Odds n’Ends l l l l Home New Models Industry Green News Odds n’Ends More Odds n’ Ends MiDAS 1,300 Car Cloning Cases Are ‘Tip Of The Iceberg’ AA Gives Evidence Against Clampers To Commons Crime And Security Bill MPH Show Steers Clear of Yamaha Pantry Boy Supreme High Risk: UK’s Top Ten Stolen Vehicles Under-age Driving Handling an Accident Toys in Cars WINTER TYRES FOR SUMMER? The tyre industry is standing by for an onslaught of orders for winter tyres. At a ‘Brand Evaluation’ day at MIRA – the Motor Industry Research Association – leading premium tyre-makers, Continental, told journalists and suppliers that if we get another winter like the last two, it’ll be shoulder-to- shoulder for orders for winter tyres. In fact, says Continental, now is the time to get your order in. But why should we bother? Don’t ordinary tyres do the job? Well of course they do, up to a point, but winter tyres are made from a different compound that works better at lower temperatures, around seven degrees and below. They have a different tread pattern that deals better with snow, and here’s the clever bit – this can use the snow itself to help clear a pathway, like kids building a big snowball by rolling a little one over the grass until it builds up. Continental also gave us a chance to experience the difference between driving on wet, slippery surfaces on a non-winter Chinese budget tyre compared to one of their own non-winter brands. Identical Ford Focuses were on hand to drive round a circular track simulating a roundabout. The point at which the budget tyres lost traction was around 25 mph; the Contis held on until about 32 mph and generally provided much more feel to let you know when things were beginning to go. Continental then took us onto a tread-depth comparison test. The legal minimum tread depth in Britain is 1.6mm. New tyres have 8mm. For this test, we went out onto a straight but very wet stretch at MIRA on the 1.6mm tyres; at 50 mph, my instructor said hit the ABS brakes as hard as possible. Standstill took nearly 49 metres. I did this again on tyres with 3mm (the depth that the tyre industry recommends as the minimum) and finally on new 8mm tyres. Each braking distance was measured digitally in the car and the results proved very revealing. In brief, where the car came to a dead stop from 50mph on new tyres was at the same point that the car was still travelling at nearly 30mph on the still-legal, 1.6mm tread tyres. The overall stopping distance on new tyres was around 12 metres shorter; and the 3mm tyres outperformed the 1.6mm by nearly nine metres. It doesn’t take much to imagine a child running out into the road at a bad moment to work out the tragedy that could happen simply because of a lack of tyre tread. Continental’s evaluation day threw up some intriguing questions: what does it cost to chuck tyres away at the industry’s recommended 3mm point? There’s still plenty of life left between the 3mm and 1.6mm points, thousands of miles, in fact. However, Continental work out that the overall cost may be around only £25. Then there’s the choice between premium brands and budget. Budget tyres will perform well enough up to a point, but you get what you pay for; in simple terms, about 70% of the performance, because you’ve paid that much less for the tyres. And, possibly the real poser: why not use winter tyres all-year-round? It IS possible, but winters will not perform quite so well as ‘ordinary’ tyres in warmer conditions, maybe 2% less grip, and they may be a bit noisier in cars that have less protection from noise transference. With tyres, there’s always a compromise. Tyre-makers themselves, working with car manufacturers on the handling, comfort, noise, grip and even looks of a tyre always have to compromise somewhere. Drivers, too, must compromise, but differently, with our questions led by the balance between what we can afford and how safe we want to be. You are strongly advised to tell your insurance company if you put winter tyres onto your car. There should be no problem with this, although last winter there were stories of some insurers charging extra, either as a sort of penalty, quite obviously lacking the understanding of the ability of winter tyres, or of charging an admin fee for having to change the documentation. Look at your car’s handbook to check on advice on changing to winter tyres and possibly, at the same time, to a set of wheels to put them on. Then, if you have a problem with your insurance company, you can tell them what the official line, as written in the handbook, is. However, the handbook will probably only approve the best-known, non-budget makes, so you may have to pay more rather than less. The handbook for our family car, an old Jaguar S-type, recommends either one of two types of Pirelli, or Continental Winter Contact. I have gone for the Contis and am able to keep the ‘summer’ tyres at home for the time being, until it warms up again towards next spring. The alternative, if you don’t have the space at home, is that the tyre fitting firm will ‘hotel’ your tyres for you, although this will cost varying amounts of money. A typical charge would be £40, including re-fitting the tyres. The bottom line: latest construction techniques and high-tech materials mean that winter tyres can perform really well in all conditions - even warm, dry weather - but excel when temperatures fall. These cold weather tyres use a higher proportion of natural rubber in the tread, minimising the hardening effect at low temperatures and giving improved traction performance in temperatures below 7 deg C. Braking distances are significantly reduced: if you are driving at around 20 mph, a car shod with winter tyres could stop three car lengths shorter than a car wearing non-winter rubber. Tom Scanlan  -  Nov 2011 FORD’S BRITISH CENTENARY Tom Scanlan’s excuse for driving three old Fords is that it’s the centenary of the company’s operations in Britain. To begin at the beginning... Trafford Park in Manchester was where the first British-assembled Ford was, well, assembled. It was on October 23, 1911, that the first, finished car was produced. Three years earlier was the significant date when Ford really tied into the UK market, with straightforward imports. (We wished  only a few years ago that Ford would import the latest Mustang, instead of just teasing us with a test drive.) Of course it was the Model T that rolled off the end of the assembly line (in those very early days, the car moved while the assembly line didn’t); and, by the way, it was not only black that was the colour available. Stories about Henry Ford saying that buyers could have any colour as long as it was black are legendary. They include him reasoning that, as black was apparently the quickest-drying colour, it was therefore the best option for fast completion of production. Today, Ford’s marvellous heritage fleet includes a 1912 Trafford Park-built Model T two-seater that happens to be in a particularly attractive shade of red. Fifteen million people bought Model Ts new and countless millions more bought them second-hand, so it seemed a rather daunting prospect to be allowed to have a go in Ford’s very own treasure, because I knew in advance how different it is from any car on the road today. The system of a manual gearbox, whether of four or five speeds or more, engaged by hand while one foot operates the clutch pedal and the other foot controls the accelerator pedal (or throttle, as it would have been said in the past), is second nature to billions of drivers and has been for many decades. The Model T is different, and I mean DIFFERENT! I nearly chickened out of the whole thing, but, having three years earlier briefly  driven Ford’s own exact replica of the earliest Model T, I remembered that I’d a) have to keep my wits about me, but that b) I had actually managed it. The basic facts are that the Model T had a 4-cylinder in-line engine that produced 20 bhp and might propel an intrepid driver to reach more than 40 mph; petrol consumption  was claimed to be 28 mpg. There were two forward speeds and a reverse. Brakes operated on the rear wheels, by foot when driving, with a hand brake for holding the car when parked, although this could be used when driving (but why? when legs are stronger than arms). There was no electrical system on the early cars. The car weighed around half a ton. To start the car (using a starting handle), the bonnet first needs to be opened in order to prime the carburettor and set the idling speed. While under the bonnet, you can enjoy admiring all the shiny brasswork and copper piping. Four turns of the starting handle and then one quick pull up and the engine roars into life; maybe not a roar, but certainly noisy. You then climb up into the driving seat and try to understand how to drive it. Without someone to tell you, it would be impossible. There are three foot pedals: on the left is the one to select lower or higher gear, the middle pedal is for reverse and the right-hand pedal is the footbrake. The throttle is a hand-throttle on the steering column. Once you get the hang of it, of course you can then relax and enjoy a historic experience. The Model Y first appeared in 1933, six years after the end of Model T production. Models A and B, along with V8s, tractors and commercials were produced along the way, but the Y became Ford’s most important selling car, priced at £100. This was a very basically- equipped car, lacking even a windscreen wiper. Imagine these days having to work your windscreen wiper by hand in your fine new Ka or Fiesta. Alright, you could pay extra to have such a wiper, but the magic figure of £100 for a small, but comfortable, 2-door saloon car swung the buyers in to the extent of eventually increasing Ford’s share of the big market for such low-taxed 8hp cars to more than 40%. The Ford Model Y had the side-valve 4-cylinder in-line configuration of the Model T, but with only 933 cc. Top speed was a heady 59 mph, with 50 mph eventually reached after 34 seconds.  Fuel consumption was anything from around 35 to 45 mpg. There was a 3-speed gearbox, with 2nd and 3rd having synchromesh, so drivers needed to know how to double-declutch if about to take on a particularly severe incline. Drum brakes on all four wheels were typical of the period. Ford’s heritage car (a 1936 model) proved a delight to drive. The initial feeling of anxiety – initiated probably due to absence of seat belts, proximity to the windscreen, and a steering column that could be considered a potential spear in the event of a head-on collision – soon went and it was fun to propel the Y along reasonably quiet roads, using the easy three-speed gearbox and enjoying the surprisingly smooth and sweet little engine.  Hand signals were necessary, which meant winding down the window and getting a wet arm each time on that particular rainy day. The car wandered about a bit, so concentration and constant correction of the steering was required. There is no boot, but a fold-down platform against the spare wheel is available for a small suitcase. Passengers in the rear sit higher than those in the front (seats in Rexine fabric) and space there is not at all bad. This is what, of the relatively few Britons who could afford a car, the majority would have been experiencing, so providing us with another glimpse into history. While the Model Y was a similar concept to the Model T, by the 1960s, Ford of course offered much more choice to a more affluent society. Available to drive from their Heritage fleet was a 1967 Ford Corsair. Their de-luxe version cost £755 when new and was aimed above the Cortina market. The V4 2-litre, 88 bhp engine had a top speed of a modest 88 mph, via a 4-speed all-synchromesh gearbox.  Driving the V4 proved that it was no smoother, and in fact maybe even less smooth, than an in-line 4-cylinder and it’s a bit of a mystery why Ford bothered with it. However, these days it’s just a bit of fun; it pulled well and the experience was quite enjoyable, with period features that are always very much part of the classic car scene well to the fore. In particular the instrument facia is attractive, with four simple same-size round dials for temperature, revs, speed and fuel set in a line across a wood panel, and with nice red indicator tell-tale lighting arcing over the left and right dials as appropriate. The optional-extra vacuum wipers on the Y are long gone and, now, two-speed wipers help clear the screen, with the de-mister working after a while. But there’s no rear window heater, nor any wing mirrors. Seat belts are of the early, static type, and brakes without ABS were a bit scary in the wet, with skidding all too easy. But the road-holding was OK and after a while I felt confident enough to reckon that this was a car that would be more or less at home in today’s traffic. Thanks to Ford for keeping a museum of old models and for letting Motorsville have a go in some of them. What will someone in the future be writing about today’s excellent Ford Focus and whatever evolves over the next fifty or sixty years? Tom Scanlan - Sept 2011 MOTORSVILLE OFF-ROAD  -  TOM SCANLAN PLUGS THE MUD Cars have been going ‘off road’ for as long as they’ve been built. In the earliest, pioneering days, there was of course very little tarmac anyway. We’ve all seen flickering black and white film with Model T Fords and the like venturing over some really challenging terrain. Ford made a point in early advertising of how their cars could cope with all sorts of challenging routes , including flights of steps… Off -roading these days is, in Britain, the prerogative of the military, farmers, forestry commission workers, surveyors and the like. There are also the few who like to test themselves and their cars in a purely leisure or sport mode. Among the ultimate challenges are the Rubicon Trail and SAHARA. Only a very small number of owners of 4x4 vehicles do more than climb up a kerb or drive a couple of hundred yards across a field to the local point-to-point or steam rally. But there are, for anyone interested, a whole variety of places where, for a sum of money, you can really have a go with your off-roader. Manufacturers launching their latest models will usually throw in a short off-road section off the conventional road test route if a 4X4 is involved. Amongst the toughest over the years have been a Mercedes-Benz ML launch in woods in leafy Buckinghamshire, a Jeep launch near Loch Lomond that included a fair distance against the flow of a lively river and an impressively steep hill descent, and a particularly slippery course for a Suzuki Vitara down in Surrey. Fiat went to Thruxton where their Panda coped remarkably well with all sorts of gradients; Mitsubishi took their first Outlander to a very muddy part of Kent. Audi even let us try their new Q7 along a rather nasty off-the- beaten-track lane somewhere in Somerset. Most of these challenges are done on ordinary road tyres. And it’s perhaps no great surprise that Jeep is well to the fore in welcoming their cars being driven by journalists in tough conditions. Most recently, the new Grand Cherokee was at Donington Park, which, in common with most motorsport venues, has a sizeable few acres of heavily-rutted, often slimy sand, and some quite scarily steep tracks. One of the professional instructors on-hand for Jeep was Colin Billings of Trackwork Automotive Events. He had useful advice for the beginner or over-confident or unwary driver. Number one golden rule: “Keep your thumbs out of the way of the steering wheel.” Colin explained that if, for example, the car suddenly slips sideways into a rut or off a rock, then the front wheels could kick the steering while quite viciously; he’s actually seen thumbs dislocated like this. Under way in a manual gearbox car, here’s another of Colin’s golden rules: “Take your foot right away from the clutch pedal.” Why? Colin says it’s more important to reverse the usual clutch first/brake second instinct and to simply hit the brake if you need to. More advice: as a general idea, think to go “as slow as you can, but only as fast as you need to.” And a particular technique for beating a steep uphill: “really go for it and slow up only as you reach the top”, and always look to see what’s ahead, stopping and getting out of the car if you have to. Donington’s challenge for the new Grand Cherokee was successfully overcome, even on ordinary road tyres, Continentals on this occasion. The Cherokee comes with the low ratios available simply by pushing a button. If the course has steep inclines, the Hill Descent Control (a feature on all good 4x4s), is engaged also by simply pushing a button. It’s a great piece of kit; the Jeep’s was particularly ‘protective’ and, to overcome its inbuilt cautiousness in braking the car down hills, you just gently accelerate, or learn that it doesn’t need to be in use all the time. When it is, you just sit there and steer. The top Cherokee, the Overland, has a system of selectable ride heights. Off road, this helps with clearances. Also, the new version has a removable front air dam; this means an increase in the approach angle at the foot of a particularly steep slope. However, this is something to be planned in advance if you know you’ll be taking on something of great severity. It’s not just a matter of undoing a couple of fixings, however, but a job requiring a couple of hours at the workshop and, presumably, paying for it (and it’s re-fixing). At the end of the Donington session, the car was in perfect shape, but in need of a damn good hose down!