Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

'Little sign of wear, some small stains, comes from a smoke-free home'.

Also: 'condoms, some new'.

would have kept the original gearstick gaiter though. hope you found alternative use for it.

Not sure if serious but no, I threw it away. Brittle cracked plastic.

game changing though?

For me, if the charging time can be cut in 3, so that a motorway piss stop takes the battery from 20 % to 80% in sub fifteen minutes, for a 300mile+ range, that is game changing.

And seems possible, nay likely, in 24 months from now.

The other game changing possibility is moving up to level 3 automation.

think a purple sparkle could be a game changer for the MG

That's all the encouragement I need.

• Weeps *
  

Been doing a lot of work trying to get everything sorted on the 93 Range Rover, my mate signed up for a Baltic Sea tour next February. So many problems to fix but slowly getting there. The window mechanism broke so dropped it into the garage for a new one (been pretty hard to get parts over here due to Brexit, steering box should be here next week after 4 month wait). Unfortunately a mechanic dropped a rim on the bonnet but they repainted it and through in some new headlights and left me to sort out the decals. Got a couple of 303 keys, huge and heavy.

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Found an old Alpina tucked away in the garage, used to drive a 310 back in the 90’s, problem was I had to leave the windows open a tad and use the bike roof rack to lock the doors as they had no locks, made me all nostalgic

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game changing though?

For sure. Imagine even 1 in 4 of the cars / vans on the road in London being electric. Noise and emission pollution would be dramatically reduced. This is especially true if the segment buying large SUVs start to convert to electric.

Most electric cars also come with advanced safety or autonomous driving features (radar cruise etc) which are proven to be safer on motorways than humans driving, so fewer accidents.

Range improvement will definitely come but, for now, more frequent stops to charge means more breaks for the occupants which also increases safety.

If more autonomous capabilities really come through in the next few years, the mobility support for the disabled or elderly / isolated will increase too.

For me, if the charging time can be cut in 3, so that a motorway piss stop takes the battery from 20 % to 80% in sub fifteen minutes, for a 300mile+ range, that is game changing.

And seems possible, nay likely, in 24 months from now.

Nah, battery tech is the one thing that hasn't really significantly improved. They can use cooling to handle discharge and charge better, they can coil to improve capacity... but fundamentally the best battery tech remains the same chemical process it always has which is bound by the laws of physics.

The big thing to happen to batteries in the last 20 years is really their price coming waaaay down.

There's a lot of research in batteries and has been for a few decades now, and the best we've had are tweaks.

Weirdly the best idea remains the one Tesla started with... async trickle charging by swapping out the batteries at designated stations and charging more slowly whilst they're not in use. But people don't like that, and it's prone to it's own problems and complexities, and so here we are fast charging and attempting to cool in the process, reducing the overall life of the batteries in the hope of overcoming people's range anxiety from charge times.

I drive electric everywhere I can in London, but there's so many issues still with lack of infrastructure across London (let alone UK), limited charging spots at motorways (occupied for long times due to slow charge times)... and damn, I didn't want an internal combustion but I am very very happy that I've got the dual-drivetrain thing with a petrol engine up front as at least I can overcome the lack of infrastructure easily and without inconvenience.

Sucks though... this is one thing I wish would change. We should get to the point that every lamp post is a charging point, but it feels so far away.

All that said... when the infrastructure is viable, a decade or more from now... my next would be a pure electric car.

What I dislike is that we are in this 10-15 year cutover... if you buy something EV now you're overpaying and inconvenienced, and if you buy an ICE you've got a shelf life to the car and will increasingly be taxed off the road.

I bought a new dual-drivetrain, but on reflection should've bought an old (vintage) ICE car and attempted to push it a decade or more to bridge the gap to EV infrastructure making an EV viable everywhere in the UK.

I bought a new dual-drivetrain, but on reflection should've bought an old (vintage) ICE car and attempted to push it a decade or more to bridge the gap to EV infrastructure making an EV viable everywhere in the UK

now you are talking

This is especially true if the segment buying large SUVs start to convert to electric.

the appetite for large SUVs is the thing I would like to see changed the most. electric or otherwise

i am not sure if was serious or not either. love the Panda though dude.

if i need a slightly more modern small car it will be my first choice

For me, if the charging time can be cut in 3, so that a motorway piss stop takes the battery from 20 % to 80% in sub fifteen minutes, for a 300mile+ range, that is game changing.

(0.6*300 miles * 0.25 kWh/mile) / 15 minutes = 180 kW

There are already cars and chargers that claim to do that, but usually only for beginning of the charging cycle (e.g. 0-60%).

I don't think large cars are going away - if anything, they'll grow further with larger battery packs and larger interiors needed.

At least with electrification, they will be orders of magnitude cleaner and quieter.

Aren't we just going to end up with a sort of 'tyranny of the rocket equation' situation with ever heavier (and less aerodynamic) cars?

Don't Teslas have a really low CdA, which presumably helps a lot with long range.

Are there not two imperatives for EVs. Air quality in cities then carbon emissions.

What I dislike is that we are in this 10-15 year cutover... if you buy something EV now you're overpaying and inconvenienced, and if you buy an ICE you've got a shelf life to the car and will increasingly be taxed off the road.

This might also go banging into the driverless /ownerless car phase.

This is the thing I want the most. Reduce car ownership by 90% and scrap the majority of old vehicles, replacing them with a massive fleet of roaming driverless vehicles for hire.

My 996 is about the most generic looking 911 cab that you can get - it's in silver (which was a huge percentage of the entire run) and it's got the standard bumpers/no spoiler/no skirts.

I think it looks very nice, subtle and purposeful - and want to keep it that way.

However, once the new engine goes in I'll be lending it to journalists to review in order to provide hopefully good publicity for our engine parts/complete engines.

This is my business partners car:

The spoiler alone is memorable:

Here's mine, for comparison purposes:

So! How could I make mine more memorable, with some kind of livery, in order that when people see it in magazine/website photographs they know it's mine/a car with an H2 Engineering engine?

A friend went this route, and whilst the car is amazing I don't think the red bumpers (classic Porsche motorsport feature) really worked:

Discrete 'H2 Engineering' logo along door cills in the same typeface as used by Porsche?
New rear badge '911 H2E'

1. Dazzle camo
   
2. Pink Pig
   
3. Rothmans
   
   

Pick one.

The Martini livery was traditionally applied over a silver car (sometimes a white car), which is why I was thinking of that, but I'm struggling to find any examples of it looking good.

Simply add an H to the 2....

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Maybe a speedster vibe?