[Nobbc] Marin Concours...5/15/2011

[G. Mugele]

Thanks for the photo sharing Al.   I wish you'd gotten a few more
shots of that TR4A... like under the hood.  And on that subject, does
anyone know of a local source for a TR4 clutch master cylinder?   Moss
and TRF are both back-ordered on those.  What about an upper radiator
hose?

While Wendell was having fun with the exotic euro art work, I was
judging the pre-war American class.   We gave the honors to an
immaculate 39 LaSalle.  The V12 was so smooth and quiet it was hard to
believe that it was running.  It's a gorgeous car and lovingly
maintained.

While I was working the Concours (with the rain and hail for added
interest) I had an opportunity to ogle some of the stuff for sale from
local dealers.  I rather like the Ferrari California so if you're
starting your gift list for Christmas....

But the one that has me scratching my head is the Roller.   There was
a very tasteful, stratospherically priced and imposingly huge Rolls
Phantom that they put out on the lawn by the lagoon.   They actually
allowed the masses to climb into it ... so of course I waited my turn
and sat in the driver's seat where I admired the wood, leather and
(I'm not kidding here) fluffy wool carpet.  What was consternating was
the instrumentation.... the thing has the speedo right where you
expect, in a very tasteful black on white.  But where the rev-counter
SHOULD be there's a matching gauge labeled "power reserve."   I don't
know what the heck that's supposed to mean so of course I asked the
sales rep.... who looked every bit the part, was cloyingly 'pleasant'
and not even vaguely helpful.  He explained that the gauge "helpfully
allows the driver to use the remaining power judiciously and with
confidence by assuring that he knows that there's plenty left."  Huh
what?   So I asked him how it determines this valuable information.
His response: "I'm not an engineer."

Okay, I'll buy that but still... shouldn't he have a clue?

So I've just spent some google time trying to learn more and have
found nothing that explains what the hell that thing does.   How does
it work?
I did learn that at idle the gauge indicates 100%   Is this something
more useful for autobox cars than a tach?  And really, what does this
information do for you?
But actually, I want to know how it ascertains this critical driving
information.  Does it examine manifold vacuum and compare it to fuel
flow at various rev levels?  What the heck?

It's all so mysterious.   And if it's so dang wonderful why aren't
they bragging about it?  I considered the possibility that it's a
hybrid but given that it has a V12 under the hood, that seems
preposterous.   Still , the people who fork over that kind of loot
probably want to look as though they give a crap about their use of
natural resources.    I understand Mercedes is about to roll out some
sort of hybrid... but I'm willing to bet that they won't be doing that
at the upscale end of their line;  a Maybach hybrid seems pretty
unlikely.

As I've thought more about the "how" this thing works and ignoring the
utility of it, I recalled something I came across recently.  I was
poking around on the net and found an accessory you can get for $80
from Garmin that taps the output of the OBD socket and sends it to the
screen of your GPS.  That just makes us techno geek types all warm and
fuzzy.   It would seem like a reasonable stance for the marketing
department; they'd feel like that's a fair use of that kind of
information: to display it, for the brain dead, on an analog gauge.
Hmmm... may hafta look into that.

Gerry


On May 17, 2011, at 11:44 AM, Al Garber wrote:

> http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/zskcgGLp/1/5121858
>
> Some photos from Sunday. Except for a brief ten minute shower, a
> nice day.

G. Mugele
mewgull at mugele.net

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