“Hear” comes the e-cars!

Electric SLS Mercedes

The H&S wallahs are clambering on to the e-bandwagon already, claiming that the forthcoming electric vehicles will be dangerous, because pedestrians will not hear them approaching.

Getting ready for the legislation is Delphi who announced that they will start supplying low-cost “sound generators” to an unnamed European car maker - probably GM off-shoot Opel, which will soon start selling European market versions of the Chevrolet Volt electric car.

Delphi said the sound generators were “designed to comply with legislation expected to mandate minimal sound for both hybrid and electric vehicles. Industry analysts predict hybrid and electric vehicle warning sounds, already covered by guidelines in Japan, will be required in North America and Europe in the near future,” the company said in a press release.

According to Delphi, the system has enough flexibility in its frequency range to “reproduce melodies that represent the identity of individual vehicle manufacturers.” So I presume that a top of the line hybrid Mercedes will get a booming Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony - “Dit, Dit, Dit, Dah” and an electric Camaro will get the sound track from Bonnie and Clyde … the mind boggles.

Electric milk carts have been in use in the UK for decades. I wonder how many unsuspecting morning joggers have been mown down by the milk machines? I will take a guess at zero.

While automakers are trying to produce the quietest cars, here are the H&S lot trying to make them noisy again. Any vehicle, even rolling along with the engine turned off, makes an audible sound from the loaded tyre tread on the bitumen. Do we need more noise pollution?

A bad attack of wind?

Wind Explorer

The Wind Explorer has just set some sort of a record by crossing Australia in something akin to a kite-board on wheels.

A TV host and an engineer from Germany have completed an almost 5,000 km journey in their Wind Explorer, which is a lightweight electric vehicle powered by the wind - not only through electricity-generating wind turbines but also using kites.

The 18 day trip by Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer set three world records - the first time a continent has been crossed be a wind-powered vehicle, the longest overall distance covered by an exclusively wind-powered land vehicle, and the longest distance covered by such a vehicle in 36 hours.

Wind Explorer is a prototype electric vehicle, and the secret of its success is in the light weight. The entire vehicle, including the battery pack weighs only 200 kg.

The construction is of an aluminium frame covered by a carbon-fiber sandwich material and the vehicle runs on bicycle tyres.

The battery is an 8kWh lithium-ion pack that was recharged every night using a portable wind turbine on the top of a six meter high telescopic bamboo mast - but they did use the domestic electric grid on nights with no wind.

On January 26 of this year, Wind Explorer left Albany, on the southern coast of Western Australia. For the first 800 km, the vehicle was powered entirely by electric power.

Once they got to the Nullarbor (“no trees”) Plain the intrepid pair were able to take advantage of the strong winds to use kites to drag the vehicle along, as is done with kite-boarding. The passenger held on to the large steerable kite similar to a parasail. Apparently it was not easy, but they did manage to cover several hundreds of kilometers crossing the desert.

The trip took the Wind Explorer through the states of Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, arriving in Sydney on February 14. On the trip the vehicle reached speeds of 80 km/h. The best daily distance covered was 493 km.

The journey was not without drama and punctures, including blowing two motors, but I suppose, like climbing Mt. Everest, they can say they have done it. They believe that they have proved that the technology is already available to produce self-sufficient and environmentally sound transport; however, they did not prove whether it was at all practical.

What makes for a car nut?

My wife asked me the other day, “How long have you been crazy about cars?” I thought about it for a while and had to admit that I have been a car nut for my entire life. Well, as soon as I got out of the pram, if nothing else.

Singer 9 Le Mans

My first memories of my father were of him driving a Singer 9 Le Mans he had bought immediately after the war. Flat cap, pipe clenched between the teeth, looking like a poor relation of the pre-war Bentley Boys. The Singer had huge headlights with chrome wire stone guards. It was in British Racing Green, complete with twin spare wheels mounted on the rear slab petrol tank. Dad claimed it was one of the actual Le Mans team cars, but I doubt it. Dad was known to exaggerate a tad.

I loved that car, even though I was only five years old. It smelled like a racing car and made noises like a racing car and I was devastated when Dad sold it. However, looking back, it would be hard to imagine a car less practical for a family. It was also very difficult to get petrol of a reasonable octane in the north of Scotland at that time and keeping the twin carburetors in synch was beyond the Corness Senior’s back yard expertise. Looking back again, I am sure that all that was really wrong was worn butterfly spindles, but my father was not able to rise to the technical engineering level needed. And at five years of age, all I did was get in the way, but I did polish those monstrous headlights to perfection!

1933 Morris Minor

The next family car was a Morris Minor. No, not one of the Issigonis 1950’s Minors (Sir Alec Issigonis did design other cars before the Mini’s) but a 1933 Morris Minor, complete with one spare wheel on the tail and a central accelerator pedal. Yes, a trifle un-nerving for those used to having the brake pedal in the middle, but that was the car I started to learn to drive in at age 10. Surreptitiously, I might add. It was also the car I had my first accident in when my father lost it on the icy roads one night and we went through a hedge and I banged my head on the windscreen. Seat belts? They had not been invented in 1933 and still were unthought-of of in 1951. Morris Minor used to suffer with clutch slip after oil would come through the leather rear oil seal on the crankshaft and contaminate the clutch lining. There was an inspection hole on the top of the bell housing and we used to pour petrol through it all over the clutch. It worked for a while, but eventually it needed a new clutch and my father sold it to a wreckers yard in Edinburgh. I wanted to keep the external radiator cap, but Dad would not allow me to do that, saying we had sold the entire car to the wrecking yard. I cried all the way home. Some parts of me never forgave him. Dad has been dead for over 30 years, but it still hurts.

Since then, I have personally owned over 100 cars. Many turned out to be collectors items - but never while I owned them. There’s no justice in this world, but I have to admit, I love my cars.

Thailand Auto Industry on a surge

The vehicle production figures for Thailand in 2010 showed a very strong growth of just under 40 percent, year on year, with total numbers of domestic sales over 750,000 units.

The export production figures were also very buoyant with the various Free Trade Agreements helping boost the export production close to 900,000 units for the year.

With Ford and GM both expanding their presence in Thailand, and new cars such as the Fords Focus and Fiesta and GM’s Cruze coming on stream, the local auto industry looks very strong. It seems that the domestic political upheaval had no apparent effects on the auto industry, and neither did some niggling union problems.

This all augurs well for the Bangkok International Motor Show, which will be held at the Impact Muang Thong Thani for the first time, having outgrown the available space at the BITEC venue.

The 32nd Bangkok International Motor Show will be held for 14 days from March 23 (Wednesday) to April 6 (Wednesday). Public days will be from Saturday, March 26 until April 6, and this year the Motor Show will be held at Challenger Hall (Impact Muang Thong Thani), Bangkok.

The show is more than just new cars, but is a comprehensive one that includes passenger cars, commercial vehicles, motorcycles, vehicle bodies, parts, machinery and tools.

Autotrivia Quiz

Last week I mentioned that a particular car company began making cars in 1904 in the South London area (UK). They used a six cylinder engine of their own design from 1921 right through to the 1950’s and ended up as one of the most lusted after and iconic sports cars. Zero to 100 km/h in around 4.6 seconds was possible. What was the car company? Of course, it was AC, and the top of the line was the 7 liter (AC) Shelby Cobra.

Quiz car

So to this week. And to try and thwart the ‘googlers’, what is this car? I want make, model and year!

For the Automania free beer this week, be the first correct answer to email viacars @gmail.com. Good luck!