CarsDampers and tuning

By Ian

Friday night, the M4 rush hour was nearing the end of its peak and my girlfriend and I were heading to Wales to see her folks. As usual the majority of motorists were seeking refuge in the ‘overtaking’ lane, which is fine when the road is packed but by the time we passed Reading the two inside lanes were empty. Now normally at this point you expect those cars that want to drive slowly to move over and let the faster people through. Not the thoughts of one Vauxhall Vectra driver who remained firmly stuck in the outside lane, doing about 60mph, with the car in front half a mile away and no one in the nearside lanes.

So I gave him a gentle flash of the full beam to persuade him to shift it - either forward or sideways. Only instead of moving over, Vectra man gives me a demonstration of just how sharp the Vauxhall’s brakes are, and I had to switch lanes to avoid a meeting of bumpers. Idiot! (I’ve left a word out this time). Clearly miffed that he had been outsmarted, he then drove for the next 30mins with his full beam on, occasionally flashing like someone with ‘issues’ and dipping the lights only when I moved lanes (while he remained firmly glued to the third one). His dawdling eventually meant he got left behind but we did consider calling the police and Kelly managed to fire off a couple of pictures as evidence. But it shook us up and reminded me just how unpredictable - and potentially dangerous - life on the road is. Has anyone else any road rage horror stories to share?

Original post by MSN Cars Space

By Ross Chainey, MSN Health & Fitness Ed

As a Londoner who doesn’t own a car, it’s a great pleasure to be able to get my hands on one every so often and flee the capital for a weekend’s R and R in the countryside. So when my good friends on the cars desk offered me the keys to a Skoda Fabia last weekend, I I nearly bit their proverbial hand off.

Friday’s end of play couldn’t come soon enough, and after nipping back to my flat to pick up my weekend bag (not forgetting the missus), it was off to the Cotswolds, just a two-hour drive from our digs in South West London. We didn’t have much luggage but the storage space was pretty impressive.

Our first stop was Wyckhillhouse in Stow-on-the-Wold, a grand old hotel and spa in glorious surroundings. And the Skoda? I’m always happy just to get to drive a car, but the journey was great fun. It’s not the best looking car, but it’s a nippy wee beastie and the diesel engine offers fantastic fuel economy.

The size and mobility of the Fabia lends itself well to zooming over country roads and through picture-postcard villages, though I did think the engine was a bit noisy – I don’t think the cows liked us very much. After a night at The George Hotel in Shipston, which I can highly recommend, the heavy rain convinced us to head back to London earlier than planned on Monday. Thankfully the roads were quiet and I was able to put my foot down a bit and again I could find very few faults with the cars performance.

I also couldn’t help thinking that Skoda deserves some sort of award for reinventing itself. People used to turn their noses up at this eastern European manufacturer, but when I told friends and family what I was driving for the weekend, they all responded with the same words: “good cars.” Can’t argue with that.

Original post by MSN Cars Space

It’s always a delight when you get to meet a true motor industry petrolhead. And better still when you’ve got a few hours to kill and nothing better to do than talk cars.

Rolf Hartge is one of those kind of guys. While you may have heard the name connected with race tuned BMWs that’s actually Rolf’s brother. Rolf is a Merc man and since 1989 has run tuning house Carlsson, named after Swedish driving ace Ingvar Carlsson whose cars the Hartges ran back in the day.

Hartge’s racing background translates to some seriously handy road cars, based around his mantra of form follows function. Buy a hot Merc from Carlsson and you won’t get fake vents or a bonkers bhp V12 just because it happens to fit under the bonnet. Everything is fit for purpose and has a functional benefit. Sure, Carlsson does blinging wheels. But they’re super light, reducing unsprung weight and letting the suspension work better.

He’s a serious guy and passionate about his craft. But that doesn’t mean he and his colleagues don’t know how to have a bit of fun. “We once made a Mercedes 300E with the engine and manual gearbox from a BMW M5,” he says casually, as if it were within the abilities of anyone handy with the spanners and with an afternoon to spare. “The Mercedes had the best chassis at that time – years ahead of anything else - and the BMW had the best engine,” he says with a laugh. “It was a stupid idea … but it was a wonderful car!”

Stolen and then recovered, the current owner bought it for a song off the insurance company. “Does he realise what he’s got?” I asked. “Oh yes, he is a very lucky guy – he still loves to drive it,” says Rolf. I like the idea that somewhere in Germany there is a bog standard looking 80s Merc ragging about with the engine and gearbox from one of the best sporting saloons of all time. The lucky owner must have thought all his Christmases had come at once when he stumbled across that one. Makes you wonder what other wonders are out there…

Dan

*So secret they didn’t even know about it…

Original post by MSN Cars Space

Saw my first gritter of the year this evening, as it was on its way out of Hemel Hempstead.

But I also had to de-ice the car before leaving work - so I guess it’s no surprise.

How’s the rest of the country doing?

Links:

MSN Cars Winter Motoring Guides

Original post by MSN Cars Space

The 2007 Formula 1 season has only been over a few weeks, but already the teams are out testing for 2008.

This week most of them have been out in Barcelona.

Now, as you may know already, there are some pretty serious rule changes for next year. All of the driver aids have gone – including the traction control. In order to police this, the FIA (F1’s governing body) is issuing every team with a standard ECU to prevent any sneaky electronic trickery.

So, it’s all hands on deck, so to speak, as each team desperately attempts to get this control equipment to talk to their proprietary engine designs and ancillary systems. Hence Ferrari cranking up the old boy’s batteries and bringing Michael Schumacher in out of retirement to help with analysis and set up.

Schumacher hasn’t turned a wheel in anger all year. He’s been seen at various races but purely in an advisory capacity.

Perhaps you were thinking he’d be rusty…

Wrong.

First day out he set the only time below 1 minute 22 seconds. Day two, he shaved another half second off that, and posted a lap 0.4 seconds faster than anyone else. Whatever you think about Schumacher the man, you simply can’t argue with that kind of talent.

Admittedly, the really big name drivers haven’t shown up for the pre-season shakedowns yet. Current Ferrari driver, and Schumacher’s former teammate, Felipe Masa could only manage fourth fastest on day two, but that was his first day of running in the car.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Schumacher admitted to feeling nervous, but really enjoying being out on track again. Asked about the new regulations’ standard ECU, no traction control, and 2.4-litre V8 combination he said, "It feels worse than when we last ran without TC. It’s not similar: it’s worse.”

"Then you had 10-cylinder engines, you could change and play with the gears and now you cannot… But the high speed stuff is exciting."

I bet.

—

Officially Schumacher has no plans to return to racing Formula 1 in 2008. And with Ross Brawn – famously Schumacher’s strategy partner – moving to Honda it seems even more unlikely. But I can’t help thinking that Lewis Hamilton’s dramatic impact has piqued Schumacher’s interest. He won’t want to be forgotten so quickly, or live to regret never taking on Hamilton head-to-head.

Who’ll take the odds he will be back…?

—

Check out MSN Cars’ motorsport coverage here.

Photograph: Chris J. Moffett

Original post by MSN Cars Space

As fuel prices approach £1 a litre and oil prices to $100 a barrel, the vexed issue of fuel prices rears its ugly head.

We have a useful article on how you can save money by adjusting your behaviour but my feeling - backed up by surveys - is that petrol would have to get seriously expensive before most people would change their car usage.

Why? Well as I have argued before, the car is just too darned useful for most people, and if car related costs go up, people just economise elsewhere.

Anyway, this is a subject of our new poll, which you can find at the bottom of most of our pages. As I suspected, the vote so far suggests a majority of you feel it won’t make much difference to your car usage.

- When not fretting about your fuel usage, take a look at our latest top 50 - all time classics.

best wishes,

Tom

Original post by MSN Cars Space

Some logistical issues this week sees us with a few more cars to cram into our car park than usual.

Fortunately the Daihatsu Copen we’re roadtesting (or rather, Dan is - during a several hundred mile sojourn up north; ¨Really, it’s not that bad!¨ is all we’ve heard so far in response to my fears about his hearing, and his back…) is compact enough to maneuver into the tightest of spaces. This spot is usually the reserve of scooters and pushbikes…

The only thing we didn’t consider was how I was going to get out again once the car was in there. Stepping over the side like this is fine - so long as it doesn’t rain. Doing a Dukes of Hazzard through the window in such a confined space would require considerably more dexterity!

The Copen is a fun little thing. Looking forward to reacquainting myself with it upon Dan’s return.

Links:

Daihatsu Copen First Drive & Video [internal]

Photographs by Dan.

Original post by MSN Cars Space

Henry having done the hard slog on Thursday night with an excellent write-up and gallery from the MPH show ‘07 at Earls Court in London (moving to the NEC next week), Ian and I took a short journey down the District Line on Friday.

The live event itself (Top Gear live in effect) was fun, and the now familiar football game (this time with Suzuki Swifts) was especially good:

There was an excellent crash involving Richard Hammond (who else?) which left
one of the cars totally conked out.

At the stands outside, it was nice to see a few manufacturers having a presence alongside the usual flash car clubs, accessories boys and trackday companies. Jaguar was there with the first UK showing of its new XF model.

Having loved the concept, I wasn’t so sure about the real thing - but it does look a lot better in the flesh - still not sure about those headlights though - but I guess the concept’s ones wouldn’t have given enough beam… Still, there was a lot of interest there:

The inside was nice - a lot of new XK in there - but I still fear many will see this car as an upmarket Mondeo (it has virtually nothing to do with that car - but the looks are too similar for comfort methinks).

Sister company Volvo was also there: Nice to see a silver V70 there too which looked lovely and got me all excited about our new long termer, and fun to see the XC60 (small SUV) concept there too.

Land Rover also had a a giant 4×4 course too.

Other highlights were a delightfully chavved-up Chrsyler 300C:

And the inevitable road-safety inspired ridiculous police car - a Caparo T1:

If a copper caught you in this, he’d have to let you go - there is only one seat…

The show runs at Earl’s Court, London until 4 November before transferring to the Birmingham NEC from 8-11 November. More details on performance times and ticket availability are available from the MPH website or by calling 0871 230 0333.

Tom

Original post by MSN Cars Space

It’s been almost a month since I made that epic cross-continental jaunt to bring our new Skoda Fabia back to Blighty - and in that time the little black BMW-slayer has racked up more than 2,500 miles. So where’s it been? Well we’ve taken it on photo shoots where it doubled as a handy camera car, transported Tom and I - in much comfort - up to Birmingham for the Auto Trader Used Car Awards, used it on a trip into the Cotswolds, taken it to the supermarket several times, driven it up to see our colleagues in Hertfordshire and been in and out of London on a fair few trips too. Not forgetting that 1,000 mile trip across Europe. On reflection it’s easy to see why it has racked up so many miles.

So what have I thought of it? Well I’m not going to let too much away as I will be doing a formal monthly update on the site next week, but let’s just say that this is one of the best superminis I’ve driven. In a past life on motoring mags I’ve run my fair share of little cars (including the new Renault Clio) but this Fabia feels so much more grown up. The 1.9 diesel engine plays a large part in this success because it can hold its own on the motorway and has surprised a few small-engined BMW 3-Series drivers, but it’s also very spacious and comfortable too. And still gives more more than 45mpg. The perfect small car? We shall see…

See you next week for a full report…

Ian

Across Europe in a Skoda Fabia (internal link)

Original post by MSN Cars Space

Dear All,

Lots of feedback in October so thanks and keep it coming.

As always, you can leave us feedback and comments by click on the “feedback” link which is on the bottom right of every page on MSN Cars.

My headers below are in bold, with comments below your messages also in bold.

Top 10 Getaway cars

This story from early in the month generated a lot of feedback.

- Your Top 10 Getaway Cars After reading this article I was very disappointed when I got to the section about the Lady

Diana crash. The article comes across as tasteless and rather sad sensationalist effort to gain attention. Perhaps in

future you could endeavour to provide a slightly higher quality of content.

- I don’t think that the picture at the bottom of Princess Diana’s crashed Mercedes is in the best of taste (at the

bottom of a list of getaway cars).

- I was reading with interest‚ your article on "Top Ten Getaway Cars" and was enjoying reading about legendary cars in

our history. Then‚ to my disgust‚ I saw that number 10 in the list is Diana’s car that she died in. How this qualifies

as a glamorous getaway car is beyond belief. Whoever wrote this article needs to seriously rethink their ideas and

stop glamorising cars that are causes of deaths.

I don’t think we were glamorising this or any other car but clearly the item was regarded as in poor taste by some readers so

the decision was made to pull this particular car from the top 10 and replace it with another.

- There is incorrect information on this page! The Audi in Ronin was in fact an S8…and the driver even specified it.

Anyone who has actually seen the film can testify to this.

Thanks – Henry was talking in the generic here where “A8” covers all models – in the same way that we might talk about a

BMW 7-Series rather than a BMW 740i or what have you. However, I appreciate the petrol-head point you are making here so we

will do better in future!

- Vincent Price and Roger Moore? Try Christopher Lee (top ten getaway cars)

- FAO Henry Biggs: Christopher Lee starred alongside Roger Moore in the film "The Man with the Golden Gun"‚ and not Vincent

Price as you have stated in a footnote below a photograph. Kind Regards.

- AMC Matador - The Man with the Golden Gun: Picture states Vincent Price and Roger Moore. Actually Christopher

Lee and Roger Moore. Schoolboy error! Mind you‚ I am a James Bond Bobblehat!

- In the article Top 10: getaway cars‚ Bond’s adversary‚ who is pictured with Roger Moore in "The Man with the Golden

gun" is in fact Christopher Lee and not Vincent Price‚ as stated by the caption.

- That is NOT Vincent Price‚ its Christopher Lee!

- Nice article about getaway vehicles. Just one thing though‚ Christopher Lee was the man with the golden gun

not Vincent Price

- It’s NOT Vincent Price you moron! That is the UNIQUE Christopher Lee with Roger Moore in The Man With The Golden Gun.

If you are EVER going to be a journalist‚ do some research before making claims like that!

Yes – our apologies for this indeed schoolboy error which was quickly fixed. Henry’s next article will be “Top 10 best

Malayasian hatchbacks for under £6,000”…

- In ‘The Rock’‚ Sean Connery is said to have been born in Glasgow‚ not England as Mr Biggs has written. But he

is correct in saying the chase beggars belief… the Ferrari would have overtaken the Hummer with ease‚ but would

probably have been crushed quite soon after.

We’re still checking this fact – but thanks.

The bike ridden by Arnold in T2 was not a Harley Davidson Fat Boy it was a Harley Davidson Electraglide the very same model

still used by highway patrol police officers to this day. Please do your research!!!

We are fairly certain that it was indeed the Fat Boy used in the film.

Top 10 marketing disasters

This excited a number of emails…

- So the TT was a marketing disaster? With all those sales and sky high residuals until not long before the 2nd

generation was launched? The 2nd gen MR2 didn’t do too badly either and the A Class isn’t exactly a Bete Noir amongst

any demographic you care to name! Where’s the real disasters like the FIAT Tipo and the Strada before that? What about

the Ford Pinto which exploded and killed rear seat occupants if rear engined? The Edsel?

- As one of many mk2 MR2 drivers you boys really should wake and up and drive one of the few decently priced

sports cars out there - fast‚ good looking and reliable what a disaster .. ! oh and it was such a disaster the

Toyota made it for over 10 years … get real it’s not a mk1 but both set the standard for this type of car in their day

- What a complete load of rubbish this page is‚ Top 10 worst car disasters…. Jeez who wrote those reviews‚ someone

who has very little knowledge in cars… You really shouldn’t let under 10’s right adult pages.

- That write up on the mr2 is a total crock of crap do you even know what you are talking about

- Review of the old MR2 was in no way accurate…whoever wrote this has no idea what they are talking about.

Opinion pieces such as this often get a vehement responses, often from when we express an opinion about cars that

our users may have or are very fond of. This is somewhat inevitable in the nature of these things.

- Emille Jellinek selling Daimler-Benz in France? Think you might find it was Spain.

We have record of Jellinek operating in France, but never in Spain as

far as we know.

- "Well with the most successful racing driver of all time…" we don’t want your wrong and "stupid" opinion!! Sorry!

Since Schumacher has won more F1 races and championships than anyone else ever, we think it is entirely justifiable to

call him this.

Audi mock-up

Just prior to the official unveiling of the concept car that will become Audi’s rival to the Mini,

we published artist Gabriel Rabhi’s impression of what it may look like.

- Who is Gabriel Rabhi? His ‘ideas’ look nothing like a cross between the vehicles mentioned in the article! It does however look almost identical to…. A SKODA FABIA!! What a load of rubbish! Far better ‘artists impressions’ elsewhere!

We publish good artists’ impressions when we get them – and I believe this is one of them.

Urban speed limit to be reduced to 20mph

There was some debate in October about lowering the urban speed limit to 20mph, prompting an article by us stating

reasons why this idea might not work and indeed might be dangerous.

- This article is so biased it is almost criminal. It seems that 3,000 deaths a year‚ many of them of children‚ are

an acceptable price for driver convenience. Anecdote and perception are given preference over the results of serious

research. As a result of this appalling piece I am changing my default MSN start-up and do not intend to return to

this site.

Our article clearly stated that we didn’t think a 20mph limit would have the desired effect, and would in fact be

dangerous since it would multiply the issue already caused by speed cameras today – the fact that people are watching

speedometers and not the road. The only truly safe speed for all cars is 0 mph – but society like it or not has

decided that the convenience of the private motor car is such that it outweighs the fatalities.

Lexus RX-400h road test

Ian took the Lexus hybrid 4×4 for a long-distance road trip back to his homeland in Northern Ireland and wasn’t as

impressed by its economy as he thought he would be…

- As an owner of an RX 400H-SE hybrid SUV‚I was a bit disappointed in Ian Dickson’s recent review of the car. I previously

owned the Kia Sorento V6 petrol SUV and only got around 18 mpg round the town and around 24 on a run.

With the RX I am averaging around 29.8 mpg overall. So I would say Ian is a bit out on his 27 mpg. Consumption also

depends on how heavy you are with your right foot. If you are going to floor the pedal all the time in the hybrid

then you might as well own the RX 3500 and not bother with the hybrid. I have been on a straight level road and

still been on the front electric motor while doing 37 mph. With these cars economy is all about how you drive it.

I have hit 0 to 60 mph in 7.1 secs‚ so perhaps Ian’s stop watch was a bit slow when he quoted "mid sevens" to hit

60 mph. Regards‚ Derek

Official v real world fuel economy is often a vexed issue. We took the car on such a long-distance test to get the most

representative number as possible, and Ian assures me he drove diligently and at the speed limit – which should give

a fairly reliable number.

World’s fastest car

- There are two things that the incorrect about the article "SSC Aero hits record 256mph". Firstly Bugatti Veron was

tested and did hit 253MPH. Even Top Gears James May tested it and it hit 253mph‚ so it was the record holder for the

Fastest Production Car in the World. Secondly‚ Trust SSC is not a production car‚ it a Rocket Powered car. So the

engine power does not go to the wheels to cause a forward movement. It’s not the fastest production car. So the Aero

TT 6.2 ltr petrol engine which calculates power in BHP cannot be compared to a jet engine power car which measures power

in thrust Thanks

The Veyron has never been officially tested by the Guinness people as far as I know – and the SSC has. Also - nowhere does

Henry’s wording suggest we believe the Thrust SSC to be a production car!

Twin tests

We regularly publish twin tests, most recently of the Lotus Europa S versus the Porsche Cayman S.

- I thought there was going to be a definitive test‚ especially when the last words are ‘we find out’‚ but there isn’t any more info‚ just 6 pages of pictures. Also‚ is it me or does the Lotus look like the Mazda RX8?

This is a very good point, well made. As a result we discussed this in the office and decided that I will in future act

as judge (and jury!) of twin tests, weigh up the evidence in favour/disfavour of each car, and give a definitive opinion

of which car is best. Look forward to that in our next test, of the BMW 335i versus the Vauxhall VXR8, coming soon.

Miscellaneous

- I have a Nissan bluebird. Why can I not find it anywhere? It is a brilliant car and has never let me down despite

being almost 18 years old

They are indeed very good cars – but as you note, a bit long in the tooth now. We found a couple of cars on our Auto

Trader listings - Here.

- Don’t understand comment about GT-R not looking like anything else on the road‚ from the front it clearly

looks like a Nissan 350Z.

Everyone has an opinion when it comes to cars’ looks!

- Another spelling mistake on an MSN article! Second paragraph of First Impressions section. "3.0-litre trim-turbo

diesel" This should read twin-turbo. The amount of spelling mistakes in MSN articles is comical to the point that I

am starting to think you put them in on purpose. Do you guys not read through what you have written before uploading the

document to your webpage?

Oops – sorry. We do our best and at least 4 eyes see everything that hits the site – but mistakes do still

happen unfortunately in ours as in most other publications.

- How can you have such a sexist web page? Where is the gallery of "the boys"?

Attractive women complimenting shiny cars have long been part of the motor show scene, and photos of them prove very

popular with our readers. We would publish galleries of “the boys” but in the case of motor shows they would be

hairy old journalists and motor company executives, for which I think there would be limited demand…

- There any chance of any more concepts? I vastly prefer this site to others but it lacks sufficient info on one of the most interesting parts of cars-the concepts.

Thanks – yes we love concepts here very much, and do as many of them as possible – please look in our concept corner

and also in our Tokyo Motor Show coverage.

- Always worth a read before what I actually come on-line for! Keep up the good work! Many thanks

Nice to end on a positive note. A thousand thanks – you are very welcome!

That’s all for this month. Please keep it coming.

Best wishes,

Tom

Original post by MSN Cars Space