Stuff About Cars

Some of you may have noticed that I added the Regtransfers blog to my Blogroll.

This one is actually worth a look. It’s not just a load of sales stuff about number plates, or company propaganda. It is pretty entertaining - even funny at times. Well worth a look IMHO.

Anyway, have a look at the Number Plates Blog and see what you think.

Ooh, one more thing… You might like to take a look at this acrylic plate and private number plates site next time you want a set of acrylics. Quick delivery, good prices and excellent quality plates. I just bought a set as water had got in between the layers of my old ones and ruined them. The ones I just got from these guys are much better.

Although I spend quite a lot of time here, banging on about cars and driving, I neither particularly like cars, nor know much about them. That is why I didn’t really have a clue why one Suzuki Jimny I saw had a strange pipe that stuck up along one side of the front windscreen. That’s odd, I thought.

Anyway, I saw the same Jimny in a car park a few days later. The driver was at the pay and display machine as I got to it, so I asked him what the strange pipe was all about.

“Oh, that’s a snorkel,” he replied.

I bit my tongue. A number of smart-arse retorts died unspoken. Instead of pushing my luck, I just asked him what it did. He told me that it raises the air intake for the engine. Oh, I said, and asked what the benefit was. He explained that it was for “off-roading”.

I realised at this point that I was, essentially, none the wiser about what the point was. Still, he seemed happy enough to chat, so I persevered and asked him how it helped with off-road driving. Suddenly he seemed a little less certain. Well, he explained, it got the air intake up where water and dirt would be less likely to get in and bugger up the filter.

OK, now we were getting somewhere.

I asked how serious the problem with dirt and water in the air intake generally was. He said that it had never actually been a problem for him, even before having the snorkel fitted. I then asked if the snorkel meant that the car could drive through deep water without conking out. Again there was that subtle uncertainty, but he said that he reckoned it could. After a pause he said that he’d not been through deep enough water to really try it.

As a fellow Jimny owner I was really quite curious as to the amphibious potential of my car, so I thought I’d risk one more question. How deep had he tried.

Well, he said, just normal puddles, really. He’d never actually driven it off-road. His wife said he ruin the car and so it had just not happened.

He was clearly both embarrassed and saddened at the thought, so I thanked him for his time and went off to the bank.

When I got back his car had gone from the car park. I like to think he threw caution to the wind and headed straight for a dirt track - or even to a reservoir with the intention of a submarine trial…

Below is a hi-definition CGI reconstruction of what such a trial might look like.

You must have seen those chaps who lurk in supermarket car parks with their little car wash barrows.

I’d previously regarded them with complete indifference. When they called over to ask “Car wash, sir?”, I’d just say no thanks then go and do my shopping. Last weekend, for some unknown reason, I caved in and let one of these fellows clean the car while I was in Sainsburys.

What can I say? He did a bloody good job, and it was no more expensive than the automatic car wash that always misses the back of my car because it can’t cope with the way the spare wheel is mounted.

Give these guys a go. It’s worth it, and you don’t have to set extra time aside to clean the car.

You may recall that I whinged about tyres a while back, and how bloody expensive they are. Well, thanks to a chap my sister put me in touch with it looks as if tyres are going to be far more affordable now. A good £30 cheaper for each tyre than some places I’ve been - even more than that when I buy more than one.

If I can just find a proper replacement indicator at a reasonable price I’ll be quite happy.

I asked Angela how she is getting on with sorting out her car problems after the accident. Well, that’s not strictly true… actually, she told me without me asking.

The progress report I received went something like:

“They don’t care about my car. They don’t care about my neck. They don’t care that I’m having to wait ages for my insurance and GAP to be sorted out. They don’t care that no one calls me back…”

Hmm, you kind of see now why I didn’t ask, eh?

Anyway, Angela has been suffering with moderate whiplash. It didn’t come on immediately, but she kind of seized up a day or two later. Below is an anatomical diagram taken from her medical report. It shows the severity of the injury, but is not suitable for those of a sensitive or squeamish disposition - or those who have no patience with whingers…

Regtransfers.co.uk has just launched its official blog at http://www.regtransfers.co.uk/blog/. This will keep their website visitors up-to-date with personal registrations news… as well as any random nonsense that just happens to appeal to their blogger’s sense of humour. While I have an abiding suspicion of corporate blogs, I know the people who do this one, and I’m expecting it to be less formal and ‘up itself’ than most.

But obviously not as good as this one.