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It's French, and its numberplate is BB973X, so I guess I ought to call it BB. You probably have to be French and a lot older than most of you guys to know who the hell I'm talking about. I'll give you a hint. She's called BB in France. She popularised the bikini, she made a lot of films, she...

Sometimes Intel produces a better chip than AMD, then AMD makes a step forward with its technology, and its ahead for a while. When they are ahead with technology they charge more, when they're behind they cut the price and try to persuade you to buy their product on the vasis of "value for...

In June 2006, the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety in the US released a study showing that up to 10,000 fatal US crashes could be avoided annually if all vehicles were equipped with ESC The study concluded that ESC reduces the likelihood of all fatal crashes by 43 percent, fatal...

Its irrelevant how far out other peoples' speedos are. Its a matter of how far out yours is. If you are going at a constant speed, that's important, believe the GPS. It will give you a reading within one whatever per hour. If you are accelerating your GPS will read lower than your real...

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AU-YT makes a valid point. And I have the same problem as him as another low mileage/year owner. Replacing belts is a substantial increase to the cost of owning and running the car for people like us. Renault has reduced the time before the aux belt replacement from 4 years to 3 years. But its...

In general terms it is a combination of two things. So a Toyota Prius "hybrid" is a combination of petrol and electric power. In Clio terms its putting a later model and usually bigger engine into a usually earlier car that originally had a smaller engine.

A vandal would simply have done damage. Methodically letting down your tyres is the work of someone with a grievance. Ask yourself who you've pissed off.

The manufacturer sets up the suspension to provide the sort of balance between ride, handling and ground clearance that the typical purchaser of that vehicle would want. So an off-road vehicle is going to be set up standard with a higher ride height and softer ride than a sporty car. Lowering...

Nonsense. You don't "slow down a bit but still have the same revs". If you're at the same revs in the same gear you're doing the same the same speed. Do use the cruise control. If you've got one. I wish I did. I find it really hard to maintain that steady speed just below the enforcement...

The more I need it the more likely it is I don't get it. I change gears a hundred times a day in normal driving without any problems. But take it out on the drag strip and try to get a time, and time after time the same thing happens, I go from first to second OK, but when I change up from 2nd...

It says on the GDI website that its only a remapped standard ECU. But if it delivers what it claims of substantial increases in low to mid-range torque, as well as close to 200 bhp, that'd be a very nice package for a road car. Even at 1550 pounds.

We have a driving school here called the "WRX Driving School". You can guess what they use. Its a gimmick that appears to get them plenty of customers. Well, a lot of a certain sort of customer anyway.

Actually someone claimed they had a device that would reduce fuel consumption. I said I'd buy one if they'd give me money back if it didn't work on the 172. It didn't work. They gave me my money back. But in the process of doing before and after fuel economy testing I came up with some numbers...

Its the tendency to be pulled off line by or follow grooves and ridges in the road. Big tyres do it worse than small tyres.

Only an 8" wide wheel? Why not make it a 9" wide wheel. Here's how. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xwfDEtk-R8 Track day regulations should be the same as road rules. That tyres must be fitted to suitable wheels, as defined by the tyre manufacturers recommendations. And an 8" rim is wider...

Same power. But the Audi has l-o-t-s more weight. At least 400 kgs, maybe more. The Audi may have good in-gear pickup, but the Clio should leave it behind by a v-e-r-y long distance in a standing start acceleration test.

You have taken the oil filler cap off, and you are looking down through the hole at one of the cam lobes. If its an aftermarket camshaft the lobe and the shaft are one piece of metal. If its a standard camshaft the lobe has been ground from a separate piece of metal and fitted onto the shaft.

A couple of decades ago my advice would have been what these guys are giving you. That you could get a good performance or cornering or braking improvement, so pick the one you fancy and do it. But these days cars already brake well, handle well and have engines that are well developed. There...

90% of me hates all 3

Hewland does. Just google.

Put a bike engine in a car and its hard to drive in traffic. The bike engine's flywheel and clutch are designed to get a couple of hundred kilos moving. Put it in something that weighs three times that and its a pain to launch. You don't have enough flywheel weight, and the clutch is easy to...

Rubbish. A Clio Mk2 Ph2 172, the shortest geared of all of them, is geared to 20.4 mph/1000 rpm in 5th. So the rev limiter, 7200 rpm, is at 146.8 mph. Every test of them said they'd do 138 mph standard. Getting to 146.8 would require 20.37% more power. That would be 207 bhp at the flywheel, 35...

Interesting that the first dyno operator thinks your car loses 10% of it power between the flywheel and the wheels, and the second guy thinks it loses 12.5%. Most people would think the second guy is closer to the mark. So what do you think. Do you think the car lost power when you did the...

Actually, depending on the brand of the SATA drive, it could be the wrong cable. Depending on the brand SATA drives comes with or without a molex (4-pin) power connector. If it doesn't have a molex power connector you have to use a SATA cable that supplies power as well. If it does have a...

They designed an engine and a gearbox that'd stretch to 1.8 litres and 1.8 litres worth of torque. Then safety requirements got tougher and tougher so cars got heavier so they stretched the engine to 2.0 litres. Which pushed the gearbox right to its limits. So if you get a good one you're...

It was a James Bond movie?

It would take a genuine 200 bhp (at the flywheel) to do a genuine 145 mph.

That's 0.15 seconds off your 0-60 and standing quarter mile times. Its the equivalent of 8 additional bhp.

The "kick" at 4500-5000 rpm isn't the VVT. Its the engine coming "on cam". The cam, the exhaust the inlet tuning all start working together at about those revs, and you notice it. The VVT isn't there to come in at 4 or 5 or 6,000 rpm to give more power like on some Japanese cars, it simply...