Ford Granada 2.3litre V6 Estate.

My first car (back when petrol was £0.28 per litre). Would cruise at 100mph for hours on end and do 70mph in second gear; caught out a lot of XR3i drivers like that.

Plenty of leg-room in the front…..plenty of leg-over room in the back! 😀

Can’t believe that the German 2.0 was 1bhp more powerful than the British 3.0 though I believe they were both built on the same block. Actually the power difference was even more as I’ve just remembered that the German 2 litre was 125 PS against the British 124 BHP. 120 PS is about 135 BHP so you can work it out for yourself. Something like 140 BHP.
Tha SAAB was nice just for its sheer comfort.

Actually the Ford 3.0litre ‘Essex’ V6 and 2.0litre ‘Cologne’ V6 are totally different engines. I think generally the ‘stock’ 2.8litre Cologne engine is better but you can ‘tune’ more power out of the 3.0litre Essex.

Always wanted to own a 2.0litre V6 Cologne. The 2.3litre V6 Cologne was unbreakable, its maximum permissible continuous revolutions was 5700RPM! I once froze the coolant in mine solid without doing it any harm.

Ironically the Essex V6 started life as a Saab V4 (and possibly V6).

Today’s news coverage of this ‘tremor’ has just become an embarrassment now.

All these terrified people being thrown from their beds…..how we ever got through the ‘blitz’ I’ll never know!

What’s that I hear? Is it the rumbling aftershock of fraudulent insurance claims? :rolleyes:

The cinema experience seems to be less spoiled by noisy-eaters or talking these days due to the high volume that the ‘Dolby-Super-Surround-Sound-Experience’ is turned up to.

I often come out of the cinema with a dull ringing in my ears…..and sometimes a little blood!

Cinema has always been quite special for me; I think I grew up in the largest town in the UK without a cinema, so when I was young cinema also involved a train journey.

My favourite cinema used to be (the now closed) ‘Theatre One’ in Coventry. It was a single-screen cinema that had been sub-divided to give three screens. Screen one was formed upstairs, in front of the old balcony and screens two and three were long, narrow affairs downstairs formed by dividing the original stalls in half.

The trouble was that during quiet moments in screen two you could often hear the dialogue from screen three.

I remember during one quiet and moving death scene in one film you could clearly hear noisy love-making coming from the screen next door…..it nearly brought the house down! 😀

1) How many of the moaners who post negatively on this subject have actually bought a ticket for a ride on the aircraft concerned (and how often), thereby lending active support for the operations concerned?

I have. I’ll never forget the view from the cockpit of G-AMPZ as we flew over the M4 suspension bridges on the Severn estuary in August 1999. I’ll also never forget the thrill of seeing the BBMF Lancaster flying on a similar heading, and height, off our starboard wing and just for a second having a tangible experience of the history that so interested me. I’ll never forget circling Warwick castle, or the look of terror on the face of the woman sitting across the aisle from me as we did so; I can’t imagine what she thought of the idiot grinning back at her.

2) Why are aircraft owners in Europe always just sitting around and waiting for things to happen, instead of actively influencing the process before things are finalized?

3) Why are aircraft owners in Europe incapable of organizing themselves in order to put up a concerted resistance towards such things?

Don’t know; I’m not an aircraft operator.

4) If everything is looking so gloomy why has Lufthansa’s Historic Flight just bought three Constellations with the object of getting one in the air in two years time?

Presumably they appreciate the advertising value of these aircraft and appreciate that a market for this type of service exists or have a greater respect for history than other operators (plus a bigger bank balance). Or maybe they’re just going to ignore the rules…

…kidding! 😀

5) As regards the question as to who appointed the responsible “EU Quangos”: We did.

Either by voting for the wrong people or not participating in the EU Parliament elections.

You know, it is possible to vote for the ‘right’ people and still end up being governed by Quangos. 🙂

Perhaps there should be a new forum, called the soapbox, to provide an outlet for all those who seem to take delight principally in wingeing about the EU and authority in general.

Such a forum exists; it’s called the ‘General Discussion’ forum. I’ve posted there and if you take the trouble to read any of my posts I think you’d find that I don’t post there “principally to whinge about the EU and authority in general”.

If so, at least it might distract them away from the Historic Aviation forum and leave it to those who are interested in the history of aviation rather than just having an axe to grind.

This issue concerns ‘historic aviation’ so I posted here. If you have doubts about my interest in historic aviation perhaps you’d do me the courtesy of reading a few of my posts before you pass judgement; I’m pretty sure this is the only one that mentions the EU. Which, by the way, when it concerns this issue, is my government so don’t I have the right to whinge?

I am sure that those to whom these comments apply will be able to recognise themselves. To them I say – au revoir (j’espére)!

I take it you were talking about me? Do you care to respond?

Aah, but sir, you are confusing “Raising” with need.

That money is raised for Government purposes, we’d foolishly like to think that Road tax/Fuel duty & VAT would be spent on the actual roads.

Trust me…..I’m under no such illusions! 😀

Try this thread, forget that it starts being about speed cameras, in the end it all comes down to money.

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=75274

Your outback roads (Scotland and parts of Northern England, Wales, NI) are paid for by the EU… 😀

At least the UK pays more into the EU than it takes out…..but let’s not get into that here! 😀

I don’t like it any more than the next person but the treasury is raising approximately £25 billion from fuel duty and about another £9 billion from VAT on fuel. What fairer way is there to do this, higher income-tax?

Personally, I dread the day that satellite road-pricing is fitted to every vehicle.

The government will then not only be able to limit how much we drive (due to cost) but also where and when we can drive…

…plus they will be able to tell if we have been speeding, anywhere, and at any time.

Big Brother is watching you…..drive! 🙁

Yes, can’t really disagree with that; also modern petrol (and diesel) cannot be made from crude oil alone, other things must be added…..but none of these things are free.

Agreed, these are rough figures, which were done for another thread to illustrate that the oil companies couldn’t really be pressured into lowering their prices drastically to secure customer loyalty.

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=77795

I’ve scrapped duty and its VAT. The fuel is 39p including the 10p profit. So where do I jump to 93p a litre?

£0.93 would be the price per litre if the government added current duty and VAT back onto fuel sold on a ‘non-profit’ basis (£0.29 per litre) by the oil companies. This was to illustrate the point above in the previous thread.

And, no loss is made on petrol by the oil companies. They sell the other half for oils, soaps etc. but the profit on combustable fuel is as you possibly the 10p on 29p. The cost of extraction/distribution etc. is already in the crude price.

Yes, I didn’t think that last part through did I? 😮 Thought there was something wrong! :confused:

I suppose it boils down to what the ‘other’ stuff in crude sells for. Much of it will be of comparable value to the oil company, diesel, kerosene, heating-oil, lubricating-oil, bitumen, which will all ‘balance’ the cost of crude for petrol.

You make a good point about extraction also; that should be included in the cost of the crude but the distribution of the petrol to the point of sale will be extra.

It raises an interesting issue. At what point is the price of crude is being measured since the oil companies also do (most of) the refining…..are they selling oil to themselves? 😉