[WhiteKnight]

Originally Posted by throttleking

forget about non-petrol heads, I was recently having a conversation with one of us (petrolhead), and I was taken aback when he told me that you can go to TATA service center and ask them to reduce the turning radius of your Safari

Well, petrolhead or not, I guess this could be done by adjusting the steering idler nuts.

[rohanjf]

Originally Posted by throttleking

forget about non-petrol heads, I was recently having a conversation with one of us (petrolhead), and I was taken aback when he told me that you can go to TATA service center and ask them to reduce the turning radius of your Safari

I'm going to prove you wrong mate :-D

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

Well, petrolhead or not, I guess this could be done by adjusting the steering idler nuts.

You are right WhiteKnight. See:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...hread-210.html

Now back to the "news" I heard recently.
A few of us men from the neighbourhood had gathered for smalltalk on the terrace of our apartment building and the topic drifted to buses. The guys started debating which among Volvo and Mercedes is more comfortable for intercity travel. Then one guy said that there are a lot of accidents involving Volvo and Mercedes buses because the drivers do not know how to drive them. He went on to say that these buses come with "retarding gear", which needs to be applied while braking. Since our drivers don't know how to use that gear, the buses are still travelling fast when they collide, and the damage is huge.

I tried explaining him the speed retarder feature, but he ignored me and continued explaining to others how "retarding gear" works. Ignorance is bliss!

[avisidhu]

Went to a car wash.....guy looks at the Safari and starts discussing about which vehicle he should buy for off roading. Then another one chips in and tells him, "you should buy the new 'Scorpio CRV', it is so refined." The other guy even tried to correct him as to whether he meant the Mhawk one, but he was pretty confident it's the "Scorpio CRV".
Well, what can one say at such a juncture but just shut up and nod your head.

Another one in our office got a Fabia for his brother, and proceeds to inform everyone that the Tdi engine in Fabia is better than the Polo one, since the Fabia's is a "CR" one. One being asked what CR stands for, he confidently states "Ohh I mean it's a common rail engine".

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by avisidhu

...since the Fabia's is a "CR" one.

What does it actually stand for ?

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

What does it actually stand for ?

The point being, then what is the Polo one

[speedmiester]

Just overheard this gem of an advice from my co-worker.

Co-worker 1: I am not getting more than 11-12kmpl on my new swift( bought less than a month ago). I don't know what to do, is it always like this.

Co-worker 2: Don't worry, let the carbon build up more in the engine, you will get more mileage.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

Just overheard this gem of an advice from my co-worker.

Co-worker 1: I am not getting more than 11-12kmpl on my new swift( bought less than a month ago). I don't know what to do, is it always like this.

Co-worker 2: Don't worry, let the carbon build up more in the engine, you will get more mileage.

easy.
more carbon in the engine, less volume for fuel.
mileage up!

even better is put some water in teh cylinders.
fill half the cylinder with water, mileage doubles, direct proportion.

[torquecurve]

Originally Posted by architect

9. It is better to buy a car with disc brakes on all four wheels than on two (a sub-rule of the above that was very prevalent in the two-wheeler market till a few years ago was that bikes with front discs are dangerous).

There are many more, but these are the most difficult ones.

The Disk brakes funda that people had stemmed from two of the earliest 'disk brake' bikes viz. the CBZ and Pulsar Gen1. The pulsar had drint disks which locked up easily and led to many a spill and er..crotch crushers. When I ride the Hunk, I instinctively use the front disks before the rear brakes. Once I told a friend this (who has a discover135) and he was like 'Man, you have lost it you will crash for sure, I have crashed because I used the disks they are useless!).

A very recent incident that comes to mind was a so called 'petrol head' friend saying the Jazz is an amazing car because of the flexible seats. You can even turn them around and face each other (er. what will the driver do?). Anyways he was saying that the passenger can turn around and when the car is stationary with engine off the driver can also do that!

All efforts to prove otherwise were futile!

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by torquecurve

..Once I told a friend this (who has a discover135) and he was like 'Man, you have lost it you will crash for sure, I have crashed because I used the disks they are useless!).

Can't really blame him - there are many instances where people fall down due to the disc brakes being applied in gravel / sand etc [especially if the handle is NOT straight while braking]. One reason is they give full pressure on the disc just the way they use drum brakes.

Also mechanics suggest that both the brakes be applied at the same time for a safe stopping! Am not a biker, so please don't flame me.

[akshay380]

Some words I usually heard when I was a kid, growing up in Goa. Doubt how it is now.

Chok-op-sers
wash pump
pick-up: can the vehicle go above 100?
e-steering Usually e was attached to many words, like escrew driver etc

[throttleking]

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

Well, petrolhead or not, I guess this could be done by adjusting the steering idler nuts.

Originally Posted by rohanjf

I'm going to prove you wrong mate :-D

Turning radius can be adjusted but cannot be reduced. Let me attempt to explain this. I believe steering idler nuts will help you set the turning radius for right hand side and left hand side, usually in right hand drive condition turning capability is more when you take the complete U turn, in this case left side complete U turn will eat more space. Similarly if the left side turning is adjusted to take up less circle, obviously right side will be more. But by no means i think you can reduce the turning radius. Moreover its only a small adjustment that is possible. If it was possible to reduce the radius then why don't manufactures pre-adjust this thing before delivery?

[Maverick0129]

Ford Fiesta's automatic transmission: Will this be a tipping point in India's world of clutch & gear driving? - Page3 - The Economic Times

According to the author "Anti-braking system was a feature available only in high end cars but today the feature that improves vehicle control is available in widely sold compact cars"

How can an "anti braking system" improve vehicle control?? that's an illogical statement!You would expect journalists to do some research or atleast use common sense before publishing an article.

[DudeWithaFiat]

One of my friends who was talking about the tubeless tyres on his i20: "There is no much difference between tubeless and tubed tyres. In tubeless tyres, they actually paste the tube inside the tyre and that way the tube will appear as part of the tyre and will not be required to be taken out in any case" .

[Shivank]

Incident 1: About a month ago, saw an Esteem crashed onto the divider. It was dark and the divider had no reflectors or markings at all. So, that was inevitable to happen. I was on the bike, but because everyone hauled up to catch a glimpse of the car, the pace of the traffic had slowed down. Meanwhile, it made for a funny sighting!

The car was lying in such a way that rear tires were on the road and the front were air-borne. A group of volunteers were pushing the car from front so that it'd get back on the road. One of them was shouting at the driver, "Race detey raho (keep revving)!" And the driver was literally revving the nuts off that car. The front wheels were spinning madly and hopelessly in the air. Alas! the crowd waited anxiously for the rear tires to spin, which never really happened. Most of them gave the driver gestures like not-enough or were showing him how inefficient he's behind the wheel. The last thing I remember was someone asking him to get out of the car!

I read the newspaper the next day, and I was happy not to find some news like ' Mad Restless Driver mowed XX people'!

Incident 2: Two of my class-mates were discussing about drifts and their machines-the Camry and the Civic. My fault was that I tried to be smart alec by interrupting them in between, and telling them that a FWD car can't drift. I mean a Scandinavian flick or J-turn is totally different from what we have seen in Tokyo Drift or Top Gear, isn't it? That was my point. One of them burst out laughing and told me, who told you that the Camry or Civic is a FWD, it's RWD! The other one pointed-We drive these cars so we know better! I tried to prove my point but, gosh, they were so confident about it that they wouldn't even listen. That was like the shock of my life, really. So much so that even after knowing the truth I had to Google out Camry and Civic's layout!

I proved my point later the next day with the help of a few magazines. However, I still salute the confidence they showed on Day 1. They made me question my own knowledge!

[BANDHAV]

^^Even I overheard a discussion very recently where three young guys were discussing about drifting. One of them was telling the other that "he did a drift in his Honda City in some malls parking corridor".

I wanted to chip in and tell them front wheel drive cars can't be drifted but they were really happy discussing all that, so decided not to break their bubble.