Car Spotting

[Adam43]

It’s clear only evil people have big SUVs.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by joeb

So Cali car makes sense for no rust.

Sure! From the classified ads seems to be an efficient sales argument, either for modern cars or classics. Unfortunately, for the last ones, you can't count on engine mods as was the case back in the day. I think that even non homologated parts can't be sent/sold in Cali yes? I bought parts from Lindsey Racing for my 951 and we had to "adjust" the bill to send the whole to my sister in law residing in a nice LA suburb. Then for instance a programmable chip for the ECU became something different… Those were the days because now importing goods from the US to France, almost any type of good, costs skyhigh because of the french regulations…

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by Adam43

It’s clear only evil people have big SUVs.

You mean Anakin Skywalker?

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

Sure! From the classified ads seems to be an efficient sales argument, either for modern cars or classics. Unfortunately, for the last ones, you can't count on engine mods as was the case back in the day. I think that even non homologated parts can't be sent/sold in Cali yes? I bought parts from Lindsey Racing for my 951 and we had to "adjust" the bill to send the whole to my sister in law residing in a nice LA suburb. Then for instance a programmable chip for the ECU became something different… Those were the days because now importing goods from the US to France, almost any type of good, costs skyhigh because of the french regulations…

Generally many of those things in the US are becoming more and more scarce and often sold as off road only. Does not stop anything at all, see every one of the massive bumpers and exhausts on trucks and Jeeps. But most of those bolt on exterior bits are an on your honor, don't get in a wreck and hurt someone on the road over looked. Virginia was working on lift kit and bumper height rules when I moved but they had a run of off road heavy heavy bumpers and wrecks killing people cause they don't deform as designed. And were at car window heights

Engine parts are a bit tighter, more and more states are tied to California emissions regs but may not enforce blocking shipping. Went down that rabbit hole reading up on a programmer for my old truck, California allowed no shipping of their tuner and then EPA got in on it and shut the entire project down. Turns out CA guys were right about it not being what it claimed and terrible emissions. And not much better for reliability given the numbers of engine failures with the tuner

[Gerard C]

I see, thanks.What you call "off road use only" is said "usage sur piste ou sur route fermée seulement" here, exactly the same meaning. Fact is the slightest modification to any vehicule homologation form can lead the insurance company to cancell the guarantees in case of accident. Works when you change the muffler of a bike for a different one. Whether it improves performance or not does not count. Understandable. Dura lex, sed lex.

[Mike Harte]

In the UK, insurance companies require the individual applying for cover to declare any modifications, no matter how inconsequential. For example, one driver had his claim for damage turned down by the insurer because he had fitted some fancy wheels which had absolutely no baring on the collision. Any excuse will do for insurers not to have to pay out on claims.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Any excuse will do for insurers not to have to pay out on claims.

Not only in your country, Mike, I fear and has nothing to see with the century either. We would love to have the same regulation as yours for the MOT because our Contrôle Technique not only is stupid but still easy to cheat. And guess what, we are going to have one for motorbikes and large displacement scooters. Sadly its only about money they don't really care about safety. What a decadent country.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Adam43

It’s clear only evil people have big SUVs.

Stop, this is a restricted area

[Gerard C]

Mods!

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

I see, thanks.What you call "off road use only" is said "usage sur piste ou sur route fermée seulement" here, exactly the same meaning. Fact is the slightest modification to any vehicule homologation form can lead the insurance company to cancell the guarantees in case of accident. Works when you change the muffler of a bike for a different one. Whether it improves performance or not does not count. Understandable. Dura lex, sed lex.

Some states care about that and will catch you, generally those states have state run inspections. But most states that do inspections allow garages to be licensed inspectors, and not all states do safety inspections. Here in Georgia if you are not within the Atlanta metro, and I think Savannah maybe, you only get sniff test for emissions unless you're diesel, over 8600lbs or older than 95 I think it is. You can be pulled over by Ga State Patrol for a safety inspection at any time but they are rare outside of commercial trucks. Technically by highway regs, or at least as legal as US DOT/NHTSA things can be, most of the mods can get you ticketed. Asking a cop who can't tell his ass from a hole in the ground to know what's factory is asking for trouble. And honestly a very good way to get cops ignore crimes for profitable tickets/seizure of vehicles, see game wardens being sworn in as POST certified officers and going for speeding and drug busts over game infractions. Generally I would be more afraid of my insurer kicking out my claim due to X,Y, Z chinese import part on my truck, grossly overweight or poor condition than a violation of "factory homologation." It's always fun to see the facebook physics experts commenting on trailer weights, tire data and the impossibility of calculation of overweight/poor tire/etc on trailering groups. Knowing a few rubber engineers in my past life you would be surprised how much they can tell based on the road, tire pattern and length you travelled on condition of tires and weight of your vehicle down to the corner.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Adam43

It’s clear only evil people have big SUVs.

It's the wankpanzer of all wankpanzer!!!

[Mike Harte]

In response to Broadrun's last post, when I lived in Spain my place was near the "border" of two autonomous regions, Valencia and Murcia. The situation in Spain is that it is up to the politicians of those regions to set the regulations for annual car tests which are only conducted in their own testing stations. I lived in the Valencian region, and the tests in our region were far more detailed around many different things which I can no longer remember, whilst Murcia set a lower standard and because of that the cost of the test was considerably cheaper (another thing set by the regional government), quicker and always less queueing for the tests. Even though you could book a time slot for your test, my local test station rarely kept to the requested time.

The problem then was that people from our region often went to one in Murcia for their test and sometimes, when they were stopped by the police in random checks in our region, they would be prosecuted and made to have their cars retested in our region even if there was nothing materially wrong with the car. I need to add that the police in this case were not the local ones or even regional ones, but were under direct control of the national government in Madrid.

So, you could literally drive about one mile from where you met all legal criteria to an area where you had a car that should not be on the road. Whether that also invalidated your car insurance or not, I cannot now remember. All I know is that on the one claim I made on my car, the insurer failed to meet the claim on very spurious grounds based on how they interpreted the words that were in their policy conditions. But as I said before, insurance companies, especially in Spain I found, make up the rules as they go along so as not to have to pay out.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Asking a cop who can't tell his ass from a hole in the ground to know what's factory is asking for trouble.

This one! Down here any official control station is monitored live by gov' representatives. And must be independant from any garage keeping in mind that garages represent the most of their clients and that humans remain humans… Fully agreed for the tyre thing, I'm always amazed by people looking for new tires and ignoring the signification of "indice de charge" meaning the max load acceptable by tyre/axle. Using one of my car to tow my race car I don't make any compromize with this and act the same for the trailer.

[Adam43]

Just had this menu come up in a memories thing. Saw this while travelling to the Tour de France.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Just had this menu come up in a memories thing. Saw this while travelling to the Tour de France.

Insane amount of cargo space compared to a modern suv!

[Adam43]

Yes.

And still they are piling it up on the roof too!

[broadrun96]

So what's the advantage for an SUV with a bit of camber, and a bit of toe I think too. You can kinda see the difference front to rear, and he was a bit of a speeder, 50 plus in 35 and weaver before he passed me

[Adam43]

Odd. Almost as if it is broken! Must be great off road

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Just had this menu come up in a memories thing. Saw this while travelling to the Tour de France.

The family Truckster in its natural environment!

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by Adam43

And still they are piling it up on the roof too!

You're right, insane. This place should be exclusively reserved to a mother in law. By the way, if this pic was taken in France, were you overtaking or overtaken? Asking for a friend!

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Must be great off road

The road sign showing NO above suggest the answer.

[Mike Harte]

To my tired (no pun intended even if it's a good one) eyes the bottom photo appears to show that the car has negative camber on the rear while it seems to have positive camber on the front, although nowhere as drastic as on a Triumph Herald.

[broadrun96]

Oh yeah, it was a quality rig. Unless they were carrying lead plates at the rear I didn't see a crazy load but similar camber to the drinker's side rear as well. It was a quality and well maintained "luxury" SUV. Well at least luxury badges cause it has Infiniti badges with Armada on the rear so...

[joeb]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Oh yeah, it was a quality rig. Unless they were carrying lead plates at the rear I didn't see a crazy load but similar camber to the drinker's side rear as well. It was a quality and well maintained "luxury" SUV. Well at least luxury badges cause it has Infiniti badges with Armada on the rear so...

has to be something broke, I also bet it doesn't track true with the steering wheel centered!

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

To my tired (no pun intended even if it's a good one) eyes the bottom photo appears to show that the car has negative camber on the rear while it seems to have positive camber on the front, although nowhere as drastic as on a Triumph Herald.

Yes a very good one! Thanks. Neg camber at rear if its a live axle is no good… C'on I raced a Spitfire in endurance and always enjoyed the front end, a good example of what could be done back in the day. As to the rear end, well, we called it "happy tailer" or "she steers at rear"!