Car Chat

[Eye of the Tiger]

After the murder of my Focus, the insurance company provided a rental vehicle. They were out of econoboxes, so I got a new, fully loaded Cherokee. Not too bad of a rig, but gutless. Kind of unimpressed. Comfortable. 

Must be the base 2.4 liter. You need to wind that thing out.

[MX793]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9Lna4lOxi0

[SJ_GTI]

Officially no more Holden (branded) cars. The Chevy SS/Holden Commodore was the last actual manufactured Holden, but I guess they were hanging on with rebadges for a while.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/17/business/general-motors-holden-australia/index.html

Hong Kong (CNN Business): General Motors (GM) is killing off the iconic Holden brand and pulling out of Australia and New Zealand, the latest in a series of moves to shrink the US carmaker's global presence as it ramps up investments in electric and autonomous vehicles.

The company announced Sunday that it would retire the Holden brand, which has existed in Australia for more than 160 years, by 2021. It will also shutter its sales, design and engineering operations in Australia and New Zealand.

[giant_mtb]

But.......but how will Frodo get to Mordor?

[MX793]

I'm a bit surprised that they aren't even going to attempt to sell anything in Oz.  Must not have enough volume to even justify importing cars to sell.

[CaminoRacer]

[cawimmer430]

Well researched and presented. Fascinating car. They are still a common sight on the road today.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPDKw609-4I

[FoMoJo]

[veeman]

I'm a bit surprised that they aren't even going to attempt to sell anything in Oz.  Must not have enough volume to even justify importing cars to sell.

A good little summary of GM future. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/02/17/business/general-motors-holden-australia/index.html

The Aussies buy Japanese and Korean makes.  Particularly Toyota.

https://www.budgetdirect.com.au/car-insurance/research/australian-car-sales-statistics.html

[giant_mtb]

That's gonna be one helluva fence.

[FoMoJo]

The above article mentioning Holden having been around for 160 years caught my eye.  A little history...Holden timeline

HOLDEN'S PROUD HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA
1856 - Holden begins as a South Australian saddlery business.

1917 - Holden manufactures vehicle bodies.
1931 - General Motors buys Holden Motor Body Builders.

1948 - The FX, the first Australian-designed car, is released.
1951 - Holden's first ute goes on sale.
1958 - South Australian manufacturing plant opens at Elizabeth, though it does not assemble its first full car until 1965.
1968 - Kingswood and Monaro enter the market.
1969 - Holden makes its first V8 engine.
1971 - Holden launches the HQ model. Considered by some to be the best Holden ever.
1978 - Commodore replaces Kingswood.
1990 - Holden's last Australian boss, John Bagshaw, quits.
2003 - Holden opens $400 million V6 engine plant at Port Melbourne, exports to Korea, China and Mexico begin. Toyota takes Holden's position as top-selling car brand.
2009 - Parent company, General Motors, files for bankruptcy in the US but survives.
2013 - Prime minister Tony Abbott says the government will reduce support for automotive manufacturers despite appeals for help.
2013 - Holden decides to end manufacturing in Australia by 2017. The Holden Commodore is to become a fully-imported car.
2017 - The company rolls its last car off the assembly line on October 20, ending more than 50 years of car production on the Elizabeth site.
2019 - GM announces it will discontinue its Commodore and Astra models in 2020.


I wonder what their future is.  Shuttered?

[Galaxy]

Makes you wonder why no one has done that before. Seems relatively simple. Mercedes F1 has a system where a push/pull on the steering wheel changes the chamber.



Apparently it will take the other teams a minimum of 6 month to copy it. If it works.

[MrH]

I believe they're changing toe, not camber.

[cawimmer430]

New 1-Series. 

[r0tor]

New 1-Series. 

I'm tired of China making crappy copies of bmws... Oh wait...

[cawimmer430]

I'm tired of China making crappy copies of bmws... Oh wait...

It's seriously such a hideous design.

When I encounter these on the road while driving my car, I feel like the 1-Series' drivers are looking at my car and thinking to themselves, "Damn, I should have gotten an A!"  

[FoMoJo]

New 1-Series. 

Funny how simple lines make such a difference.  The back looks cheap.

[Galaxy]

I believe they're changing toe, not camber.

Yeah looks like you are right.

[CaminoRacer]

I believe they're changing toe, not camber.

That's nifty. Toe-in for high speed stability on the straights and toe-out for cornering.

[Laconian]

I'm tired of China making crappy copies of bmws... Oh wait...

Baofeng Movement World

[MrH]

That's nifty. Toe-in for high speed stability on the straights and toe-out for cornering.

It appears they're getting as close to toe neutral as possible on the straights, and then slight toe out in cornering for turn in.  The removal of the toe out on straights looks to be for top speed but also to even out the heat coming into the tire.

I want to see how this mechanism works.  Looks like it might be technically legal too.  Another dominant season for Mercedes I'm guessing.

[r0tor]

It's probably only useful for warming up the front tires on long straights and on the rare caution flag restart

[Raza]

New 1-Series. 

Hideous.  BMW has really lost the plot designwise.

[Speed_Racer]

Wow that's dumpy

[FoMoJo]

Yeah looks like you are right.

Looks like camber on the left and toe on the right. 

[Soup DeVille]

It may be two completely different alignments. It may even be a custom alignment for the upcoming corner.

[FoMoJo]

What I've read, not very much, is that something is going on seeing Lewis pushing and pulling on the steering wheel.  There could well be a button/buttons on the steering wheel that changes what happens to the camber/toe in/toe out of each wheel individually.

[Soup DeVille]

Opinions of people who know the rules much more than I do say it just might be legal, if its completely manual: that is the force of pushing the steering wheel itself may be moving a lever or a wedge somewhere- that if it was a powered system it would violate the rules against active suspension.

[FoMoJo]

This is a shame...Nooooooooooooooooo! Rare Ferrari F40 (price: $1 million) bursts into flames in Monte Carlo, is lost forever

[Eye of the Tiger]