Nice day yesterday at Stoneleigh Kit Car Show. Good to catch up
with old friends and meet face to face some people I have been
helping on the forum.
A bit depressing though, as the Show is obviously slowly dying. The exhibition halls were only half full and although there were still a lot of cars there, our Club was an example of the problem.
Five years ago I remember counting 120 cars on the stand, this year we managed only 25.
As usual, she behaved impeccably, although I had my hearing aids out and my noise-cancelling headphones playing music so actually the engine could have been thrashing itself to death and I would have been none the wiser :-) Unfortunately It was very cold and although I had 4 layers of clothes and a neck warmer and woolly hat I was still shivering. Once the car warmed up I kept switching the fan on to try and get some warm air into the cockpit.
One of the more interesting aspects was a test I ran on fuel consumption. Ever since the speedo cable failed 2 years ago and the odometer stopped at 17,500 I have no idea what the consumption is doing. So to estimate the mileage I have been assuming 32 mpg, which is what I was getting for the first 3 years (although because of the incorrect gearbox gearing that was probably 10% too high).
But yesterday I noticed that when I started the day the fuel gauge was reading exactly 3/4 full. So I ran a GPS speedo app on my iPhone to see many miles I covered during the day. When I got close to home in the evening the gauge was reading 1/4 full and I know from experience that 21 litres is enough to get it back to 3/4 and sure enough when I put 21 litres in I arrived home with the gauge reading exactly 3/4 full. A check on the iPhone, confirmed by the satnav program, showed I had covered 163 miles. That worked out at 35 mpg, which was a lot more than I expected.
Admittedly I spent most of the day cruising at 55-60 mph, which is the ideal speed for fuel consumption, but I am still rather pleased.
A bit depressing though, as the Show is obviously slowly dying. The exhibition halls were only half full and although there were still a lot of cars there, our Club was an example of the problem.
Five years ago I remember counting 120 cars on the stand, this year we managed only 25.
As usual, she behaved impeccably, although I had my hearing aids out and my noise-cancelling headphones playing music so actually the engine could have been thrashing itself to death and I would have been none the wiser :-) Unfortunately It was very cold and although I had 4 layers of clothes and a neck warmer and woolly hat I was still shivering. Once the car warmed up I kept switching the fan on to try and get some warm air into the cockpit.
One of the more interesting aspects was a test I ran on fuel consumption. Ever since the speedo cable failed 2 years ago and the odometer stopped at 17,500 I have no idea what the consumption is doing. So to estimate the mileage I have been assuming 32 mpg, which is what I was getting for the first 3 years (although because of the incorrect gearbox gearing that was probably 10% too high).
But yesterday I noticed that when I started the day the fuel gauge was reading exactly 3/4 full. So I ran a GPS speedo app on my iPhone to see many miles I covered during the day. When I got close to home in the evening the gauge was reading 1/4 full and I know from experience that 21 litres is enough to get it back to 3/4 and sure enough when I put 21 litres in I arrived home with the gauge reading exactly 3/4 full. A check on the iPhone, confirmed by the satnav program, showed I had covered 163 miles. That worked out at 35 mpg, which was a lot more than I expected.
Admittedly I spent most of the day cruising at 55-60 mph, which is the ideal speed for fuel consumption, but I am still rather pleased.
