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Flying Cars – Not Science Fiction Any More
When the year 2000 rolled around amid fears of the Y2K bug making computers and civic systems crash (remember that?), we heard a few people asking “Where are the flying cars?” in a reference to all the guesses that people had made back in the 1950s or so about what transportation would be like in the 21st Century.
Well, the wait is over. The flying car is here, or at least it’s in the USA. This doesn’t mean that Ford Falcons are really able to soar on thermals like their namesakes or that the wings on the Mazda logo are still anything other than metaphorical.
But a flying car has been invented. Or perhaps one could call it a road-worthy light plane.
Surprisingly enough, it’s not Saab that’s put out the first real flying car, in spite of the fact that there are more things with the Saab logo in the air than there are on the roads (that’s just a guess and don’t quote me… but Saab does make everything from fighter planes down to little light planes and is primarily an aircraft company). Instead, it’s a company called Terrafugia that has put wings on cars… or road-legal wheels on a plane.
“Terrafugia” means “escape from the earth” and that’s pretty much what these flying cars are designed to do. And they’re more than just a dream. One was demonstrated at the recent Oshkosh air-show, the Terrafugia Transition. OK, they cost more than a modest family home to buy, but there probably are people out there who are interested and are going to take them on.
So what can the Transition do? Obviously, it can fly and it can go on the road legally. On the road, it looks a bit peculiar – it looks more like an amphibious vehicle with the wings tucked up beside it like the legs of a cricket or praying mantis. A touch of the button extends the wings and the propeller on the back gets ready to spin into action. Hey presto – the car is airborne (watch it here).
Obviously, the Transition isn’t massive. It can carry two people and possibly a set of golf clubs or a wee bit of luggage. The official website says that it can cruise at 160 km/h, although I guess that this is in the air rather than on the road. As a plane, the torque is fairly juicy, of course, as the Transition has to accelerate fast enough to generate the lift needed to get off the ground, and it needs a shade over half a kilometre of runway to get airborne. Once in the air, it has a range of 660 km.
There are dual steering controls – the regular steering wheels and brakes for when the Transition is on the road, and a stick and rudder pedals for steering in three dimensions (i.e. when it’s in the air). There aren’t a lot of other bells and whistles – all the thingummybobs pilots need to fly legally take up the rest of the dashboard.
The Transition fits into an ordinary single garage, so it’s likely to appeal to the sort of pilot who doesn’t want the hassle of carting out a trailer every time they want to take the plane out for a little spin. Obviously, two licences are needed: a PPL (private pilot’s licence) and a driver’s licence.
Don’t look out for these in our car reviews page just yet, though. Maybe in 50 years’ time.
Keeping Left Unless Overtaking Part 2
A couple of years ago, I had a good whinge on this blog –
http://blog.privatefleet.com.au/home/keep-left-unless-overtaking/
The crux of it was complaining about how Australians seem to ignore the ‘Keep Left Unless Overtaking’ law. The law seems to be observed in countries overseas but not in Australia and I just couldn’t understand why…
Well, the reason became apparent to me last week. I was gobsmacked to find out that I have been completely wrong for all these years. It appears that in Australia on a 3-lane freeway, despite the signs, one is perfectly entitled to sit in the middle lane!! The signs ‘Keep Left Unless Overtaking’ really means ‘Don’t use the Right Lane Unless Overtaking’.
Here’s the simplified rule as per the motoring authorities:
On multi-lane roads with a speed limit of more than 80km/h, motorists
must not drive in the right-hand lane unless they are:
• overtaking
• turning right or making a U-turn
• avoiding an obstacle
• driving in congested traffic
• driving in a special purpose lane or if there is a Left Lane Must Turn Left sign or a left traffic arrow and the driver is not turning left.
So, I’ve been wrong all these years. All this wasted anger and frustration directed to these ignorant law-breakers who it turns out were doing the right thing all along (in a legal sense)! So let me hold my hand up and humbly apologise to all those who have been the subject of my angry feelings and/or glares. I’m sorry.
Meekly, I will make a defence that I learned how to drive in the UK and have driven extensively in Europe where ‘middle lane hogging’ is clearly outlawed. Further I will add that the signs used in Australia contributed to my mistake – why refer to the left lane at all when it is the right lane that the law refers to?
However, saying all that, I am now even more astounded. It’s not ill-informed motorists doing the wrong thing but the government! What on earth were they thinking? Many road rules in Australia have been adapted from overseas so why take this one and then snip off an important part for no apparent reason. Why on earth did they do it?
Let me put forth an objective list of reasons why I think the European model works better:
- 3-lane freeways become 2-lane freeways
- Traffic Flow. The rate of traffic (cars per hour) is increased reducing congestion. Of course, once it hits a point where all 3-lanes are crawling, you’re stuffed but it takes longer to hit that level if ‘left lane discipline’ is observed. If drivers stick steadfastly in the middle lane, it tends to turn 3-lane freeways into 2-lane motorways. In general drivers will (sensibly) prefer to overtake on the right fearing meeting some particurlarly slow traffic in the inside lane and getting ‘boxed in’. So the left lane gets under-utilised – the only users being the most diverse groups – the very slow and the very fast and impatient.
- If everyone keeps to the very left, there’s no need for undertaking (passing a driver in the left lane). This increases safety for all drivers as there’s now only one side that you need to anticipate drivers passing you rather than two (notwithstanding the facat that a good driver should anticipate hazards from all angles and situations but you get my drift)
- Speed Differential. This is the big one in my opinion. Think about any accident and you’ll see that two objects travelling at different speeds is what caused the accident. The bigger this difference the more dangerous it is (eg a car at 80km/hr hitting a tree at 0km/hr).
We’ve all had the experience of coming up to the crest a hill and having to brake relatively hard as a heavy vehicle crawls up the hill at snails pace. Traffic entering main roads from side roads is often a high risk accident zone for example as the car entering may not always attain the prevailing speed fo the main road in time.
So when you allow middle lane hogging, and left lane overtaking, you combine some of the fastest speeds with some of the slowest! You have speed freaks mixing with flat-capped, caravan pulling Sunday drivers in the same lane!
Look at the example of the right to see what I’m talking about – as the speeding car passes the truck, there’s a needlessly dangerous 20km/h speed differential.
Does the above sound right to you? Or am I missing something? The following pieces of evidence do seem to support this argument:
- Traffic seems to flow better overseas in developed countries. It just does and anyone who has driver overseas will no doubt have noticed it. Simply put it takes a lot more cars to clog a 3-lane motorway than it does here.
- Further illustrating the ‘speed differential’ argument. If you are on a freeway and overtake a car doing 105km/h while you are doing 110km/h, it’s relatively straightforward. You slowly move past them even though there may only be a metre or s0 between the wing mirrors of the two cars. But would you be so comfortable cruising past a row of trees that close doing the same speed?
Now, how about an argument for the current rules. Thinking hard, I can only come up with one… and that one is dubious too.
- There is less lane changing when drivers are allowed to sit in the niddle lane. Yes, I can see that in low-traffic scenarios (remember those?) – a car driver for example may just sit in the middle lane avoiding slow trucks etc in the left hand lane. However sooner or later, a faster driver will come up behind and be forced to change lanes tothe far right lane to overtake whereas with the strick keep left model, he may not have to. Also, the dangerous practice impatient drivers are ‘forced’ into of darting to to the left to undertake and then quickly scoot two lanes to the right to overtake the next two vehicles may mean that this isn’t the case after all.
So, I’m still confused and still frustrated but should I be? Is this even an issue worth talking about? Let us know in the comments below if you agree or disagree.
Keep Calm In The Car
Next time you’re at the traffic lights, sneak a peek at your fellow drivers. To judge by their actions, most people seem to forget that when they’re sitting behind the wheel of a car, they’re in a bubble of glass and are visible to everyone around them, tinted glass notwithstanding. They behave as though they’re in solitude, blissful or otherwise. This has to be the reason why heaps of people decide that the traffic lights are the best place to practice a little nasal hygiene (i.e. pick their noses).
And when you stop to think about it, most of us respect the privacy of other people and don’t go gawping in at the drivers around us, any more than we go peering through the neighbours windows. So maybe it’s best that we make the most of that little bit of semi-solitude in our days and find a way to make our commutes calmer.
There are some obvious benefits to driving calmly. Obviously, you avoid road rage problems. However, if you are less aggressive as you drive, you tend to use less petrol and create less wear and tear on all the moving parts. Not to mention what being aggressive and impatient does to you.
So, in the interests of keeping your daily commute a bit calmer and less stressful, here are a few ideas that you might like to try:
- Don’t feel like you have to have the navigation system on all the time. Save it for when you need it. You probably know the way to work by now, don’t you? The fewer voices, beeps and buzzes you have in your environment competing for your attention, the better for you (and you’ll probably drive more safely into the bargain).
- Keep a few healthy nibbles and drinks in your car. Cupholders don’t just fit coffee cups – they fit most hand-held receptacles. Instead of picking up yet another adrenaline-stimulating coffee, why not throw a bottle of fruit juice into the drink holder? Also have a selection of healthy nibbles to snack on as you drive, especially if you have a long commute at the end of the day and are likely to have flagging blood sugar levels in the evening. Chilled glove compartments or consoles are designed for storing chocolate on hot days, aren’t they?
- Make the inside of your car attractive. It’s a pity more car manufacturers haven’t taken a leaf out of the VW Beetle and provided a little bud vase for flowers.
- Pick your sounds with care. Sometimes, the radio with endless doom and gloom in the news is the last thing you want. Choose a playlist to suit your mood (e.g. energetic, lively music in the morning when you want to energize yourself; calm chill-out sounds in the evening). And don’t forget audio books, which can turn a long wait at the lights a chance to hear a bit more of the story.
- Use essential oils – lavender is calming and antiseptic. Make your own car fragrance from lavender oil, white vinegar and water, or blend lavender oil with some regular oil and use it to wipe down the dashboard and steering wheel. If you use a strong enough concentration of oil (e.g. 20 drops to ½ a cup of oil), you’ll also disinfect the bits you touch at the same time.
New Cars For Finishing 2013 Out
There are still a number of exciting new models to come in 2013, and for car fans, like me, this is always going to be great news worthy of investigation.
Keep your eyes out for Aston Martin’s new Vanquish Volante. If you are into James Bond style cars, the open top Volante will be a hit. This should arrive at the end of the year.
Audi’s new S3 will heat some rubber in both hatch and sedan form. The sedan will be able to take on the BMW 1-Series M Coupe. Also to arrive in Australia shortly will be the very quick Audi RS6 Avant. The 0-100 km/h sprint should be cut down to under four seconds.
BMW’s 3-Series GT is just around the corner, as is the newly designed X5. Maybe the highlight for most BMW fans will be the updated Z4 Roadster – a great handling package with plenty of power.
For those who can afford it, the Bentley Flying Spur with a twelve-cylinder engine will grace our roads shortly.
Fiat’s new Grande Punto and tiny Panda models are due in Australia later this year. For the performance nuts, the ankle biting Fiat Abarth Punto Evo Supersport packs a nippy 132kW.
Ford‘s entire Fiesta range gets a facelift, including the feisty new turbo-charged Fiesta ST. One other very interesting addition for the Blue Oval is the cleverly designed Ford Ecosport SUV, due at the end of the year. The small SUV shape is a very tidy-looking little machine that rides high and is very efficient.
Holden has their Trax due shortly – see Private Fleet review.
Watch out for the stylish Infiniti Q50 Sedan. Deceptively quick and luxurious, you’ll need to be quick to get your hands on one of these top models from the recently introduced Infiniti brand.
One of the most exciting cars that is arriving in the next few months is one from Jaguar: the new F-Type Roadster. Deemed to be a great handler and in the same league as a Porsche 911, this one’s got acceleration times of between 4-to-5 seconds from 0-100 km/h – depending on your choice of engine. The V8-S runs up to a maximum speed of 300 km/h.
Jeep is looking good with the launch of its revised Grand Cherokee range in Australia.
Lexus has their gorgeous new IS models. Check out our review on the range of Lexus IS variants. What a great car, with performance to match the looks and luxury, not to be outdone by its little brother, the large Lexus ES Sedan is due later this year.
Maserati has their new Quattroporte sedan for sale in Australia. Expect plenty of get-up-and-go from turbocharged V6 and V8 engines.
Mercedes Benz has just a few new entrants. The big S-Class luxury sedan will launch toward the end of the year in Australia. However, you’ll notice the classy small CLA four-door coupe on our roads now – take a look at our review.
Nissan’s quirky new Juke Crossover is sure to be a hit with the ladies (and the gents), while Nissan provide the off-road fraternity with a nice looking new Pathfinder.
Peugeot have their showy new 2008 SUV available at the end of the year. Expect a frugal diesel to get the job done.
Jag’s F-Type has obviously been watched by the class leading Porsche brand, as the Germans have got their act together and come up with the new 911 range, which includes the GT3 and 911 Turbo.
Back to the small hatchbacks… Renault provide their Nissan-collaborated Clio range at the end of the year. The quick RS is sure to be great entertainment value.
Not a new motorbike this time, but a brand new SX4 SUV will be promised to the buyer on the lookout for new Suzuki cars. It should be here before the end of 2013.
Lastly, Volvo will have all of their new range ( XC60, S60 and V60 vehicles) in Australia by the end of the year.
All-in-all, this is a range of cars (budget-priced to expensive) that keep the interest levels high enough for the new car enthusiast. It has been a quieter year, as last year there were a huge number of products rolled out by many of the big names in car brands. Next year looks busy.
Level 2, 9 Help Street