Red Underwear, Cheap Fiats and Other Moto Stuff

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50 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

Is the problem with BMWs which Jeremy Clarkson described by simply saying (while testing the '6' which he liked) - 'you want everybody on the road to hate you - get a Beemer!' - a typically European one, guys.?

 

Not anymore......

 

 

 

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There are no red Fiats in the link below, but there is a blue one and a green one.  And if I could borrow one to drive for an hour or so, slide number 27 please.

 

Goodwood is about an hour and a half drive for me and a truly wonderful place to visit either for the Revival meeting or the Festival of Speed.  Like many things this year it is cancelled, but I do look forward to its return. 

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/let-s-relive-the-2019-goodwood-revival/ss-BB18WCeF?ocid=msnews#image=1

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9 hours ago, accwai said:

 

Wouldn't the GT40 be in there somewhere?

I love the GT40, although I suspect I might be too tall to comfortably drive one.

 

They look a little tricky in the wet ....

 

 

Tricky in the dry too....

 

 

A lovely car, but maybe Adrian Newey should stick to designing racing cars, rather than driving them ....

 

Note that the photograph below predates the videos above, the poor GT40 looks trashed but the damage was mainly to bodywork and it would appear that Adrian has enough cash to be able to both rebuild the car and risk trashing it again.

 

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6 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

 

A real car aficionado should be ready for (e.g.) an amputation of the excessive inches  

 

I think in my case that would be my head....

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I watched the F1 live at the weekend.  The deceleration caused by the front of Grosjean's car going through the barrier cased the back end of the car to spit off.  The front "safety cell" of his car then continued to proceed fully through the barrier.  Still conscious, he managed to climb out and get over the barrier.  

 

I think the engineering involved here is very impressive.  Not just the "halo" device that prevented the barrier from impacting the drivers helmet, but the HANS device (Head and Neck Support Device) and safety cell that kept driver in one piece, and critically, conscious.  If any one of these things had not been in place, there would have been a very different outcome.  Still lessons to learn though and progress to be made, for example, it would have been better if the car had not caught fire. 

 

Better engineering than driving on this occasion, you might say ....

 

(Also, on this particular occasion, fireproof underwear is arguably preferable to red underwear)

 

 

 

 

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The less serious side of F1.....

 

 

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16 hours ago, fas42 said:

There are people who fiddle with motors to make them go better ... and then there's,

 

 

 

This:

 

 

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and part 2, if anyone is interested:

 

 

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OK - Frank was not interested in the V10 motorcycle, which is fair enough.  Personally I like it a lot, the attention to detail in the build, combined with the utter craziness of the idea is actually just my kind of thing.  I also liked @bluesman's V8 motorcycle, it is crazy enough putting a Chevy V8 into a bike, but then thinking, I must add superchargers, oh and nitrous injection.  Utterly bonkers.  Furthermore, I have done a lot of car modifying myself, including fitting engines into cars for which they were not originally intended, so I have some idea just how challenging this stuff can be, and the stuff I have done is an order of magnitude easier than either the V8 or V10 bikes. 

 

Anyway, it is worth pointing out that the V6 engine creation, the Viper V10 powered bike, and @fas42's recent offering of the rather splendid Honda RC374 replica were all created by the same guy, Allen Milyard.  Nuclear engineer by day, and builder of bikes in his shed by night.   I also had not realised that he lives fairly locally to myself, if we were not under full lockdown here I might have wandered down there to see if anything interesting was going on.....

 

 https://www.morebikes.co.uk/news/47794/beautiful-exclusive-pics-of-allen-millyards-rc374-honda-six-tribute-in-detail-plus-video-plus-free-ringtone/

 

Oh, and not only does he build his own V6 engines in his shed, he's done a V12 too.  The guy is a genius.

 

 

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I could be negative here and state that boats are not my thing (which they are not), but that drag boat is sensational.  I can hardly comprehend that 0 to 261 MPH in 3.5 seconds in a boat is even physically possible.

 

In terms of brown underwear, rather than red, I think I would happily try the Curtiss V8, maybe not to attempt 136mph on the thing, but I would try it.  The drag boat, no chance, it looks terrifying.  I also have a rule for boats, in that I will avoid getting into any boat that is not large enough to feature both a bar and a casino.

 

This clip does noting to alleviate this fear:

 

 

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I am not sure that the drag boat is actually bonkers as such (although you would just need to be slightly deranged to sail it), from a technical perspective it is incredibly impressive.

 

This is bonkers:

(although it might be useful for audiophiles with very large rooms, you could adjust the listening position "on the fly" without putting your drink down)

 

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Something a little unusual ...

 

 

 

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Very sad news today.
 

RIP Sabine.  

 

 

 

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19 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

It doesn't get faster than this.. in cinemas.. since yesterday 🚙 

I must admit I've seen one of 'F&F', can't remember its number though.. Let's see what you're really made of guys - how many have you seen.? 

Is it a badge of honor to have seen all of them?  

 

I have to admit that I have seen some of them, including the one where two big guys have a fight, there are some highly improbable car chase scenes, Vin makes a highly unlikely escape from a gun battle and then gets the big prize.

 

I recall one scene that makes me chuckle, this features two highly modified V8's racing through London, which is impressive, but somehow the local police in Vauxhall (Opal) Astras are there chasing for maybe two or three minutes, so obviously the little 1.6 Astras are keeping up.  

 

If they had stumbled across one of these, Vin would be nicked!

 

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And thanks to YouTube, here it is.  I had forgotten that it was actually Dodge Charger Daytona and a Jenson Interceptor, which is pretty cool, and my god those Astras can shift.  (and the traffic was a little heavier in that part of London, last time I was there)

 

Getting back to audiophile stuff (ish), note that it is Rita Ora on start line duties.

 

 

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and as a bit of trivia.....

 

Some of F&F 9 was filmed at Greenham Common, which is not that far from where I live in the UK.  (Famous for being an ex USAF Cruse Missile base and for the associated protesting Greenham piece women)

 

 

 

Think you have seen there missile silos before?  Maybe you have, they were used for the filming of the Resistance base on the planet D'Qar in Star Wars "The Force Awakens".  Can't get faster than Fast and Furious?  I'd like to see an Astra keep up with the Millennium Falcon.  (Which it could I guess, as the there is only half a Millennium Falcon and the rest is made out of old scaffolding)

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

Strictly on topic 

It is not red?  And strictly speaking it is not an entire Fiat?

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Then we have a Red Alfa in F&F 6.  That's almost a red Fiat, oh so close.

 

 

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4 hours ago, accwai said:

What's the purpose of stomping on the gas and the brake at the same time? Wouldn't that void the car's warranty? And is the gobbledygook across the top supposed to have some deep meaning?

I think you can just see the clutch pedal being depressed, then the left foot covering the break pedal.  So this looks fine to me.  Plus the footage is probably fake .....

 

Left foot braking is fine, but it does take some practice to get right....

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-foot_braking

 

For seriously silly pedal box action, please watch Le Mans '66, with it's utterly stupid and annoying footage of the driver gradually increasing the throttle half way down the Muslanne straight.  Don't get me started....  

 

From 2min 30s ish ...

 

 

As for the cars warranty, I am sure left foot braking is fine.  Using the car for a Fast and Furious movie, I am not so sure.  Although I guess they get most of the cars for free anyway as "product placement".

 

Regarding the gobbledygook, I have no clue, and considering that the car in the clip is British, I have even less of a clue.

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27 minutes ago, PYP said:

Would you forget about the damn pedals?  This shot is about the boots.  Right?

Yes, you”re right.  I think I’ll buy myself a pair.