What Car you drive?

Started by 28Orot, June 06, 2016, 02:52:01 PM

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Dungeon Master


click to see it in all its full-size glory!

Dungeon Master

Also...



Folds up into airline-legal suitcase. Here on a tour in New Zealand.

NikF

I sold my car earlier this year. I don't have a photo of it, but it was nice enough to drive. However my best friend/assistant/arch-nemesis then told me "Every time I saw you behind the wheel of that car, it looked like you had stolen it".
I'm thinking of buying a car again now although I'm not sure what to get.




And -

Quote from: Dungeon Master on June 14, 2016, 08:31:57 PM

click to see it in all its full-size glory!

Good stuff.
"You overestimate my power of attraction," he told her. "No, I don't," she replied sharply, "and neither do you".

28Orot

Quote from: Dungeon Master on June 14, 2016, 08:31:57 PM

click to see it in all its full-size glory!

Interesting looking 'car'

Rinaldo

Quote from: Dungeon Master on June 14, 2016, 08:31:57 PM
click to see it in all its full-size glory!

Now THAT is a bike!

Florestan

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

SurprisedByBeauty

Quote from: Dungeon Master on June 14, 2016, 08:31:57 PM

click to see it in all its full-size glory!

What a beauty of a randonneur! Is that a Brooks saddle? Tres chic fenders, but on casual glance looking a little impractical, no?

zamyrabyrd

This is a long shot, but since this is a car thread taken from a search, I was wondering if anyone knows about cracked radiators which happened last night to my Toyota Corolla, otherwise in good condition, year 1994.

Last night after coming up the usual steep hill to the apartment building into the parking area, suddenly there was a horrific bang and then clouds of hot steam coming through the cracks in the hood, also a faint smell of burning. Wow, I thought the car was on fire! Fortunately, it calmed down and I didn't touch anything but was in shock for hours.

This morning the car mechanic (lives close by) who changed the leaky water pipes a few days ago came by to assess the situation and implied that I may not have been checking the car temperature gauge. But this was not unusual driving, about 20 km or so. OK, it was cold, the heating was on and the defroster, but really no big deal. Of course, it is always easier to blame a client especially if she is a woman.

If the car was overheating and the thermostat didn't work, then that might account for its not registering in the gauge? I don't know. Should he have checked the thermostat if there was leakage of water coolant?

Oh well, maybe these questions are academic since there is the need to buy a new radiator. UGH! He says there is quite a price range, mentioned Chinese types, but I have no idea what to choose. He does say that gear shift models are not as prevalent as before but I do prefer manual drive in a hilly country.
"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one."

― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

ritter

Since last month, access to the historic city centre of Madrid (where my new office is) is severely restricted for petrol-fuelled cars. So, for the first time in my life, I've bought a scooter, the zero emissions Vespa Elettrica. It has a range of 100 km, and a maximum speed of ca. 50 kph.

Cute, isn't it?  ;)


Ken B

Quote from: ritter on April 14, 2019, 07:38:11 AM
Since last month, access to the historic city centre of Madrid (where my new office is) is severely restricted for petrol-fuelled cars. So, for the first time in my life, I've bought a scooter, the zero emissions Vespa Elettrica. It has a range of 100 km, and a maximum speed of ca. 50 kph.

Cute, isn't it?  ;)

Is this a pollution thing?  Rome really needs to almost ban gasoline cars. I am not sure it's possible though!

ritter

#30
Quote from: Ken B on April 14, 2019, 09:44:21 AM
Is this a pollution thing?
Allegedly, NO2 levels in central Madrid are systematically at intolerably high levels, and these restrictions are the city authorities'  response to this (although I suspect our left-leaning mayor also has a crusade against the use of private vehicles in general). The rules are that only electric or hybrid cars can enter the "Madrid Central" area—a rather large chunk of the city—, unless the owner lives in one of the neighbourhoods included in it. Taxis and buses can enter, as well as delivery vans at certain times. There's cameras along the whole perimeter, and the fines for breaking the rule is 90€. Motorcycles can enter, and so can private cars as long as they park in one of the underground car parks that exist (the access controls of the car parks are connected with the system that manages the controlling cameras, to prevent fines from being wrongly issued).

Fortunately, my flat is almost adjacent to that restricted area. If I lived in the suburbs, the Vespa wouldn't have been a viable option, as it can't be driven on motorways.

vandermolen

This is not my actual car but it looks the same:
I used to have a yellow Citroen 2CV6 like the one below.
Piece of advice if you ever get one - NEVER put it through a garage car-wash machine  :o

"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

PerfectWagnerite

Quote from: ritter on April 14, 2019, 10:18:07 AM


Fortunately, my flat is almost adjacent to that restricted area. If I lived in the suburbs, the Vespa wouldn't have been a viable option, as it can't be driven on motorways.
Can't be driven on motorway or you won't drive it on a motorway? At a top speed of 50MPH you can probably scoot along in the right lane. People will hate you of course.

Where does the electricity in Madrid come from to charge your EV? Is it "clean" as in wind, solar, nuclear, or is it from fossil fuel?

The new erato

What do o hotels do about tourists arriving by car?

ritter

#34
Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on April 14, 2019, 05:27:54 PM
Can't be driven on motorway or you won't drive it on a motorway? At a top speed of 50MPH you can probably scoot along in the right lane. People will hate you of course.
The top speed of the scooter is 50 kph, i.e. 31 mph. Thus, legally it cannot be driven on motorways (where the speed limit is 120 kph, or ca. 75 mph). The regulations here are that if your vehicle cannot make it to half the speed limit, then you cannot drive on that road (or something to that effect). I could drive it on conventional roads (where the limit is 90 kph), but probably wouldn't want to on a regular basis.

QuoteWhere does the electricity in Madrid come from to charge your EV? Is it "clean" as in wind, solar, nuclear, or is it from fossil fuel?
Around 50% of electricity in Spain comes from renewable sources (mainly windmills, followed by hydraulic, and with a surprisingly low proportion--5% of the total--of solar). The rest is 21% nuclear (which is being phased out) and 29% fossil fuels (of which half is still coal).

So, even if my scooter is allegedly zero-emissions, it actually is only 50% "clean" if one traces the original energy source... ;)

Quote from: The new erato on April 14, 2019, 06:56:48 PM
What do o hotels do about tourists arriving by car?
As long as the car is parked in an underground car park, there's no problem. The hotels, of course, are not happy with this solution, because of the hassle and confusion it causes visitors.

Jo498

Quote from: vandermolen on April 14, 2019, 12:44:43 PM
This is not my actual car but it looks the same:
I used to have a yellow Citroen 2CV6 like the one below.
Piece of advice if you ever get one - NEVER put it through a garage car-wash machine  :o

My mom used to have that yellow one, or at leat one very similar. Later on a red 2 CV I inherited, drove it for about 10 years, then my sister for another 1-2 years before it was put to rest after more than 20 years of service. You are right, it is not at all watertight, even in rainstorms some can get in. It's a car for summer and southern climes...
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

The new erato

#36
I fail to see why driving the car from the hotel to an underground car park after unloading will be environmentally sounder than leaving it in the hotels garage.....It's not as if a visitor to Madrid would prefer to drive around in the City. I know, i've been there, by car.

ritter

Quote from: The new erato on April 15, 2019, 02:17:58 AM
I fail to see why driving the car from the hotel to an underground car park after unloading will be environmentally sounder than leaving it in the hotels garage.....It's not as if a visitor to Madrid would prefer to drive around in the City. I know, i've been there, by car.
Don't ask me, ask our beloved mayor Señora Carmena  ;). The whole thing is rather complicated, and there's some fundamentalism involved in it, I'm afraid.

Actually, for some routes. these new restrictions mean more pollution, rather than less. E.g., my former offiuce was in the outskirts: once I was in the city, I'd drive through parts of the centre to reach my home. If I were still working there, I'd have to make a  detour of some 2,5 km to arrive at the same destination

vandermolen

Quote from: Jo498 on April 15, 2019, 01:02:53 AM
My mom used to have that yellow one, or at leat one very similar. Later on a red 2 CV I inherited, drove it for about 10 years, then my sister for another 1-2 years before it was put to rest after more than 20 years of service. You are right, it is not at all watertight, even in rainstorms some can get in. It's a car for summer and southern climes...
Thanks. My older brother had a blue one. Sadly it became too unreliable for my long car journey to school when I was working full-time. It remains, by far, the favourite car which I ever owned and great fun to drive.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

André