The 58mpg MINI and my turbo engine theory June 28, 2009
Posted by richard in : Green cars , 1 comment so farMINI John Cooper S Works returns 58mpg shock.
Yes, indeed. And a real-life shock, as I proved over the weekend.
I wasn’t doing anything particularly special on this 100-mile journey, either. Simply driving steadily up the motorway.
Listening to Radio 5Live. Hearing Eamonn Holmes interview Steve Bruce. Enjoying the sun. Considering the tactile qualities of Alcantara steering wheels. Normal, everyday stuff.
Yes, my right foot was light, but I wasn’t crawling. Yet, at journey’s end, there the remarkable result was. Boldly blinking on the trip computer. 58.6mpg.
This, from a 211hp turbocharged 1.6-litre… petrol engine! Naughty exhausts and all! Pretty jazz, I reckoned. And yet another tick against my turbo engine theory.
That they’re super-economical when you drive them economically. But thirstier than Richard Burton when on it. Disproportionally so. Jekyll and Hyde. And so on.
Car makers know this. And this is why modern turbo petrol engines always do really well on the official test cycle.That’s something conducted in a genteel manner not dissimilar to how I drove last Saturday.
But what’s real in my world, and the world of Euro-MPG test drivers, isn’t in the vast majority of turbo petrol drivers. Hence, the disparity in economy many report.
It’s a theory I’m going to run with, and put to the next engine, err, engineer I meet…
MINI John Cooper S Works photostream on Flickr
MINI prices and the daily heart-flutter
More on Mini’s classic brochure
A wheely interesting revelation, ladies June 13, 2009
Posted by richard in : Technology , add a commentBIG alloy wheels are de rigueur nowadays.
But, just a decade ago, they were far more rare. Maximum size for the mid-1990s Volvo S40, for example, was 16-inches.
Goodness, mainstream Fiestas run wheels that big nowadays.
Why was this? ‘It was really tight in the wheelarches,’ an engineer told me, ‘We did have a fix, that involved bending metal parts inboard.
‘But we couldn’t apply this in the required volumes to offer it as a series option.’ So, even on the speedy T4, 16-inches was your lot. Damn.
Until, that is, the final generation run-out S40.
‘By then, we’d developed a new technique, that could adjust the inner wheelarch production without slowing the production line down.’
It was applied. 17-inch wheels came to the S40 range.
And, the geek within me has another top fact to bedazzle the ladies with.
MINI John Cooper S Works Photostream on Flickr
Why Ford Econetics break the rules
MINI John Cooper S Works photostream on Flickr June 6, 2009
Posted by richard in : flickr , 3commentsCELEBRATIONS surround this week’s road test car – the MINI JCW. The Mini is 50 in ’09…
So, via Flickr, here’s my images of what it’s like!
(Turbo)charge on over there, to see what you think.
And feel free to leave any comments you wish!
