Lpgc wrote:

Just P38's? A local guy (used to run a car paint shop) collects old military vehicles, tanks etc, probably has something that looks like a half track but would guess they're not allowed. In fact, would they be OK about a convoy going anyway?

Once you get East of Warsaw, old WW2 military vehicles are still in daily use but we wouldn't want anything like that slowing us down. Don't see why anyone would object to a convoy, as long as it wasn't old military trucks, they might think they were being invaded again.......

Yes, odd that. My Vredesteins came from Germany and the pair of Avons bought a couple of weeks ago for the other half's Merc, came from the UK. However, despite Avon being a British company and OE tyre supplier to Aston Martin, the tyres themselves were manufactured in Slovenia. Work that one out?

Sorry, the history suggests reference has only just sunk in. As we won't be setting off until March-April time next year, this autumn won't be possible, but I bloody hope next autumn is......

Sounds vaguely familiar but on a cold or hot start if the MAF is diconnected. Cranks for quite a while, eventually starts with a bit of pumping on the throttle and after a few seconds of holding the revs up will idle and run OK (ish). Never seen an O ring on the MAF, can't find one listed on Microcat and the only time I've ever seen one mentioned was on the other side. Could it be an iffy connection on the MAF or the wiring to it?

Not really. Taking the direct route was the best option until the E30 was closed off, now it isn't possible. Never had any problems getting fuel anywhere, no more difficult, and in some countries easier, than here (and cheaper everywhere except France too). Get off the ferry at Calais, head East. Go through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and into Poland, turn left at Warsaw, exit Poland, go though Lithuania and into Latvia. Arrive at Dina's parent's at Saulkrasti and stay there for a couple of days. That bit I've done 3 times already so nothing out of the ordinary, just check the fluids and tyre pressures before setting off and fill it with GPL, LPG or Gaz (depending on what country I'm in) every couple of hours or so. As for the next bit, stick to the main roads and just follow the signs saying Pskov(RUS) into Estonia then shortly afterwards cross the border into Russia. At Pskov, turn left towards St Petersburg. Only difference is once I'm over the border I'm on the lookout for signs for places selling газ (gas in Cyrillic). No more planning than any other 4,000 mile round trip really, that's what sat navs are for......

No, Belarussians can still cross the border but nobody else in protest at EU sanctions against Russia. As using the E30 through Belarus is the only really direct route from Europe to Moscow, they've blocked it. So if you have a need to drive to Moscow you now have to go the long way round via either Lithuania and Latvia or the southern route via Ukraine. As we will be going to St Petersburg first, we'll go up the E77 just entering into Estonia then over the border, pick up the E95 at Pskov and north to St Petersburg.

You can't do the E30 these days. It runs from Cork but you pick it up somewhere near Osnabruk, run past Berlin, to Warsaw, then into Belarus and to Minsk and finally on to Moscow. I've used it recently as far as Warsaw (then turned left to head north) and in the past as far as Minsk but that is as far as you can go now. The border post between Belarus and Russia has been closed to non-CIS (Commonwealth of Independant States) Nationals since 2017 with no plans to re-open it. I'll be going via Latvia and Estonia and into Russia from there.

Shouldn't be a problem. As the fronts run at a lower pressure the rolling circumference will be very slightly smaller anyway, that's what the viscous is there to do. After 10k the rears won't have lost that much tread depth I wouldn't have thought.

Morat wrote:

the bottom line is that most of the journeys are holidays and we really don't need them.

But surely that's what the car is for? Got a trip to St Petersburgh planned for next spring so figured that while I've got a Russian visa, I may as well have a run to Moscow. Purely to get a photo of the P38 on Red Square.......

Lots of options here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf_bA6MNTtA

Lpgc wrote:

Should invent a small petrol engine'd vac, would only need a petrol tank of a few millilitres to have the same power and running time as the Dyson and I could clean up emissions by converting to run on a lighter refill canister ;-)

Sounds like a plan to me but where would you find the motor? I've got a hedge trimmer powered by a 36cc engine and a strimmer/brush cutter with a 49cc motor but both are two stroke. So how do you get the oil in with the fuel if running on gas? I've also got a motor mower but a vac powered by a 149cc Briggs and Stratton might be a bit cumbersome......

It's gone up. When I posted the first link just over a week ago, they were in stock at £81, now Battery Megastore are showing them out of stock (again) and the price has gone up by a tenner to £91! But they'll still sell you one via eBay for £97. Bugger, should have got one last week.....

davew wrote:

Realise you are just being a bit provocative there Richard, but, whilst we are bringing back lead,

Not really, just making the point that had it not been for the research back in the 1980's that resulted in it being mandated that at first lead should be reduced and then removed completely, we would still be running around with lead in fuel. That may well have not resulted in the other changes over the years bought about by the knock on effects.

On the Dyson point, I've never quite got my head around the concept of a digital motor. Digital, as opposed to analogue, means it has only two states, on of off or up or down. So how can something that generates movement be digital? Digitally controlled, yes but not digital.

Most decisions have been taken by successive Governements as knee jerk reactions to whatever the latest research says. Back in the old days, petrol had lead in it but research found that many children with retarded brain development had a higher than normal level of lead in their bodies. Ignoring the fact that most paints also contained lead in those days and kids have a habit of chewing on things, someone advised the Government of the day that it was down to the lead in the atmosphere from vehicle exhausts. So, they told the fuel companies that they had to remove the lead, which they did (in stages from the original level of 4mg per litre to 1.5 mg per litre) but as the lead was there for a reason and not just because they felt like adding it, they had to add a chemical equivalent to lubricate the valves and seats. However, as this chemical was quite a complex compound when it got burnt along with the fuel it produced all sorts of chemical nasties, including some that were known to be carcinogenic. So something had to be done to get rid of them and the something was to add a catalytic converter that converted most of the nasties to nice harmless CO2. Great says everyone, so cars are now exhaling the exact same stuff as humans do which is then turned back into Oxygen by trees.

For a very short period, everyone is happy until another bit of research shows that CO2 is a greenhouse gas and too much of it is contributing to global warming so we need to reduce it. Quick fix, the Government encourages everyone to drive diesels as they produce less CO2 than petrol engines, job done. As this coincided with Peugeot producing the XU-D series of engines, the first really civilised diesel engine, the public started buying them. Encouraged by lower running costs from the economy, the public, along with fleet buyers, flocked to buy them. For a period, everything is rosy in Government land until more research shows that diesels may produce less CO2 but they also spit out particulates which are even worse than the nasties that came from burning the lead substitute additives (remember them, the ones that the cats were introduced to get rid of?). So they need to reduce those. As the emission tests are done to a set cycle which largely simulates driving in a city, simple answer. Fit a filter, the DPF, that collects the particulates when driving in the city and empty it out when the car is driven at speed for any length of time. So don't pollute the city streets but dump the crap out in the countryside instead (a sort of automotive flytipping if you like). Then came dieselgate where it turned out that manufacturers had been fiddlingthe results of the emissions tests making their diesels look far cleaner than they really were and suddenly diesel became the most disgusting fuel known to man..

So now, the answer is electric vehicles, ignoring that the electricity has to be generated somehow (producing yet more pollution) and the pollution created by the manufacture of the batteries, that's someone else's problem. Bring back the lead I say, that's what started this whole thing in the first place......

The higher the combustion temperature the more NOx is produced and it also increases if there is surplus Oxygen in the exhaust. So if an engine is running a bit on the lean side, it will run hotter and there will also be excess Oxygen left over from the combustion process. So a lean mixture will dramatically increase the NOx emissions. Maybe the one car they tested was running a bit lean?

BrianH wrote:

are banning vehicles altogether from the zones rather than allowing payment of a charge (and fining anyone who drives into them in a non-compliant vehicle instead).

Looks like the Scots are following the French model then. Under the French scheme, going into a zone (and while it started just in Paris Lyon and Grenoble, it's spreading to quite a few other cites now https://www.lez-france.fr/en/information-about-the-critair-vignette/french-environmental-zones-zcr/french-environmental-zones.html) with either a sticker for a prohibitted class or not displaying one at all, results in a €140 fine. Not sure how it is policed though, whether it is done using CCTV and looking at the colour of the sticker or whether it is by ANPR, I've no idea.

All more expensive than a Hankook from battery Megastore though. I must admit, I'm considering getting a second one. The Ascot needs a battery so I figured I'd get a new one for my car and fit the one that's been on mine in the Ascot.

The vintage looking French vans usually are just that, either Citroen H vans or Peugeot J type. Probably easier to trailer them that risk them breaking down when there's money to be made and they are bloody slow.....

Some of the vintage look vans were made by the Asquith Motor Company from Essex who used Transit running gear and came up with things like this
.
they took over a company doing something similar based in Doncaster (the Vintage Motor Company), so I suspect that's where you went.

They do look very similar except for the terminals. My understanding, having been involved with them a little at work, is that a leisure battery doesn't mind being left fully discharged but is designed to give a constant output over a long period but doesn't like being asked to supply very high current for short peroiods. Whereas a starter battery, as the Hankook is described, will quite happily give maximum output for cranking a starter. I'm sure Bolt will be able to give us chapter and verse though. All I know is that the hankook I put on mine about 3 years ago will still happily crank the engine over at a decent rate and the one I took down to my mates place in France for his P38, fired it up instantly even after the car had been left for 5 weeks.

davew wrote:

Whilst I can understand the growing NOx problems etc in the bigger cities clearly some other towns are currently (or will be..) using this as a revenue-generator scheme of course, using pollution as their primary excuse....

Which is exactly what they are doing. The French (and German) system is much better for dealing with air quality but doesn't make any revenue so would never catch on here.