Journalistic Ethics #1
Dear Mr Edgar,
I've never heard of you nor met you and I've been in motoring journalism for some 22 years working for the biggest newspapers in Australia. So you either must be the biggest recluse in the business or yet another fly-by-nighter masquerading in a website which is seen as some way of justifying yourself as an authority. You can't even be decently informed about the industry because you've never been to any automotive press conference that I've attended, nor asked a question.
Many thanks for your so-called editorial entitled The Swindling of Public Opinion ["From the Editor"]; it's successfully managed to smear those motoring journalists who place a high value on their honesty and integrity. But I guess that was your intention: a cheap shot to get yourself some (equally cheap) publicity. Smear away, Mr Edgar, because I rate my journalistic integrity streets ahead of yours.
Peter Brewer
Motoring Editor
The Canberra Times
Perhaps you can in fact address the points being made?
1. Journalists pay nothing for the test cars that they obtain from manufacturers, and do not declare this in their stories. This is in direct breach of the Journalists' Code of Ethics, with which of course you are familiar.
2. Strong criticism of cars or their manufacturers results frequently in the withdrawal of the availability of press cars to independent journalists, a direct manipulation of the range of published material available for consideration by the public.
Journalistic Ethics #2
I enjoyed reading the latest editorial regarding journalistic ethics. I think it's something that needed to be said, especially with the current tack the two big Australian motoring mags are taking. Wheels seems to have turned into a lifestyle magazine almost, and Motor has always been that way... but a lot more of it seems to be about blokey jokes rather than critical performance evaluation. Well done mate, good on ya for speaking your mind.
On a completely different note, I'd be interested to learn of what motoring-related websites you frequent. Over the past few months I've found a heap of good ones, but I'm sure there are a heap more.
Dan Boman
Australia
Journalistic Ethics #3
Excellent article, I've often read new car reviews and wondered "where are the bad points, where's the meat?". Often there's a token criticism of seat colour or key placement or some such nonsense. For this reason I rarely bother reading the text any more, I read the figures and stats, that's about it.
One wonders, is there a professional membership board for journalists? What is their opinion of the situation?
Nice to see you again walking where others fear to tread. I find myself looking forward to your confronting editorials, even though I'm sometimes in the firing line. Keep up the good work.
Bret Parker
Australia
Temp Meter
Enjoyed your article on the differential temperature meter ["Differential Temp Meter - Part 1"]. Now all we need is one for a differential pressure gauge (say a running measure of pressure before and after an intercooler for example.) Alternatively how about an article on or comparing (affordable hopefully) data logging systems that might be able to could collect and compare information like this, temperature and pressure, side-by-side?
Mike Pederson
USA
Differential pressure gauges are easy - have a look at "Eliminating Negative Boost - Part 2". The gauges are available in ranges suitable for measuring turbo boost pressures. Data logging is also easy, but getting quality sensors that are budget priced is the killer...
Positives
Wow! What a great site! I signed up last week and have been back almost every day coz there's always more to read! $35/year seems cheap after having a good look around, I'm not complaining though. I'm in the process of buying a twin-turbo Soarer and wanted some advice based on actual testing not just guesswork. And I think this is it! Great work, keep it up.
Jacob Napthine
Australia
Negatives
I just read the article your magazine published called The Twin Turbo Zet, by Julian Edgar.
I was not very surprised to read criticism of the Twin Turbo Zet's small impellers or minuscule power consumption; I have heard such criticism before. What astonished me was a failure on your part or the author's part to actually test the Twin Turbo Zet in a vehicle! Obviously, the Twin Turbo Zet is not a true supercharger and I find Edgar's comparison of it to a conventional supercharger absurd. The Twin Turbo Zet is designed to intelligently regulate the intake airflow across the RPM range - which it does well enough to produce impressive results.
I have not yet had a single customer of mine complain about the Twin Turbo Zet's performance. It does increase engine responsiveness and lower fuel costs and emissions just as the manufacturer claims. Both of my personal vehicles are significantly faster from 0-100 mph than they were before I installed a Turbo Zet and Twin Turbo Zet!
Your magazine owes the manufacturer of the Twin Turbo Zet an apology and at the least, you should run a test with the Twin Turbo Zet installed in a vehicle. The manufacturer advertises that the true test of their product is a road test (1/4 mile) yet you attacked their credibility without so much as a single bit of test data. Shame on you. To my knowledge, there are NO street-legal products sold in the USA that can even come close to providing the level of improvement in engine performance in a stock vehicle that the Twin Turbo Zet does for the price. If you do not believe so - prove it! I'll send you a Twin Turbo Zet at cost with installation instructions. The least I can do is give you the opportunity to right your wrong.
Michael A. Poole
USA
Comparison with a conventional supercharger absurd? We'll just remind you of some of the manufacturer's claims, as spelled out on the box of the one we had:
- Increases engine acceleration power up to 30 per cent
- Fuel savings up to 30 per cent
- Value-priced compared to mechanical turbocharger
- Maintenance-free
Do's and Don'ts
I would like to see an article about "running in" a brand new engine, the do's and don'ts.
Curtis Schur
Australia
Simple, follow the manufacturer's advice. They will know far better than others what is appropriate for their own cars.
Wow!
I thought you might enjoy seeing a picture of the 180-degree crossover headers I built for my 1989 Porsche 928 S4.
Tom Cloutier
USA
Blown Holden V6 Mods
Do you think you could write an article about increasing the boost of a Commodore Supercharged V6? They only operate at 1psi boost, I was wondering what kind of performance gain you would get by increasing the boost and how far you could go.
Csaba Baranyai
Australia
We think that you'll find that they operate at more than 1 psi boost... However, we do have an article in the pipeline on modifying these engines.
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