economics: Germany
in [Design]
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From: Joerg on 19 Jul 2010 20:31 Jim Thompson wrote: > On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:40:21 -0700, Charlie E. <edmondson(a)ieee.org> > wrote: > >> On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:24:47 +0200, Gerhard Hoffmann <dk4xp(a)arcor.de> >> wrote: >> >>> Am 07.07.2010 23:46, schrieb Joerg: >>>> John Larkin wrote: >>>>> On Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:05:45 -0700, Joerg<invalid(a)invalid.invalid> >>>>> wrote: >>>> No joke. While living there I used to cruise down to a client in >>>> Southern Germany on Sunday afternoons (everyone watching soccer) at >>>> 110-115mph. Once in a while a car came up from behind, fast ... WHOOSH ... >>> Might have been me with a 1.80 m 19" rack on the loading area of the >>> Touring :-) >>> >>> Gerhard >>> >>> Diesel Biturbo rulez! >> Well, back when I drove Rim of the World Drive everyday (San >> Bernardino to Lake Arrowhead) it was always the Porsches with a ski >> rack, usually black. Everyone, including the 4WD crowd, would be >> going about 25-30 in the snow and ice, and then this black Porshe with >> a ski rack would blow by you at about 60! I always kept looking for >> the black metal SPLAT around all the turns... >> >> Charlie > > Porsche's don't do too well drag racing a '67 Mercury Cougar. > > One of my employees, in his Porsche, tried me one time, on McDowell, > uphill over the Papago Buttes heading toward Motorola SPD at 52nd St > ;-) > I outran a BMW 3-series in my Citroen 2CV. On a country road to Aachen, Germany. It had snowed profusely and I could hear the stuff scraping the bottom of the Citroen. However, that Citroen had very smooth panels underneath and frontwheel drive. So it was gracefully gliding over snow humps. Of course my smoothing the snow surface didn't help the BMW guy because he had much less road clearance. BMW tried to keep up with me until in one curve he must have lost control .. phseeee ... whoosh .. thud. Huh? Where's the headlights behind me? There was no turn-off anywhere, oh-oh ... Drove back, found same headlights sticking out of an embankment, asked whether I could help him get it out. "NO!" This was before cell phones so he couldn't possibly have called a road service from that lone stretch of road but he absolutely positively did not want my help. I guess he then flagged down the next car that was not a Citroen. At least not a 2CV. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
From: Gerhard Hoffmann on 21 Jul 2010 16:31 Am 20.07.2010 02:08, schrieb Joerg: > Gerhard Hoffmann wrote: >> Am 07.07.2010 23:46, schrieb Joerg: > How fast is that car? My Audi topped out at around 195km/h or 115mph. 535D touring Diesel, 200 KW, electronically limited to 250 Km/h like most of the stronger series cars here. I've checked it to 255 indicated ground speed, didn't dare to go on to try the limiter (w/o the 19" rack). Someone else was faster. That was on an empty highway between Kempten & Ulm. If you do not kick the beast, the 535D has moderate drinking habits. The opportunities to kick it that hard are few. > You could push it a wee bit higher by not using the overdrive gear but > then it would develop a voracious appetite for gasoline. It's a big > station wagon with the smallest possible engine, runs very lean. In fact > it's still going at almost 24 years old. A former neighbor bought it and > a few months later he called me and was all enthused about this car. > Because he does very long trips and it uses 40% less gasoline than the > BMW he had before. I still miss that Audi. That must have been some 20 years ago. BMW pump out a new engine generation every 18 months, it looks like Moore's law for some time, less consumption and more power every time. Gerhard
From: Joerg on 24 Jul 2010 15:37
Gerhard Hoffmann wrote: > Am 20.07.2010 02:08, schrieb Joerg: >> Gerhard Hoffmann wrote: >>> Am 07.07.2010 23:46, schrieb Joerg: > >> How fast is that car? My Audi topped out at around 195km/h or 115mph. > > 535D touring Diesel, 200 KW, electronically limited to 250 Km/h > like most of the stronger series cars here. > I've checked it to 255 indicated ground speed, didn't dare to go on > to try the limiter (w/o the 19" rack). Someone else was faster. > That was on an empty highway between Kempten & Ulm. That was almost exactly the stretch I did, but Cologne to Ulm. I usually didn't leave until the Bundesliga soccer games popped up on TV, meaning almost everyone either sat in a stadium or in front of a TV instead of on the autobahn. > If you do not kick the beast, the 535D has moderate drinking habits. > The opportunities to kick it that hard are few. > With my car here it's different. It behaves like an aircraft, you go this many miles and it always consumes x gallons. With California gasoline it gets 25mpg (or about 9l/100km), with gas from Nevada or Oregon it is about 10% better. But it doesn't matter much how fast I go. >> You could push it a wee bit higher by not using the overdrive gear but >> then it would develop a voracious appetite for gasoline. It's a big >> station wagon with the smallest possible engine, runs very lean. In fact >> it's still going at almost 24 years old. A former neighbor bought it and >> a few months later he called me and was all enthused about this car. >> Because he does very long trips and it uses 40% less gasoline than the >> BMW he had before. I still miss that Audi. > > That must have been some 20 years ago. BMW pump out a new engine > generation every 18 months, it looks like Moore's law for some time, > less consumption and more power every time. > The model year was more than 20 years ago but so was my Audi which drank less gasoline. A lot less. My neighbor who has the car now couldn't believe it until he filled it up for the first time and saw that the liters that went in matched what I told him it would be. Some companies didn't need umpteen design iterations to get there :-) -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM. |