SAVE MONEY- DRIVE LIKE A PRO
Many people don’t realize that fuel economy, as well as reduced vehicle wear and tear relative to speed, are major concerns in car racing. Some of the advanced technology in today’s road cars comes from the intense environment of competition at the highest levels. The same can be said, to some extent, of safety features. If you are hoping to survive a car crash, there is no better place to be than firmly belted in the cockpit of a modern Formula One car. No street vehicle on the planet comes even close to offering the same level of driver protection, yet Grand Prix cars weigh about a third as much as an average family sedan. There is a lot to be learned here. Tight belts, worn properly, are a major aid to safety. Lightweight vehicles can offer a high degree of occupant protection. Highly skilled drivers on the racetrack will usually get better fuel economy for a given speed than their rivals. The same is true for commuters. Smooth, aware drivers save money at the pumps, and likely on their insurance bill as well.
AIR SHOW
A company in France, MDI, has come up with what appears to be a workable vehicle, the Mini C.A.T., which runs on compressed air. After many years of research, the company is ready to partner with an India-based outfit, with production in mind.
What a fantastic concept. I’m sure there are safety issues, but this is just one of the developments that may allow for personal mobility in the future. Think about it. You are on a road trip, well away from any settlement, when your air-powered vehicle wheezes to a halt. You hook up the solar powered compressor, and hope for good weather. Alternatively, you spend a couple of hours taking turns at the hand pump. Sooner or later, the journey continues.
What about the entrepreneurs who might build windmill-powered air stations? One big storage tank, with perhaps a generator for emergency back-up. As Bob Dylan wrote, on a different subject, “the answer my friend, is blowin’ in the wind…”
http://www.//theaircar.com.
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UNLIKELY HEROES
Today’s CNN Hero is Savannah Walters (July 24, 2007). See http://pumpemup.org
or http://www.cnn.com/heroes.
This is taken straight from the website. There is a donation link on the home page.
“In second grade we studied the Arctic and its animals. I wanted to protect that environment and then learned we could also save people money and cut down on air pollution too!” -Savannah Walters
Pump ‘Em Up! is a fuel conservation call to all over the world to spread the word to drivers that the power to conserve fuel is in their own tires! Pump ‘Em Up! was born in 2001 when nine-year- old Savannah Walters, concerned by proposals to drill for oil in the Arctic, learned that the U.S. could save as much oil as would be produced by the new drilling if drivers simply pumped up their car tires to proper inflation levels. In 1995 the U.S. Energy Department said that under-inflated tires waste an estimated 4 million gallons of gas daily in America.
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HYPERMILERS
This is becoming increasingly popular, the art of wringing that last bit of distance from every drop of fuel. It doesn’t necessarily mean going slowly, either; the emphasis is on efficiency. This means the vehicle must be properly tuned, and free of unnecessary weight or aerodynamic drag. Tires will be on the higher end of the recommended pressure scale, which, incidentally, improves handling in both wet and dry weather, as well as reducing the chance of catastrophic tire failure. The driver will try to be as smooth as possible, looking well ahead and planning each move.
All of this is good driving advice regardless of economy concerns. The hard-core hypermilers go beyond this, and some of the behaviour, such as drafting semi trucks on the highway, is downright dangerous. However, little things count for a lot. On my Volvo AWD Turbo wagon, the roof-mounted bike rack is a serious mileage drain. I drive more slowly when we are carrying the bikes, but economy still suffers. For longer trips, we may switch to a trailer hitch mounted carrier, or perhaps a lightweight aerodynamic utility trailer, if we can find a good one at a decent price. Either that, or knock another ten kilometres per hour off our travelling speed, which isn’t that big a deal.
The ski box doesn’t affect fuel use to the same extent. However, I use it sometimes to carry cones, flags, and hoses for the advanced driving school. This raises the vehicle’s centre of gravity, which hurts handling and increases suspension wear. The answer is, if there is junk in or on your car that you don’t need, get rid of it. Your wallet will appreciate the difference.
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ARTICLE REPRINT
This is from Twists and Turns, my weekly newspaper column. I wrote the piece a couple of years ago.
Blind Trust and Loose Luggage
In major bookstores, there is generally a pop psychology section. Many of the titles seem to follow a set formula. You could create your own with this simple template: men, women, cats, bowling teams (select one) who love, trust, need, obsess (again, select one) too much. Our theme here, using this pattern, is People Who Trust Fasteners Too Much.
We recently bought a nice, expensive two-bike carrier to fit on the Superwagon’s official Volvo roof rack. For those who care about these things, we picked a fork-mount version to make for a slightly lower centre of gravity and reduced aerodynamic drag. It still cuts into fuel economy, and the bikes collect their share of bugs, but it’s better than wedging the cycles into the back and fitting road trip luggage around them.
It is worth repeating something I’ve mentioned often in this column, a lesson learned from years of racetrack work and development testing. No matter how carefully something is designed, chances are, sooner or later, it will fail. The fastening system on the roof rack involves a stout skewer holding the front bicycle forks in place, along with a reasonably robust plastic clip that latches on to the rear wheel. This is fine as long as the rig is not subjected to undue stress, such as an emergency swerve, hard stop, or even a stretch of twisty, bumpy road. My racer’s eye and reasonably logical brain took a look at all this and said, “Not good enough.” That is, too big a gamble, too many chances for something to go wrong, and far too much faith in plastics.
Here is what I ended up doing, and once the process was worked out, it took all of five minutes to set up. First, an extra strap holding each rear wheel to the rack. Then, a heavier tie-down connecting the roof rails around each bike frame, and drawn taut with a simple come-along. Rope would have done just as well. Finally, bungee cords holding the pedals in position, reducing the chance that they could start spinning from air flow, throw the chain off, and create a rooftop mess. All of this worked flawlessly on the drive from Whistler to Prince George, one hundred kilometres of which is the beautiful and winding Duffy Lake Road across the coastal mountains.
Obsession being what it is, I started paying a lot more attention to how other people had secured their bicycles on the roofs or backs of vehicles. Out of the hundreds of examples observed, perhaps three had even one single extra tie-down. Some of the bicycles were swaying alarmingly over bumps. Think of bending a wire coat hanger. There are only so many fatigue cycles before it breaks. This is the equivalent of having no safety chain, or an inadequate one, on a trailer. If a bike breaks free and flies into a farmer’s field, killing his prize cow, it is a fair bet the person who fastened the thing to the car or truck could be considered liable. Also, minus one bicycle.
Professional risk takers, whether whitewater kayakers, mountain climbers, or racing drivers, are inherently cautious people. That is why we have the term “calculated risk.” Amateurs tend towards going with the feeling of the moment, and generally don’t prepare very well. These are the folks we rescue in the mountains because they thought the day would stay sunny, the trail would be well posted, and running shoes should be adequate for a light hike. They are also the ones most likely to have stuff, whether bikes, canoes, or souvenir lobster pots, inadvertently fly off of roof racks.
Let’s bring a more positive meaning to the phrase “Tie one on.”
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INDUSTRY NOTES
Ford appears set to flog both Jaguar and Land Rover, which are steady money-losers, but for now, is hanging on to Volvo. Ford actually turned a small profit this past quarter, but expects to lose money again in the near future, while re-structuring continues.
Volvo has maintained a lot of independence, and many of Ford’s new products share a lot of Volvo technology. The Swedish company is, according to StrategicVision, the most trusted car maker in the world, way ahead of second place Toyota. Now if Volvo could match the near-faultless build quality of a Lexus, that lead might even grow.
If Ford sells, interested companies include Volvo’s Truck Division, which is doing very well, or perhaps BMW.
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Sidorov Precision Driver Training 
In a Flap
It seems to me the trucking industry should be spending more time on safety issues than on lobbying. It is unfortunate that the whole business operates under a sketchy initial premise, one that comes from the United States military-industrial complex, or at least it did at one time.
The military wanted Interstate highways, modeled after the German autobahns that were so useful in shipping war materials. As part of all this, the trucking industry was heavily subsidised, and this lasted for a few decades. Therefore trucking companies grew in a false paradise, and now they are dealing with a harsher reality, one in which profits are hard to come by.
This is no excuse to neglect safety, including the health and fatigue levels of drivers, general maintenance, and to top it all off, mudflaps.
There are some really good mudflaps available, ones that almost enclose the wheels. This prevents massive curtains of spray during rain or snow, minimizes flying rocks and other debris, and also mitigates the danger of flying tread when a tire comes apart.
In Northern Canada it is not unusual to have to replace the windshield on an annual basis. Most of this damage, as well as paint chips, broken headlights, and the like, are the result of rocks launched from semis or other trucks with inadequate mudflaps.
Regular motorists shouldn’t have to endure that sort of shooting gallery. Besides, those flying rocks and treads could kill a cyclist or pedestrian.