R.D.S: Like RSS, kinda September 29, 2009
Posted by richard in : Technology , 1 comment so farR.D.S radio is something younger readers may know nothing about. All modern car stereos have it – and such ubiquity means it’s no longer a selling point.
They rarely bother even sticking the logo on anymore.
Wind back 20-odd years, though, and things were very different. It was the new ‘wow’ technology. When this writer’s dad got a new Cavalier in 1990, with the magic R.D.S stereo, he spent days’ worth of hours in the car, listening to it, watching the display glow the yellow words ‘Radio1’.
But what was it? A BBC development, that added a digital signal overlay to broadcast frequencies. Stereos with the necessary decoder could thus display text and – better still – automatically switch to traffic news, if a radio station fired out the appropriate code. (Here’s my tenuous RSS link: ‘feed’ from traffic bulletins…)
Forget autostore: these babies would automatically retune to the strongest frequency, as you toured round the country. Travelling salesmen were in raptures at the 1988 Birmingham Motor Show where it was launched. Blimey, they could even select the type of programme they preferred, via a jazzy mood input device.
Philips was one of the first proponents of the system over here. which promised a huge amount. Most came to being, but one didn’t; automatic retuning to Medium- or Long-Wave stations carrying the same broadcast. Perhaps irrelevant, as stations slowly dumped their MW frequencies – but imagine, Blackwall Tunnel users, how cool it would’ve been to hear El Tel, uninterrupted.
Yes, R.D.S was a Mecca for in-car stereo. That’s its entire reason for being. So, who was the fastest maker to bring it out as standard? Why, the maker of the first country to get it…
Sweden received R.D.S two years before the U.K. Meaning Volvo was the first to introduce it onto its models.
Interestingly, the reasoning behind it was safety. Think of the benefits in keeping eyes on the road, rather than at a digital dial fruitlessly looking for Bruno Brooks.
R.D.S was nowhere in 1988. By 1990, it was getting everywhere. It’s a lesson in properly useful benefits, and a coordinated pan-European strategy, bringing clear benefits to us all. Makes you wonder why DAB, which offers yet more gains (says this BBC Radio 6 Music die-hard), is still flitting on the periphery…
Internet of Things joins motorsport
F1 takes to the road September 27, 2009
Posted by richard in : Motorsport , 2commentsDriving to work every day – well, it’s just like being an F1 driver, isn’t it.
Hmm. Not something you’d normally think on the commute around the Wolverhampton Ring Road. But really, take out the glamour and the grid girls, and the two processes are very similar.
See, even if you’re Lewis Hamilton, what you actually want is not to get the tail out each and every time, catching it with an act of God (and do check out 0.50 and 1.30 here…) No, you want consistency.
It’s actually quite boring, this F1 driving lark. What you’re aiming to have is no surprises, just metronomic consistency, lap after lap – same lines, same feelings, same response, same position of the car on the track each and every time. Yes, being fast is, really, rather dull and formulaic. (Ahem.)
Just like, really, your drive to work. you go on the same road each and every day. Do the same things. Use the same gears.
So, tomorrow, why not try analysing this, as an F1 driver would do?
Consider your lines. Think about the placement of the car. Monitor what the car’s doing, and compare with what it did yesterday. Try and pick out exactly the same lines, exactly the same potholes to kiss with the rear wheel.
Ensure you have an entire month of seeing exactly the same rpm when exiting that second-gear bend after the railway bridge.
You want the same lines, the same feelings, the same response, the… well, you get the idea. Ah, you may ask, but what about traffic? Ah indeed, but F1 drivers are not immune to this either. Their skill comes in how they solve it, to get the car back on the ideal as fast and as loss-free as possible.
Believe me, it’ll transform your drive to work. Yes, you’ve followed exactly the same route for 8 years, which probably adds up to, ooh, 2000 ‘laps’. But that’s only what Hamilton, pre testing ban, would have done in testing at Jerez.
No, take F1 to the roads instead. (But maybe without doing this sort of stuff in the 318d, perhaps…)
Internet of Things joins motorsport
Why do people hate the Lotus Elan?
Land Rover’s ride quality secret September 25, 2009
Posted by richard in : Minutiae of cars , 4commentsLAND Rovers all have a characteristic to their ride quality that has to be imparted on all its vehicles, chassis man Murray Dietsch told me.
The secret, he says, is to keep the car level. Not side to side, particularly, but fore-to-aft.
This is pitch. ‘Land Rovers shouldn’t pitch too much – we have a pre-determined rate, that we can get to quite quickly during CAE suspension layouts.’ The trick is to carry this through to real-life machines.
Not easy when you’re dealing with 2.7-tonnes of heavy off-roader, he adds. That’s where the vehicles’ air suspension comes in so handy; now masterminded, he adds, by a tech set-up based on Jaguar’s innovative CATS system.
In practice, this means all Land Rovers have a signature body motion over flowing, undulating roads. The front and rear ends rise and fall at similar rates, to give an almost undetected but exceedingly pleasant sense of satisfaction.
This is something felt all the time – whenever the car is moving, the suspension is working and the pitch rates are being manipulated. But it’s on serious undulations that you can best see it.
Try analysing it, next time you’re out in your car. And, to see what I’m talking about, check out (and feel the Disco lush of) the first half of this video:
Vauxhall gives new Astra suspension a twist
Why I dig DSG September 19, 2009
Posted by richard in : Technology , add a commentIT all started after I loved a Golf GTI for a weekend.
You know, I mused in the office, I might even go for DSG over manual. GET OUT came the command. Call yourself an enthusiast, and eschew a manly manual?
Yup, and I’ve been thinking why. See, when I change gear, I’m always (forlornly) striving for the perfect gearchange. I like metering clutch precisely, going off and on the throttle with metronomic timing, savour the happy synchromesh, err, thanking me for saving it some work.
Thing is, it becomes an obsession. I tend to concentrate on it unduly; which makes the pain of a joltly 2-3 shift disproportionate. Which, because I’m no Jackie Stewart-like driving God, can ping up a bit too often at times.
With DSG (and other twin-clutch gearboxes), though, you’re guaranteed perfection. The satisfaction of a delay-free shift from a tricky high-revs 1st to a mid-range 2nd is removed. It does it perfectly, every time. Which means the rewards, even though I don’t have anything to do with it, still tangible.
Cheat, some still say. Yup. But while (and stay with me here) hand-writing a letter and maybe, just maybe, getting every letter just so is uber satisfying, usually it’s just a scrawl. Far better to use a word processor, take the effort out, and get the satisfaction all the same. I love technology, embrace it for the rewards it brings. That’s how I view DSG – brilliant, Apple-like tech that, well, just works.
Every gearchange gives me the feeling, the satisfaction of perfection – and, although it’s nothing to do with me, the sensations are enough for it to win through.
Automatics are different, as they’re slurry cop-outs. Clutchless manuals are, by and large, an ugly disaster. But twin-clutch DSG-style units? You know, PDK and their brethren? It’s technology that rewards me. And why I’m in the pro camp.
(Of course, if the manual alternative were a brilliant Ford or Honda-esque gem, rather than VW’s slick but detached equivalent, my decision may be different. Nothing like a motoring journo sitting on the fence, aye…)
(Oh, and on the subject of cheating, I know the Ferrari F430′s gearbox is robotised manual, not twin-clutch. But the image IS cool, isn’t it…)
Why Ford Econetics break the rules
RenaultSport past to inspire turbo future
Ferrari Dino inspires the Chevrolet Matiz September 7, 2009
Posted by richard in : Minutiae of cars , 2commentsCHEVROLET’S Matiz is, I find, a bit of a charmer in the handling stakes, and to now I’ve never really known why.
After all, it’s soft. It’s tall. It has a narrow wheelbase, so it topple-rolls into corners, via commands from alarmingly lifeless steering. There’s bump-thump, there’s bump steer, aggressive inputs have you fearing for roll-over… no, Peugeot 107 it is not. Yet, on an event a few years ago, I fell in love with it during, of all things, a back-road thrash.
Why was I so charmed by the 0.8-litre buzzwagon? Well, I think I now. It’s all in the length of the wheelbase.
• Chevrolet Matiz: 2345mm
• Ferrari Dino: 2340mm
Spookily uncanny.
Before you think I’m yet again off my trolley, let me explain. Some dynamicists recon there’s an ideal length of wheelbase in cars, for optimum purity and handling niceness.
That’s why the Dino has the overhangs it has – could’ve been longer, but the chaps who were laying it out wanted that magical 92-inch distance. They knew.
Chevrolet has stumbled across this with the Matiz. Which could well be, despite its obvious flaws, there’s a deep-down purity, balance and ‘rightness’ about it, that I maybe am now just feeling in the one I’ve got out on test at the moment.
This car is honest, biddable, totally trustworthy and plain thrashable – despite the overwhelming centre-of-gravity issues, I’m still barreling it into B-roads with utter gay abandon, like there’s no tomorrow. It just feels ‘right’.
There you go, then. Chevrolet Matiz is one of the closest things to an original Ferrari Dino you can buy.
How Chevrolet today became cool
Vauxhall gives new Astra suspension a twist
How to read a torque curve September 5, 2009
Posted by richard in : What I learned today , 2commentsTORQUE is all-important to the drivability of a car. if you want manic high-rev fun, you’ll get an S2000. Bags of bhp. No torque.
But if you want something that’s quick when you’re not, too, bag a Golf GTI. Decent power – but no shortage of Newton metres, either.
This was brought home by a drive in Renault’s Clio TCe. The 1.2-litre engine is lost in the bonnet, and it’s easy to miss the tiny turbo. But it’s this that turns it from languid to lugubrious.
The torque curves show why. Here, on the left, is the torque plot for the teeny 1.2. On the right is that for the teeny 1.2, plus turbo. The shape tells you what you need to know: on the left, it’s peaky. On the right, it’s flat.
For torque, peaky is bad. Flat is good. It means, with the TCE, you’ve got 135Nm NM from 1800 rpm – so it’s responsive in normal running. Has guts. At the same engine revs, the non-turbo is muscling out just 90Nm.
In other words, at the same engine speed, the TCe has 50 percent more muscle!
As most drivers both don’t like revving engines all the time, nor continually changing gear, this means that, everyday, the TCe is the more pleasant car. easier, punchier, more refined, nicer. Confirmed by a charge on the road; it’s a peach.
But this torquey profile made me realise that, actually, I could have garnered all this simply by looking at the torque curve. There was my evidence – merely confirmed by a test drive.
There’s something else, too. Weight. The Clio is a heavy car – 1080kg. So it needs a hefty slab of torque to counter this. A Peugeot 107? That’s got just 93 Nm of torque overall – but weighs just 800kg. So, doesn’t feel as torque-deficient as a Clio 1.2 non-turbo.
There’s a fair bit to all this – I’m looking forward to investigating more in the coming months.
Why Ford Econetics break the rules
RenaultSport past to inspire turbo future
What I learnt this week: 04.09.09 September 4, 2009
Posted by richard in : What I learned today , add a commentMG nearly launched an SUV
ARONLINE has come up with a real gem – a prototype of an MG off-roader!
Based on the SsangYong Rexton, it shows the genius of Peter Stevens; his restyled bit, the front end, really is properly smart, I reckon.
It was to be called MG due to licensing issues over the Rover name, and would most certainly have enraged MG die-hards.
I, for one, can maybe see the merits, though – despite the mediocrity of the base vehicle. What sort of benefits could a tie-up with SsangYong have brought, for example? Yes, the firm’s been in trouble recently, but it also has a very promising new contemporary Qashqai rival waiting in the wings.
Imagine if MG Rover had been able to get in early on a co-development, Honda-style, with this? Coupled with a Fiat Stilo-based mid-range hatch, and perhaps a Renault Espace-derived people carrier? Even a tie-in with Lotus-owning Proton? We can but dream…
Twist-beam rear suspension is fundamentally flawed
My obsession over rear suspension on front-drive cars continues. You’ll no doubt be delighted to hear.
Latest view? That of a chassis suspension contact. His view is that twist-beam rears can never be as good as the far superior multi-link alternative.
This is because of two fundamentals. They lack lateral stiffness. And they allow the wheels to far too readily camber-steer when cornering. In journo-speak, this is the difference between and floppy and stiff rear end.
Tuning is still a massive part of how a car will turn out, he says. But the base multi-link engineers have to work from is that much better to start with, so they stand a better chance…
Fuel is going up
FUEL has risen by 2p a litre. With VAT, that’s 2.3p a litre. For the average tankful, it’s £1 a shot up.
One fuel retailer is trimming the rise for another week. But surely, as fuel has been bought in advance, they all should, until current stocks run out? One to watch.
Even so, I’m filling up today.
Saloons are dead in the UK
RENAULT for years went against the grain and offered saloon versions of its mid-range Megane.
Not anymore. It’s just revealed the tidy-looking Fluence, which is built in Turkey and based on the excellent current Megane platform.
But there are no plans to bring it into the UK. Proving that family buyers want family hatchbacks, not fuddy-duddy saloons.
When one of the market stalwarts leaves the sector, you know it’s now of minimal importance. Which is what makes it such a tragedy that Chevrolet’s fantastic Cruze is saloon-only.
Give this baby a hatch (for which there are no plans, given its world car status – what, with the rest of the world preferring saloons), and it could be the bargain-buy family hatch of choice.
Alas, we’ll never know. But at least it ensures there will remain a future contender for the Star In A Reasonably Priced Car.
Why do people hate the Lotus Elan?
Internet Of Things joins motorsport September 1, 2009
Posted by richard in : Technology , 4commentsRFID chips have been successfully used for the first time in world motorsport, in a development between Dunlop and the BTCC.
All tyres used in the British Touring Car Championship are now automatically scanned as they enter the pitlane – with readers detecting a tag from Datalinx.
The RFID tag is used to transmit information on which batch of tyres are being used, to ensure only allocated tyres are fitted.
It’s one of the most challenging applications yet for RFID technology – but Datalinx claims a 100 percent detection rate, despite the wheels’ high rate of rotation, plus the risk of drivers locking up as they pass the scanners.
Tyre allocation logging has long been a logistical problem for the BTCC, which has relied on an army of assistants scanning each tyre manually. With the RFID solution, the system is now virtually unbeatable.
There are also further opportunities too, though. The racing series is one that prides itself on its open nature for race fans. With this potential link to the web, why not allow transmission of information such as:
• Tyre type
• Tyre temperature
• Tyre ‘laps covered’
This could provide a real-time feed for race fans, who would immediately be able to understand why a driver was slowing, or why their car was starting to handle oddly. TV viewers could even predict likely targets for other drivers, according to the rates of wear and variations in tyre temperature.
Think of F1, and Jensen Button’s much-publicised tyre temperature problems affecting his pace during races. This information could be relayed live to TV viewers, so all would immediately understand why he was struggling.
It opens a fascinating potential extra dimension for the spectacle of motor racing on the television…
