World Car

The booted Focus Hertz gave me on the last trip is comedically awful, basic US spec, which excludes remote locking, T/C and, I suspect, ABS…*

The thing wallows above 65mph, spins its inside wheel at every junction, and it's only saving grace is that the bright blue paint makes it easy to spot in a car-park. Amazing to think that this is the same vehicle as the brilliant chassised Euro spec car.

SS7

*Proven by a smokey stop in the hotel's car park.

Hate Something, Change Something

Here’s a thing: I wrote this weeks ago, decided I was being a bit harsh and parked it. Then I decided perhaps I wasn’t being so harsh so here we are:

So after a false start, the Civic was finally delivered a few weeks ago and has immediately been pressed into service as family taxi, due for a life of hundreds of suburban middle-class family-life type trips.

First impressions were that the ‘revolutionary’ Euro Civic design isn’t as revolutionary as it seemed to be at launch two years ago, and that it really isn’t far removed from other current mainstream hatches. Ok, front light/trim strip is striking, and the multi-level dash is unusual, and the way it sweeps around either side of the wheel does put the varied minor controls close to hand, even if you have to make sure it doesn’t kneecap you on entry. The start button also works better than you might think: put key in, turn one click, push button (handily close to the key) and away you go. The wheel, unusually for an entry level spec. mid-size hatch, adjusts for reach and rake. And its just as well it does; the flip side to putting the fuel tank under the front seats to give the spacious rear compartment a usefully low, flat floor is that the driver’s seat is higher than you really want.

Although there does seem to be a modern trend of adjusting one’s seat height to the top most position available (judging by the number of folks you see around with their scalps pressed against the roof lining) I’m more of a sit-on-the-floor-wheel-in your-chest-like-in-the-DTM sort of bloke. I'm sure Ralph the Shoemaker isn't going to have to sit on the fuel tank of his Merc.....

The Civic is another modern that suffers from an intrusive ‘A’ pillar, and moving the seat around doesn’t make much difference to the view out, so you develop a head wobble at junctions to allow you to spot on-coming 40-tonne artics that would otherwise spoil your day. The rear view is also problematic; a combination of large C pillars, a split rear screen and rear head restraints reduce visibility to that of an early KdF-Wagen. Oh well; retro-fit beepers are available.

A longer cross country run to a children’s activity zoo presented an opportunity to get acquainted with the chassis. In 16” wheeled SE form, it’s on a par with peers – competent, but not much more. The ride, however, is mercifully compliant in comparison with peers equipped with ‘Sport’ suspension, and body roll is not going to produce sea sickness in the children.

And yet the overall Civic driving experience is overwhelmingly dominated by two features, one excellent, the other excruciatingly what-were-they-thinking-of? bad.

The Good
Sing it Like you Hate it - that damn motor is tremendous. For a 4-pot diesel, its also very quiet – from cold there’s no clatter like two Navies banging in an iron spike with their spades, and at any kind of speed the whisper of turbulence around the A pillar has a far higher decibel count than the engine. The thrum-free power deliver is also much more linear that the VAG oil burners I’ve experienced; torque builds steadily from 800rpm through to 3000 rpm, without that nothing-nothing-WHAM! big bloody thump its so difficult to drive around in the VAG cars. At less than 400 miles, its still very tight, so I’d expect to see the 44mpg improve as it loosens, and the slight reluctance to run a much less than 40mph in 5th also improve.

Sometimes its good to hate something.

The Very Bad
Like I hate this. It was Honda’s stated aim that the ’06 Civic was to reduce the average age of their buyers from the 70’s. Funky non-fogey friendly design appears to have achieved that objective, so why on earth does the steering has so much assistance that a withered 90 year old spinster could happily turn it with her little finger?

And not only that, but so feel-free is the thing in use that the family’s Logitech PS2 wheel (ok, it has 'Force Feedback') gives you a better idea of what’s happening at the front wheels. So you drive around trying not to constantly overcorrect, holding the anesthetised wheel between finger tips, and forcing yourself not to lean on the rim for the remotest of support in corners, lest you spear off into the verge.

I know that even the Type R version suffers a little of the inevitable electric-assisted numbness, and that the diesel lump will add to the nose weight, but never has my experience of any car been so dominated by such a misguided dynamic feature. So much so that I really do think Honda needs to get a dealer retro-fit fix out.

Anyone listening in over there in Datchet?

SS7

PS Be very careful searching for 'Camel' on ebay images......

Nail Therapy

I had last week off work. After the past month or so at the office I decided I really had to bang something hard with a hammer, so rather than assualt one of the local coffin dodgers I bought £500 of timber and have started to build a deck.

Highly satisfying.....

SS7

Dimensions

Notwithstanding its ‘Wrong Wheel Drive”; layout, the SS7 family car dilemma has finally been resolved in the form of a new Honda Civic 2.2 cdti. The Civic is a small-medium 5-door hatch-back, but appears to be big enough for family duties.

I was intrigued, therefore, to compared its dimension with those of a 1967 Ford Cortina 1.6 Delux - as it happens the first new family car my father owned. I was 6, my brother 4, and as a family we toured the length and breadth of the Malay peninsular in it for nearly 5 years.

Cortina: Length: 4267mm, Width: 1648mm
Civic: Length: 4245mm, Width: 1765mm

Or in old money, the modern hatchback is an insignificant 7/8 inch shorter, but 4 ¾ inches wider than the 60’s family car.

So perhaps the Civic’s front-wheel drive architecture gives it a longer wheelbase?

Honda Wheelbase: 2330mm
Ford Wheelbase: 2489mm

Hmm, interesting, contrary to expectation, the Ford has a longer wheelbase. My guess is that the lack of fwd and crash zones means Ford could stick the front wheels right in the corners.

But Honda must have found some more interior room, inspite of the lack of room between the wheels?

The site: http://www.carsplusplus.com/ quotes something called ‘Passenger space’ for both.

The Cortina is given as 4,280litres, but the Civic is 5,260l, or an additional 23%. It explains the room in the modern car….

But in many ways, most revealing is the weight figures:

Ford Weight: 857kgs
Honda Weight: 1400kgs

Now the Ford figure is probably dry and sans everything, and the Honda will be a DIN number (plus ½ tank fuel, 80kg driver), but you really have to wonder what they built those things of, Walkers crisp packets?

SS7

My Bugatti

At the recent Autosport show at the NEC, I got the chance to sit in a Pur Sang T35 and make tearing calico noises*. The Pur Sang is an Argentine built tool-room copy of a Bugatti T35, and is where I’d put £125,000 of my lottery-win pounds without hesitation.

As it happens, I have a Bugatti copy sitting in the hallway at home.

Ettore Bugatti applied a magical combination of artistry and technology in the design and construction of his cars. Some of them, such as the T35, were amongst the most lovely of all car shapes, and arguably amongst of the most perfect forms industrial man has ever produced.

His company didn’t survive the 1939-45 hostilities and the death of his beloved son, Jean, but such is the legendary power of the name it has since been resurrected, in the 50’s, again in the 80’s, and now once more by VW.

In some ways the current Veyron is a travesty of the Bugatti tradition; most of the original cars were pure-bred lightweight sports cars using the same designs and technology as the then current GP cars. In fact it was Ettore Bugatti who referred to the rapid, but big and heavy Bentleys, as "Fast truck’s". It seems odd, then that the fastest truck of them all is the current €1M, 2000kg, 1000bhp, Veyron 16.4.

On the other hand, Bugattis always were cars for the very, very rich, so maybe not much has changed.

Ettore’s artistry ran in the family. His brother, Rembrandt, produced superb sculpture, and his father, Carlo, was a furniture maker. It is even said that the trademark horse-shoe Bugatti radiator’s shape was inspired by one of Carlo’s chair designs. Such was the reputation of the creativity and quality of work produced by the family, that in 1979, there was a successful exhibition held at the Design Council in London entitled ‘The Amazing Bugattis’.

Carlo’s work was heavily influenced by Levantine and North African native artwork. The exotic Art Nouveau furniture he produced at the end of the 19th Century was decorated with ivory inlays, silk tassels, beads, copper, and often upholstered with skins or parchment. One piece in the exhibition really caught my eye, a sculptural chair known as the cobra. More simple than his other work, it was a beautifully elegant shape, with a seat that seemed to float on a curve that ran from the legs to the high seat back.

Some years later, I noticed that the Conran Shop in London’s Old Brompton Road had a reproduction of this chair. However the price was huge, much more than an impecunious young database marketeer could afford, so I regretfully had to pass. However, it was still there the next time I walked past the window, and the next, and by this time ownership of this object was becoming something of an obsession. Could it possibly be included in the shop’s January sale?

I arrived outside the store on the day of sale early, and was delighted to see ‘my’ chair in amongst the discounted sample sofa’s and other remnants. A hour later it was in my Clapham flat, and it has been a prized possession ever since.

Several house moves later I discovered what the material used for the drumskin-like upholstery was. A visiting relative decided to try the chair out; a second later he was dumped on the floor – the material on the seat had split completely.

Many furniture restoration specialists later I eventually discovered someone who identified what it was; a vellum made from goat-skin. Fully restored, the chair is again in place, and this time no-one dares to actually sit on it!


SS7
*The straight eight supercharged T35 engine note is reckoned by fabric-rippers to sound like this

White House

This the house Mrs SS7 and I built in 1998.

It was a candidate for the first Grand Design Channel 4 TV series, but they chose a water tower conversion to feature instead. I'd like to point out that, unlike the water tower, ours came in under budget and on schedule so probably wouldn't have made great TV....

However both schemes planned to use a form of building technology known as ‘permanent polystyrene formwork’. This is more commonly known by the name of the most well established manufacturer; Beco, and resembles giant hollow white Lego blocks.

Once in place – and the ground floor walls of a modest home might only take a morning to construct – concrete is poured into the hollow centre of the wall. When it has set, you end up with an insulated concrete structural wall.

Builders are notoriously conservative when it comes to new ideas and materials, so using Beco did narrow the field somewhat. We eventually found a contractor more used to putting up agricultural buildings; where apparently Beco is used for pig-sheds all the time. He did ok, although his people skills were a bit, well, agricultural....

In use, the house was very warm and quiet (important as it was built under Heathrow's flight path), which wasn’t surprising as each wall is a single piece of steel re-inforced concrete.

Practical considerations include the placement of windows, which ideally need to match the Beco dimensions (anyone who has ever used Lego will understand), and we had also to be a bit careful mounting heavy items like kitchen units on the walls as some wall sections were pure polystyrene. The exterior was finished in self-colouring epoxy render whilst the interior was dry lined and plaster skimmed. I built the deck and a 35m2 double garage myself.

We sold the house when the arrival of SS7 Jnr #2 esulted in a serious shortage of bedrooms (as well as 6 months without sleep, the little sod) . We had over 30 viewings the first weekend it was on the market and it sold for the full asking price.

We then moved to one of the few mid-20th century modernist private houses in the UK, but that's another story...

BTW, Here’s a plug for the lovely Tim, our architect. A more decent bloke and skilled practitioner it would be hard to find. You can reach him at www.counterandking.co.uk

SS7

Wrong Wheel Drive

In these days of the almost universal use of front wheel drive there’s a lot to be said for proper wheel drive. Packaging and cost considerations aside, the linearity of response and steering clarity is something you notice even just driving down to the shops. Trust me, I’ve been driving rear wheel drive vehicles exclusively for more than a year.

But I also remember my past experience of the downside of the combination of turbo-diesel muscle and front wheel drive.

Imagine you’re on the way to work, and are in a queue at a busy roundabout.

And its raining.

The sequence of events goes like this: :

Spot gap in busy roundabout

1.Endeavour to accelerate briskly off line into gap
2. Turbo lag means nothing happens
3. Lots of throttle then applied; gap disappearing fast
4. Turbo spools-up; 200+ lb/ft of torque heads for front wheels
5. Head snaps back; steering goes oddly stiff
6. A nano-second later, the front wheels give up the traction battle, and the inside wheel spins, compliant suspension bushes allow spinning wheel to flail around in wheel arch
7. The Bosch ‘Traction Control system spots the spinning wheel, and cuts throttle
8. Head snaps forward, the turbo spools down. Now 20 lb/ft at front wheels.

Progress so far: 6 ft.

9. Gap almost gone, and disaster looming fast.
10. Throttle pedal now mashed to floor; turbo spools again, front tyres vapourise under the onslaught
11. Repeat steps 3 to 10 until field of view completely taken up by Seddon Atkinson badge

And breath...

….for 14 milliseconds until engine reaches end of 1200rpm power ‘band’ then frantically search for 2nd gear

SS7