2 hours ago, Guy Heaton said:

I dunno.  Changing leaf springs on a Marina was sod of a job 😂

Lol. Been there, done that, got the scars!😀

44 minutes ago, iantt said:

Wheels used to fall off Allegro's too. 

I remember the Allegro being panned for bending in the middle when it was jacked up, also being more aerodynamic in reverse than going forwards.

I never thought it was that bad a car tbh. A bit of a case of "less is more" though - a 1300 (well, 1275) was a reasonable little car to drive, but I thought the 1500/1750 with the Maxi engine and vague 5 speed box were pretty horrid and the later facelifts looked grim.

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

My mum had a Morris Minor, I loved the side pillar indicators on that car

They were called Trafficators Stephen. It must have been one of the early split-screen "Moggies" if it had those.

This thread seems to have morphed into a nostalgiafest

32 minutes ago, mjt said:

 

This thread seems to have morphed into a nostalgiafest

Always does!

To get vaguely back on topic, though. Very interested to see that JCB are trialling a hydrogen powered combustion engine derived from, and sharing many components with, their diesel engine. JCB are not convinced that batteries/fuel cells are the answer for trucks and plant, so have developed this with claimed zero CO2 and "virtually unmeasurable" NOX etc.

Only for use in larger vehicles/plant at the moment, but could possibly become viable in smaller vehicles.

Elsewhere read a very interesting interview with Carlos Tavares, top man at Stellantis, who seems very sceptical of governments rush to go battery, arguing that a wider mix of solutions would have been more effective.

He says the "battery horse has now bolted" but thinks the automotive industry ought to make clear that it was not them, but politicians, who "left the stable door open"!

 

USA, all electric Ford F-150 . $40k .  Less than £30k 

0-60 less than 5 secs 

Cheaper than a focus vignale! 

official ford advert

 

Uk petrol version

 Deranged vehicles?  Do they have mad car disease?😂😂😂

Exchange & Mart!  I had no idea they were still going...  Surely they're not still selling the magazine?

22 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Surely they're not still selling the magazine?

I think it went to online only about 10 years ago?

17 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Exchange & Mart!  I had no idea they were still going...  Surely they're not still selling the magazine?

I don’t know, was just a random search for F150 price in uk. £83 grand 😳

Must be imported from US at that price 🤔 I was thinking probably around £45k. $40k for the all electric is incredible, have a power cut ..plug your house into your car ! Lot of ford rangers up here these days but all the brands Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan, VW (?) they’re like clones of each other. Best one I’ve been in was in US ..a Lincoln Navigator, ridiculously big. 

2 minutes ago, Alex.S said:

I don’t know, was just a random search for F150 price in uk. £83 grand 😳

Must be imported from US at that price 🤔 I was thinking probably around £45k. $40k for the all electric is incredible, have a power cut ..plug your house into your car ! Lot of ford rangers up here these days but all the brands Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan, VW (?) they’re like clones of each other. Best one I’ve been in was in US ..a Lincoln Navigator, ridiculously big. 

And being a commercial, that £83k doesn't include the VAT...  

It's mostly Hilux's around here, cost about £40k or so.  There is the odd Ranger as well though, Wildtrak or Raptor costs about the same as the Hilux but looks considerably better!  

 

20 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I think it went to online only about 10 years ago?

Yep, Google suggests it went out of print in 2009. 

The odd ranger round your way? I too rarely see rangers our way. But we do 200+ new ones a week . No idea where they end up.

To bring this thread back off topic...  I wonder if any of you have a surplus electricity monitor since having a Smart Meter installed?

The electric companies used to give them away free but they no longer seem to do them.  Ideally looking for one with programmable 'off peak' times due to Economy 10 tariff.

Seem to be using a lot of electricity still even now we're nearing summer and trying to find out if anything in particular is using a lot more than expected while running.  So if anyone has one they'd sell (and post lol) drop me a PM.

 

11 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

To bring this thread back off topic...  

Lol. Tempted to say you could have ours but I wouldn't want to foist it on you!

We're on our second smart meter (the first did 2 reads then went dumb). The replacement meter seems to be working, but the supplied monitor doesn't. It must be communicating with the meter to some extent though, because the time is correct and changed when the clocks altered.

I went through the FAQs on our suppliers website and - surprise surprise - "there is a software issue which our communications network provider is working to rectify. We do not have a timescale for this".😀 

41 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

To bring this thread back off topic...  I wonder if any of you have a surplus electricity monitor since having a Smart Meter installed?

 

Tom, I have had a meter fitted for nearly 15 years now, it's not 'smart', but then again, it ain't stupid either! LOL It is connected to my electric supply by a simple clamp which then senses usage by induction. So at any time I can glance at it at see the exact cost/hour (you program in the cost) I find it enormously useful, and it's very sensitive, if I turn my garden floodlight on, it will react within a second or 2! My house 'rests' at about 8p/hour, but shoots up to over £1 if kettle/iron/oven firing on all cylinders LOL You can still get 'Owl' meters but I guess they'll have 'improved' them by now, which no doubt, will have made them worse...

 

Back on topic.😀 Reading the papers while having a cuppa, I came across a report of findings by the Natural History Museum earth sciences department.

They calculate that to switch the UKs 31.5mi!lion ICE vehicles to battery electric will require:

207,900 tonnes of cobalt (current annual world production)

264,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate (three quarters of the current annual world production)

7,200 tonnes of neodymium and dysprosium (current annual world production)

2,362,500 tonnes of copper 

(The article doesn't give a proportion of world production for copper but I believe  it's about 18,000,000 tonnes a year, so about 13% of annual production).

They suggest the world-wide transition would require scaling up those amounts about 40 times.

The underlying point of the article was to meet this demand we need to exploit our own resources in the UK - there is lithium in Cornwall and the Cairngorms, and copper in North Wales, for example.

30 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

You can still get 'Owl' meters but I guess they'll have 'improved' them by now, which no doubt, will have made them worse...

That looks really good Stephen.

https://www.theowl.com/index.php/energy-monitors/standalone-monitors/owl-micro/

Only snag seems to be they sell for around £55 on Amazon.

7 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Only snag seems to be they sell for around £55 on Amazon.

This Ebay link will get out of date real quick, but not a bad price @ £25!

 

43 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Tom, I have had a meter fitted for nearly 15 years now, it's not 'smart', but then again, it ain't stupid either! LOL It is connected to my electric supply by a simple clamp which then senses usage by induction. So at any time I can glance at it at see the exact cost/hour (you program in the cost) I find it enormously useful, and it's very sensitive, if I turn my garden floodlight on, it will react within a second or 2! My house 'rests' at about 8p/hour, but shoots up to over £1 if kettle/iron/oven firing on all cylinders LOL You can still get 'Owl' meters but I guess they'll have 'improved' them by now, which no doubt, will have made them worse...

 

Yeah, that's the sort of thing I mean.  They used to be given out free before the Smart Meter rollout!

Can you programme off-peak times into that one?

2 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Can you programme off-peak times into that one?

Afraid not Tom, maybe it is kinda dumb LOL

24 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

That looks really good Stephen.

https://www.theowl.com/index.php/energy-monitors/standalone-monitors/owl-micro/

Only snag seems to be they sell for around £55 on Amazon.

Only £49.95 on Smart Green Shop though, bargain!  Should pay for it itself in just a few years.  

8 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Only £49.95 on Smart Green Shop though, bargain!  Should pay for it itself in just a few years.  

I couldn't get the link to SGS on the Owl website to work. Went straight to Amazon though. Hmm.....

Just now, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I couldn't get the link to SGS on the Owl website to work. Went straight to Amazon though. Hmm.....

Nor me, I Googled SGS lol.  Either way, I'm too tight to pay that much for one!  

Just thought someone may still have an old one from an energy company.  I did have an Eon one a few years ago but the sensor base got damp in the meter cupboard and fried some components.  

7 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

 Either way, I'm too tight to pay that much for one!  

 

I'll keep my eyes open, I sometimes see them new, boxed, in charity shops for about £5/£10!

5 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

I'll keep my eyes open, I sometimes see them new, boxed, in charity shops for about £5/£10!

Thanks.  I'm watching a couple on ebay too...