McLaren dashboard comes to RunKeeper March 17, 2010
Posted by richard in : Technology, What I learned today , add a commentRUNKEEPER seems to have now done it – installed live tracking so joggers can stream what McLaren F1 now streams!
On Sunday, I ran the Silverstone Half Marathon. The RunKeeper profile this generated at the end is staggeringly fascinating for running geeks like me. And those who like to see wiggly maps of F1 GP circuits (like me again, then).
What I was trying to do, though, was let people watch my run live. When I started, they would see my GPS plot, and then track my pained progress as I hobbled around the course.
Alas, the functionality wasn’t quite there: the report was only generated once I’d finished.
Would you believe, 2 days later, RunKeeper launches this exact facility! This video explains all: more briefly though, it basically does what the genius McLaren dashboard does.
Sure, my runs are waaaay less interesting than a F1 car in action – but it’s still a really cool feature that YOU can integrate into YOUR fitness schedule.
So, if you were wowed by the McLaren F1 dashboard over the weekend, now’s your opportunity to do the same. Next event I run, I’ll be sure to try it out…
McLaren F1 dashboard on the cheap
McLaren F1 dashboard on the cheap March 13, 2010
Posted by richard in : Motorsport, Technology , 1 comment so farF1 cars round Silverstone are being replaced for one weekend, by a few thousand bats people.
Among the throngs will be yours truly: yep, I’m entering the Silverstone Half Marathon.
Inconvenient, this, in so many ways – such as, for example, the fact I will probably fall apart by the end of it. Chief inconvenience, though, is the start time of the race. 12 noon.
Yes! Not only is it on the same day as the 1st F1 race of 2010, it is on at the same time. Groan. My only vain hope is that the good men of the BRDC pipe out the race through the race commentator speakers.
Here’s something, though: thanks to McLaren’s brilliant race dashboard, F1 has gone all ubertech for 2010. It’s now possible to track JB and Lewis in Real Time – see where they are, how fast they’re going, all sorts of stuff. This got me thinking…
… who fancies tracking my pained progress tomorrow? If you’ve got the computer up for the F1, maybe you could also pop open a window to check I don’t keel over en route?
Via the magic of Runkeeper, you’ll (hopefully) be able to do this.
I’ll be strapping the iPhone to my arm and, as the lights go out bloke with an air horn honks, I’ll press ‘go’. For, my lo-fi version of the McLaren F1 dashboard, on foot!
May work, may not… just in case, I’ll be posting updates on my blog while I’m not in action, checking on via Foursquare and Tweeting on the canny #f1silverstonerun.
About a billion people entered this last year, so I am in a small way looking forward to it. Mostly though, I’m dreading it. Share in my pain tomorrow, if you fancy a giggle…
View Silverstone from up on high!
I’m not the only one running – and so far, DealDrivers’ John has raised £750!
Save BBC 6Music and the Ford Zephyr March 7, 2010
Posted by richard in : History, Technology , 1 comment so farINSPIRATION comes in many forms. Today, for instance, down at the brilliant Goodwood Breakfast Club, a gorgeous Ford Zephyr was spotted.
That’s Ford Zephyr of Z-Cars fame – and, even cooler than that, was the sticker in the back… advertising Radio Caroline!
Music Radio fans of the 60s were proper tenacious in support for the pirate radio station that so riled the institution. It played great music, boasted emboldened DJs and was the real music industry’s never-miss must-listen.
Sound fami… well, indeed it does. But it was the fact this sticker was so proudly displayed that inspired.
Here, see, was public support for an under-threat radio station that music lovers loved.
What can it teach those who want to see 6Music saved? Well, to use yesterday’s car stickers like today’s Twitter and Facebook Twibbons.
By its very nature, DAB is a rarity in cars, but far more popular than many think in homes. Not to mention, of course, computers, via BBC iPlayer. Both are potential 6Music hubs.
Radio Caroline parallels and tips for 6Music campaigners ahoy, p’raps..?
BBC 6Music must be saved February 26, 2010
Posted by richard in : Technology , 3commentsBBC 6Music is a resplendent beacon of absolute and unbridled brilliance. It rocks.
It is witty, erudite, intelligent, entertaining, pure, diverse, and plays music that would be on anyone’s Godlike playlist for eternity. It is a digital station the BBC should be proud of, which the Governors should be streaming to every naysayer in the country in order to prove just what its unique structure makes possible.
Instead, it is rumoured 6Music will close.
This is tragic. Inexplicable. This, if it is true, would be a monumental loss, and not just for the Motoring Research office where I work, at which you will hear 6Music for 12 out of every 24 weekday hours.
6Music is a digital station. This is why the listenership is not huge. This is why pure numbers should not drive decisions such as that which is rumoured. (Not that the listenership is all that tiny, anyway).
After all, just this month, the BBC Trust recognised this, and praised it for the impeccable diversity it offers. Rightly so. Because it is an authentic, joyous, delightful treat to listen to, always.
The groundswell of support for 6Music is thus understandable. Because it is not just an asset, a token piece of output that, if quelled, will save a few pennies (is £6m a year really that much of a drain?). This, BBC execs, is the reason why I and hundreds of thousands of others are so evangelical about the Corporation, about the diversity that you proclaim, about the mission to which you say you aspire.
To close 6Music would destroy this support. It would malnourish those hundreds of thousands of loyal listeners. It would kill one of your world-class assets. It would be unjust, unfair. It would be tragic.
Please, BBC Trust, tell us it is not true. Please #saveBBC6Music.
Please.
Journo in petrol engine love shock February 19, 2010
Posted by richard in : Technology , add a commentNOWADAYS it is rare for motoring journalists to get excited over mainstream petrol engines.
Yes, we love our 6-pots, and get super-excited in these dying days of the V8. There’s an ethereal silence when we behold a V12.
But cooking new 4-cylinder 1.4s and the like? Lord, no. Even though the majority of small hatches sold are petrol engined, we still like to eulogise over the crazy money diesels. Well, quite right, given how good the modern diesel is.
Anyone who chooses, say, a 2.0 petrol Mondeo over its diesel equivalent really does need to ask a few logic-based questions.
So I wasn’t really expecting much from the Citroen C3 1.4 VTi 95 I had in this week. Starting it up, and hearing the familiar old PSA XU cam-clatter kinda reinforced my lack of whelm. And the god-awful digitally on-off nature of the throttle had me yearning for a nice 1.6 HDi 90.
An hour later, hat was eaten. This engine is brilliant. Smooth, powerful, torquey, classy in vocals and peachy in ability to take on Maybachs heading north on the M1, I fell in love. 1.4 VTi? One of the modern small car engine greats, it is.
And you don’t need to be a Citroen fan to enjoy it, either. PSA management is sharp, alright – it collaborated with no less than BMW on this unit, perhaps explaining why it’s so fantastic. This means not only is it in the Peugeot 207, it’s also in the MINI.
Never driven a MINI One, or a MINI First. Seriously must get one out – because if the engine’s as good as it is here, that car could be a bit of an understated peach. Certainly preferable to the – shock horror – clattery and not-so-loveable MINI Cooper D diesel…
First Impressions: Citroen C3 2010
What the iPhone can teach us about electric cars January 23, 2010
Posted by richard in : Green cars, Technology , 3commentsELECTRIC car owners suffer from range anxiety – that of worrying that the batteries will run out before your journey does.
As I run diesel long-termers which, with a full tank, will take me 800 miles or more, this isn’t something I’m familiar with. Well, it wasn’t, until I got an iPhone.
Apple’s iconic mobile is famed for many things, including its, err, famously minimalistic battery capacity. So it proved, right away, with mine.
It was either risking running flat. Forcing emergency recharges from me. Or, when it wasn’t doing that, had me fretting about it going flat instead. I became obsessed with finding USB sockets, topping it up, keeping it swimming.
I even delayed journeys, just to squeeze some extra minutes in the battery. Because you never know.
Crazy. But a few weeks hence, I began to think differently.
I’ve now learned that it won’t just run out. That I’ve yet to go on a journey long enough to deplete it. And that, where I do, I ensure it’s both fully charged and there are known means of filling it further should it prove necessary. A bit more planning at first, but second nature now.
It’s really not the crippling hardship I initially feared. Yet the few weeks of range anxiety still strike me – not least because I spent those weeks telling folk how damn utter rubbish the battery was. Folks whose first iPhone-related feedback could well have been about battery life.
There are lessons here, if you’re still with me, for electric car marketers. My experience was painful enough, and that’s on a £200 phone, which doesn’t carry the ‘risk of leaving me stranded’.
How do you get round it with cars? How do you make that initial word-of-mouth spread one of positivity, not gripes? Hmm. They’ve got 5 years to work it out…
UPDATE: If all else fails, there are also portable chargers: this Mashable guide shows 5 options.
How motoring writers used to do it
Astra suspension by Automotive Engineer January 22, 2010
Posted by richard in : Technology , add a commentVAUXHALL Astra rear suspension was the subject of a recent analysis by tech-fest industry title Automotive Engineer.
Michael Harder is chassis development engineer of the Astra line – and said that pleasing all of the people all of the time led to him eschewing multilink setups.
Multilinks reduce the compromise between ride and handling, writer James Scoltock was told – but at a price. Indeed, quite a cost: some experts say they add €100 or more to the base price of a car.
Vauxhall thus stuck to a cheaper twist beam. But how to make it class competitive? Spend €20 on a Watts linkage. Which Harder duly did, despite nobody doing it on a production car before.
He prefers to call the twist beam a ‘compound crank’: they’re lovely, he says, because they’re simple, don’t take up much space, and are easy to work with. There is a fault, mind, admits Harder: put side forces in, and the axle ‘tends to rotate underneath the car, which creates lateral oversteer and deflection’.
In practice, this means the front of the car turns in first, with the rear responding after an elastic-like delay. Giving the impression of laggy oversteer.
You can fix it, says Harder, with stiffer bushes. Ah, but these are bad for both noise and road isolation. So, enter the Watts linkage. This means the bushes can be softer, as it absorbs an impressive 80 percent of all lateral loadings on the rear suspension. It also improves camber stiffness – making it ‘twice as good as any other car on the market’.
Throw in canny tricks elsewhere, such as rebound springs in the front struts, which helped him tune roll stiffness without affecting understeer or oversteer, and you’ve something more than class competitive. Still, though, at way less cost than the expense of multilink.
You know, this ‘ere twist beam could just twist my arm…
How can good ride be stiff ride?
Vauxhall gives new Astra suspension a twist
Why RenaultSports don’t have rear spoilers
How Renault makes a 50mpg 7 seater January 11, 2010
Posted by richard in : Technology , add a commentRENAULT and I won our class in last year’s MPG Marathon – a right ol’ result, it was, after 400 miles’ somewhat steady driving.
But how? All down to the Grand Scenic I drove – fitted with the 1.4-litre TCe ‘downsized’ engine.
In Renault parlance, this is a 2.0-litre power-puncher with 1.6-litre fuel-sipping ability. Tiny turbo, no direct injection, Nissan all-alloy block and plain efficiency. It’s a canny wee thing, alright.
Particularly if you want to drive economically. See, its key characteristic is delivering loads of torque at really low revs – diesel-like revs, in fact. Throughout the entire Marathon, I honestly didn’t exceed 2000rpm. And still managed to summit the 1-in-2 climbs dotted through the route.
That tiny turbo allows this; it spools up fast, which is just what you need for eco driving. Here’s traits I exploited:
• Responsive to light throttles
• Ability to select 6th at ridiculously low speeds
• Linearity when modulating the throttle
• Turbo doesn’t ‘run away’ from you
• If you’re genteel, then so will it be
Being eco is about fluid motion. You need to swim along, with not a misplaced stroke, slipping along like an eel. Only with infintesimal control over the fuel being pumped into the engine can you do this.
Tiny turbo engines often produce great figures on the test rig, but plunge in real life, due to the turbo sucking in air like an iron fist, and forcing fuel injection to throw petrol in accordingly. Many people who drive at low revs and in a seemingly eco manner actually get mediocre economy – because of the lack of control the engine seems to have over itself.
None of that with the TCe. If you want to accurately throttle back as far as necessary to maintain pace, you can do. No torque-free gullies to fall into, no risk of being left floundering. It’s almost electric-like in its reponsiveness when you’re taking it steady.
The result of this is 50.3mpg in a 7-seat Grand Scenic. Official.
RenaultSport past to inspire turbo future
Green car countdown January 4, 2010
Posted by richard in : Technology , add a commentIs this the single most important feature a car can have to encourage economical green driving?
It is, no less, an ETA for sat nav journeys. No more than that, either. Eh? The big deal is..?
This: In real time, it tells you what time you’ll arrive where you’ve said you want to be. In this instance, it’s seen on a BMW M3 Edition Coupe, but y’£100 TomToms have the very same function. With a bit of thought, it’s potentially massive.
It’s why I set sat nav to take me home. Now, Lord, even I’m not forgetful enough to forget the route. No, I instead like to know how long it will take.
Surely you know, you may ask? And yes, I do, roughly. But I like exacts, not guestimates. Particularly as, and here’s the key, my eco head sees my speed vary from day to day. Seriously. And it’s sat nav that allows me to do this in confidence.
Say I have 5mins ‘spare’. I’ll slow down a bit. Tweak the ETA. By driving more slowly, I’ll have returned more miles to the gallon. See it as a bit of real-time money-saving. In practice, it means I can be as green as possible and STILL not miss the start to Corrie.
It’s pilot mode. Whenever they’re late, what does a scheduled aircraft’s pilot say? That they’ll put their foot down and make the time up. That’s because planes are usually operating at way less than vmax – they’re flying at the EXACT speed required to reach their destination on time. No faster. No slower. This is, err, plain efficiency – both of time and of resources.
We could be doing this in our cars in the future: plugging in what time we need to be home, and letting the car cap, say, our motorway speed to only that required to achieve this. Perhaps, with layered financial penalties for those who want to go faster, within the realms of legality? Companies in particular would love this, and with vehicle tracking now all the rage, it would be particularly easy to implement.
Folk don’t like being told to do stuff slowly. But, they could be convinced to do it a bit slower, if they knew by how much they’d be penalised if they didn’t. What’s a few minutes here and there, for the prize of 5mpg and a fiver?
The Maestro of the instruments
Audi Q5 economy enough to tyre you out
Fuel economy economical with the truth?
iDo iPhone at last January 3, 2010
Posted by richard in : Technology , 2commentsiPhone users have another amongst their ranks: yes, late last year, it was done.
No sooner did Orange officially announce it had signed up with Apple, then the shipping route card to my front door was printed.
It’s been even better than I expected, for so many reasons I won’t bore you with. It has also, though, reinforced just why Wordpress is so good.
My blog is designed in Wordpress, using a custom (free) theme designed by Binary Moon. Great for desktops, but you need something a bit more straightforward for smaller mobile devices.
Enter the WPtouch iPhone Theme plugin from Bravenewcode. Again free, it converts posts and design into an easily navigated log on a mobile device. Making it even easier to waste 15 seconds on the move with my sometimes coherent ramblings.
It was a breeze to install. Wordpress Plugin search, install, and bingo. Other Wordpress users, I can thoroughly recommend it.
Means I’ll have to be even more committed to the updates in 2010, mind. Good job Schumacher is going up against Hamilton in F1, then…
How motoring writers used to do it
Apple Tablet changes the game, again
