car engine oil extended change

In message , Lawrence Glickman writes

UK drivers neither. Speeds of 70-100 mph are fairly commonplace, speeds in excess of 100 are rarer because of the widely held belief that being caught will lead to an automatic ban rather than a fixed penalty and points.

There is a growing trend in the UK (fuelled in large part by the increasing use of automated speed enforcement) towards track days where drivers can put their cars through their paces on a racetrack. Not popular in the US?

Os

But you said it was the best road trip car you'd been in...

to compare and contrast, I've driven my old Scirocco (why did I sell it again) for 12 hours at a stretch, stopping only for gas, food, and other necessities. Other than being a little stiff when exiting (not to mention tired) no ill effects; I could have kept going for another couple more hours had I not reached my destination.

nate

Not popular with the Insurance Companies. If you wreck your car your rates will either go through the ceiling or you'll be cancelled, or both.

Otoh, when I owned shitboxes that cost me $200 a pop, with 300 horsepower engines under the hood...I would take them into the countryside...literally. Old battle tanks that they were, not quite large enough to knock over a tree, but strong enough to get through the muck without flicking an eyelash.

The only car companies that I can think of offhand that built the tanks were Mercury and Oldsmobile. They drank gas like a race horse pisses, but you couldn't stop em as long as the tires had something to grip hold of.

With fuel prices going higher every day, I think it is $2.37/gallon for 87 octane 10% ethanol at the moment, I won't be driving one of those again for a long time. It's cheaper to pay the monthly installment on my Merc Sable. But those were monster engines, and fine automobiles. Battle tanks...Merc Cougars and Oldsmobiles. All that was missing was the gun turret.

Lg

It's 15 miles/hour over the speed limit and will get you a fine and points against your license.

what keeps traffic slow in the USA is the cops, not the cars.

Lg

If you're not driving the thing, you don't know you're moving. From that perspective, it has the best ride ever. It is so smooth, you don't know you're moving except that you can SEE that you're moving. You can go at any speed over any road and if you're not pulling g forces in a turn, you don't know you're moving. That's a strange sensation. Try it for yourself, if you can find a place to lend you one.

I drive for 500 miles a day, however long it does or doesn't take, and call it a day. Unless it is an emergency.

Lg

My Cousin in Florida has an early 70s Chevy Nova with a 489ci (7300cc?) V8 in it,2 cherry bombs that exit under your feet all chromed up, big carb and it sounds fantastic. I suppose it looks OK if old school customising is your thing too. Nice big fat rears, chrome wheels and smaller fronts.How fast does this monster go? Well he'd never taken it over 90mph cos it got too scary! When I was over a couple years ago, I took it out on a long straight road expecting to hit warp speed. It managed a paltry 131mph on the GPS.

I even got stopped by the police "Oh, you're from England are you sir? You don't have speed limits over there do you? Well, we do here in the US of A, so please keep your speed down while you're in our country. Have a nice day sir"..... fantastic :-) I'd have been banned for 6 months or a year over here!

Os

In message , Lawrence Glickman writes

Ordinary insurance won't usually cover trackdays, people who bother have to buy it separately (I think there's one company rolling it up with their normal policy). I get the impression that most people do it at their own risk.

Lawrence Glickman (Lawrence snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

If you bend your car on a track day, don't even bother ringing the insurance - you won't be covered.

So - are track days popular in the US or not?

Os

Senor Osito ( snipped-for-privacy@way.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Woah! Careful! 'merkins can't cope with the concept of motorcycles that can do 120...

We see it all the time, we call it "Natural Selection at work"

As an American Citizen I would have my license revoked for such a thing. Consider yourself lucky. Besides, the cop who chased you down probably had some fun himself.

The horsepower means nothing without the right gears. You need an overdrive to get top speed out of that machine. You need the right transmission, or else all that horsepower is going to waste once you reach top rpm's in top gear.

You only need enough horsepower at speed to overcome aerodynamic drag. That's your biggest enemy. In fact, on some new vehicles, cylinders SHUT DOWN once the car is up to speed, because they aren't needed anymore.

You make your car an airplane shape, like a bullet, to cut through the air with minimum resistance. That's is as important as the power. Then you stuff a big engine in it, and gear it so you can get as many rpm's out of the wheels as is mechanically possible. Then you bring this machine out to the Great Salt Lake Flats and run the line. Hoping your tires don't blow out.

Otherwise, it's all for show.

Lg

You utterly mad, mad, MAD bastard. I love it! That would have made better TV veiwing that watching those two luvvies on their Navsat/abs/etc beemers.

-- Stuart

( snipped-for-privacy@aol.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Ah, yes, sorry.

Some people DO buy bikes other than Hardly-Dangerous over there, don't they?

But, of course, since they don't have to wear helmets, and they're sharing the roads with people who haven't passed a driving test even as "difficult" as our piece of piss...

No. Not popular with the general public. What is popular is MONSTER TRUCKS. Smashing *ordinary* cars to bits, and jumping 13 of them at a time.

And you need a full sized ladder to climb into the cab. And the tires are as tall as the roof of your house. That is popular.

And speeding on the motorway by Nascar. Or running your own on Daytona Beach. You can freely blow up your car on Daytona Beach and there will be plenty of people around to help you roll it into the surf.

Lg

Lawrence Glickman (Lawrence snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

At *any* speed. 2mph. 200mph.

I think you'll find that's called a "limiter" - usually set to 155mph on German stuff.

I haven't had much luck with motorcycles. Haven't managed to kill myself on one but came close enough. We'll take a pass on that for now, and don't forget to keep your ORGAN DONOR CARD handy for the cleanup crew.

Lg

Dunno about that my limey husband managed to flunk the driving test here. Apparently in England it's ok to rocked up onto the curb in reverse while attempting to re enter traffic after a failed attempt a parallel parking.

Motorbike are for rich people here, you can buy an old banger car cheaper than a motorcycle.