lpg conversions?

There are fewer petrol stations now than at anytime since before WWI.

Village I live in used to have 2. One that had a large car sales area has been sold for housing and is now fenced off. The other just does MOT's and tyres, the petrol went over 10 years ago.

Just in the Polperro, Looe, Liskeard region of Cornwall I saw 4 shut last summer. One had become an aquatics centre, one a surf shop, one was being turned into business units and the 4th was just boarded up.

Most cheap LPG independents have business opening hours while Shell charges a premium price at M-way, off M-way, Trunk road, 24hr and pretty much anywhere they think they can get away with it.

I think his logic is that a small 40L ish (holds 32L) spare wheel tank only gets you around 150 miles, instead of the 300 miles a 60L tank of petrol will go, or 400 miles a 50L tank of diesel goes. But there is a whole nation of folks out there that just slap a tenners worth at a time in and that will go close to 2x as far. If you are on M-way and have a woman in the car you will have had to stop twice in 150 miles. If you have 2 women in the car you can't past a services without stopping even at 10-16 miles apart.

Acceleration = Power / (speed x mass) The faster you go the more power you need to have the same amount of acceleration.

The turbo compression ignition engine only works at one speed - peak torque. Below peak torque they are utterly gutless, if you can feel the acceleration build up to peak torque then you are driving it at a substantial deficit in performance compared to running above peak torque. Basically your lame turbo diesel is getting in the pigging way, change down so rpm are above peak torque and floor it. Above peak torque the power is near constant, changing down a gear won't affect acceleration it just keeps falling away. Worse, above peak torque it becomes a nasty noisy thing that deters the use of max power and best acceleration.

The non turbo compression ignition engine is a totally sad POS that should only be used as a boat mooring.

The N/A spark ignition engine gives a flatter torque curve but still falls off at high rpm. This is usually compensated for by using a bigger gas guzzling engine. Eg a 2.5L V6 that yields lower performance and worse mpg than a 1.8L I4 turbo in the same car. It has good low speed operation around town and a perception of flexibility but it's at the expense of peak performance. The flexibility encourages inefficient use of the engine resulting in very poor mpg - you only ever match the worst official mpg.

The turbocharged spark ignition engine has a near flat torque curve. The power builds to a maximum like a mountain side. The uninformed look at the power curve and say "ooh that's peaky", this is VERY GOOD. The engine's performance matches the acceleration load line perfectly. Thrust to the seat of the pants is near constant from peak torque to max power rpm. It will match the peak torque acceleration surge of a TD but it keeps the same surge with increasing speed. Result! No need to change down when cruising at 60-70mph, just mash the throttle to the floor and F off quick. At part load cruise the smaller engine is working harder and that means it's more efficient so it gives better mpg.

You've never been proper fishing then. When we go 75ks offshore it's $100 min just for fuel.

Fraser

Dynamite.

Fraser

I once had a conversation with a relative of my brother in law who lived in the Bahamas at the time. He was lamenting the number of divers he'd seen recently out there catching shellfish by squirting bleach into their burrows and grabbing them as they fled, choking and blind. It was as if he almost shed a tear for what nasty humankind was doing to god's poor creatures.

Then my sister noticed that he was missing part of one of his fingers and my younger sister asked him what had happened to his hand.

"Fishing." he replied, then with a rather manic grin added... "With dynamite."