, there is a short film showing some interesting aspects of production - well worth a look.

À bientôt

It seems that I spoke too soon

Apologies to any English activists who might have read my piece entitled "French Smoking Ban II".

I unreservedly apologise, having read this.

À bientôt

"Sensors Indicate Captain..."

At last! Some car stuff eh?

Well no-one has actually complained about my non-Fulvia posts, and despite my steadily increasing readership, it has all been really rather quiet, I do appreciate your comments and of course comments are essential to keep the Blog world alive.

Anyway, this all concerns my pre-Christmas series about knock.

Whilst naturally, I concentrated on ignition matters (I would be interested to hear from anyone who has bought the Meca system) there is another side to the knock question. This of course concerns fuelling: lean mixture when things are critical, again point of maximum torque, high ambient temperatures full throttle under heavy load e.g. in a hill-climb, can be disastrous and lead if not actually to detonation, certainly burned pistons and exhaust valves are more than likely.

Now for those of you with standard cars in good condition, there is unlikely to be anything to worry about, but start developing and all hell can be let loose. Improved gas flow - which includes improved exhaust manifolds - modified camshafts and so on are all ultimately intended to improve volumetric efficiency and as I pointed out, this means an effectively higher compression ratio which requires changes to the advance curve, but also means more air which in turn means that more fuel is required for optimum performance.

The carburettor is an amazing invention being technically quite simple yet it is able to demonstrate considerable flexibility - in simple terms, more "suck" = more fuel. However this is not the approach for a perfectly developed engine. The fuelling, just like the ignition curve (and they relate to each other) should be optimised.

And this is where I refer to the picture at the top of the page. This is the JAW wide-band oxygen sensor: fuelling is assessed the modern way: by measuring the proportion of oxygen in the exhaust gases; this proportion is referred to as "Lambda" - hence the Lambda sensors found on many modern cars. This sensor is available as a kit and is very cheap.

Here is the link to the company's website; it is in English and I am sure that you will find it interesting.

Let me know what you think eh?

À bientôt

French Anti-Smoking Law II (et pour les Français)

I have no knowledge of how the English are coping with this sort of nanny-state legislation. Here in France there appears to be some grass roots resentment and like Ireland where 35000 have lost their jobs since the ban - with one pub closing every week - already café and bar owners are reporting loss of business.

The "antis" told us that following the ban, these places would be full of families and non-smokers enjoying at last wonderful café life. It seems that this is not the case.

I have been directed to a wonderful French blog "Ma clope ma bataille" (literally "my fag, my battle").

There is now of course a link here.

Next up, the promised piece about fuelling... this time not with tobacco!

À bientôt

Smokin' Serge & Brigitte Bardot

Here's a rather strange video from 1967 with Serge Gainsbourg and a stunning Brigitte Bardot performing "Bonnie & Clyde".

Sadly it must be pointed out that BB was never likely to challenge say, Janis Joplin or Maria Callas in the vocal department, but there were visual compensations...

À bientôt

A Damned Good Read

As many of you no doubt know, I am an English expatriate, living in rural France; I have been here for nearly three years and enjoy it very much, even if my French is very, very slow to develop.

CM of Jour après Jour has drawn my attention to a super blog called Antipodes which is produced by another English (and French!) -speaking expatriate, this time from Australia. William Skyvington, the blog's author writes exquisitely on an amazing range of topics; his style ranges from ironic to most touching. He comes over as a sensitive, very knowledgeable individual, with an excellent talent for taking a fresh look at the world's beauties and follies.

I was especially moved by this wonderful piece - how I wish I could write like that!

Highly recommended.

À bientôt

A Little Gothic Gem

I first saw this video about 28 years ago and its impact has remained with me. I was delighted to find that some benefactor had a copy and had uploaded it to YouTube. No doubt many of you are familiar with the "art" of pop videos, but I truly believe that this one is something special.

It helps of course that I liked the work of the artiste, Lene Lovich, with her blend of horror-movie chic and eastern European mystique.

A good song and a great video interpretation. Enjoy it as I am sure that you will.

À bientôt

All the Best for 2008

Thank you all for following my ramblings here; I genuinely hope that all of you have at least found something interesting, thought-provoking, or even irritating in these pages - so long as it wasn't boring.

For this year I have included something which has become over the years an extraordinary tradition in Germany and a number of other countries - though not France (perhaps something to do with the advice that appears in every booze advertisement: Consommez avec modération). So despite the fact that this is Fulvias in France, here is something pour les autres that will be enjoyed by millions around the world today.

It is a little piece of English slapstick featuring Freddie Frinton; so established has it become in Germany that between 1:30 today and 12:00 tomorrow, there will be no less than 37 broadcasts of it there!

A bientôt

Serge!

Je t'aime, je l'aime!

A bientôt

Update

Source: here

The French Government has now issued a form of words, reported by the BBC here

As I suspected, they are going to allow us to welcome the new year and after that, fines!!

A bientôt

Les Fonctionnaires

Source: here

A sympathiser has emailed me a list of the various fonctionnaires that I understand will be harassing French smokers as from 2nd January.

Les officiers et agents de police judiciaire, inspecteurs et contrôleurs du travail, agents du ministère de la Santé et assimilés: médecins inspecteurs de santé publique, ingénieurs du génie sanitaire, inspecteurs de l'action sanitaire et sociale, ingénieurs d'études sanitaires, techniciens sanitaires, ingénieurs et techniciens territoriaux, inspecteurs de salubrité de la ville de Paris et inspecteurs de salubrité de la préfecture de police.
(Source: here)

It appears to me that these people have far more important things to do; I hope that their various duties will not be neglected...

Source: here

A bientôt

French Anti-Smoking Law

You might have noticed that my announcement at the top of the page is now headed "Correction".

Following the chat on this subject (see Chat box on the right of the page) it appears that some official "made a mistake". Accordingly, café society in France ends not immediately after midnight on 1st January, but on 2nd January.

I have to say that the idea of the CRS and the numerous other divisions of the French Police bludgeoning innocent French smokers celebrating (what?) at the beginning of the New Year and dragging them off to the cells is not a scenario that I find particularly convincing, so perhaps the "mistake" was deliberate?

I am also informed that there will be Special Police to enforce this inhumane legislation; it is of course, classically French to find a reason to employ even more fonctionnaires as it is, despite President Sarkozy's protestations to the contrary, always necessary to maintain French public spending at the highest level possible! (This policy keeps Les Syndicats (trades unions) happy).

A bientôt

Double Your Money?

Well it seems that you could have! Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing as we all know, but on reflection, it doesn't seem as though Apple was so much of a risk; after all it's been around for a few years!

Again, this comes from Fledermaus News...

A bientôt

Apple iPhone: Don't try this at home!

Source: here

The Apple (tm) iPhone (tm) has attracted enormous news interest since its announcement. First reactions that I have read have been most favourable, and it seems that Apple has a hit.

Most of us have just seen a picture like the one above, but Techrepublic has done us a favour: they bought one and dismantled it, producing a photographic record of the procedure.

Read all about it here!

Source: here

A bientôt

AdSense - another HTML headache

You might have noticed a new box at the top of the page marked "AdSense".

This contains targetted advertising, which I hope will prove interesting for some of you.

However, adding the HTML has changed the appearance of this blog and I have no idea how to restore it! Still, for the long-sighted ones it will be easier to read at least!

A bientôt

As I was saying...

It seems that I am not alone in my views:

I wrote:

But now here's something sinister: Apple Computer offers a friendly and informal face to the public, it likes to contrast itself with what it suggests (to me at least) as the stuffy, grey and dull Microsoft.
[... ]
Now I am not suggesting that other big organisations do not do or try to do, similar things, but it's the contrast between the projected image and the reality that made my jaw drop. I really should know better, but there it is!

Now read this:

[...] Second, the ThinkSecret story provides a sombre reminder about the danger of being taken in by clever corporate PR. Apple has brilliantly established an image as a company that is not only cool and chic, but also on the side of the consumer. Its technology provides terrific toolkits for user-generated publishing and movie-making. It was the first company to offer consumers legal music downloads on reasonable terms. It portrays its customers as free-thinking libertarians compared with the serried ranks of Microsoft serfs. And so on.

It's a great story, but nobody should be taken in by it. Apple is as single-minded as Microsoft, Oracle, IBM or Google. Jobs may wear velvet gloves, but they're lined with lead.

Source: john.naughton@observer.co.uk

You can read the complete article here, once again, thanks to Fledermaus News

A bientôt

Merry Christmas

Sicilian Avenue Dec 1998 - photo by me

I should like to wish all my readers the very best for Christmas.

A game or two is quite traditional at this time of the year, and if you like games but do not feel inclined to vaporise the aliens or practise electronic karate or pursue monsters and dragons in some mediaeval dungeon then I have something for you, sent to me by a friend a few minutes ago.

It is called "know your world" and is great fun. I scored 110 in my first attempt (you are notified of your "traveller IQ" at the end of the game).

Know Your World

Enjoy it!

A bientôt

In the Interests of Balance

In my last post I mentioned Apple in a not entirely flattering connexion.

To preserve a sense of impartiality, here's a piece about Microsoft from The Korea Times, again courtesy of Fledermaus News.

A bientôt

More Computer News

With regard to Vista, well I am still using it, and whilst I may have got used to it - a bit -I still find it irritating. Canon have been most helpful in getting my scanner up and running, but what a struggle compared with installing it on XP.

Oh yes, and my girlfriend's wi-fi. I reported the struggle we had trying to make it work here. Well she (being cleverer than I) finally solved it, no thanks to the so-called instructions. It turns out that wi-fi operates on a number of channels. A "quick installation" depends upon the user having a crystal ball with which the appropriate channel - there is a choice of twelve - may be determined. The crystal ball is also helpful in informing the user that there are indeed channels to start with...

But now here's something sinister: Apple Computer offers a friendly and informal face to the public, it likes to contrast itself with what it suggests (to me at least) as the stuffy, grey and dull Microsoft.

Here, courtesy of Fledermaus News is another side to Apple. There are more Apple stories to be found on Fledermaus's news feeds.

Now I am not suggesting that other big organisations do not do or try to do, similar things, but it's the contrast between the projected image and the reality that made my jaw drop. I really should know better, but there it is!

A bientôt

Isn't it Lovely?

Source: here

Do it yourself?

I don't think so. Despite having this wonderful picture to hand, I am not yet able to offer servicing and overhaul of Napier Sabre engines!

A bientôt

One Way to Attack the Knock Problem

No more worries about inexact ignition timing: now it's possible to programme the ignition to suit your own Fulvia.

This illustration comes from Mecaparts; it shows a reasonably-priced programmable ignition system that can be easily adapted to the Fulvia. Of course it is in French, but this is Fulvias in France! It is the system fitted to my Norman client's car about which I wrote here. My French is not nearly good enough to offer to translate the entire site, but I can probably help with specific queries if you care to email me.

If you visit the Mecaparts Site here, you will find a number of Acrobat files which give full information about the installation and programming of the system. It can be calibrated up to 11,900 rpm which should be enough for any Fulvia! On my client's car, the advance weights had been removed and the distributor locked (i.e. the rotor arm can no longer move relative to the distributor shaft) this is obviously necessary since all the advance is controlled by the electronics.

To me this seems to be an excellent solution for the Fulvia - especially as I doubt if many wish to go the route of complete engine management. Here is a system that could be installed by any competent amateur. Programming however requires a certain amount of knowledge and it would probably be best to set the the system up to an approximation of the original advance "curve" (some straight lines actually) and then take the car to the rolling road to establish the ideal parameters which could then be programmed into the system - or done on the spot with a laptop.

Should the car in question be further developed, the system could easily be re-calibrated to suit. And of course you would have the capacity to deal with any eccentric changes in fuel quality that may be implemented should the "Green" lobby decide to make things difficult for old cars.

Perfect really!

I have also found something interesting regarding the mixture side of things; more about this soon.

A bientôt

Private Eye to the Future

Private Eye has a fine record in anticipating events and indeed, nemesis for certain individuals; there is often in the magazine a piece called "Curse of the Eye" where the Eye's predictions which have subsequently become true are reported.

Source: Private Eye No 1120

Depressingly this cartoon appears to represent the status quo. From my point of view things are not going to get better...

Bon Noël à tous, et à bientôt

New Post

Apologies for the delay, the new post has now appeared, several posts "ago". In other words you have to scroll down. I am so sorry, but as I wrote earlier, it is not my fault.

To help you find it, here is a link.

My girlfriend was indeed able to help: she has reserves of patience that I cannot begin to comprehend, despite my having worked on Fulvias for 25 years. In the end I rather - or further - lost my temper and deleted one word: "embed" and added another: "object" each with those infuriating chevrons,

On smoking and aero engines

I mentioned in an earlier post Roy (later Sir Roy) Fedden boss and chief at Bristol engines, in connexion with a biography of the great if sometimes eccentric, engineer.

In this book, the story is told of Lord Beaverbrook, proprietor of the Daily Express and also Minster of Aircraft Production during the Second World War. His mission was to put a rocket up the backsides of the aircraft manufacturers - which indeed he did.

On a visit to Bristol''s engine department, shown around by Fedden, he remarked (in an effort no doubt to raise workforce morale) "Why are none of the men smoking?" Fedden replied "You can't have chaps working to a tenth of a thou (0.0001" = 0.0025mm) with a fag dangling from their lips".

But at least they could have a "fag" in peace after the shift was over with their pint in the pub. Their descendants are now denied this simple pleasure.

A bientôt

Quick Note - Sabre again!

In this thread on a forum I found, some kind soul has scanned a set of pages from Setwright's book "The Power to Fly" which gives a bit more of the story.

Especially interesting on fuels.

A bientôt

L.J.K. Setwright & the "Sabre" engine

Now thoroughly gripped by the subject, I have found a super article about the Napier Sabre Engine.

The original and iconoclastic L.J.K. Setwright was obviously as smitten as I am! The article is replete with his interesting and highly technical observations - in particular note his comments about combustion chamber shapes. The horsepower figures, apparently from a reliable source more than confirm what I wrote the other day, but Setwright is, I am sure, incorrect in his observations about thinwall bearings, which he credits to Napier. These were invented by the Clevite Corporation in the U.S.A. and it was Tony Vandervell who, by staying on the reception sofa at Clevite's offices for two days in or around 1932, finally got them to give him the European licence to make the bearings in his works at Acton, west London.

The article also "lifts the lid" on the acrimony and bitter competition between the aero-engine makers in England, whilst the country was fighting for its life. I have read the biography of Roy Fedden, boss and designer at Bristol engines and the author, whose name I regret escapes me, endeavoured to fight Bristol's corner, rather as Setwright has tried to do for Napier.

A bientôt

More Smoke

Those of you who had a look at the video I posted on this subject will have deduced, probably correctly, that the French fumeurs et fumeuses are resigned to their loathsome fate.

Not so Les Allemands it seems, if this article from the International Herald Tribune is to be believed.

Good luck to them: it is worth remembering that it was one A. Hitler of the N.S.D.A.P. who wanted a "smoke-free Germany" by 1941 - and he failed - ha-ha!

A bientôt.

More "Tempestuous" Stuff

The Tempest has taken me over.

As I said, it is one of my favourite aircraft. My excuse for including the clip (from You Tube) is the glorious sound of the 24-cylinder, 2000+ HP, sleeve-valved, supercharged, 150-octane-guzzling Napier Sabre engine.

Knock, knock, knock + an Apology

Source: here

I must have been asleep!

In my recent article about knock, I featured a picture of a Hawker Tempest, one of my favourite aeroplanes. Unfortunately, the version shown obviously has a radial engine, and was therefore, one of the Bristol-engined variants - my extracts at the end of the article related to the "other" engine.

The picture above shows a "proper" Tempest, fitted with the staggeringly complex Napier Sabre engine - the one that used the 150-octane fuel. For those who do not know about this, it was technically fascinating, but really a nightmare for anyone who had to do anything with it. It was a sleeve-valved, 24-cylinder, supercharged job, with the cylinders arranged in "H" formation - i.e. two flat-12s arranged one above the other. It was very powerful - I recall reading somewhere that Napier achieved 100 BHP per litre with a prototype, a staggering achievement in an aero-engine. The site (devoted to the Tempest) that provided the picture is here.

However, complexity has its price of course. It was said that during the Second World War, a horsepower from Napier cost the British taxpayer £3. A horsepower from Bristol cost £2, whilst a horsepower from Rolls-Royce cost just £1!

Napier (formerly a car manufacturer) was acquired by the English Electric Company in 1943; the final aircraft effort was even more outrageous: this was a cruciform ("X") engine; both supercharged and turbocharged, it produced over 4000hp, but jets had arrived so that, as they say, was that. Napier did have success later however with the fascinating "Deltic" engine, used in railway locomotives and also I think, in ships. A diesel, this was triangular in section as its name suggests. There were three crankshafts (one at each corner) and six (opposed) pistons per row. Think about it!

Meanwhile, following William's comment on the last article, I am looking into ignition modifications. If my searches are succesful I shall be back on the thorny "knock" problem.

A bientôt.

A Black Day for France

There are of course, those who would disagree with my headline.

I refer to 1st January 2008. This is the day that the French government has selected for the banning of smoking in public places in the République.

On arriving here, nearly three years ago, I had a nice smug feeling: I thought that the French would never tolerate the kind of health fascism so fashionable elsewhere in the European Union (shortly to become another République). I was wrong.

However, as part of the obsequies for the passing of a great era I attach here a video (source IHT.com) which is a pretty good summation of how all the powerless ones feel.

I am with them - 100%

A bientôt

A New French Blog

Here's a nice idea: a news blog based in Paris, so English readers, here's a chance to brush up your French. It's called "Fledermaus News"

Now that Gordon has signed the Constitution - whoops! - what IS it called this week? - you never know what language you'll have to use in five years' time!

An attractive feature about this blog is all the news stories attached; I spent rather a long time there - these are largely in English you'll be pleased to hear!

A bientôt

Something Creative -

Source here

The capacity of original artistic creativity to suprise, never fails to amaze - and indeed to surprise - me.

You can see many examples of Terry's work on his blog; I think that he is incredibly talented.

No Fulvia yet though...

Suck, squeeze, bang, blow - and knocking

"Where's the next gas station with 150-octane?"
Source here

It's been a long time since I wrote anything vaguely technical here and I apologise for this to my visitors. However, needs must and I have been busy with a number of things.

First the eccentric heading to this post. The first four words are a colloquial reference to the four-stroke or Otto, cycle - that which powers all our Fulvias. The fifth word owes its presence ot the fact that over the past months I have received a number of emails from Fulvia 1600 owners who complain of "pinking" (known in the U.S. as "pinging").

Despite what you will hear in the pub, "pinking" is DETONATION. Detonation is a Bad Thing and should therefore be addressed as soon as possible. I have been doing a little research in order to provide some reliable information for you in the hope that you will be able to avoid this dangerous phenomenon.

First we have to distinguish between detonation and pre-ignition - in my many years around cars and their owners, I have long been aware that considerable confusion exists about these.

Pre-ignition occurs as a result of something in the chamber being so hot that the mixture ignites before the spark. Typical causes are incorrect heat range of plug, a red-hot sharp edge in a badly modified combustion chamber, or glowing carbon residues. A typical symptom of pre-ignition is "running-on" after the engine has been switched off.

Detonation occurs when the advancing flame front at the time of ignition causes some of the remaining mixture in the combustion chamber to ignite spontaneously - i.e. before the flame front reaches it, so an explosion results. There are various causes of detonation. The best known are excessive compression ratio for the type of fuel being used, lean mixture, poor chamber design, bad gas-flowing, excessive ignition advance or any combination of some or all of these.

It is important to understand that the real danger point is that where maximum torque (or indeed Brake Mean Effective Pressure) is developed, for it is at this point where the engine is at its most volumetrically efficient - that is the cylinders contain the largest quantity of mixture achieved in the engine's rev-range. So putting your foot flat on the floor at around 4500 - 5000 rpm in a Fulvia is the time when real trouble might be expected.

Another fact that is often not understood is that a petrol engine's compression ratio, despite being quoted in the specification as say 10.5/1 in the case of a 1600 Fulvia, is variable! It is of course controlled by the accelerator pedal - when the throttles are shut, there is effectively nothing to compress. I recall driving in Italy in my own Fulvia (C.R. about 11/1) and being very frustrated because unlike elsewhere in Europe 98 octane petrol cannot be purchased - only Shell garages have "proper" petrol but at a price. So with the Fulvia's rather small tank, it was necessary to fill up with the so-called "premium" 95 octane stuff. Just to be on the safe side, I was careful to avoid large throttle openings and thus avoided problems.

I have found that when 1600s "pink" or knock, it is nearly always at low revolutions when accelerating. Two possible causes (and a third I shall come to in a moment) suggest themselves to me. First the miserable Solex 42DDHF carburettor; my readers well know my views on this excuse for a carburettor. Every one I have seen has enormous play in its spindles. this causes the uneven idle problems that has caused many to install the unsuitable 35mm Dell'Ortos which are perfect on 1300s (the Dell'Orto is a proper carburettor). The point is that when in "pick-up" mode the Solex provides fuel via the idle circuit and into the progression drillings which may be seen adjacent to the butterfly. Additional air entering via the slack spindle bushes may be enough to cause problems. Another possibility is timing chain slack which causes severe ignition timing variations. The third idea comes from a Carroll Smith book. he advised people to buy their fuel from a busy station that has a large turn-over as it is less likely that some of the more volatile elements of the fuel blend will have evaporated by the time of purchase. Thos considering gas-flowing should remember not to polish the ports to mirror finish but to leave them slightly rough; this prevents fuel dropping out of atomisation. My own car has Lucas mechanical fuel injection and despite all the modifications, I have never had pinking problems, which suggests that the carburettors and/or the inlet tracts may be in part to blame.

There is of course, plenty of information on the Web about this subject: Wikipedia is a good start. The technically-minded will be interested in two articles here and here. The two pieces are links from the Wikipedia article. In the same article there is a link to a company offering water-methanol injection; this was pioneered by the Luftwaffe during the war and greatly improved the performance of their Focke-Wulf 190 aircraft.

And talking about aircraft, if you feel you have problems feel sorry for the developers of the Hawker Tempest. Here's a quote from a footnote from this Wikipedia site:

Early Tempests suffered some engine problems mainly due to the 150 octane fuel being inadequate. One fault discovered was a problem with the propeller constant speed unit, which allowed the Sabre engine to go well beyond permissible rpm, leading to seizure or explosion. There were also problems with the induction system, the lubricating system, and the carburettor air intake (a simple backfire could lead to an explosion).

Any chance of Shell coming up with some 150-octane fuel I wonder? It would most likely be "adequate" for a Fulvia!

A bientôt.

More ebay

Last chance!

I am selling my last two sets of bearings: 1600 Fulvia big-ends by Clevite and another set of Federal Mogul main bearings

I also have a 1600 rev-counter for sale too.

Hurry, hurry, hurry!

Bearing Up

Well all the bearing sets sold on ebay, and buyers got terrific bargains e.g. Vandervell main bearing set just £36 - that's a lot less than half what one would pay normally.

I now have two more sets up on ebay: here and here.

They are running out so don't miss this chance.

Meanwhile perhaps one of my readers has a copy of or access to, an old Clevite Bearing Catalogue? I have two sets ofnew big-end bearing shells - I am sure they are for an old Lancia model, but not Fulvia 1300 as one is marked, they are too big. The part number of both is CB 5006, one is standard, the other 0.020" (0.508mm).

I look forward to finding out what they are.

Spare Parts

Hello again after a long silence - sorry but I have had to occupy myself with rather a lot of other things lately.

Anyway, I have some Fulvia engine bearings for sale on ebay. I probably do not have to tell you that these are not always easy to find.

Here are some links:

1 2 3 4 5

All the best

Paul

Plug and Play? I think not...

Yes, another rant about computing, this time, peripherals.

I am at present in Paris, staying for a few days with my copine. By virtue of her work she is a consummate computer user. For the business she is starting she has bought a laptop and of course decided that this should be provided with a "Wi-fi" facility. To this end she has bought a pair of USB devices which are supposed to provide wireless functionality.

We installed these yesterday, and of course they don't work; "plug and play" - one of the greatest all-time lies. Typically for this kind of thing, Windows says "the device is functioning correctly". No it isn't: it doesn't work!

Many of you might remember Bill Gates's boast that had cars progressed the way computers had over the same period, we would have cars that would do 1000 miles on a gallon of fuel etc.

This sort of thing makes my blood boil: as far as I know only the computer industry seems able to get away with murder: imagine if you bought eggs that were merely empty shells, a new car with no engine, a washing machine that did not wash. What about a surgeon who sewed you up leaving your brain on the floor of the operating theatre? How long would the purveyors of such goods and services stay in business?

And yet so much rubbish is sold for computers and computing. I can recall several such experiences myself: a new printer that wouldn't work at all, another that worked for two months (both were EPSONS - I should have remembered Barry Waterhouse's famous dictum "you don't learn anything from the second kick of the mule") and of course Bluetooth, which doesn't work full stop. Another instance: according to the blurb in WIndows "help" all I have to do is plug in an Ethernet cable and my computers will "talk to each other". No they won't...

And yes, I have heard the computer experts' jokes about "problem lies between keyboard and chair", but I shouldn't have any problems: the suppliers are to blame, not me.

With the honourable exception of HP, whose support service is excellent, most of the help offered or provided is pathetic. Especially bad in this respect is Open Office; the support facilty is crammed with questions in esoteric technical language. Register a problem in simple language, with examples provided as I did, and get a shirty message back saying one did not formulate the problem correctly. Thanks Open Office - for nothing.

To summarise, my grievance is that if an organisation supplies goods then they should work - immediately without the presence of a highly-trained, experienced and expensive specialist. I do not want to hear e.g. "well, these are complex matters". This is NOT my problem, it is THEIR problem: if they supply goods to the public then they should work, period.

Cars are complex; they work, so computer industry do your job properly and stop supplying rubbish.

Modifications

This is a popular subject - well it seems to be judging by the amount of emails I receive from Fulvia owners keen to extract more power, better brakes, more grip and so on from their cars.

Since many are naturally keen to keep their ideas to themselves, my lips remain sealed, but I have seen some lovely things on my computer's screen

Perhaps some of you would care to share your developments with those reading this blog.

Email me on var1016@gmail.com

I look forward to hearing from you.

VISTA ("tm")

Hello again after a long gap. I have been quite busy and also rather lacking in inspiration, though thanks to one of my regular visitors, I have a Fulvia idea or two.

This piece (rant) is another that does not concern our favourite motor-car; it is about computers. Since one way or another, all of you must be using a computer to read this, I feel justified in claiming to be at least relevant.

Here’s what my dictionary says about VISTA:

vi’sta n. long narrow view as between rows of trees; long succession of remembered or anticipated events etc. Mental prospect or retrospect, (opened up new vistas or a new vista to his ambition); hence ~ed (~ad) a. [It. = view (visto seen, p.p. of sedere see f. L. Videre)]

A few things to ponder here: I especially like “long narrow view” whilst “long succession of [...] anticipated events” is to me, profoundly depressing.

No doubt you will have guessed that I have just acquired a new computer, and so I have. A nice thing I suppose, with lots of memory, a huge disk drive and dual-core processor etc. All well and good but for effing VISTA.

What a con! Virtually nothing works with it; most of those software CDs which one has stored carefully (or in a plastic bag in my case) are useless or virtually so. Nearly all those old friends, programs that were perfectly satisfactory, will not work in VISTA. I prefer not to mention the hardware position… Even worse, being in France, I have the French version, which I suppose is good for my French, if not for the migraines. And guess what? Uncle Bill will only provide other languages if one has one of the top-of-the-range versions of the system. Stingy I say. And, every time you want to do something, there’s the pop-up asking for authorisation, followed by yet another question.

Oh yes, VISTA looks nice and there is a good HELP section, but what’s the point? Apparently MS committed $500,000,000 just for the launch of VISTA. Oh dear; all that money (never mind what it actually cost) for a wash-out.

It seems that I have come late on the scene: Microsoft has delayed the putting to death of XP from January to June next year, following what appear to be howls of anguish from the professionals and perhaps mugs like me (if MS actually listens to us virtual cannon-fodder).

As soon as I can arrange it, this computer is going to be formatted – yes, the hell with it, XP is going in and VISTA can rot in the recycle bin.

You have been warned.

Radio Blog Club

Hello again after rather a long gap. Fulvia fans may care to know I am in the throes of drafting some new stuff for them, but in the meantime, I decided to post one of my non-car articles.

Those of you who have enjoyed at least some of the eclectic selections of music I include hereabouts might be interested in Radio Blog Club.

It is Radio Blog Club that provides the means whereby I can add music to this page. It is free and easy to use and in addition, one can build one's own virtual juke-box.

On this subject I have decided that Fats Domino's "Fatman" is to be a permanent fixture here - I make no apology for this!

Happy listening

Promises, promises!

I have been promising on the Viva-Lancia forum to post pictures of two tools useful when working on Fulvia engines.

The first is a modified piston-ring compressor. With standard piston rings, normally a compressor is not necessary, but with the thin rings fitted on some pistons (1mm, 1,5mm and 3mm rather than 1.5mm, 2mm and 4mm) I have found that breakages are possible - especially with the very fragile oil control rings. You will see that the compressor has been cut (ground actually) to match the angle of the vee.

The cutter is used for widening the valve clearance pockets in pistons when larger valves are fitted. It is made from a spare valve, of a suitable size of course with the aid of an angle grinder. It is easy to use: just insert in the guide, mount the head onto the engine with a couple of dowel bolts and with a battery drill apply rotation and very gentle pressure. Less than 30 seconds is usually plenty to provide a new pocket in exactly the right place. There is not normally any need to deepen the pocket. It is a good idea to smear a little grease to catch the small amount of swarf created, so that it may be collected afterwards.

One problem might be to find a suitable valve to make the cutter. I was lucky: I found a 40mm valve with the necessary 7mm stem. Most modern 7mm stem valves are for four-valves-per-cylinder engines and tend to be too small.

Pour Les Fumeurs

Source: Here

Further to my post of 1st July concerning SMOKING, CM of Jouraprèsjour has told me about a splendid group in Austria. The website may be found HERE

Kick the nanny habit!!

[It is against the law to smoke on this blog, but I do anyway, so raspberries all round]

Source: Here

Fulvia Mid-Engined Special: an Update

For more recent readers, the original articles on this car were HERE and HERE.

Robert the owner, is not a man for standing still. He has decided that fuel-injection is the way forward. We did exchange a few emails on this topic, I pointing out the expense and complexity etc.

However, not to be deterred, Robert pressed on and sourced a set of Japanese motor-cycle injection. His immediate problem was how to mount this onto the Fulvia inlet manifold. This was solved by the very nice piece of machining shown here..

When assembled, as the pictures show, the installation looks extremely good. I am waiting to hear how this will all be programmed etc., but I suspect that the results will be excellent.

Even more radically, the latest idea is to invert the inlet manifold enabling downdraught inlet and providing plenty of cold air.

That 500kg 1300cc car will be even quicker than when I had a ride in it.

More in due course.

A New Client

I mentioned recently that I had made a trip to Normandy to attend to a Fulvia.

The client is new in a sense in that he is new from the point of view of my working on his car, but in fact he was a customer of Evolution Engineering. He purchased several items from us including our exhaust manifold and a pair of the special dampers that I have on my own car.

Since the closure of Evolution, we have remained in contact and finally we got to meet.

The car is quite interesting. It is a 1600 SII but I suspect it might be one of the 200 or so SII “540s” i.e. not the conventional Lusso. The owner told me that when he acquired the car it was fitted with steel doors – but with non-opening quarter lights which is most unusual. Only the very first Fulvia coupes had such doors. More mysterious is the Fanalone block, easily identified by the (redundant) alternator mounts. I think that he will investigate the chassis number!

The owner had had the engine rebuilt at considerable expense, for example the specially made camshafts which cost him a great deal of money! The firm that rebuilt it appear to have made a good if rather costly job of it.

An interesting item fitted by the company was the programmable ignition, something I have always wanted to have on my car. The blue computer lead socket on the right of the box may been clearly seen in the picture. With this equipment it is possible to set the advance for each 100 rpm step, using a simple Excel spreadsheet. This of course could be done on a rolling road with a laptop. One of the advantages of the system is the ease of installation. There are no external sensors as is the norm with such systems, just a “chopper” in the distributor. The mechanical advance weights and springs are removed and the rotor carrier is locked to the drive shaft. Whilst elaborate sensors etc. are a better route, I believe that this system makes for an excellent compromise and a great improvement over the conventional type of system.

The programmable ignition unit

The owner had recently fitted a replica “works” inlet manifold together with a new pair of Solex ADDHE 45 mm carburettors. These carburettors were considered by many experts to be very good, but sadly Solex introduced them rather late and not so long before the company went bust.

He had had a great deal of trouble with the manifold. He told me first of mis-aligned ports and then of appalling porosity. He had had shown great resourcefulness in solving these problems, which for an item costing about £300 he should not have had to do, in my opinion.

The 45mm Solexes

He met me at the station and drove back quite briskly; the car felt as though it had good potential and felt solid. There were however flat spots. Attempting to cure these by increasing the static advance setting resulted in both a much quicker car but appalling pinking. Lacking the information for the ignition there was nothing I could do in this regard, but some time spent on the carburettors produced a most worthwhile improvement. Now, the car started much more readily, but with the overlap of the camshafts and the large carburettors, idling was not as it should be. The problem was that we had no data for the ignition and neither did we have the means to re-program it; it was obvious to me that increased static advance was necessary with a slower increase to follow. There was also a suspicion that at around maximum torque (4500 – 5000) the engine was a little rough suggesting that there was perhaps a little too much there. The only proper answer is a rolling road of course. I believe that the owner will address this giving him the chance to optimise both the carburettor jetting and ignition advance curve.

Now it was my turn to drive the car over some delightful French rural roads. I have mentioned these before – and the lack of traffic makes motoring a pleasure. I found the car powerful and willing to rev easily up to 7000 rpm. However I found the steering to be incredibly nervous. I imagined that the toe was incorrectly set, but back at the workshop I found that the subframe required a considerable amount of tightening up. This had a very satisfactory effect (!) although I still think that the toe requires re-setting. My choice is normally at the minimum specified (1mm out) although I have known racers to set it at parallel which makes for sharper turn-in although at the price of “nervousness”.

After I had left the owner contacted me to say that he was most pleased with the progress whilst of course understanding the constraints under which we had to operate. He added that the car, on the way to Paris pulled 6700 rpm in top gear which with the tyres fitted represents about 116mph, perfectly respectable (in my eyes anyway) although I think that there may well be more to come.

When I have more information I shall provide an update.

Matt Is Back!

Apologies for the problems with the New Yorker cartoons.

Happily, Matt is back - hurrah!

A Parisien Recommendation

This is not the site for a tourist guide for Paris; in any case; the "City of Light" should need no plugging from me, although I must say I do love the place.

Should you be fortunate enough to find yourself there, and fortunate enough to be in the 15th arrondissement then I can recommend with great confidence a bar/restaurant on Rue de la Convention. The bar is called Carpe Diem and is located directly opposite the church of St Christophe about 150 yards from Le Pont Mirabeau - the Mirabeau bridge for you non-francophones.

The other night, my girlfriend and I enjoyed a spendid meal: she had a superb salad with salmon and many other things followed by a Moelleux au Chocolat, whilst I enjoyed three courses starting with a very good chevre chaud, then a fine piece of rumpsteak in a good sauce with excellent sauté potatoes and a mousse au chocolat (also excellent) to finish - and of course a coffee. We drank four beers, 75cl of a very drinkable Bordeaux and ended with a couple of digestifs.

The bill? just 58 euros, about £39, a bargain indeed especially in view of the quality of the food and the very friendly service.

Carpe Diem has only recently opened under its present management, take advantage whilst you can still get in. The French Foreign Ministry will soon be taking over the recently refurbished Imprimerie Nationale next door. I expect that when this happens, Carpe Diem will be packed with fonctionnaires!

An Itinerant in England

The All DHT Amplifier in Early Testing Form

Well, I am finally back in France after an interesting trip.

This of course commenced with my attendance at the three days of the Goodwood Festival of Speed or Mud as some called it especially on the very wet Sunday. I suppose I had better not mention rain any more as I feel that my English readers will be angry!

I have not mentioned so far, another of my other "talents" or at least, abilities. I have warned in the past that this blog will contain articles other than about Fulvias; this is one of them.

I have spent a number of years designing and building Valve ("tube" for Americans) amplfiers for hi-fi. I have even proof-read a couple of books written in the subject (Valve Amplifiers 3rd edition and Building Valve Amplifiers both written by Morgan Jones)

On arriving at a friend's place in London I was offered work building a couple of amplifiers that would use (my friend's predilection) Directly Heated Triodes. For those not in the know, these are very old valves indeed dating from the 1930s and sometimes even earlier. Afficionados of these insist that the resulting sound is more detailed and revealing of the music than that obtained with more "modern" valves. Transistors in these circles I should add, are not considered...

The first of the amplifiers was just a straightforward line stage or pre-amplifier. The second was a more ambitious design. The order from the customer was for two of these - one for each channel. The specification called for an all direct-coupled three-stage design. This necessitated a considerable amount of effort and study of valve data plus many calculations. And then came the labour of planning the layout - that is finding space for all the bits, which is always tough. Here's a picture of the underside:

Experts will notice that there are transistors present, but they are there for "housekeeping" purposes, just to make conditions correct for the all-important valves.

The client came to hear the amplifier and was delighted with the sound and is very keen to know when I can return to England to build the other one!

The experience has rather inspired me to build something for myself, which I may well do when I have the time. Indeed I have already done most of the design and do have the valves I need to build it.

As they say "Watch this space".

Finally watch this space, as I have a report coming up about a 1600 Fulvia belonging to a new client who lives in France and on which I worked last weekend.

A bientôt

Rallye Rochois

Sorry for the lack of postings; recently I have been in England for a while.

However, I can report that the Fanalone ran very well on the Rochois - partly thanks to my preparation and largely thanks to the excellent driving and preparation of my client.

She was placed fifth in VHC (historic cars) - behind four Porsches, the Porsche 911 being the popular choice for these rallies.

Well done I say

A "smoke-free" England

I am at present in England, following a wet but interesting Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Here, finally the fascist nannies have won: as from today, 1st July 2007, smoking in public places has been banned in England & Wales.

Expect a further enormous outpouring of patronising, smug, self-congratulatory words from the "great & the good" - as they ponder the next area of individual behaviour to sanction. Take care all ye passionate anti-smoking types; see how you feel when your favourite activities are banned on largely spurious grounds.

For me, the end of years of style & elegance thus:

The global warming types are another variety of the species - be ready to defend your old Lancias!