Kick Those Shoes Off and Relax. It's the Delta 2017 Tea Break

[midgetman]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Actually Horner has been quite vociferous about the whole "green" thing in F1. He's hoping (may even be pushing) for a return to more basic technology for a couple of reasons; 1, the fans are not interested in these engines; and, 2, he sees these engines as a means for the manufacturers to manipulate the championship. I confess that I agree with him.

More likely that he can't get his hands on a truly competitive hybrid engine and wants to go to a simpler Cosworth at a cheaper price!

[GORDON STREETER]

Talking about steam trains did anybody on ten tenths ever go to the Ashford railway works years ago ? When I was at school in the 50s we used to have trips there to see various locomotives being built, this was really in the era of building diesel trains but there were still steam ones being repaired as they were still being used at the time. Our school was close to a railway line and I can remember the steamers still being used in the marshalling yard in the late 50s
Thinking about it I'm sure that steam trains were still running in the area where I live in the UK way into the 60s ?

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by midgetman

More likely that he can't get his hands on a truly competitive hybrid engine and wants to go to a simpler Cosworth at a cheaper price!

Yes, I don't doubt that.

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

Our school was close to a railway line and I can remember the steamers still being used in the marshalling yard in the late 50s
Thinking about it I'm sure that steam trains were still running in the area where I live in the UK way into the 60s ?

They would have been running until at least the mid 60s in Kent, the final BR steam hauled train was in August 1968 and most of the steam up until that date from 64-65ish was up north. I do remember being on holiday in about 1966 and they were using steam down in Bournemouth area, there was a marshalling yard behind our hotel and they were working all bloody night.

[Colin McKay]

Ashford briefly reopened as a 'steam centre' a la Didcot in the '70s. Cycled there from Maidstone when 15 without a clue where I was going. Lucky to survive the A20!

[grantp]

Originally Posted by midgetman

So GP your solution to the electric car conundrum is that every owner also buys a race transporter and hangs the car out the back Italian Job fashion? Then when they're within, say, 10 miles they park up and drive the rest of the way on battery power thereby proving their green credentials?

Ah, you spotted part of my sub-proposal!

Neat eh?

Originally Posted by midgetman

Speaking of which I had to laugh at one of F1's latest follies. Apparently the top engines are burning "too much" oil as a way of producing more power. Renault doesn't have it so naturally Christian Horner was moaning and even mentioned that it wasn't very "environmentally friendly". This from one of the multi millionaires who freight tons and tons of equipment back and forth across the world 20 times a year! How does he keep a straight face?

Don't know how Mr. Halliwell keeps a grin off his chin. After some of the things he's done and said in the past I've always assumed he had a well honed grasp of dark humour.

[Mike Harte]

For those with deep pockets, Pete Waterman has offered for auction next month an E Type that he has owned for 30 years. According to the BBC news report, it is the first of the Series lll cars, only driven twice since he bought it and had it restored, and has been lovingly kept in his barn since then.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41553046

[Lancsbreaker]

The (seldom-seen) purist in me doesn't really like the S3 shape......an early 4.2 coupe however.........

When milady and I were first getting together I told her of my desire for an E-type, and she jokingly said if we got married she's buy me one.

That was around 40 years ago, and I still haven't got one......we haven't got married, either, but are still together

[Mike Bell]

The S3 used the LWB '+2' floorpan, so the coop looks similarly ungainly to my eyes. A drop top with shiny wheels (and especially in black) looks OK though.

But as you say, an S1 4.2 Coupe (in red with tan trim) looks so much better, especially with discretely wider wire wheels and radial tyres.....

[Mike Harte]

I've been using computers since the late 70s or early 80s, so I don't consider myself to be a Luddite. But I still find it irritating that life nowadays seems to revolve around technology, and companies that rely on their systems keep complaining that they cannot understand why their computers have done something that is not the norm.

Two typical examples of this have manifested in the last few days. Firstly, my energy supplier issued a quarterly bill after I had provided the required meter readings. Based on this, they then decided that I needed to increase my monthly Direct Debit by about £50 even though over the last 12 months I am only £23 in debit. The supplier's automated system has come to the conclusion that it would be better to have my money in their bank account rather than leaving it in mine.

Then to compound an already irritated customer, their automated system then generated a second quarterly bill based on an estimated reading 4 days after the previous bill, and this shows that my account is now in credit because a direct debit had gone through in the intervening period. But they still want to increase the monthly D/D by £50. And this is where they get my back up, and I start to lose my patience.

You phone up and after punching out various numbers for this type of query, and whether you want to actually speak to a human being, you get through to someone who doesn't have a clue what he is talking about, and is obviously just reading from a script. I would classify this as waffle mode, because whatever is being said bears no relation to what the actual problem is. And what should be a couple of minutes conversation takes nearly an hour, and it's made worse because the person that you are speaking to doesn't even live in the UK, and although he/she speaks English, he/she actually doesn't understand it.

But I do love computers when they are going well. And if they had had them in the 60s I wouldn't have had to sit outside the branch of a bank on a Friday evening until around 10 o'clock waiting for the manager to let the staff out, including my then girlfriend, all because there was a 3d (old pennies, not pounds) discrepancy in the hand-written ledgers.

[bauble]

Calm down Mike. Consider your blood pressure.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

But I do love computers when they are going well. And if they had had them in the 60s I wouldn't have had to sit outside the branch of a bank on a Friday evening until around 10 o'clock waiting for the manager to let the staff out, including my then girlfriend, all because there was a 3d (old pennies, not pounds) discrepancy in the hand-written ledgers.

Ah yes, I spent many an hour in the hot summer of '76 sitting outside a bank in Milsom Street in the centre of Bath wondering when the staff would be released and whether it would be acceptable to leave the car and visit one of the many rather wonderful local hostelries and their fine selection of ales - which is what one should have been doing at such a time of the evening except just over the hill in the countryside where we were residing at the time.

These days it seems that they just accept that nothing adds up and hardly check anything - then close down the branches to eliminate the problems.

[terence]

Not really topic busting but can anyone reccomend an Electrics guide for beginners/or kitcar biulders.Electrics have never been a strong point with me.Need diagrams for general loom making and generally connecting everything up.Ive been let down by an auto sparks bloke-been waiting for six months and dont want to wait any longer.

[midgetman]

Hey Grant I used to work in Barclays Milsom Street. I was there about 1982, you were probably still waiting for your girl to get the books to balance :ROFL:

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[delta]

Originally Posted by terence

Not really topic busting but can anyone reccomend an Electrics guide for beginners/or kitcar biulders.Electrics have never been a strong point with me.Need diagrams for general loom making and generally connecting everything up.Ive been let down by an auto sparks bloke-been waiting for six months and dont want to wait any longer.

Gordon Streeter .

[Lancsbreaker]

Mr Bell will be cheered - as I was on my way to Oulton Park today to be chaufeured round on a trackday in a Pug 205 GTi, I passed a line of three new BMW I3s, all decked out in Ambulance liveries.......

I presume that they are new Rapid Response vehicles? Just hope that when they arrive they don't need too much juice for (say) a defibrillator......

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by delta

Gordon Streeter .

:

Me, blimey I have trouble wiring up a 2 pin plug down here in Spain let alone the more complicated 3 pin ones back in the UK

Terry it depends on what age of car you are talking about ? I take it that you are not into canbus ?

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

:

Me, blimey I have trouble wiring up a 2 pin plug down here in Spain let alone the more complicated 3 pin ones back in the UK

Terry it depends on what age of car you are talking about ? I take it that you are not into canbus ?

http://www.lbthosting.com/dutton/others/ReWire.pdf take a look at this, One thing I will add is to keep anything that will stop the car from running, like fuel pump/ ignition system etc on separate feeds and don't bridge them in with anything else. If it's only going to be a track car then you may not need half of the stuff anyway depending on the class.

[terence]

Thanks Gordon.Sorry should have said its my Capri.All unrequired wiring is out of the car,heater,reverse lights etc etc.I have installed an eight way fuse box into the dash,all that kind of thing but need to connect ignition switch,heavey duty on off toggle type.Then connect wipers and so on.So basically its just connections need to be right.

[Mike Bell]

Keep it simple- VERY simple! As Gordon says, separate feeds for the important stuff- straight from the cut off if possible. I use circuit breaker switches instead of fuses and switches, so that's two less connections per feed. A good source is a marine chandler- they use a lot on boats! I can give you a link if you're interested.....

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker

Mr Bell will be cheered - as I was on my way to Oulton Park today to be chaufeured round on a trackday in a Pug 205 GTi, I passed a line of three new BMW I3s, all decked out in Ambulance liveries.......

I presume that they are new Rapid Response vehicles? Just hope that when they arrive they don't need too much juice for (say) a defibrillator......

I'm sure the Pug would have been more fun! But they will certainly perform the 'rapid response' brief perfectly in an urban environment. And maybe the defibrillator power packs could be used to boost range..... Wonder who paid for them, bit of a step up from the old diesel Skoda Estates we get around here!

[grantp]

Originally Posted by midgetman

Hey Grant I used to work in Barclays Milsom Street. I was there about 1982, you were probably still waiting for your girl to get the books to balance :ROFL:

Hehe, small world, except she was at Midland.

One thing she never had trouble with was getting the till to balance. Helping the others to get their tills to balance was a perpetual niggle though.

I was ever thus.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by grantp

One thing she never had trouble with was getting the till to balance. Helping the others to get their tills to balance was a perpetual niggle though.

How things change. In the 60s, the manager would keep the staff on the premises when there was just a piddling amount out, yet with my then company's bank in the early 80s, each branch had a discretionary limit on discrepancies. This came to light one Friday when we had collected the weekly wages cash from the bank, and found that they had put two thousand pounds too much into the cash bag. By the time we had discovered the error, the bank had closed and the staff had gone home so we had to hang on to the extra cash until the Monday.

When we spoke to the manager at the branch, he acknowledged that they had noted the lack of money when they cashed up, but they didn't know where it may have gone. But he wasn't too concerned because the branch had a £5,000 daily discrepancy limit!

One has to wonder how much went into the cashiers' pockets every day? And whether they still permit this system to operate today?

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

How things change. In the 60s, the manager would keep the staff on the premises when there was just a piddling amount out, yet with my then company's bank in the early 80s, each branch had a discretionary limit on discrepancies. This came to light one Friday when we had collected the weekly wages cash from the bank, and found that they had put two thousand pounds too much into the cash bag. By the time we had discovered the error, the bank had closed and the staff had gone home so we had to hang on to the extra cash until the Monday.

When we spoke to the manager at the branch, he acknowledged that they had noted the lack of money when they cashed up, but they didn't know where it may have gone. But he wasn't too concerned because the branch had a £5,000 daily discrepancy limit!

One has to wonder how much went into the cashiers' pockets every day? And whether they still permit this system to operate today?

My bank here doesn't even handle cash over the counter now. If you want to pay any in you have to do it via the ATM's, & they break down with monotonous regularity. Come to think of it, there isn't even a counter anyway, just a couple of little round tables.

[midgetman]

Midland Bank Milsom Street, that was the one at the top want it? It's now a Loch Fyne fish restaurant. Nat West is a trendy wine bar. Barclays has closed too.

It was a fascinating place to work. Not because of the job itself which was deadly dull, but I was sometimes required to go into the cellars and find the deeds of buildings, paperwork which often stretched back to the Georgian period. Interesting to a frustrated historian such as me. And the building itself was a fine multi-storied Georgian place.

Happy days? Not quite, I couldn't wait to leave but probably the last time I had a regular job - I left in 1984!

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