Response

Loves Ford Steering

I don't understand why you object to the Ford's steering response (in the VE Berlina article -  VE Commodore Berlina).  I absolutely *love* the responsive steering in the Ford (I have a BA Fairlane G220) - it gives the car a nice sporty feel, and in my opinion it requires less effort than a Holden (or a 7-series BMW which I drive regularly), because of the simple fact that the wheel does not need to be turned as much.  I hope they retain the existing response!  I've actually written to Ford, complimenting them on the Fairlane steering, in fact. I'm assuming that the current Fords have the same steering as the BA - not sure. If they've made it more responsive than the BA then perhaps that would be excessive.

Greg Sullivan
Australia

Car Strength

I found the article on cracked windscreens very interesting but must put in my two cents worth about the strength side of it being with the glass. Being a former vehicle builder from Chrysler/Mitsubishi days it is in fact the A, B & C pillars that hold the strength in the upper area. This is because if you do what many have done in the past and cut the roof off a two door Valiant you'll find without strength bars under the floor pan, it will just bend and crack in two as many of the Valiants did in those days. So I disagree not only with you but with Windscreen O'Brians if they say that the front and rear glass hold the strength as they do not.

Russell Sharp
Australia

In modern cars the bonded-in front and rear glass certainly contribute to structural stiffness, especially in torsion.

Heavy Knob 1

Re: Driving Emotion & Heavy Knobs... I personally keep away from the rating system unless I think something is REALLY good, or REALLY bad... and unfortunately find myself reading AutoSpeed less and less, but I do agree with the comment you made about simply running out of things to talk about as there are only so many ways you can go over how most normal modern cars work etc so I’m not going to whinge and moan and 'leave' it.

As for the gear knob article, I actually did this mod over Christmas but didn't plan it as I was given a replacement gear knob as a present as my current one was worn out. The giver went all out and got me a really nice stainless steel Subaru STI gear knob which was easily 2-3 times heavier than my standard Legacy knob. Straight away I noticed that shifting was different BUT an even more significant improvement was made by taking apart the entire shift mechanism and replacing each and every bush in the linkage, now THAT was a transformation.

I respect the knowledge and effort that was put into your article, but I think this one has worked well on your particular car and suits the way you think it should work. As for it making every gear shift faster/better/smoother in all cars? I’m not too sure... Personal preference perhaps. For the record, my favourite article series on AutoSpeed?  Driving Emotion...

Martin Mulholland
Australia

Re your first paragraph... more people are reading AutoSpeed than ever before – our readership stats are at all-time highs and are still growing.

Heavy Knob 2

Although I probably will not get to try the "heavy gearshift knob" trick myself (circumstances in my life make it is almost impossible for me to get to a wrecking yard), I thought it to be a clever and creative idea.

Andy Miller
United States

No Such Thing

Re "Screen Saver": There is no such thing as a "lead ball bearing". A spherical ball of lead would be called simply "lead shot" since shot is always spherical anyway, and I know of no bearing which uses lead shot. A decent-sized ball, say 5mm or bigger, would be buckshot.

Mike Triggs
Australia

Article now corrected.

Diesel Economy

Any possibility in doing an article on how the new common rail diesel engines are able to get such amazing fuel economy?

Paul Donovan
Australia

We have done a number of articles on common rail diesels - do a site search under 'diesel'.

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