Trump Ignorance OMG

I just heard Donald Trump bemoaning how Europe doesn't take American cars and I just shook my head. He's simply ignorant regarding the history of the US and European car production. Ford cars are seen in Europe, they're made there but have had a declining market share since they're not as good as competing brands. Likewise GM, the maker of Chevrolet, but in Europe they were Vauxhall and Opel. GM went bust and so Vauxhall and Opel were sold off. 

The failure of American car brands in Europe is the result of US incompetence and inability to make a decent car, and not because the Europeans shut them out. 

Ford v Ferrari - update

I've just found myself having to explain the movie Ford v Ferrari to someone who recently saw it on a long haul flight. The movie clearly fails in many respects as the person I spoke to had missed several key elements.

They had no idea that New Zealanders played a major part in the events depicted. New Zealand drivers won the race, and a New Zealander was one of the two drivers that came second. The person viewing the movie for the first time completely missed this and did not notice that the Bruce McLaren car was painted black and had a silver fern on the side with the letters NZ clearly displayed. 

I blogged about the movie when it came out, you can see my comments at that time here: https://kenhorlor.blogspot.com/2019/11/ford-v-ferrari-2019-movie.html

Adding to what I said in 2019, some points can be made:

1. Bruce Miles was not asked to lose the race. He was running second, but on the track he was in front of the first placed car. If the GT40's crossed the finish line as they were on the track, the photo of the cars crossing the line would be 2-1-3. They're all Fords but out of sequence. Not enough time was left for Miles to race ahead and challenge McLaren for first, so if he did that the photo would be Ford 1-3. This presents a problem, so Miles was asked to let the McLaren Ford come through to make the photo 1-2-3. 

Here's that famous photo:

Ford GT40 1966 1-2-3 Finish

2. The winning GT40 was completely rebuilt by McLaren. He asked that a GT40 be delivered to him and then he stripped it and put it back together in its winning format. This is never mentioned in the movie, we are led to believe that Carroll Shelby supplied the winning car to Bruce McLaren. Not so, Ford made the car, Shelby helped design it, but the race configuration was all McLaren - as you'd expect.

I feel my early criticism is justified as the movie has failed to age well. Yes, I get that it's about the conflict of personalities between Miles and Shelby, then Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari. But leaving out more about the great Bruce McLaren misses the mark as his setup and driving won the race and made Henry Ford II's vengeance real. 

Why Electric Cars Are No Good

Forget Elon Musk. Ignore the hype around battery powered electric cars. An electric battery powered automobile is a poor option at any price and I'll tell you why.

But first, before doing that let's consider the mineral fuel burning internal combustion engine powered car. It is brilliant. Henry Ford was onto something when he mastered its mass production and brought freedom to planet Earth. Yes, freedom. Suddenly, the average Joe or Janet could go anywhere and often did. In a matter of minutes you can put enough energy into a car to get you clear across the country. That's a lot of energy.

And cars have got better over time. So good in fact they're now five star hotels on wheels. I'm surprised they can't perform minor medical procedures on the occupants as they drive along, that's how good they are. Running out of fuel is rarely a risk as, wait for it, there are filling stations everywhere and the fuel itself is plentiful and cheap. The alternatives are also pretty cheap whether that be bio-fuels or coal to oil, or even coal gas. You get the idea.

Now along comes the so-called planet friendly option. The battery powered electric vehicle. It's not new in fact, the option has been explored time and again and it always fails. It will fail now, things haven't changed that much.

First, let's consider the battery itself. It consumes valuable minerals that are hard to mine and places them in a box. The battery then wears out pretty fast. Compared to a gasoline powered car, that's very fast. Batteries lose their get up and go. And then they die. When they die the battery has to be recycled, and the car owner has to buy a replacement or throw the car away. Do you want to throw your battery powered car away after 5-6 years?

Second, the battery is a store of energy like the fuel tank on its competitor. But it's a poor store of energy; batteries are fast to discharge and slow to charge. With gasoline it's the other way around. And batteries get drained fast, faster than a tank of gas. So, power to weight, rolling resistance (wet roads and icy conditions), wind and so on are big factors in how range is affected. Then when you run out of juice, that first problem kicks you in the butt. Oh dear. It's like travelling back to the days of horse and cart, where travellers had to stop at an Inn to refresh the horses, often staying overnight. Do we want to go back to that?

Third, infrastructure. How many charging points are out there and how long will it take to wait for a charging plug to become vacant? At a petrol station the queue may last a few minutes. Imagine the length of queue at electric charging points. Right now that is not an issue as so few cars are electric. But when the car fleet gets to as little as 5% of all cars, watch the road rage. It's going to be incredible.

Fourth, what do you do with a stranded battery vehicle? With a gasoline powered vehicle, you simply hitch or walk to the nearest station, buy a jerry can, fill it up, then go back to the car and pour in the gas. Voilà, you're back going again. With a battery powered car if you have no generator back-up you'd have to get a car transporter costing hundreds of dollars. An expensive mistake running out of juice that one.

Fifth, what is the resale value on that battery powered car?

Sixth,  have you had enough already?

What may work are hybrids and plugin hybrids. Or even electric cars with back-up generators on board, used solely to boost range. But purely electric is a fad pure and simple.

What are the advantages of electric? Well, as someone who has worked with electric powered equipment all his adult life, electric power provides more grunt. Lots of it. In industrial settings electric is superior. But you never want to rely on batteries as they're a dud. Trust me. So taking that into consideration I can see inner city commercial vehicles being electric as they often are now anyway. And electric is very useful in warehousing, fork hoists are often battery powered as you don't have to vent the enclosed spaces. It's all been thought of before.

And heavy trucks may be hybrid, but then why not just use rail? Construction vehicles like excavators are often hybrid these days, that's good too, but of course much industry runs on three phase power and has done so since Adam was a cowboy.

Basically what I'm saying is that anyone who tells you that battery powered electric automobiles are the way of the future is a snake oil salesman. It's as straightforward as that.

Ken's 10 Most Underrated Cars

Here is my list of the most underrated cars. Bear in mind I'm a Kiwi and so this list will be biased toward cars that were available down under. They all held up well and I'm weighting for that fact principally, but also important is the car's utilitarian usefulness, reliability and cost of ownership. Without further ado, in ascending order:-

10. 1950's Standard Ten

A cute little car that held up well, they're still used on a daily basis in NZ, mostly by little old ladies who as we all know, know their cars. The great little Triumph Herald came later, and the Ten gets little mention as a result.

9. Lada Niva

Heh, the Suzuki Vitara copies this car, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery of course. The Niva people invented the crossover SUV with this brilliant car. It is almost never rated unless they're a serious off-road driver or German farmer.

8. 1960's Humber Super Snipe

These cars last forever and you would be foolish to discount it even today if you're looking for something cheap and indestructible.  Older versions have won just about every demolition derby, but the 60's models are great rides and are just modern enough to be acceptable still.

7. Jaguar Mk X

I just about wet myself whenever I see one of these. I've owned Jags, including a Mk1 and 1967 S-Type but always wanted a Mk X, I just never found one in good enough condition. They tended to get thrashed (they're very powerful).  A big car this.

6. Ford Ka with black bumpers (pre 1999)

Such a practical car and a good secondhand buy though you rarely see it mentioned.

5. Leyland P76 with the V8

Considered the biggest failure in Australian car manufacturing they're actually a good car. They have a boot that will take a couple of sheep.

4. Trekka

A useful New Zealand car and still in everyday use. They're powered by a Skoda engine. Usually mentioned is the Kiwi Duzgo (it does go...get it?) which was a dud to be honest, despite the hype and faithful few who promote it. Always overlooked is the Trekka, which was a success.

3. Vauxhall Velox LIP

The 6 cylinder car in the Wyvern body. Don't think about going over 70 mph and the suicide doors are a joy. Later Velox models get all the credit but this car is amazing. My father got a 1951 LIP as his first company car and he kept it until the early 1980's when he sold it for a few dollars. It was thrashed its whole life, got rarely cared for yet just kept on going.

2. Ford Anglia c. 1960

Bullet proof, just about.

1. Studebaker Champion c. 1950

My most underrated car. Reliable, robust, modern, own it today and it will go just fine.