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Comments
The SI dealer isn't participating??
Mark
Lovers of cars and the English language will be saddened by the news of the death from cancer on Sept 7 of British auto journalist and author Leonard Setright. He was 74 years old.
Setright was more than a writer about automobiles; he was a rabbinical scholar, a lawyer, and a musician, whose intellect showed in everything he wrote.
He came to prominence in the field of cars with the mold-breaking British magazine Car in the 1960's. His articles appeared under the by-line of L.J.K. Setright, and it was only later in his life that Leonard John Kensell Setright dropped the initials in favor of his given name.
Setright's erudite and sometimes wordy style fitted in well with the style of Car, which at the time was unique in automobile journalism. His columns, road tests, and technical articles were a major element in the magazine's success. Car influenced automobile magazines across the world, and as the recognition of Car spread so did Setright's reputation.
Although he had not trained as an engineer, he was able to discuss technology with engineers at the highest levels in the industry, and his knowledge of tire design made tire industry executives hold him in awe.
In addition to his contributions to newspapers and magazines, Setright was the author of many books, including those on his preferred brand, the British Bristol. In conversation he was as informed, self-assured, and eloquent as he was on the page, but he was better behind the pen than behind the wheel, where he always showed a tendency to examine the outer limits of a car's performance with little respect for his passengers' peace of mind.
A strange combination of aloofness and good company, he will be missed by those who knew him and by the many more who knew him only through his writing. -Ian Norris
Setwright is without a doubt the most enjoyable automotive I have ever read. Think of P.J. Wodehouse as being a gearhead, and you sort of get the picture. A brilliant and funny writer. Nobody—and I mean NOBODY—had a better grasp of the English language than did L.J.K. Setwright. The automotive community has lost a truly great writer. RIP.
Bob
2.5L turbo whomps that engine sooooo bad btw
~Colin
Most manufacturers showed a steady decline in the number of problems from the first through the third year. Interestingly, both Honda and Subaru showed a decrease in the second year, but an increase in the third to levels close or above the first year. Completely bucking the trend was Nissan with the first year showing the most reliability!
From a absolute value, the Japanese manufacturers showed the lowest first-year problems and the smallest change over the three years. The biggest swing came from BMW. They showed the highest number of problems of the models surveyed and subsequently the biggest improvement by year 3 to levels close to Japanese makes!
Ken
Is the Bronx dealer Milea?
If so, a couple words of warning -- one, the Subaru arm of it (it's primarily Pontiac/Buick/GMC) is really, really, really small. They have two Subaru salesmen and an inventory of maybe 12-15 Subies. Thinking from a good customer etiquette standpoint, it might not be the coolest thing in the world to tie them up with a 24 hr test drive if you have absolutely no intention of buying from them.
That said, I wouldn't recommend that you buy from them anyway, at least not if you like to have the car serviced where you buy. I made the mistake of not checking out the service department before buying my Forester in 04 (the sales process went great, fwiw). I went there for my 3000-mile oil change and they didn't get to my car (7:00 am appointment) until 9:30 and didn't FINISH it until 10:30. Their waiting area is just awful -- no tables, just a handful of chairs, insanely overcrowded -- and the car had grease all over the driver's armrest when I got it back.
Needless to say, that was that. I go to Town Motors in Englewood, NJ, for service now, and it's worth the trip over the river. The weird thing is that I live (Riverdale) MUCH closer to Town and to Smith Cairns (Yonkers) than I do Milea, but when I searched the Subaru site, they came back with Milea when I used the "Get a price" function. Go figure.
And it's ridiculous for the Jersey dealers to exclude you because you're from NYC. Their car would be less likely to succumb to theft, an accident, or an act of insurance fraud while garaged in SI than in most of NJ. Just look at the insurance rates.
10.7 isn't low compression, though. Let's see what the Subaru engineers say.
Ken: you never learn, Mr. I Love v1.0!
-juice
Also, now that I've seen that there were very few (at least visible ones) changes in the 2006 model, I'm more than happy with my decision.
Hey, wait. Sandy's at least V1.1!
Ken
I'd pick up a used '05 Legacy 2.5i Limited auto sedan for my wife in a second, though.
-juice
Actually, I like the looks of the 05s better. I saw an 06 recently and they've chromed out the entire headlight assembly:
http://www.cars101.com/subaru/legacy/legacy2006photos.html
The 05 headlights with the black surround look a little more distinctive, IMO.
Ken
Setright was one of those writers who initialy irritate, appearing to believe that wordiness translates to worth. I suspect for a long time that he was pad by the word, a la Dickens. With time I came to enjoy his learned articles in Car although I will admit to writing to Car suggesting that he could benefit from heavy editing.
I recently read "Drive On! A Social History of the Motor Car" which is the most comprehensive review of the development of the motor car and its interface with society. As with all social history there are major aspects of his analysis which appear suspect but eh breadth of his survey and the detail contained init, were breathtaking. I've been contempating reviewing it for these pages for about a year.
If you have the opportunity to get hold of a copy it is a fascinating,if heavy (physically and metaphorically) read.
Setright was one of those exquisitely eccentric men that seem only to exist in England.By qualification a lawyer, he was self taught in the areas of technology where he would apply a lawyer's analytical disective skills to tear apart wordy arguments from various experts, ultimately arriving at a better understanding than any of the experts he interviewed. The difficulty this presented was that he became more expert than the experts in defined narrow areas of automotive engineeering.
What a pity to see such a learned man die so comparatively young.
Cheers
Graham
http://researchernews.larc.nasa.gov/archives/2005/90905/aldf.html
It's pretty cool to see in action. At the end of the test track, they have a bunch of arresting cables, and all kinds of berms and bunkers to contain the test sled if the brakes fail. 54 tons moving at 173 mph is an amazing sight to see.
Craig
Holy moly! I'd love to see something like that!
Ken
I commented in another thread here at Edmunds that whenever you came upon a Setwright piece of writing, your were about to partake in a journey unlike any you have taken before. The man's depth of knowledge on virtually anything was astounding. Not only was he a lawyer, but also a rabbinical scholar and a musician. Certainly not your average automotive scribe, for sure.
Bob
Tribeca has been getting all the attention but the fact is I'm sure my wife would be more than thrilled with a Legacy sedan. Since we now own a beach condo, we rarely have to pack very much. Plus we only take one road trip per year to CT, and we could rent a van if we had to.
I have $100 Subaru Bucks so I'm about, oh, $22 grand away.
-juice
CRaig
"I won't argue with you about tension, I agree with that completely! It's the key to the whole pressure vessel concept."
I guess I was confused by your drawings. My first impression was that the circular drawings were the tire as viewed from the side. However, your followup drawing makes it clear that we are looking at the tire in cross section - say from the front - and only the bottom half at that.
So let's take the equations from the circular drawings:
A couple of points -
1) I think A is the area p is acting on - which would be the diameter of the circle (times the unit depth in or out of the screen.)
2) G is shown as touching at a point. Obviously that is not true, because the cross section of tires isn't circular in shape. Well, that's todays answer, but early tires were indeed tubes that were put into contoured rims, so there is no reason not to use this shape for discussion purposes.
So if we assume a rigid body of the pressure vessel (in the case of a tire a rather poor assumption), then the ground contact would be a point - or at least very small. And if we build a tread onto the vessel so that we have some substantial contact with the ground, we could build the area of contact any width we wanted, so G = (ground contact pressure) X (tread width) X (unit depth).
and: G = pA -T
Meaning the ground contact pressure is independent of the inflation pressure.
BTW, the Boeing publication you cited earlier (had a little trouble downloading it) is obviously referring to bias ply tires (the 1.6 elliptical footprint was the clue). Radial tires behave quite differently and the belt has a profound effect on the footprint. Most designers are trying to achieve footprints that are close to rectangular or perhaps with a slight hexagonal shape where one of the points of the hexagonal is the leading edge in the center of the tread for improved hydroplaning resistance.
Hope this helps.
2) right, and again this is a case where the real ground reaction is really a pressure over an area, but we simplify it to an integrated force. Either would work.
G=pA-T=constant is correct, and keep in mind it's due to the fact that G=W. No matter how the tire is inflated, or deforms or behaves, the ground reaction always has to equal the applied load (W in this case) to stay in static equilibrium. This happens no matter if the tire is rigid or not.
You are correct, the contact patches I measured on my S2K front tire were indeed nearly rectangular. Here's an example:
(the tire smudge is faint in the image, but visible; unfortunately the graph paper rules don't show).
Craig
"And if we build a tread onto the vessel so that we have some substantial contact with the ground, we could build the area of contact any width we wanted, so G = (ground contact pressure) X (tread width) X (unit depth).
and: G = pA -T
Meaning the ground contact pressure is independent of the inflation pressure."
Agree / Disagree???
I do agree that "G" is independent of the pressure and/or area. It's always got to equal W.
Craig
The p is the same, but I think the area is different. So I think I've found were we have a disagreement.
But more importantly: "I do agree that "G" is independent of the pressure and/or area." which I think is what I was saying at the beginning - that the pressure in the footprint of a tire is not equal to the inflation pressure.
I'm searching through some old "Tire Science and Technology" magazine issues to find someone who has measured accurately measured a footprint. I found one some years ago for a truck tire, but can't seem to locate the article at the moment.
it has a very BMW-ish beltline. the traditional Evo hood vent is there too but it's revised.
~Colin.
Craig
I like it.
Hopefully the whole Lancer lineup will look like that, the current non-EVOs look nasty.
-juice
I have not been a fan of the Z4's styling, but I have to say that adding this hard roof improves the looks 100%. The improvement is like night and day IMO.
Bob
-juice
Though a lot of folks are gaga over the Porsche Cayman, so who knows?
-juice
Yeah, and I'm one of them.
Bob
Anything that impractical should be totally impractical and have a soft top.
-juice
http://www.fast-autos.net/porsche/porsche904.html
http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/frame.php?file=car.php&carnum=640
Bob
I think it's a minor improvement, but I wouldn't even call it attractive. Guess I'm neutral about it.
-juice
Bob
3 rows! Though I doubt that 3rd row has any foot space. Neat how it folds back like the Sienna, also.
I'm impressed. Seems a little narrow, so it might be Grand Vitara XL7 sized more than anything.
Torque is class-leading, above the Forester turbo even.
-juice
~Colin
Bob
Between this, the new Rav4, and the new Civic, Subaru really has their work cut out for them in the next few years.
Bob
http://automobilemag.com/auto_shows/frankfurt/0509_volkswagen_eos/
Bob
Bob
Eos looks great, best new age VW design IMO. The Jetta looks too Asian, the Passat is just too long with huge overhangs. The Eos looks just right.
It's supposed to start at under $30k with the 2.0FSI engine, if so that'll be competitive. Right now all you have is the soft Sebring or the even softer Avalon in that segment. Beyond that the Mustang is too brute and the lux brands cost too much.
It's the first VW to interest me in a long time.
-juice
Juice - huge overhangs are a result of the new European pedestrian safety regulations I understand.
-Dave