Bluecold's discussions

I’ve used an original Dieter Rams designed stereo once. It was shite. Steel sheet painted to look like aluminium. It looks good from a distance. Up close, and actually using it, it falls apart.

Over the pond, this competes with the Alpine A110. I can’t fathom why one would buy this over the Alpine. Read more

Some cars need their engines to preserve their character. Some cars don’t. The mini was good despite the terrible bmc a series. The Citroen DS was amazing despite the ancient 4 cilinder in the front. Those cars are prime examples for electric conversions. Read more

Hatchback is only car-related as far as I know. Read more

Aww that would be something, but I have a trip planned end of may (north of scotland), and I don’t think I can swing the days off, as I need my days off to get my car finished on time to go to scotland. Next one I’ll try to be there. The stories from the first europpomeet were really cool.

The VW Up! GTI has less horsepower and more mass than the 1987 Peugeot 205 GTi 1.9. Both cars served the same purpose, being a small hot hatch. Even after 30 years of fruitless attempts, the 205 GTi still reigns supreme over every small hot hatch ever produced by VAG.

The true reason can be found in that the vast majority of sound systems currently on the market cannot adequately deal with the lower fundamental of the male voice (85Hz). Most sattelite-subwoofer systems blast everything below 100Hz via the ‘subwoofer’, so a portion of the voice of men comes from the sattelite, and a… Read more

Fun fact. This is the only Type AA remaining can be found at the Louwman Museum: Read more

FIAT figured out that the world of the future would be a world in which even the top of the gauge cluster (which no sane person would ever need to touch) needs to be covered in soft-touch material. And if you don’t, car journalists would collectively shit themselves and whine incessantly about a ‘low quality… Read more

eehhh. the 335i is a genuinely fast car. You’d have to look at the 318i E92 to get the slowest version. 142 horsepower in a car with a dry weight of over 1400. That’s awful, and barely better power to weight than the e30 shown above. Read more

Packaging plastic is also a no-go. This plastic is almost always a laminate of at least a carrier layer (OPP or PET) and a sealing layer (PE for critical airtight packs, proprietary coating for most other stuff). Additionally, an aluminium layer can be present, or other oxygen/gas barrier layers. Read more

Also, differences in wet traction are larger than differences in dry traction. Read more

On the other hand, my parents’ 2001 Ford Windstar (properly exotic car in the netherlands) was very very slow, especially when packed with 6 people, their luggage, and a roof box. At that point, the car was probably north of 5500 lbs (4100lbs dry), with motivation coming from an anemic Vulcan V6 coupled to a 4spd auto… Read more

60's Giulia wasn’t drawn by Pininfarina. But the 105 platform did go around:
The Giulia was in-house Alfa,
the Spider Duetto was Pininfarina,
the Giulia Sprint GT and Montreal were by Bertone
the GTC was by Carrozeria Touring
the Junior Z was Zagato.

I’ll bite. Read more

Belt drives are less efficient, can still snag clothes, and require a hole in the seatstay, making the bike heavier and/or weaker. Also, chains can be bought anywhere and are broken to suit the frame and gear size, belts need to be bought in a specific length. If you need to replace your belt, you’re well and truly…

I’ve said it before and will repeat it here. You need true city bike. One that is comfortable, stable, has all the oily bits covered up, and will carry on for eternity. The netherlands is the only country where quality british roadster-style bikes are still being built. There are several brands that still make them,…

Also, front wheel drive cars are frequently a bit front-heavy and have a light rear end, with usually simple suspension designs. Read more

More weight and less power than the hot-hatch benchmark.

A plane is not a car. A higher mass requires more lift to keep in the air. Generating lift causes drag. Therefore, a heavier plane is slower. Read more