Thursday 21 July 2016

Spin-off

Nothing to do with the car itself.

A spin-off use for some left overs from the cooling system.
An off cut of silicone tubing, section cut out, makes a perfect sprung heat proof 'pot handle grabber' for the kitchen...

Sunday 3 July 2016

Adaptive feedback update

Approx 1,500 miles on the clock now since shifting to fully adaptive.

I get a larger spread of feedback adjustments and the start of some changes in the higher rev range - car doesn't stay there for long on normal driving though so not yet a smooth graph.

0-500 rev range is excluded from the feedback process.

There is the expected top-left to bottom-right diagonal of feedbacks - consistent with relatively flat running and smooth acceleration in high gear, and the top row of values at zero throttle when lifting off and coasting. Not many hills on the Berlin run so only a little feedback on the left vertical - high throttle/low revs.



The original powermap high inputs at low revs are not great, I presume they are to stop the engine stalling, the car tends to bog down at low revs when pulling away and I suspect it's moving into this area. I may let adaptive adjust the 500 column in around 10% throttle and see if that helps.

Friday 1 July 2016

Berlin and Back - Home!

The final leg,
Across Belgium and towards the ferry at Dunkirk.


An interesting lifting bridge along the way.



Nothing really more to tell other thank losing my debit card to an automated petrol garage in France somewhere. Luckily had enough cash for the final fill up. Rang up the bank to cancel my card and they asked me where I was:
   "er, not really sure, somewhere in Belgium or France..."
   Made the bank assistant laugh anyway.

Arrived at Dunkirk just in time to catch the 16:00 ferry.


The boat was reasonably full, and somewhat shock to the system with so much noise, people and genral hubub.  It was nice to have a complete english conversation with the lady behind the coffee counter - I mean just full sentences rather than broken english and signs, then a little people watching while I supped my hot coffee and ate a warm danish pastry.

Its only a 2 hour crossing, the route first running west along the French coast then north into Dover. 
I spent a fair amount of time on deck in the wind - the wind just makes me feel alive!


All parked up at home, car needs a wash.
Time for a proper cup of tea (in my experience tea is just not the same outside the UK), feet up and then a long bath.

All done.

One European road trip: complete.
Countries visited: UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.
Languages: English, please/thank-you in local language, smiles and pointing.
Weather: roasting heat to torrential rain
Miles Travelled: ~1,578
Car issues: None

Thank you to all the locals, petrol station owners, restauranteurs waiters and hoteliers for being patient with communications. The waves and nods from general public also appreciated.

Hood down all the way while driving, used a couple of times for overnight waterproofing.

Roads - no mountains, but plenty to see, lots of places I have never been to before and a few on a shortlist to re-visit.

FANTASTIC!