One In The Eye For The Anti 4x4 Brigade

[markt]

A mate of mine borrowed another mate of mines Porsche Cayenne whilst he was vacationing for two weeks. After 24 hours with the car he had to stop driving it because, in his own words, "I'm driving like a twat and I'll probably kill myself."

Now the question raised is this, was he driving badly beacuse he was in a 4x4, or simply he had turned into a Porsche driver?

Are you seriously suggesting that 4x4s - or indeed Porsches - turn people into bad drivers?

Dunno about that, but got this the other day and made me laugh

Lighten up you lot

[Tentenths]

That's very good Mark

[Kimbers]

Thanks James for the correction....my Business Co2 book only covers the new C3 so I just considered it would be the same.....great, you make my point better than I do!!

[SMAC67]

Amateurs, if you want to run a gas guzzler get a B737-400 like I will be taking to Edinburgh later today. Fuel burn is approximately 3000kgs (3750litres, 825 imp gallons) for the first hour after take off, 2000kgs (2500litres, 550 imp gallons)per hour). So, after today I will have used another 2200 imp gallons, plus another 1 imp gallon for my Max Power Saxo. Grand total for today 2201 imp gallons, although I might just do some holding to burn some more. I will however leave the 737 at the airport and not try and take it to Tesco...

Personally, I don't care if you drive a Challenger Tank, my point is merely that like fox hunting, car ownership is a class issue [like it or not], modern civilisation and the associated economy is based on car ownership and continual movement. The last of the oil is being fought over in the Middle East, and so cheap fuel will be something consigned to history. Enjoy it whilst it lasts. Personally I hope to get a V8 before petrol reaches 10 pound a gallon.

As for the planet, well the ecology that maintains life is breaking down, whether it is down to human activity or the natural cycle of the planet I do not know nor care. Again, enjoy life in the present.

As for driving Porsche Cayenne's, well my mate normally drives a Peugeot diesel at grandad pace...he obviously went a bit crazy when he got behind the wheel of such a powerful car and scared himself silly. As an aside, his dad is a car dealer but he is so very sensible, and cheap when it comes to automobile use though.

Good discussion though. Keep the comments coming.

Stuart (737-400 driver)

Edited May 2, 2007 by SMAC67

[Evil_Dr_Fish]

Just seen another goddamed eejut on TV saynig that tackling climate change is down to the choices we as individuals make day to day .....blah blah - bunch of hippy examples.... like the way we choose to drive.... blah blah more hippy sheyite.

I wonder when we will start getting points for 'ungreen' driving styles?

[USAndretti42]

Living in the land of the SUV, I must admit that some do annoy me. People driving around in their Ford Excursions on raised suspension, unaware of what's around them can cause so much damage to me and my Lotus. But I really fancy a Range Rover. They don't take up more room than a large Mercedes or Jaguar or Lincoln Town Car and no-one is threatening to ban them yet, are they?

I agree it's a bit of a class thing so it's not so prevelent over here. At least they have off-road driving areas where you can take your quad bike or 4x4 off into the desert. Always fancied taking a brand-new RR on one of the routes in amongst all the specially modified American 4x4's. Hee hee.

You need something to tow your boat or trailer motorhome or jet skis.

[Evil_Dr_Fish]

There's a story on the BBC website today HERE

The writer goes on abut this solar power project like it's the future solution to all our problems

Quote:

"The vision is of the sun-blessed lands of the Mediterranean - even the Sahara desert - being carpeted with systems like this with the power cabled to the drizzlier lands of northern Europe. A dazzling idea in a dazzling location."

Just look at the landscape footprint of this project AND the fact that it has such a massive impact visually (ie from afar)

How much does it produce?

11 MW!

Sizewell B ALONE produces .85GW = 850MW

They would need EIGHTY of these fecking hippie encrusted shrines to produce the output of just ONE nuclear power station!

...and they think that there will be enough spare electricity to then pipe it north to the rest of europe?

CLOUD EFFING CUCKOOLAND

This sort of irrational, ill-considered thinking typifies EVERYTHING this bunch of morons touch and any conclusions they EVER draw are equally woolly and unreliable.

...That's not even taking into account the unbelievably catastrophic, economic disaster and danger of placing your nation's electricity dependency in another country!

Blackmail anyone?!

So, so, SO effing stupid.

Soap Dodging Hippies must die!

...and breathe........

[tonyp]

So wot happens when the sun goes down then ?

Cool tho', touch of 'man with the golden gun' mixed up with that mad 'sahara' film.

Wonder how quick those mirrors could be moved, you know, to track a plane, satellite or something ...

ps other car is a disco3 & boat does 2 gals to mile flat out at 50 .... oh yessssss

[Kimbers]

I watched that last night and it was hilarious!!

Hmmmm Global warming.....80% of greenhouse gasses are water vapour. How does it create electricity? By creating heat (bad enough on it's own) which is then used to boil water, driving turbines which create the elctricity. Que loads of video of loads of chimneys putting out steam into the air....erm, HELLO?????

On top of that there were liberal amounts of pictures of blighting the landscape clean of any vegitation so it doesn't effect the mirror, of the huge amount of light refraction (reporter says If I didn't wear these it could blind me) and the huge amounts of heat it generate: Quote "Just 400 of these mirrors can create up to 400 degrees of heat at the top of the tower".....and into the enviroment?

imagine what hundreds of these plants would do!!

[Evil_Dr_Fish]

.....80% of greenhouse gasses are water vapour.

...and lower in percentage, the worst gas is Methane - Most of which is given off byt the crap they talk!

I think we need to ban baked beans and all lentil munching, jesus creeper wearers!

[Paul C]

3.30pm any weekday, all the roads near schools are fulll of parents in huge 4x4

cars with words on the side like 'warrior', 'thunder', 'Highlander' etc, etc...

Only a few of these people can drive or park. The thing is intended as a big tank

to protect their kiddie when they crash it. It's like road conkers, hit a saxo and your

kid is safe as your in a big tonka truck style thing.

If we had a kid, first thing i'd do is buy a real landrover (not a gaylander or a disco).

Just so when when some moron in a smaller or equally sized tank hits me, i win the

game of road conkers, or at least survive it.

A ford Ka should be a safe runaround, IF everyone had them.

But while idiots are buying tanks to protect themselves from their own stupidity,

i want one too, as the ford Ka won't survive these morons without looking like a

pie dish.

[slade]

nothing personal, I just don't like tall things

They make it hard to see what's around me when they're caging me in on the freeway in the Esprit, they pretty much can't see smaller cars...

And I dislike the trend that "small" cars are getting bigger, fatter, and taller. SUV fashion and simply being able to assert yourself on the road are probable causes for that. SUVs are antisocial even if they make no emmissions

then again, I have a feeling the UK folk don't have to contend with monstrocities like the Excursion (now defunct), Escalade and whatnot... All those people should trade in for a Wayne wagon

Edited May 3, 2007 by slade

[Fred Basset]

Just to chip in my two penneth, we live in the fens and are being inundated with wind farms and told they provide enough power to power a small city. To which everyone locally says well put them in the small city then. The thing is that despite government denial there seems to be a link between them and increased stress level in local residents due to the noise. One local family who live 900m from a turbine have had to leave there house and it's not clear whether they will be able to sell it or claim compensation. The interesting thing is that on the wind farm near HMP Whitemarsh the nearest turbine has had to be turned off - "because it upsets the prisoners"

So yet another case of criminals having more rights than law abiding citizens in Blair's Britian.

The current building regs for houses in the UK are farcical as well, we are converting a barn and being mindful of the environment I have installed a ground source heatpump for heating and hot water. When it came to getting the SAP ratings this caused all sorts of problems. Now as the weather is getting warmer we are slightly worried, with the amount of insulation we have had to put in coupled with some of Mr Pilkington's magic glass which does not seem to let heat in or out we have the situation of a building which is so cold inside it might need to be heated during the summer. How's that for helping the environment.

As for the cars, well it's just an excuse for taxation, although in my case they seem to have got it a bit wrong. The wife's car does over 35mpg but will cost

[Evil_Dr_Fish]

Even *some* of the greens are backing away from windfarms now - having finally SEEN the damned things - they used to whine about Pylons (static and silent) - The wind turbines have the wingspan of a 747 and make an unholy racket! I can only imagine that multiplied by 100 of the buggers!

AND - unlike pylons - they whizz around (like duh) drawing attention to themselves!

They're not a bad idea for offshore.... WAY offshore... They're building one near our place in South Wales - nicely blighting the view out to sea

There's a place for all these eco contributions but there is no way in hell they will EVER be able to solve the problem - all they will be able to do is make a contribution to help reduce the amount of nuclear waste we have to make.

Hybrid reactors are the future!

[slade]

hehe... there are a ton of em between here and palm springs out in the middle of the desert they're an impressive sight at least B)

Nuclear power seems nice, but when I'm surfing at San Onofre those two big tits are a bit disconcerting right there on the water lol... (umm. what are we talking about again?)

[arbell9]

France apparently has 80(ish) Nuclear reactors and they are net exporters of electricity!

We dont have them because people are worried about safety, weird if they thing 22 miles of water will protect us if they go critical then they are sadly mistaken. Maybe their hyrogen driven fondue set has a special warp field around it , a bit like in star-trek!.

Also apparently the Fins are getting into Nuke technology in a big way. They reckon the waste when molded in glass, then encased in concrete, then in steel and put 3 miles down into the earth and left forever is reasonably safe.

Whats our beef with the hot stuff? We industrialised the world and yet we seem to be going backwards. Who is collecting methane from their bio-bog? Come-on its for the tree's you know.

[Kimbers]

OH GOD NO....................PLEASE TELL ME IT'S NOT TRUE!!!!

My own father has betrayed me..........read it and weep all....and Fishy........

Whats worse is I will be able to see them from here!

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/04/17/th...ith-wind-power/

[Jonathan]

We've had Nukes for ages, the issues are with the waste which is bloody nasty stuff and because it decays so slowly we don't really know the impact of it's usage.

Also Chernobyl (sp?) is a good example of why it needs to be controlled and the reason why not any old Joe country should have it - the fall out was global and it could have been a lot worse if the wind was not blowing in the direction it was.

Also you have the issue of using a reactor to enrich Uranium and we all know what that does, so you then have the issue of all the power being generated by a few countries and so on.

[arbell9]

so you then have the issue of all the power being generated by a few countries and so on.

Currently all the oil and gas is controlled by a few countries, many of them not so stable. It would be no different, just a nuke powerplant cartel instead of oild and gas cartel.

Dont we stick uranium in armour which then gets blown up and pollutes the poor sods country in which the bugger of a war happens to be taking place?

[Advantage]

OH GOD NO....................PLEASE TELL ME IT'S NOT TRUE!!!!

My own father has betrayed me..........read it and weep all....and Fishy........

Whats worse is I will be able to see them from here!

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/04/17/th...ith-wind-power/

Ahhh, I was chatting to MJK about this at the factory do. He said he'd been planning this for a while, after we mentioned we quite liked the offshore windfarm at Gt Yarmouth beach. (both myself and Louise find them beautiful and almost hypnotic to watch - but wouldn't want a farm on our doorstep!)

Does this mean I've out-scooped Tony?

[Evil_Dr_Fish]

nothing personal, I just don't like tall things

I forgot you don't like big things Slade... I'll bear that in mind when we come over and try not to scare you

[slade]

Hehe... just keep in mind my Princely stature and all will be well

No wonder I'm afraid to pull down my own pants

Edited May 4, 2007 by slade

[SMAC67]

We seem to have migrated from 4x4's to fossil fuels, alternative energy, and saving the planet. Personally I don't like the suburban 4x4's as they are driven by people who shouldn't be allowed in any sort of vehicle [and they keep denting my car].

Anyway, as has already been mentioned, the oil [what is left of it] is in very unstable parts of the world [something we are assisting in creating]. With increasing industrialisation of sleeping giants like China and India their is gonna be one huge bun fight in the desert for the last few drops.

Interestingly their are no real alternatives to fossil, fuel, natural gas, oil, and coal, are responsible for the last two hundred years of progress. Without them, we cannot even consider nuclear or bio fuels as an alternate. Wind farms and solar will provide a tiny fraction of our electrical requirements.

Essentially, sooner, rather than later it is gonna get cold and dark, or possibly hot and humid, it really depends where you are located.

If you really want to know why the world is the way it is the answer is pretty straightforward. 6.6 billion on a planet designed for about 1 billion. War, famine, and disease, are natures way of sorting out any pesky upstart species.

On that happy thought, I am now gonna fly to Pisa and get rid of some more of that pesky kerosene, plenty more where that comes from, or is there?

Still want a v8 before it runs out though....

Stuart

[Advantage]

Personally I don't like the suburban 4x4's as they are driven by people who shouldn't be allowed in any sort of vehicle [and they keep denting my car].

Stuart

Are you saying that because there's a TD4 Freelander and a 4.4 Range Rover on our driveway that neither Louise or I know how to drive?

Thanks.

[SMAC67]

Don't want to be controversial, but you did ask. Most people on the road can't drive particularly well. 4x4 drivers can't park either, not without using my vehicle instead of the brake pedal...

If people could drive they wouldn't need the perceived protection of a 4x4...

Stuart