Petrol Prices

[campbell]

Reading this makes me think, Lotus really need to stick to the original mantra of added lightness. The fun you can have in an Elise, whose tank you can still fill for £40-odd, is surely unrivalled. Squeezed 38 lites in mine this morning with 280 miles showing on the tripmeter, and thought "to have 300 miles of fun in our old Scooby would have cost £80+ today...sheesh!".

Look at all the other manufacturers who are now turning to lighter weight techniques to enable smaller cap engines etc.

It's like that old Golf GTi advert..."This is the man who...moved out of gold just as the rest of the world moved in" etc...

[ikarl]

petrol in Hamilton up to 134.9 for the first time.....last week it was only 132.9

Is that at the Shell garage? My last 3 fills have each been 1p more per litre than time before - looks like pattern will continue tonight.

That's the one, just before the Tesco express!

[Doc883]

Reading this makes me think, Lotus really need to stick to the original mantra of added lightness. The fun you can have in an Elise, whose tank you can still fill for £40-odd, is surely unrivalled. Squeezed 38 lites in mine this morning with 280 miles showing on the tripmeter, and thought "to have 300 miles of fun in our old Scooby would have cost £80+ today...sheesh!".
Look at all the other manufacturers who are now turning to lighter weight techniques to enable smaller cap engines etc.

Lightweight might work in a small open top sports car. When you need 5 doors, luggage, dog carrying capacity plus everything else life throws at us combined with modern safety standards we expect as standard and all those luxury items like satnav, 10 speaker BOSE hi-fi etc then lightweight is a bit of a pipe dream. Engine technology is helping with cars that now claim upto 70mpg when 10 years ago it was probably half that.

[campbell]

The Scooby weighed barely 1300kg. It had all the things you list apart from the Bose stereo OK so it had the wrong powerplant but even Subaru have shown they can provide an excellent flat-four diesel.

VAG have put their weight (sic) behind lighter vehicles so watch this space, 5-10 years and we might be amazed at what can be achieved...

Viz, Audi chopping 2 cylinders off the next gen of their S and RS models, VW going for Golf R with 4-pot rather than V6 of old, etc etc.

Very interesting evolution to watch, IMHO.

[rossybee]

Reading this makes me think, Lotus really need to stick to the original mantra of added lightness. The fun you can have in an Elise, whose tank you can still fill for £40-odd, is surely unrivalled. Squeezed 38 lites in mine this morning with 280 miles showing on the tripmeter, and thought "to have 300 miles of fun in our old Scooby would have cost £80+ today...sheesh!".
Look at all the other manufacturers who are now turning to lighter weight techniques to enable smaller cap engines etc.

Lightweight might work in a small open top sports car. When you need 5 doors, luggage, dog carrying capacity plus everything else life throws at us combined with modern safety standards we expect as standard and all those luxury items like satnav, 10 speaker BOSE hi-fi etc then lightweight is a bit of a pipe dream. Engine technology is helping with cars that now claim upto 70mpg when 10 years ago it was probably half that.

Indeedy.

Can you imagine one of the new-tech super-frugal engines in a lightweight 80s hatch?

[campbell]

Read today that new Audi TT (2014) is to tip the scales at 1200kg. Based on new VW midrange platform which uses "hotformed steel" to reduce thickness and weight. Golf VII, Seat Leon 2, Audi A3 saloon, Octavia 3 will all use it.

Can we have the Bluesport next please

[Corranga]

Lightweight might work in a small open top sports car...

A good part of the weight saving is in the engine though. Even that thread on the Ford Focus with the 1.0 turbo replacing the 1.6.. Yes it's engine technology, but the whole point is that the 3 cylinder petrol 1.0 with force induction is not just as powerful as the 1.6 and more frugal, it's also lighter.
Use of new materials etc also.

Imagine something like a Zafira, with high seats etc, seems to me to be the sort of car that could be designed to work well with an alloy bonded chassis that has high sills.

Read today that new Audi TT (2014) is to tip the scales at 1200kg. Based on new VW midrange platform which uses "hotformed steel" to reduce thickness and weight. Golf VII, Seat Leon 3, Audi A3 saloon, Octavia 3 will all use it.

Corrected.

[campbell]

Oops. Most remiss. Thanks Chris

[Mike Scib]

Reading this makes me think, Lotus really need to stick to the original mantra of added lightness. The fun you can have in an Elise, whose tank you can still fill for £40-odd, is surely unrivalled. Squeezed 38 lites in mine this morning with 280 miles showing on the tripmeter, and thought "to have 300 miles of fun in our old Scooby would have cost £80+ today...sheesh!".

Partly the reason i want a Elise again or a Caterham probably more so as it would get used even less so becomes even cheaper and not a daily like a Civic Type-R FN2 or similar plus i really don't need another daily having the BM and the van

Edited to add; If only i could get my head round used Caterham prices!

[campbell]

I would give serious thought to one of these now that Lotus is heading away from the segment...

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/27821 ... track.html

VW could clean up...

All just dreams of course

[rossybee]

Edited to add; If only i could get my head round used Caterham prices!

Minefield

[DJ]

111.9p per litre of unleaded this evening in Edinburgh south side.

[tenkfeet]

110p Barrhead Asda , would not put it in the Evora.

[robin]

Why not? What do you think is so different about Asda's petrol to the Shell next door?

Cheers,
Robin

[rossybee]

Why not? What do you think is so different about Asda's petrol to the Shell next door?

Cheers,
Robin

Good question.