OT: Driving electric cars in winter

[harry]

Torque is theoretically infinity.

Gearboxes are unnecessary. The motor functions from zero rpm unlike an ICE.

[harry]

Why not? The lights can't be turned off anyway.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The commentators have crib sheets and know their sport.

[The Natural Philosopher]

They told Michelle Mouton that a turbocharged 2 litre 4 pot Audi Quattro rally car would never beat a proper 7 liter V8 up Pikes Peak.

They were wrong.

[Davey]

If that's the case in Europe, then the Americans are ahead of us, as every GM car I drove when I lived over there, and there were many, had the option of turning off the Daytime Running Lights.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not much point in fitting them, then?

[Mr Macaw]

Surely most of them have DRLs that aren't that bright, and the driver has turned on more. For example I often see a car with dim and bright lights both on at once during the day. I can't believe they fitted two bulbs for one purpose.

Anyway, it's up to the driver to correct his badly designed car. Remove the bulbs etc - I'd certainly do so. There is no legal requirement to dazzle people in the UK. And if that annoyed the car, simply fit an equivalent resistor (or just a bulb hidden in the engine bay) to the circuit.

[Davey]

Well, they always came from the factory 'on', and hardly anybody bothered to disable that. After all, how many owners actually read the manual, and even realised that it was possible?

[bert]

In article , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Which is why diesel and injection petrol engines are so much better than the old carbs.

[bert]

ISTR they were first introduced by Volvo and were found to reduce accidents in daytime

[bert]

For me personally what is much greater irritation are those who will insist on switching on their front fog lights when it is neither foggy nor snowing. Now they can be easily switched off.

[dennis]

DRL are now compulsory in the UK and you will fail the MOT if you disable them on new cars. They are not bright enough to dazzle in daylight and you should use your normal lights when its dark and that disables the DRLs.

[Mr Macaw]

I don't believe you. Quite a few people in the legal group have said otherwise.

It's a European law, not a UK law. The car has to have them to pass a European test when it's designed. The UK does not require them.

"This does not mean that every new car first registered after February 2011 will have DRL fitted. The requirement only applies to models that go through the European whole vehicle type approval process after that date i.e. new or substantially facelifted models." - from

"Vehicle manufacturers must fit DRL to new types of passenger car and light goods vehicle (car derived vans) type approved to European vehicle requirements from February 2011. In practice this means that any new model launched after this date, and many launched before, will be fitted with DRL. However, existing models on sale before this date without DRL fitted can continue to be sold and used indefinitely" - from

Even if it was required for the MOT, it's easy enough to put them back on temporarily for the test. I will never ever have a light on my car as bright as a dipped headlight unless it's dark, it will always be disabled or changed to sidelight brightness. Sidelights can be seen during the day very easily cars with no lights can be seen during the day very easily. A light as bright as a dipped beam makes you look at the car, it attracts your attention, and having your attention distracted by every single car on the road is absolutely stupid and downright dangerous. Dipped beam brightness is for you to see other things, it illuminates. You don't need anything like that brightness for someone else to see the light itself. All it does is make your eyes less able to see other unlit things like pedestrians.

They certainly are bright enough to dazzle. Anything brighter than a dipped beam is dazzling. Try this simple experiment, drive along in broad daylight with your full beam on, you WILL get flashed at.

[Mr Macaw]

I suggest you read this website and educate yourself:

[Mr Macaw]

There's certainly no requirement in any country to have them brighter than dipped beam. Just look at the new cars on the road here today. They range from sidelight brightness to brighter than full beam, with all points in between. So clearly you can choose how bright you want to design your car to be, and the user can change the brightness of the bulb without breaking any rules. In fact since a design of car that hasn't changed doesn't need DRLs at all under the EU law when manufactured, then it cannot be in the MOT. I find it hard to believe that the MOT station has a complete list of every model of car ever sold and which ones must have DRLs working. Hell, they don't even know which ones should have ABS, as you can make an ABS fitted car pass the MOT by removing the warning bulb.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well actually no.

What injection does is make the whole shebang more reliable and accurate, It does nothing to modify the torque curves. Althjout elecvtronic ignition is a help because you can set an RPM limit.

The things that HAVE made real differences there are :-

- Variable valve timing. That allows you to both have advanced timing for high RPM and more modest timing to allow smooth performance at lower RPM.

- forced induction - turbo or super charging, which allows far more torque from a small engine, at lower RPM, and doesn't place such a premium on valve timing and induction and exhaust gas flow dynamics.

- variable geometry turbo charging which allows a single turbocharger to operate over a far higher range of engine RPM and power.

- better balancing machining accuracy and materials, allowing higher RPM without wear.

Although its true to say that none of the above would work as well as they do without EFI, its not the EFI that makes the difference.

[harry]

I like a big engine.

[polygonum]

Numbers. How many lumens? Are they really brighter than a properly-working dipped headlamp?

[David Paste]

There are.

-20 C whilst extreme for the UK is quite common in many other places.

not -20 they don't.

In fact I wasn't aware of any special preparations needed for vehicles until the temperature dipped to -40 C or lower.

Things like waxing diesel, antifreeze ability, windscreen washer fluid, tyres, etc, are all pretty much non-problems for most vehicles since the 1980s (so the old guys told me; I had no reason to doubt them).

[bert]

Warning bulb -what's a warning bulb? Even my f******* Land Rover doesn't have warning bulbs.