Lotus sorts the Piazza July 28, 2009
Posted by richard in : Minutiae of cars , add a comment‘LOTUS’ is a badge stuck onto the rump of many legends.
The Cortina. The Carlton. The Sunbeam. The Corsa VXR.
Well, on the last one, it wasn’t – but it should have been. That’s because much of Louts’ profit comes from Lotus Engineering. That’s the specialist consultancy division, which does work for loads of car makers, including sorting out their cars’ handling.
Back in 1987, it completed a textbook project for the Isuzu Piazza: could they, err, sort out the handling?
Yup, indeedy. Which earned the funny old Piazza a ‘Handling by Lotus’ badge for its rump. But just what did Lotus do, in the five months and 50,000 miles it worked on the car?
Well, typically for Lotus, the mods focused on black magic with the dampers. But there were subtleties elsewhere, too:
• Softer front springs
• More compression and less rebound for front dampers
• Stiffer rear springs
• Relocated rear dampers with equal-rate bump and rebound
• 1mm thinner front anti-roll bar
• Altered caster and camber angles
The result of these delicacies? Well, according to some bizarre test within Isuzu, handling was up by 21 percent, and ride by 15 percent.
Nuts. I prefer the road tester assessment; it was ‘now much more like it’…
Vauxhall gives new Astra suspension a twist
Why Renaultsports don’t have rear spoilers
BMW tells me why its instruments are lit in orange
Why did people hate the Lotus Elan? July 26, 2009
Posted by richard in : Minutiae of cars , 8commentsI was in love with the 1990s Lotus Elan as a kid.
Loved the shape, had the Lotus Turbo Challenge computer game for my Amiga, basically lived the dream as a 12 year old. Dreamed about it all the waking hours of my life. As Thorns School & Community College would attest.
So why didn’t others like the Lotus Elan?
It wasn’t through lack of power. 165bhp and 148lb/ft stack up today, when you consider a scant 1020kg kerbweight; the far heavier Corsa VXR can only add 24bhp from its more modern 1.6-litre turbo.
Autocar, at the time, reckoned it was effervescent and had lots of mid-range oomph, although the throttle response was soft. Old-school turbos, that. It was boomy, too.
The ride, long a Lotus beauty, was so good at soaking up bumps, it made rivals ‘look amateurish’, reckoned our writer. Superior damping control gave the driver near-total immunity over poor roads.
So what was the problem?
Controls and dynamics (oh, only the controls and the dynamics…). Sure, there were no 101 #fails here; it’s just that ‘the simple acts of steering and gearchanging, which play such a vital role in the pleasurable aspects of driving’, were not up to scratch.
Here’s why:
• Gearchange – too-long in throw, vague and rubbery action
• Steering – saddled with torque steer, which degenerated feel and corrupted feedback
• Handling – phenomenal grip, but no delicacy or throttle-adjustability
• Overall enjoyment – too remote, too frustrating; fast motoring wasn’t a challenge, but also didn’t reward
Still didn’t bother our man. Unlike the vast majority, his vote still went to the Elan, ‘because it sets a higher over standard in small sports cars that few of us believed possible’. Heavens. Praise, despite the above?
Indeed: ‘If,’ he continued, ‘the Lotus Elan loses some of the fun element, then that can only be put down to the price of progress.
‘In this case, it’s a price worth paying.’
Bold stuff. Even now, I’d probably agree. Alas, the rest of the world STILL doesn’t. The Lotus died, was rejuvenated, died again, and was recreated as a half-heated Kia. Seems Lotus fans really did wish bad stuff on their worst enemy.
But there’s a lot of significance in the failure of the Elan, I reckon. So, more on this to come…
Motoring entertainment for Easter
How Chevrolet today became cool
English Channel-crossing pilot – and BMW July 25, 2009
Posted by richard in : What I learned today , add a commentFRENCHMAN Louis Bleriot became the first man to fly across the English Channel a century ago today.
And, today, his feat will be replicated thousands of times – by BA, Virgin, EasyJet, Emirates, you name it.
Oh, and by a Swede, who’s using a reproduction of Bleriot’s original Bleriot XI plane.
Only, with… the original engine.
Yup: reproduce all the stuff that’s not actually so important to keeping you up in the air, such as the seatbelts, the dials, the aerofoils, the colourful lettering. The begoggled teddybear. But, the one component you need to keep going so that you can? Heck, just, bang in the original one. Well, it still runs, doesn’t it?
Swede Mikael Carlson is clearly confident. Like every good mechanical engineer, he knows it’s been looked after (even if most of them who did so are now dead). Knows its provenance. Has seen it, heard it, checked it over with his mechanic’s eye, stared into its oil filler cap, and reckons it will be fine.
I can understand such confidence. What, am I similarly foolhardy and battily brave? No, I’ve another mechanical fascination sitting on my drive this weekend – the million-mile Mobil 1 BMW 3 Series.
I’ll explain in depth all about this later – the headliner is that it’s done 1,000,000 miles (plus) on the original engine. Which (and I’ve just checked) still starts, sounds and serenely soothes just like the syrupy-smooth original.
Carlson, got a spare seat in the Bleriot? I’ll blast down in the BMW for a ride…
BMW X6M suspension secrets July 25, 2009
Posted by richard in : Technology , 1 comment so farSTANDARD BMW X6 models, in corners, work harder, earlier, for agility.
And that, explains Head of M Development Albert Biermann, is down to how the clever torque vectoring rear axle is programmed: power is shuffled round quite considerably, to give a rear-steer effect and kick the back end into corners.
The X6M uses this same technology – but is more linear. ‘It is not as agile, so we don’t work the rear end as much early on.
‘However, once you’re within the corner, we engage it far more – here, the split happens much earlier than in the standard X6.’
Why? ‘So the driver can get on the throttle earlier.’ And feel the ‘rear drive’ balance M reckons is a characteristic of its cars.
It’s not only here where the ‘M-gineers’ (arf) have been busy. ‘Dampers and springs are stiffer – and there are bespoke EDC settings. The ABS and Dynamic Drive are specially adjusted – the stiffness of the roll bar goes hand-in-hand with the dampers.’
There are stiffer upper wishbone hearings, and stiffer rubber in the rear axle carrier. ‘This gives better off-centre feel and more precision.’ The engine mounts are stiffer, too.
‘The upper shock mounts are also completely different.’ This solution, says Biermann, was very expensive, and could be easily overlooked. It shouldn’t be.
In the standard X6, there are three components, all settled together in the upper mounting. This sees the helper spring and damper share a common rubber bearing.
It’s a compromise. The helper spring is offsetting the rubber bearing over a spring, for example.
So, with the X6M, we’ve separated the bearing and piston rod from the helper spring. This means the two bearings fit better together; and one is dedicated to the damper, the other to the helper spring.
Advantages? Considerable, especially over challenging roads. It’s particularly good for comfort – it’s at least as good as the regular X6…
BMW Z4 has 3 Series Convertible to thank
Oil be: it’s back July 24, 2009
Posted by richard in : Minutiae of cars , 6commentsVOLKSWAGEN’S Golf GTD is an inspired bit of engineering.
Take one Golf GTI. Remove petrol engine. Replace with 2.0-litre TDI 170. Job (almost) done.
OK, it has 40hp less, but it counters with 258lb/ft of torque, compared to the GTI’s 206lb/ft. Plus, on my drive home the other day, 60mpg. Tidy.
It looks fantastic. As with the Golf GTI, there’s just enough to mark it out as special – particularly here, with just-so 18-inch alloys.
I’ve road-tested it on Flickr, but there’s one device that merits special attention. The trip computer. Now, since the days of the MkI Golf, this has been a feature of VW’s GTIs. Today, it’s fitted to all Golfs, of course. But I was delighted to see one MkI/II must-watch has carried over.
Yes, the GTD has an oil temperature readout.
Which, even better, reads in degrees Celsius, just like my old MkII. Just like that car, it doesn’t say anything until 50degrees is reached – if the dashes are showing, never thrash it.
Experts reckon you need around 70degreees in oil for it to be working properly; oil doesn’t warm up as fast as water, so even if the water temp is reading ‘normal’, it’s still not fully safe to max the engine.
Normal operating temp is around 95 degrees. Just as it was, again, in my old MkII. Needless to say, as I did back in the day, I’d leave it showing permanently if this were my GTD.
Interestingly, it’s also highly sensitive. Trickle at 70mph and it shows 95. Come across a hill and it ticks up to 96 (extra load on the engine, see). Speed up to 80, uphill, and she’ll show 97, 98, 99: soon drops, though, when the load reduces.
I love this sort of stuff. Would never get bored of it. For me, it proves that, while most car makers continually strip instruments from the driver, there are a few that understand we still like to know what’s going on…
VW Golf looks to history for GTD inspiration
BMW tells me why its dials are lit in orange
Why Ford Econetics break the rules
Volkswagen Golf GTD photostream on Flickr July 21, 2009
Posted by richard in : flickr , 3commentsVOLKSWAGEN wowed everyone in the Motoring Research office when it sent the Volkswagen Golf GTD to us.
I took it for a weekend, and almost became violent when it was taken away. Dan also fell in love with it. And CJ. Indeed, the entire office…
Find out why I was besotted in my Flickr photostream road test. You’ll get a sense of why from some of the images I chose to take.
Feel free to comment away, and do please let me know what you think!
MINI John Cooper S Works photostream on Flickr
Audi A6 3.0T photostream on Flickr
How do you make a BMW X6M? July 20, 2009
Posted by richard in : Technology , 1 comment so farBMW X6M. Or, but for Mazda, the MX6. What in Lord’s name is it all about, ask hardcore M fans worldwide.
Well, it was certainly a challenge, admits M Head of Product Management, Carsten Pries.
‘M cars,’ he revealed, when asked about the process of the X6M’s creation, ‘must display the core values of the brand.’
Which are?
According to our man Pries, M cars must be best in:
• Acceleration
• Lateral dynamics
• Efficiency
• Steering behaviour
• Braking distance
He admits they weren’t sure the X6 could be made suitably ‘M’ at first. The department eventually figured it could – but it wouldn’t be simply a matter of making a big M3.
‘Customers in this segment are different to M3 buyers. We thus had to define in the early stages exactly what these new needs were.’
An SAV, he says, is ‘completely different’, particularly in terms of size and weight. It is therefore vital to develop a good sense of the key requirements.
Which are not the same as an M3, whose buyers are ‘deep into technology – they go into dealers and give them a hard time with their in-depth knowledge! They know so much…’
So what about these M SAV (or, as the rest of the world prefers, ‘SUV’) buyers? ‘They’re performance orientated, but not that into the last technical detail. They want high performance, and a differentiated character in terms of suspension, chassis, steering and design.
‘It needs to be dynamic, easy to control, have a clear emphasis on rear-wheel drive.’ M-lite, if you like. M with bling, you could also say.
See, it is vital the model is highly exclusive – a particular requirement for this segment. ‘It must stand out, be instantly recognisable as something different to an xDrive50i. It should be seen as being the latest, the most powerful. It’s also not a car for people who just like to pretend. Form must follow function. ‘
What Pries means here is that it should not be merely chavv’d up. A no to show without go.
There was another consideration, too. ‘It was vital we didn’t compromise its off-road ability. People want to take these to the Alps – if we restrict this in any way, it will not be as successful as we wish.’
No wonder it took them two and a half years to develop.
Along the way, he ditched potential grumble-areas. BMW M drivers, it seems, don’t like Active Steering. Their power steering systems have to be consistent. That’s why M spent big developing a bespoke Servotronic steering system for its most expensive X SUVs.
Servotronic means variable weight – it’s light at low speeds, weightier at higher speeds – but the steering ratio is consistent.
‘We intentionally didn’t use Active Steering – the steering angle must be consistent whatever the road speed,’ says Pries. ‘This is appreciated by our sports car drivers…’
There it is again. Sports car drivers. BMW’s thought long and hard about this one, about whether an SUV can actually also be an M. It reckons so.
Me? The jury’s out…
BMW Z4 has 3 Series Convertible to thank
BMW tells me why its instruments are lit in orange
BMW LCI not ASAP for M July 18, 2009
Posted by richard in : Minutiae of cars , 1 comment so farBMW facelifted the 3 Series last year. Odd, how M hasn’t followed with the M3. Why’s that?
Well, it’s because M has such independence from BMW AG.
It’s able, says Head of Product Management Carsten Pries, to make deliberate decisions separately from mainstream BMs
‘We launched the M3 in March 2008,’ says Pries. ‘In September, AG launched the LCI (life cycle impulse) 3 Series. We didn’t follow, keeping instead the same existing front end.
Why? ‘Because we didn’t think it was necessary.’
The M3, says Pries, is suitably differentiated from the 3 Series not to need the additional expense of an (admittedly subtle) LCI so soon into its like. ‘We carried over the revised design tail lights, that’s all.’
This independence, he adds, comes through M being so well integrated into BMW AG. It can make unilateral decisions 12, even 24 months ahead, as it did in this case.
‘It’s exciting to do LCIs – as with the M6 Competition – but if it’s not necessary, we won’t automatically do it.’
Purity and purpose, rather than marketing for marketing’s sake. That’s M. Now, the X6M…
BMW Z4 has 3 Series Convertible to thank
BMW tells me why its instruments are lit in orange
RenaultSport past to inspire turbo future? July 18, 2009
Posted by richard in : Technology , 3commentsRENAULT’S Clio RenaultSport 200 was destined not to get the turbo its torque profile needs back in 1988.
That’s when Renault announced a major change for its hot hatch engine policy.
See, up to then, turbos had ruled for the Regie. The maker was one of the first in the arena, with the brilliant Renault 5 GT Turbo. In Phase 2 guise, it even found out how to stop them going on fire.
But, come 1988, and the launch of the 140bhp 1.8-litre 16v, all that turbo expertise (garnered, remember, from bringing us F1’s first-ever turbo unit) was consigned to history.
For the hot Clio, due in the early 1990s, there was to be no GT Turbo version. Instead, we’d get a 16v version. (Which, admittedly, was brilliant. Mesmerising, in 2.0-litre Clio Williams form. I’d lose teeth to own one today.)
What was the first car to show off this new 16v engine? The now-forgotten Renault 19 16v. But it’s not by me: as a kid, I used to walk the dog on a special route, just so’s I could go past a red one, with that idolised ‘16v’ badge on the boot.
Those cars back then had one key advantage over today’s, though. They were light. Today, though, cars are much, much heavier. So, 200bhp the latest Clio may well have, but unless you’re on it, vigour is hard to spot. The power has gone up, but the torque needed to hit this sweet spot hasn’t.
It needs a turbo, to zizz up this lower end, and help you reach the good times quicker. That’s what we’ve become used to nowadays. That’s why the Vauxhall Corsa VXR is a bit of an animal.
And that’s why, I’m sure, Renault will eventually turn back time.
Social media and I July 17, 2009
Posted by richard in : Technology , 6commentsHOW is this motoring journalist finding social media is helping him?
For the past few months, I’ve been religiously following the many, many bibles; it quickly became clear socializing would be no hardship to me.
Hard as it may be to believe, Twitter wasn’t the first to be mastered. But it’s certainly been the most useful. Particularly as I’ve chosen some brilliant people to follow. @jakehumphreyf1, @steverubel, @grandprixcom, @richardpbacon and the genius @PerryBelcher, to name but a few – they’re constantly posting useful Tweets and links.
Indeed, it’s the links that’s really cemented Twitter, rather than the updates. I’m hooked into motor industry experts, so get news far quicker than I ever have. Through Twhirl, my trusty desktop AIR, it’s brilliant.
Google Reader was my first love, though. I discovered RSS, was introduced to this by Brendan Cooper, and nowadays have it a staple of every browser I use. Never, ever before have I been so clued up in the areas that matter – cars, technology, PR, journalism – and there is never a time Reader lacks something of interest. I am never now stuck for something to read. Never. It’s ace. Albeit making a tiny Sony Vaio P Series even more essential…
Reader does take some commitment; as with emails, I don’t like to have unread things sitting there. Which is why I’ve been finding read-it-later resources such as, well, readitlater, very useful. And Xmarks saved me in a million ways, when I had a recent Firefox 101. (Still not working, alas: social media hasn’t quite managed to solve that one.)
Twitter, though, you can’t help but keep coming back to. It’s omnipresent, but a real weapon for me. My editor, @cardealered, uses it to inform of new stories on our site; here, we’ve discovered the power of the retweets to drive traffic. And, outside of work, there’s nothing better than Tweeting the random car thoughts that come into my head…
Hopefully they’re useful to people. The reciprocal insights from those I follow are.
It’s via Twitter, and Reader, that I discovered @bmwblog; here, I’ve been able to promote some road tests I’ve written using Flickr. I was trying to think outside the box; car nuts like images, like detail. And, road tests, you can get very good one from lots of outlets. What I try to do instead is harness the power of the picture with bite-sized snippets for 20 or so images; a road test, well, in pictures.
It seems to have gotten quite a good response, and it’s all down to the genius of Flickr. Fans of the cars in particular have responded in kind, and I’ve met quite a few new folk and groups via this.
Of course, I’m a Facebooker – have been since way back in 2007. Didn’t understand it fully then, but loved the concept. Now see it as a part of my life; just what social media should be.
I haven’t really cracked Last.fm yet – need to give that some time. I can see the potential. I’ve also been foisted off a Mini blog, through stumbling straight into advanced social media techniques, without fully introducing myself to the audience first. Learning curve, that one (and reason why my future car choice has changed…).
LinkedIn, I’m on, and reckon it’s potentially huge, but isn’t quite ticking over fully for me yet. And delicious is just that.
What all this has really ingrained in me, though, is the sheer vitality of the web. The Cloud is the future, permaconnectedness the next crucial element. A few months ago, I longed for the most basic phone out there. Now, I need – NEED, I tell you – an iPhone or BlackBerry.
I want my house networked. I want to stream music onto my hifi. I’m looking at Mir:ror, and blogging on the go, and tidily coding up my own website, and all sorts. It’s changed how I work. It means my goals, aims and desires within motoring journalism are completely different. It’s even changed the relationships I have with PRs and other journalists.
With the socially savvy, I’m closer. There’s more trust. Confidence. We work together better. With my readers and our respective employers the ultimate beneficiaries.
So, what next? Your guess, etc… Reader comes up with something new every day. I’m no longer signing up for them all, but filtering the useful ones. Question is, where do you find the time to experiment? You make it, that’s how. With the Cloud, office hours are fluid. Boundaries no longer exist. Just like any good social media rockstar.
Even writing about it is exciting me. Must dash; Who knows what Reader might have for me…
Social media brings close access to heroes!
