y.m.m.v

Subaru Legacy

Subaru is one of those companies that doesn’t thump its chest and search out cameras like some manufacturers. Rather, it lets its products do the talking, and when it comes to their fourth-generation all-wheel-drive Legacy, talk it does.

Al Vinikour’s sum-up is pretty close to my worldview on Subaru. I’m sold on it.

Powerstroke 6.0 L

Ford usually works on diesel engines with Peugeot-Renault partners in Europe, but I’m not sure about the Powerstroke 6.0 L.

From this short article, the unit seems to have all the latest diesel innovations.

Scion tC

Take one part Toyota reliability, one part “West Coast” tuner car, add a slice of reasonable price and a dash of youthful verve. Scion tC joins the Toyota Echo based xA & xB in the stable.

Based on the European Toyota Avensis chassis with other Toyota bits bolted on for good measure, the 2.4 litre coupe is aimed squarely at the “Tuning” crowd.

The “out-of-box” looks may seem “sleepy” to my eyes, with a bit of bling and a flashy paint-job, this may just be the “ultimate” cruiser and street bruiser.

Turbo ? Sure. Find more at the The Car Connection

Diesel Grand Cherokee

In Europe at least you can buy a Diesel Grand Cherokee, in the US & Canada, you would need to perform a heart transplant.

Horse's Ass

Taken verbetum from car.co.nz

[ see update below ]

Why is the US standard railroad gauge 4’ 8.5”? How does that relate to the Space Shuttle? And just what does that have to do with the Imperial Romans?

Next time you wonder why? Just maybe it was something that started with the evolution of time and time hasn’t caught up yet to question its being and offer change.

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches, which is an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used?
Because that is the way the railways were built in England, and English expatriates built the US Railroads.

Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that is the gauge they used.

Why did they use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that was the spacing of the wheel ruts on those old roads.

So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and in England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the road?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
The US standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.

And bureaucracies live forever?
So the next time you are handed a spec and told we have always done it that way and wonder what horse’s arse came up with that, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses.

Now the twist to the story???
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.

The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses’ behinds.

Therefore, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse’s rear-end.

And you thought being a horse’s rear-end wasn’t important ???

[Update]
Is this true ?

High Gas Price ?

In Quebec, there is a gas price protest.

My buddy Charles is for higher prices to promote hybrid.

I still think I would pay higher prices for Bio-diesel, though I’m not sure about hybrid.

Toyota @ 10b

“Ten Billion Dollars!”

No, not anther ransom demand from Dr. Evil … but the current profit of Toyota. Market capitalization of the firm now exceeds the combined of General Motors, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler.

Building high-quality, dependable and yet sometimes “frumpy” cars is a way to make money. Or maybe the trick is to not be dependant on an American firms’ help. Maybe it’s by making friends, like patent and parts sharing with VW. Maybe its the Lexus marquee ability to out-Mercedes Mercedes.

Either way, it’s working.

The Car Connection

Tough year for Subaru

“Under a five-year business plan dubbed “FDR-1,” Fuji Heavy, owned one-fifth by General Motors, has been trying to jump-start its core car-making business, which had slowed due to insufficient investment.”

Automotive News Europe is running an article from Reuters about how hard it is for Subaru to turn a profit when the US dollar is slumping.

Looks to me that either Subaru will need to expand production facility in the US or the next models will really need to hit a new price & appeal plateau to keep the incentives down. One reason I bought mine was the low interest-rate for such a well equipped vehicle.

Continued investment in production capacity, fuel economy improvements and further utilization of designs by other GM partners like Saab may keep this brand from falling into oblivion.

The time of selling simple, dependable and yet understated cars is over.

Honda Diesel Records

Honda Motor Corporation’s main engine designer doesn’t like diesels, but faced with the European explosion in that exact market segment, he designed and built one.

The Honda Accord Diesel then set some very impressive world records.

There are no plans at present to release the Honda Accord 2.2 i-CTDi Sport on the South African market due to the poor quality of local diesel fuel.

The above is also true in Canada right now.

I was just speaking to someone about how modern and “different” this engine is.

COMMON SENSE NOT REQUIRED

COMMON SENSE NOT REQUIRED Idiots Designing Cars + Hybrid Vehicles : My Career with Chrysler by Evan Boberg is a book that was recommended reading on Canadian Driver.

I ordered a copy to quench my curiosity. With a title like that …

A lot of Hot Air ?

The Air Car runs on … air. Now this is an idea worth pursuing, much like how air-rifles were well ahead of “combustion” based rifles at one point in history. Though these solutions forget that the energy to bottle air should really be included in the “emission” and “fuel economy” equations.

Read more at Car.co.nz

Boxy Volvo

Volvo XC90 is the official vehicle of Legoland in California. Guess how many brick ?