Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

Most Ringmeet threads were even started before dates were selected and people were discussing which Ring race weekend they wanted the meet to take place on. The fact that this year’s meet planning is well underway and things have already been set in stone before a single thing was even posted on the forum is pretty sad in my opinion.

I can only really comment on this point as I don't look at Telegram very much. For a long time we looked at different weekends every year, once we did choose a weekend with VLN and DTM I believe and while it gave those who wanted to spectate at the track something different to see, it greatly reduced the time the track was open for tourist laps. Eventually it was just accepted that we will go for OGP weekend every year as it's the best option. This certainly reduces the need for discussion.

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Anyway since I'm here, what's best for lubricating the moving parts of hand tools? I have a nice multi-tool and a very nice small pair of Irwin Vise-grips that I use around the house and they both stick. I don't want them dripping with oil as they're used for clean jobs but I'm sick of fighting with them.
 
Anyway since I'm here, what's best for lubricating the moving parts of hand tools? I have a nice multi-tool and a very nice small pair of Irwin Vise-grips that I use around the house and they both stick. I don't want them dripping with oil as they're used for clean jobs but I'm sick of fighting with them.
Can you get ahold of this stuff in the UK? This is what I use as a lubricant/preservative on my guns.
https://www.amazon.com/Break-Free-C...4?dchild=1&keywords=clp&qid=1581290007&sr=8-4
 
Anyway since I'm here, what's best for lubricating the moving parts of hand tools? I have a nice multi-tool and a very nice small pair of Irwin Vise-grips that I use around the house and they both stick. I don't want them dripping with oil as they're used for clean jobs but I'm sick of fighting with them.

If these aren't tools that will be seeing moisture or otherwise have the potential to rust rapidly you should look into a graphite or PTFE dry lubricant spray. Oils and greases grab and hold on the dirt and debris which can cause problems in the long run for things which aren't shielded from such. The graphite or PTFE dry lubes come in an aerosol can, spray on with a solvent to penetrate into the crevices and working surfaces, then the solvent quickly evaporates leaving a dry coating which lubricates well without being wet or attracting dirt. Best6 to be sure the tools are clean before applying though.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll see what I can get hold of. Dry lubricants would be more appropriate for these things.
 
Yup. It was blowing a hooley all day Sunday. Took down a tree and blocked a road at the north end of our village.
 
I heard there was storm warnings for basically all of Germany, didn’t know that you had the winds the U.K. has as well.
It was quite serious, but not terrible as far as can be told at the moment. There have been lots of train, ferry and flight cancellations as well as quite a few trees on the roads, but not many injuries and very few deaths.

The property damage is not too bad either, mostly stuff like this:

C03D3A12-0F5D-43EB-A581-D0CBA4FB8E48.jpeg
 
Yup. It was blowing a hooley all day Sunday. Took down a tree and blocked a road at the north end of our village.


What?
 
British slang expression, possibly Irish or Scots in origin, referring to a howling gale or a long period of high winds, usually but not always accompanied by squalling rain. Comes from the word "hooligan" because of the damage it causes to trees and property.

I should have spelled it "hoolie".
 
The weather the last week has been pish.

Rainy, windy, snowy bullshit of the highest order. It was snowing during a thunderstorm when I arrived at work the other day which is just garbage. Apparently half the rest of the nation is flooded though...

In car news, I bought a wing.

84662675_1399900983517584_5192342601591685120_n.jpg


The last NOS Triumph Acclaim OSF wing in stock, £60 posted. It'd have been rude not to...
 
Aparently I can tell a 2.4psi difference in my tires just by looking... Looked at Stang tires yesterday seemed a little low, went to check 32.6 all around supposed to be 35.
 
photo5049044071938631837.jpg


...

 
Alright, so I've had a few different types of snow storms lately to better gauge my company car and it's AWD system compared with Jeep Patroits with the newer VW Alltrack.

Falken cannot make a good all season to save their lives. I've had better Continental, Hankook, and Goodyear. I know most will say "well just buy winters" thats all fine and dandy but management isn't willing to and honestly, I've been driving for almost 10 years now (yeah yeah, thats all) and haven't seen a need for them yet. My GTI has them but the improvement with studless winters over all seasons hasn't really shown enough of a difference other than you're saving factory wheels from salt damage. In the Chicago area, you have the day it snows where you have snow on the road and the rest of the time, the roads are dry and salty. Hardly ever are roads covered in snow or ice as they drop 20lbs of salt everywhere so you end up driving on salt more than anything.

That said, 4motion + traction control + stability is annoying. when AWD kicks in, its nice but as soon as any slippage is detected, the fun police come along and ruin everything. It made simply making a turn across traffic sort of weird as if I was some old lady scared of crashing. the system cuts so much power. A base model Alltrack has no specific on/off for T/C. You can turn on Off-Road driving mode but that seems to just hold gears longer which does help but isn't a good solution.

I still need some more time with it I think it's fine as of now. It's no less safe than the Jeep was other than more aggressive T/C and no long press of the T/C button to disable every nanny. I think since I have OBD11, I will see if theres a way to enable menu options for both Traction and Stability control. Last I was reading, only Stability Control can be enabled. Hopefully both as this would really improve things. I still like the thing even if its just as yellow as the Electric Banana was with more nacho cheese.

The transmission tuning is a little dumb as clutch engagement seems to be held more than a GTI would. Even in sport mode on this theres a weird 2 step engine tone when changing gears that is present all the time. It's frustrating as it does affect drivability in that you feel it. I messaged APR over Instagram to see if I could simply get GTI DSG programming in an Alltrack and they said it's possible. Depending on the price, I may go for that.
 
Hardly ever are roads covered in snow or ice as they drop 20lbs of salt everywhere so you end up driving on salt more than anything.
Same reason I don’t bother with snow tires in NYC, they do same exact shit here.

Find someone who has a VAG-COM so you can fuck around with the settings, there is a LOT of shit you can change on these cars.
 
In urban areas you rarely need snow tires but when you do you really do. I've been caught in snow plenty of times after work and even in a dusting all-seasons suck.
Main issues I had in snow generally had to do either with the driveline layout and/or ground clearance rather than tires*.

Audi was terrible despite AWD because it would get beached insanely easily, so getting out of deep snow was a bitch. Subaru got stuck once, mostly because I ended up with a wheel in an icy puddle and being open diff it was just spinning a wheel at either end, but generally it didn’t require any kind of digging out. Xterra is best by far, with a massive amount of ground clearance and ability to truly use all the wheels (well three, front diff doesn’t lock) there has yet to be enough snow to cause me to
have to dig it out.

Taking it easy and keeping increase in stopping distance in mind is really all you need.

*Not counting the time I stupidly took the Mustang out on summers when it started to snow.
 
:dunno: I drove a Miata year-round for 3-4 years without ever getting stuck.

Driveline and clearance are important, sure, but neither is going to help you stop on snow/slush/etc.

I forgot about your Miata, that thing was too light to get stuck :p

Stopping is always going to be down to adjusting to your conditions. It doesn’t matter what your tires are or what the conditions are if you are going too fast you won’t have the time to stop.

Also remember that while winter tires handle and stop on snow/slush better than AS this is reversed in the dry.

Gonna get on a bit of a soapbox here but here it goes.
Aside from the fact that tire chemistry keeps getting improved there are different types of AS tires, some are oriented to be essentially summer tires that can work in lower temps (what I have on the Mustang is basically that, though it did fine in slush). Others are geared more towards handling more snowy/slushy conditions while still giving reasonable performance in the dry/summer.

Then you have stranger stuff like General Grabber A/T that my friend swears are as good as winter tires in the snow and that he never had to switch on 4WD in his XJ. (I have no experience with those so can't comment).
 
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