Ignorant wannabe environmentalists

Having just filled up my 200tdi 90 at the Tescos filling station I started the engine back up to drive off with the usual small puff of engine startup smoke. Just before I pulled away some woman in her late

50s/60s started shouting at me "the smoke that thing puts out is bloody disgusting", I said "it's a direct injection diesel, it's just a characteristic of the engine, they all do it", she then started screaming abut how irresponsible it was to drive "a car like that, it's criminal" I said "look it's only a small puff at startup is it smoking now?" Then she went off on another rant so I told her "to go f**k herself and drove off" (wouldn't usually use such language to a member of the public but she seriously pissed me off). The fact that her brand new nissan micra produced more pollution being manufactured than running a 200tdi 90 for 10 years didn't seem to concern her, was tempthed to reverse over her and her stupid toy car. Is there a Land Rover certified taser weapon I can purchase to teach these people a lesson or would it be hazzardous to use such a device on a filling station forecourt?

Fergus

Reply to
Fergus Kendall
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Women of that age often get bees in their bonnets about stuff - look at all the middle-aged women on an animal "rights" demonstration. The fact that you were (I'm guessing here) younger than her, male and probably looking a bit butch in the old 90 made you a challenge. She had a go, but your using that kind of language, perhaps understandably, confirmed her prejudices. She'll be off right now telling all her enviro-mates how awful young people (ie under 60) are, especially males, and especially 4x4 drivers.

Next time, keep your cool and persist with the explanation. Total lifetime pollution costs is a concept that the environuts are slowly coming round to, and explained carefully and sympathetically might have turned you from an enemy into a friend. Or if you were really ticked off, you could p*ss in her tank, reverse over the Micra, and pour your spare EP90 into her hair.

And if you go for the Land Rover tazer, make sure it's a Genuine Parts one. Some of the aftermarket units only cause superficial wounds.

Reply to
Richard Brookman

"Yeah. Great isn't it?" blips throttle

"Not yet darling, Not yet"

Laugh

Then when she finally explodes with a heart attack you jump out and save the day with your CPR skills and she has to put up with all her family telling her about that "nice young man in the garage" who saved her life for the next couple of years.

Never play somebody else's game if it's not yours too or they win.

nigelH

Reply to
Nigel Hewitt

We had one down a lane where she complained about our horrid smelly diesel motors ruining everything. I stepped out of the vehicle and showed her round our 3 vehicles, a club members 1992 200 TDi Disco (nasty smelly thing she said), a club members 1981 2.25 petrol lightweight (a horrid old thing, shouldn't be allowed on the road at that age), and my hybrid, running LPG and I had the straight though pipe fitted (oh well, at least you're on environmentally friendly fuel). Her vehicle of choice was a 7 series bmw, which completely confirmed everything I knew and thought about bmw drivers.....

She was a local, but claimed to know nothing about the tree which had been laid across the lane with the sign saying "Our Lane is not for recreational use"....

We set off, with her moaning about the cloud of smoke from the TDi at start up, the smell of petrol from a slightly over rich 2.25, but when I floored the V8 and let it bark at her, she smiled! Go figure......

Somewhere I have photos of the lane and the woman, and will endeavour to publish them when I get round to completing the current update to the club website!

-- Simon Isaacs

Peterborough 4x4 Club Vice Chairman, Newsletter Editor and Webmaster (how much more....)

3.5V8 100" Hybrid, now LPG converted Part owner of 1976 S3 LWT, Fully restored, waiting on the appointment with the nice man at the MOT station! Suzuki SJ410 (Fiancée's) 3" lift kit fitted, body shell now restored and mounted on chassis, waiting on a windscreen and MOT Series 3 88" Rolling chassis...what to do next 1993 200 TDi Discovery (the Pug 106 is dead, long live the Pug)

Peterborough 4x4 Club

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Reply to
Simon Isaacs

I would have started with "to go f**k herself" and just left it at that.

Pete

us colonials are so uncouth

"Then she went off on another rant so I told her "to go

Reply to
Peter

I had someone launch into a tirade recently against me.

I'm a bit of an oddity, I have a Disco, I live in SE London, but I'm also still an active member of the Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team, and have a number of things in my car that the observant passer-by might use as clues to deduce this. The biggest being two large hi-vis jackets with "MOUNTAIN RESCUE" on the back of them that are clearly visible.

I was approached in a car park where a woman started berating me quite rudely for having an eco-unfriendly and large vehicle in a place like London when it was far from necessary, there being no fields or country lanes in London[1]. She then started querying as to why I drove such a vehicle and postulated on an apparent personality disorder and the possible size of certain parts of my anatomy.

I smiled at her through this, loading my shopping and when she'd finished, asked her quietly to come and look in the back of my car, where my rcuksack, boots and hi-viz jacket were staring her in the face. I pointed out that in my spare time I drag myself onto mountains for hours at a time rescuing and searching for injured and vulnerable people. I pointed out that I did this for nothing, in fact I *pay* to do it, and I'm sure that if *her* child or parent were missing, she'd be glad I had such a vehicle to help me get to where I needed to be, regardless of the weather or road conditions.

At this point she looked very embarassed and found something rather interesting in her shoes. I gave her a bit of a telling off for doing something with such obvious lack of thought, and asked her if she was feeling sorry to donate some money to the MR on the website.

I left her looking rather sheepish. *grin*

Ta, Aled.

[1] Though with the state of the roads and drainage, I'm quite glad I have it at times.
Reply to
Aled

On or around Tue, 17 Aug 2004 04:43:04 +0100, Aled enlightened us thusly:

nice one.

as has been pointed out, by some, a discovery (for example) takes up no more roadspace and probably uses not much more fuel than a Sharalahambra people-carrier, and since it will typically be on the road about twice the years/milage of the latter, it'll probably use less resources overall.

Worth asking the whingers what they drive. If they say something big and thirsty like a merc or summat, you've got 'em. If they say a 2CV then you've still got 'em, 'cos the 2CV predates all the emission legislation, and even the most recent don't meet modern standards, which is one reason why they stopped making 'em.

'course, if they come back with "Actually, I ride a bicycle" then they've rather got you, but you can point out that their bicycle can't carry 6 passengers...

My disco does (in term time) get used to carry 6 schoolkids from remote areas to school.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

Could be worse. He could have a bug up his ass about it. :)

Cheers, Aled (hoping that this is a saying known outside of rural Indiana, otherwise he's in real trouble).

Reply to
Aled

Roughing it out on the back of an envelope I'd say not quite... and you mustn't let the driver breath or we're way down.

nigelH

Reply to
Nigel Hewitt

Didn't somebody once prove that cyclist emits more CO2/mile than a petrol engine?

Alex

Reply to
Alex

How do you do it ? Do you assume the fuel consumption/mile and a stoichiometric burn ?

Steve

Reply to
Steve Taylor

But remember to remove their lambda probes, immerse in a volatile solvent, blow dry with a high pressure airline and torque on fitment! Badger.

Reply to
Badger

I was totally wrong. I lost a couple of zeros in the conversions.

Done again properly

Riding a bike. Let's say the same as a diver finning reasonably hard as I know these numbers for a diving rebreather so using the consumption figures of 1L of oxygen per minute (what the RN test rebreathers to be able to do).

The CO2 scrubber expects to get about 66% of that back (most of the rest is water) so for Carbon-12 and Oxygen-16

1L O2 = 1.27gms 66% of that is 0.84gms so that makes 1.15 gm/minute of CO2 10mph so 6 minutes is roughly 7gms

Car Lets say 20mpg for a Rangie Pretend it is Octane not a brew of hydrocarbons

1 gallon (UK) is 4.5L so at 0.7Kg/L is 3.15Kg

so a twentieth of that (1 mile) is 157gms

of that C8H18 96/114 is carbon so 132gms of carbon so *44/12 to get CO2 = 484gms of CO2

Even on a 40mpg car you're talking 240gms We lost.

I clearly need better envelopes to work on. I blame the drugs (tooth extracted this morning which is why I'm at home).

sorry an all. nigelH

Reply to
Nigel Hewitt

Only in the 24 hrs after a good curry.

Rich

Reply to
Richard Brookman

Only in the 24hrs following a good curry.

Rich

Reply to
Richard Brookman

Only in the 24hrs following a good curry.

Rich

Reply to
Richard Brookman

No they haven't. They have just proved to you that they are a smug tosser who deserves to be upended into the nearest ditch, their beards set on fire (that includes the women) and their sandals smeared with tofu. All their opinions can be safely ignored.

Bikes are great, and I've nothing against cyclists as such (I've done a lot of bike miles in my time), but anyone who says "Actually, I ride a bike" wants shooting. ;-)

Reply to
Richard Brookman

Well they do say that a good curry repeats itself...... ;)

Steve

Reply to
Steve

Quite so - they shouldn't slag off their partner in public.

Reply to
hugh

On or around 17 Aug 2004 08:53:15 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk (Richard Brookman) enlightened us thusly:

mind, methane is a much more damaging greenhouse gas than CO2... Ideally, you'd capture the methane and collect it for use in something like a fuel cell.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

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