OK guys.....

What common questions, misconceptions, ideas etc. get your back up.....regarding locosting/cars etc..?

Mine:

RHS - I just vented recently on this one....SHS does NOT exsist in 1" square x 16g.....and even if it did it would be SHS...square ERW tube is what you need...

Mid-engine - I get annoyed at this misuse of this term....TVR, Ferrari (front eng ones), or many sevenesque cars may have perfect 50/50 weight distribution.....the engine C of G may be right in the centre of the car...BUT they are not mid-engined by definition if the engine is in front of the driver...it must be behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle line....

Rust inside tubes - Way too much time is spent worrying about this...drain them well, seal them well....then FFS, forget about the insides of the tube....

Theorising (sp?) - just build it...make the next one perfect..

WOW....I feel much better now.......

Anyone else care to vent????

People spending heaps of time and money trying to save every last Kilo - when the builder/driver is way overweight, and losing human weight would be beneficial to both man and machine!

Even when the driver isn't too porky, does a few kilos saved really justify the anguish and expense? Will it make a lot of difference when you drive down our congested roads?

David
(who's a tad broad in the beam himself )

The perrennial debate of how to rust proof a locost that isnt gonna be driven much in rain anyway.


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

atb

steve

Thought this may be a good thread....

David, Steve...good ones....total agreement here......

Don't we feel better now?

Ironically, it you left your frame outside unprotected, then wire brused the rust off...............it would be lighter..

No, not a serious idea.......

My pet hate is acronyms - SHS, RHS, ERW, etc.

I know what these (well actually I just asked in another area what ERW is) are, but in general any acronym may have lots of meanings.

In a thread today I have seen mention of IDS for Ian Duncan Smith (the tory party leader) mentioning that it is infant death syndrome.

Most of this stems from working for someone who abreviated everything, including using the acronym PC to mean ............. passenger car. It's a 3 letter word which everyone understands, but PC means lots of other things in different ways. My daughter last night was talking about OGE's - I asked what it meant and she said on the job evaluation! She didn't know what it meant until recently and hadn't noticed that she was using the wrong letter - how the hell would you manage to figure that one out?

Well, that was a rant from me!

Steve,

"....debate of how to rust proof a locost that isnt gonna be driven much in rain anyway"

I won't have to drive mine in the rain - my garage leaks!!

Anyway, couldn't you just fill all the tubes up with water/antifreeze and seal it up!

Alan,

"...then wire brused the rust off"

I'm sure that several kilo's have already been saved in this way by the numerous locost builders around the world.

Me included

As for my moans - people coming on here and asking totally unrelated questions such as "How do I change a spark plug on my Pug 205 deeezalll?"

ATB

Simon

for abbreviation haters, I thought this one up. Can anyone beat it?

my NEC P4 PC VDU EHT PSU is U/S OK?



glossary of terms:

Nippon Electric Company
Pentium 4
Personal Computer
Visual Dispplay Unit
Extra High Tension
Power Supply Unit
Un Serviceable
OK means what exactly?

Loads of abreviations at work so much they have their own abrevation - TLA (three letter abreviation) or ETLA (Extended-TLA). Arghhhh!

Chris

I'm sure I saw an early rear engined Grand Prix car in the Donington Collection where they used the chassis side rails as tubes for the radiator.
No, I don't mean they used non stressed tubes but actual chassis side members. After all GP cars had a finite life, usually one or two seasons even in those days.

Certainly driver safety wasn't an issue, there's definitely at least two in the collection that have ali fuel tanks in cockpit as seat sides!! One a Lotus! Colin Chapman, looked after his drivers, I should say so!! Not.

quote:

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I'm sure I saw an early rear engined Grand Prix car in the Donington Collection where they used the chassis side rails as tubes for the radiator.

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What about asking what kind of bodywork etc is best or other such questions when just thinking about buying the metal to start a chassis, and people who correct a post by sending in another. Use the edit function provided at the top of the letter.

yours, Pete.

Ho Ho..........

'I've never built a car in my life but I'm going to build a mid engine V8 Locost can anyone help'.........

'I've got a Nissan Bluebird ZX turbo which I want to turn into a rear wheel drive Locost can anyone help - I service my own lawnmower btw so the technical parts of the conversion shouldn't be a problem'.......

'I'm after 200bhp per ton but am worried it won't be quick enough for me - would a nitrous oxide kit help?'

and my recent personal favorite:-
'can I build a chassis from carbon fibre in my garage?'

BUILD THE SIMPLE ONE FIRST

My favorite,

" In reply to your query, Mark, in my experience, the structural strength will be sufficient for you suspension needs, I would triangulate the brackets, and use polyamide bushes and teflon coated bolts. i could expand on this but my Dad says its bedtime and I haven't finished my homework - its half term next week so I will U2U the full details so you can get your chassis right first time"

(slightly exagerrated but the theme is true)

lol!!!

The Yahoo Locost Theory site is my favorite for this kind of stuff..... typical fictional type example:- 'from my FEA analysis of chassis member F1b in my lunch hour I see that it is .5Nm too weak in shear - having read 'I. M. Obsesives' 'Perfect Nascar Chassis' he suggests chrome phomadium F123c tube as a solution has anyone tried this?'

And people actualy answer...........

JUST BUILD A CAR

Thinking about this topic I REALY miss Ken Walton who was able to stop much of this nonsense in its' tracks

"Which engine shall I use?"

I Dunno, It's your car

"I'm using a space shuttle engine, can you find me a RWD gearbox?"

No

etc.............

Cheers

The misery

Pet peeves?

oooh so many to choose from:

1: Poor Customer Service - Seems there are an especially large number of dinlos' working in the aftermarket car parts/spares sector for a start ATM.

2: Out of stock stuff! - Especially when they don't tell you at order time and you only realise when the other bits you ordered arrive, usually minus the key componant.

3: Ducati Service intervals. ()

4: Random SVA rulez - Where'd they get some of those size and distance regs from?

5: Message board posters who don't snip the reply and send a post that takes 20 seconds to scroll through - usually to a daft one liner!!!

argh

ATB

Dave

I stopped posting on the theory group way back. It was much as you describe!

However, its hard to slag someone off for doing something thats within the group title - theory and building bu%%er all in practice.


atb

steve

quote:

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Originally posted by D Beddows
lol!!!

The Yahoo Locost Theory site is my favorite for this kind of stuff..... typical fictional type example:- 'from my FEA analysis of chassis member F1b in my lunch hour I see that it is .5Nm too weak in shear - having read 'I. M. Obsesives' 'Perfect Nascar Chassis' he suggests chrome phomadium F123c tube as a solution has anyone tried this?'

And people actualy answer...........

JUST BUILD A CAR

Thinking about this topic I REALY miss Ken Walton who was able to stop much of this nonsense in its' tracks

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Ahh, but the entire point of 'Locost' was/is to actualy build fairly quickly and cheaply a simple 'sports' car to drive and enjoy not something to spend 10 years agonising over wether a chassis member/wishbone/space shutttle engine is up to the job or will fit....mind you I realise there will always be people who think they know better and obviously I wish them all the best of luck

My peeves are;

People who have no patience with others, especially newbies!

Those that think everyone should think and do the same as they do! Sort of"If I didn't think of it or suggest it first it's got to be wrong!".

Everyone who doesn't understand me, even though I talk jibberish!

Terry


[Edited on 6/8/03 by Spyderman]

Late as usual! (wrong hemisphere and not feeling well)
Some of my pet hates have been mentioned, but I'll add a few more:

1. Going to a motor factor, and asking for a specific part for your "special" (having spent hours combing through catalogues for the right item), and the Know-It-All w4nker behind the counter asks "What model and year car is it for?"
   
2. People who stand back, with their arms folded, looking, sneeringly, at the car/bike you've spent the past year building, and asking "So, how fast can that thing go?"
   
3. A certain cretan from this forum, abusing my publically viewable email address by sending me a threatening, foul-mouthed email.
   

Rorty,

"A certain cretan from this forum, abusing my publically viewable email address by sending me a threatening, foul-mouthed email."

I rec'd a U2U from someone on here, admittedly it wasn't "... threatening, foul-mouthed", so I posted it, with the mailer's details!

Perhaps you should think about doing the same, so we all know who it is!!

Probably about 12 years old, so not worth getting too excited about!

".. and not feeling well)"

Hope it's not too serious and you're well soon!

ATB

Simon

quote:

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Originally posted by Spyderman
People who have no patience with others, especially newbies!

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quote:

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Theorising (sp?) - just build it...make the next one perfect..

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I thought
OK= Okay, (american) indian for "yes"

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Lane
Certainly driver safety wasn't an issue, there's definitely at least two in the collection that have ali fuel tanks in cockpit as seat sides!! One a Lotus! Colin Chapman, looked after his drivers, I should say so!! Not.

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For some REALLY good (and accurate) peeves, look at:

http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbibles/

and look for "Driving pet peeves" in the left-hand margin.

Another very informative site, BTW.

David

quote:

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Originally posted by pbura

quote:

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Theorising (sp?) - just build it...make the next one perfect..

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Ouch! I resemble this remark!

Thanks for the pointers on rust prevention, Alan, I'll be able to sleep tonight

OK = (according to folklore) Oll Korrect, from a creative speller ticking off batches of ballots at a polling place.

Pete B.

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Peeves ?


Kids - can't stand the little buggers.....

tolerate my own of course

And the wonderful recurring post -> i want to build a locost - how much does it cost and how long does it take ?

quote:

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Originally posted by protofj
......And the wonderful recurring post -> i want to build a locost - how much does it cost and how long does it take ?

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quote:

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Ouch! I resemble this remark!

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Tim,
There was a GP program on Sky of years gone by, who showed this to be guessed as true. (Couldn't actually prove it!)
They showed snippets of pit lane film taken at time where one of the mechanics jobs was to remove and quickly replace the extinguisher bottle.
Why? It hadn't gone off!

Rest.

If some of the poseur questioners just went ahead and built a basic one they probably couldn't find fault with it anyway!

Never mind fanciful tubing etc. put one of them in a Morgan with sliding pillar front suspension without telling them and they would still think it's great!!

My current Peeeev

Tiger Racing..
Nuff said.

This wouldnt be from someone with a psudonym beging with J would it?

I got a very personal and attacking email from this person a month or so ago, which he ended with the very adult 'dont send an answer back cos I will ignore you'.

A real grown up!

atb

steve

quote:

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Originally posted by Syd Bridge
Not to worry too much Rorty, I've had the emails as well. Sad individual.
Cheers,
Syd.

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There was also a time in the 70s when the cars ran large tanks of water to act as 'brake cooling'. The water was a consumable, so was allowed to be added to the car weight at the end of the race allowing the car to run lighter.

All the cooling was carried out on the first few laps.......

atb


steve

quote:

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Originally posted by timf

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Lane
Certainly driver safety wasn't an issue, there's definitely at least two in the collection that have ali fuel tanks in cockpit as seat sides!! One a Lotus! Colin Chapman, looked after his drivers, I should say so!! Not.

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IIRC there was rumours in the f1 teams during the late 70's that at least one team had filled the onboard fire extinguishers with nitros and would use them in an attemp to gain places at the end of the race.
how else did the team explain a huge gain in acceleration down the main straigts for one lap only.

now that is dangerous.

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Mmmmh, have always liked a mystery, so thought i'd undertake some digging, suprisingly we seem to have around 112 members beginning with "J", although only a small percentage of these are active posters.
Any chance of a further clue?

As for pet hates, peeps that insist on posting blurry out of focus images that look like they were taken by a pissed chimpanzee, using a pinhole camera.

Al.


]Originally posted by stephen_gusterson
This wouldnt be from someone with a psudonym beging with J would it?

I got a very personal and attacking email from this person a month or so ago, which he ended with the very adult 'dont send an answer back cos I will ignore you'.

A real grown up!

atb

steve

quote:

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Originally posted by Syd Bridge
Not to worry too much Rorty, I've had the emails as well. Sad individual.
Cheers,
Syd.

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well it wozznt me!

i wouldnt want to embarrass the guy any further. Got his rantings on record tho.

atb

steve

Sorry Steve!

Cheers

Chris

I get that sort of thing all the time, do you want a list!

Chris dont begin with J.......

didnt you get thrown off an almost defunct list once?

12 difference and counting.....

Not for Nasty E-Mails I hasten to add!

Cheers

JChris

One of my pet hates on forums in general is when someone askes a perfectly valid question. And you get someone who has been posting on the forum for a good while giving a realy impatient answer that goes along the lines of "god that old chestnut how may times do we have to answer the same old questions, try doing a search dummy!"

Only problem is, if you dont happen to fluke the exact title of a previous post it always comes up with diddly squat on a search. Or are new members supposed to read the entire forum archive in full before they earn the right to ask a question? Just in case they inconvenience some one by holding up their day by 30 seconds while they read a repetitive post.

Simon:

quote:

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Perhaps you should think about doing the same, so we all know who it is!!

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quote:

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".. and not feeling well)"
Hope it's not too serious and you're well soon!

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quote:

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Kids - can't stand the little buggers.....

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quote:

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This wouldnt be from someone with a psudonym beging with J would it?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Wadders
Mmmmh, have always liked a mystery, so thought i'd undertake some digging, suprisingly we seem to have around 112 members beginning with "J", although only a small percentage of these are active posters.
Any chance of a further clue?

As for pet hates, peeps that insist on posting blurry out of focus images that look like they were taken by a pissed chimpanzee, using a pinhole camera.

Al.

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Not connected with this site in any way shape or form, but I was reciving Emails with viruses attached on a daily basis. The sender was using my known freinds and associates displayed Email addreses. Fortunatly my freinds all have private Email addys that they normaly use to send me mail so I was alerted straight away.
It turns out that you can change the header of an Email to make it display any sender name you wish. But it is fairly hard to actualy change the header. If you right click on a Email and select properties then details it will display the header. Within the header you will find a section where it says Xfrom after that it will display the true Email address of the sender. I started to send the viruses back and the sender soon got the message. Apparently if you realy know your stuff and know where to look it also shows the ip address of the sender and the servers used to route the Email as well.

quote:

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Originally posted by andyjack
Not connected with this site in any way shape or form, but I was reciving Emails with viruses attached on a daily basis. The sender was using my known freinds and associates displayed Email addreses. Fortunatly my freinds all have private Email addys that they normaly use to send me mail so I was alerted straight away.
It turns out that you can change the header of an Email to make it display any sender name you wish. But it is fairly hard to actualy change the header. If you right click on a Email and select properties then details it will display the header. Within the header you will find a section where it says Xfrom after that it will display the true Email address of the sender. I started to send the viruses back and the sender soon got the message. Apparently if you realy know your stuff and know where to look it also shows the ip address of the sender and the servers used to route the Email as well.

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Also a great deal of people who deliberately write/distribute virii (sp?) cover themselves by hacking someone elses mail server and getting it to send the emails. This means that although you could trace it back to the source, it isn't necessarily the users of that server that actually are to blame (apart from their slack security that is! )

Like all spam these days it's not easy to stop it once it starts and sending stuff back is a) pointless because they won't stop and b) just adds to the amount of bandwidth being used by useless crap (a bit like this )

I'll get my spanner...

Smart arses who feel they have to answer every post regardless of their ability to answer the question. I some times feel there should be a shadow site, for those that aren't actually interested in building, but like the look of their own typeing!

Yes I am aware how viruses are distributed these were not random viruses generated through address books. They were viruses all coming from one Email address, ip and using the same server and route each time, but made to look like they had been sent from friends. I sent a copy of the headers to a profesional body to confirm all this before I did anything. Unfortunatly I cant remeber the name of the people who dealt with this as it was a long time ago, although I could find out. So in this case the viruses were returned to the true sender.

People who ask for advice and/or help and then proceed to pick apart any suggestions you make!

Just remembered another pet peeve; people who won't help themselves!
I'll bend over backwards to help anyone...as long as they reciprocate by equalling my efforts (or at the very least, show willing).
What I can't stand, is people asking for help, and then standing back expecting me to actually do it all for them. Some even have the gall to complain or criticise my efforts.
This morning someone wanted advice, and then came back wanting me to do their job for them!
How's about I heat up the end of a length of chassis tube and ram the ragged cold end up your ar5e, so you burn your hand pulling it out too! Bah!

quote:

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How's about I heat up the end of a length of chassis tube and ram the ragged cold end up your ar5e, so you burn your hand pulling it out too! Bah!

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Threadjack -

There's a program you can get for Microsoft outlook called "I Hate Spam" which checks all your emails as they are down loaded for spam (funny enough" The good thing is you can bounce the email back to the person who sent it, and a lot of spam servers will delete your email address when it gets a bounced message. So my wife says.

I might be able to get it so I could either email it to people, or make it available to download of my website, thats if anyone wants it??

Chris

quote:

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Originally posted by Rorty
Just remembered another pet peeve; people who won't help themselves!
I'll bend over backwards to help anyone...as long as they reciprocate by equalling my efforts (or at the very least, show willing).

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quote:

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Originally posted by flyingkiwi
Threadjack -

There's a program you can get for Microsoft outlook called "I Hate Spam" which checks all your emails as they are down loaded for spam (funny enough" The good thing is you can bounce the email back to the person who sent it, and a lot of spam servers will delete your email address when it gets a bounced message. So my wife says.

I might be able to get it so I could either email it to people, or make it available to download of my website, thats if anyone wants it??

Chris

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I've had a look and the file size is 4mb, so if you want I can email it to you

Yes please.
cheers.

quote:

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Originally posted by flyingkiwi
I've had a look and the file size is 4mb, so if you want I can email it to you

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I know i'm a little late on this thread, but here goes...

1, overly long threads like this one that take half an hour to read through

2, hurting myself in the name of construction (it hurts)

3, rude people on the threads

as a side note, colin chapman was once reputed to have tried to use cardbord sprayed silver as a fireproof bulkhead, so he could save weight. Needless to say the car didnt get past the scrutineers...

as for the yahoo locost theory group, some people are so anal. but its good to read for entertainment....

lotus had a pretty high injury and death rates on its drivers, so this doesnt suprise me.

Who designed your chassis


atb

steve


oh yeah - and bollox.

quote:

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Who designed your chassis

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quote:

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Originally posted by Alan B
What common questions, misconceptions, ideas etc. get your back up.....regarding locosting/cars etc..?
Anyone else care to vent????

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there's one worse, when they say:

" is that a robin hood ? "

i've been witness to this, the looks they get, grrrr.

Ned.

thats one for the cateringvan guys then next year at stoneleigh!


atb

steve

WOW, what a fun thread to read! I'm worn out!

Good rants and peeves though.

Can I give one a try! O.K. here goes...

#1: Politicians who use "saftey regs" to generate revenue at the cost of our freedom!
Example: Ya,microchips in number plates are a great way to recover stolen cars but wait until we're ticketed by satalite for doing 50 in a 40....


Wow, you're right, I do feel better! Thanks guys!Fletch