I just had a busy weekend with a friend of mine dropping by to try out some new car detailing products which I will be reviewing shortly. Saturday’s weather was intermittent sun with the odd chilly spell, so Craig and I broke the usual detailing don’t rules where we cleaned my car in the bright sunny spells with the car being warm to the touch and not in the shade. The snow foam episode was intended just for my car, but the odd breeze also left dried water spots on his black car parked next to mine, that meant it was now going to be a two car wash day. The products we tried were good and I think I may have discovered a new favourite car shampoo, although I still have one more product to try before I can fully stand behind that statement. The day wore on and the weather forecast for the first show the next day’s car show was looking good. The best of it was the first show of the year was only seven miles away from me at a new venue (for me) organised by the Bury Retro Car Club called Buff The Ruff at Rougham Tower Museum, as it’s now known, but it was one of the fully functioning working airbases in the Suffolk and Norfolk areas.
Rougham Control Tower (originally known as RAF Bury St Edmunds), is a former RAF station, situated 3 miles east of the Suffolk market town of Bury St Edmunds. The airfield was built between 1941 and 1942, and had three intersecting concrete runways. The main runway was approximately 2000 yards long, and run in an East to West direction. The airfield was designed for a United States Army Airforce unit (USAAF) bomb group. Fifty concrete hardstands were constructed just off the encircling perimeter track. Two T2-type hangars were erected, one on each side of the airfield. Accommodation was provided for some 3,000 personnel in Nissen and other temporary type buildings. There were a number of squadrons based here; 47th Bombardment Group (Light), 322nd Bombardment Group (Medium), 94th Bombardment Group (Heavy) with their mighty B-17 Flying Fortress.
An excited big kid (me), went to bed with the weather still looking good for the Sunday. The alarm didn’t need to wake me up as the blind in the bedroom was up so the sunrise woke me and gave me a good excuse to check the weather. The sun was out and there was some blue stuff up there with the odd cloud moving slowly. I loaded my cool bag with some drinks and packed lunch, along with some sun cream!
I loaded the car and backed it out and the sound of the engine was something I had really missed. The journey was literally only ten minutes away as it was just off a main road and the first junction I came too, the car hadn’t really gotten warm after such a short journey. I got to the entrance a easy forty minutes before the official opening time of ten. I made a few changes of parking location, as I didn’t want to park under a tree. The second space I picked was the entrance to the field where the majority of cars were going to be parked up, so I had to move to nice spot I liked just in front of the main tower itself.
I took over three hundred photos on the day and quite a few of them were from the museum. The day I will split across two posts, just to make the page view a little more manageable.
There were a couple of groups of WWII enactment, mostly German with a few USAF guys wandering around. Just as you drove into the area there was a ‘dug out’ with a couple of ominous machine guns pointed at you, and a German SS guard by the barrier.
The main tower was over three floors, the top floor you had to go outside to get to the steps to take you up. The rooms were filled with models, equipment, bits of old planes, photo’s and information on the base and it’s history.
They had the odd mannequin showing the rooms, some of which looked a little creepy!
Going up the stairs to the next level, the building was almost trying to tell you a story of it’s own if that makes sense?
By the time I had spent a while looking around there were some cars arriving in convoy and managed to grab some unusual above pictures.
Outside there was some more US Jeeps parked up and a rather cute sibling!
Just to left of the of the Tower as you exit there are some bunkers or buildings which also housed some pretty awesome exhibits.
In part two’s post, the next hut along had a very interesting guy who was telling me about the weapons and he even let me hold a few as it was very early in the day and not many people looking around. Did I get to use the sun cream? Find out in the next post!
Over the course of the winter my pride and joy is tucked up in the garage with the dehumidifier and temperature controlled garage, which is vitally important. To supplement the car’s cosy environment is the next most important thing, the trickle charge to the battery. Couple of reasons being it keeps the battery at an optimum level and prolongs the life of the battery. I use the CTEK mxs5 which has served me well for the last eight years 24/7 and I haven’t had any problems, until now. The wall mounted charger showed that all was good and the unit was on the maintenance cycle as expected when I popped into the garage to check up and have a day messing around in there.
A couple of months or so ago I went to the garage and noticed that the unit’s quick connection (which has a traffic light set of LEDs) was flashing red, this is a visual sign of low power in the car’s battery. I just put it down to a recent power cut during a storm which had messed up the maintenance charge process. I reset the charger and the process started up again, and I thought no more of it. I went back in a couple of weeks ago and all looked OK. Something told me to check the battery level, I got in the car turned the ignition on and the volt meter was showing just over 11 volts not the 12.5 volts that should have been available. Those that know these old cars are aware that there is an ‘Ammeter’ not a volt meter in the instrument cluster. I didn’t like the idea of a direct battery feed going to the dash, it didn’t tell you a great deal either as they either didn’t work or just in the middle of the gauge. Safety in mind I swapped out the Ammeter for a volt meter which I made on my own. (If you want to know how I swapped the stock Ammeter to a modern voltmeter that also still looks stock, click here.)
I tried to turn the car over which was rather slow, but eventually she fired up before what seemed like an eternity of ever slowing turn overs until I reckon the last but one revolution of the starter motor managed to fire the car into life.
I ran the car for a few minutes to get a little power charge into the battery while I finished up what I was doing in the garage. After shutting the car down and reconnecting the charger back up, I closed up the garage and wandered back into the house where I assumed the horizontal position on the sofa to start researching the issue. I found a forum where it seems there is a generic failure where these units show the maintenance cycle, but it’s not actually trickle charging the battery, so the battery runs low. I got into some heavy reading looking for the replacement, and to see if anything new was on the market since I bought that last one. I have previously given the CTEK unit 10 out of 10 and after (nearly) nine years it’s still a deserved score, and they still make them. With that in mind I was certain that I was going to do a like for like CTEK swap out, but another brand ‘NOCO’ caught my eye. I did the usual comparison, review readings and there was virtually nothing in it between the two manufacturers for the price and functions. So I ordered the NOCO for one reason only. I have also reviewed the NOCO Genius 5 here or cut and paste this link to read it:
“Thermal Comparison: the new integrated thermal sensor automatically monitors and adjusts the charging cycle based on fluctuations of ambient temperature, limiting the chance of under-charging or over-charging, providing a more accurate and fully charged battery. Avoids under-charging in cold weather down to -4F and avoids over-charging in hot weather up to 104F.”
My garage can get hot sometimes in the summer, so this ‘Thermal Comparison’ for me was the winning function, just pipping the CTEK. To replace the CTEX with the same model would have been literally five minutes, going to another supplier was something I knew would take a little bit of time to get it nice and neat under the hood, back to how I wanted it, out of sight out of mind.
The NOCO doesn’t look as fancy as the CTEK, but it’s function for me at the end of the day, I don’t have to look at it all the time, so it’s not really an issue or is it?
Once unpacked there is a rubbish bracket that clips to the NOCO and is held in place by a rather tacky looking velcro strap. You have to thread the strap under the unit into the bracket’s loop all of which is a bit cumbersome. Perhaps it’s a quick release, but it would have been nice to have a wall mount without the velcro. For £80 I would have wanted something a little nicer looking to be honest. When I walk into the garage and see it, it just bugs me. Surely it would have been cheaper for a slightly longer bit of plastic for the all mount, than to make and brand a bit of velcro.
The cable length under the hood wasn’t long enough, so I had to cut the wires and splice a longer cable in (same amp rating), so that I could route the cable where I wanted it to be out of sight but also easy access at the front of the car once in the garage. This supposedly half hour swap of charger took me about three hours by the time I took the car battery out, remade the cable, re-routed the cable, cleaned the area thoroughly, reinstalled the car battery and clamp, mounted the unit on the wall and cleaned up.
So far the new unit looks to be doing it’s thing as I would expect. However, I did notice that the maintenance cycle (slow green pulse LED) took a while to initiate as I suspect the charger was stabilising the battery from what it had been left with from the CTEK.
The one function I’m missing though is the LED lights on the CTEK connector. This was a simple traffic light idea for the status of the battery charge.
It’s not the end of the world of course, but a rather nice to have which I think NOCO should investigate for an option accessory purchase, I’m happy to test and review the item if you are reading this NOCO. I’m yet to decide on the final position of the new charger, so it’s not the neatest of fittings I have done. But for now it will serve a purpose until I can fully trust the new charger.
It wont be long now before the first car show is ready, so I will need to get the car out, fill it up with fuel and give it the de-winterising of the products I applied for protection. That usually takes me about a day all in. Hopefully I will be a little more regular with the posts again once the car shows start.
I have more reviews to add so look out for those too. I can’t wait to get my car out and go for a drive.
Each year I try and create a little Christmas message with my car as the centre point. It takes a little while to mess around in Photoshop, but I think they look OK for an amateur. This year I have tried something a little different with varying results using the big buzz term ‘AI’ or ‘Artificial Intelligence’. The images were created pretty quickly – around 20 seconds or so on average across the various websites.
I visited quite a few sites by the end of the session, some sites required you to create an account which was rather annoying while others were free with adverts. Some were just so confusing I didn’t bother continuing with them. Each site had the same copy and pasted instructions, ‘Christmas scene with 1966 Ford Mustang blue coupe’. Looking closely at the images there was a theme of the ’65 grill bars for the Coral. Some of the Coral horses were a bit strange, but acceptable.
The winner I chose was this one, I only added the text at the top. It meet with my expectations of a Christmas scene and a car, it just looked festive. The only issues (apart from the scale of the car) that I spotted was the ’65 grill bars and the ‘F O R D’ on the hood had an extra letter!
This runner up was a very good image apart from ‘Christmas’ wording being repeated. The grill had a single spot light, extra hood letter and what looks like ’65 quarter emblems. Without the extra light and wording this could have been the winner.
For third place this image had very good rendering. I was particularly impressed with the reflection of the tree in the paintwork, and it just didn’t look like an after thought pasted into the image.
In fourth place, I’m not sure what lettering was on the hood, but I think it might say ‘Lincoln’. This was a great render, but it just looked like a car had been pasted onto the background, I still liked it though!
Then we have this, which wasn’t too bad for a cartoon style (I think), but it has been chopped off at each end.
Not sure what this effort was all about! Half fastback with dodgy rear quarter lights and no hint of Christmas.
I don’t think the Ford stylists have much to worry about with this ‘Coupeback‘ design. Have I just made up a new word up in the Mustang community! Has it been used before, although I haven’t seen it anywhere.
All these AI images are heavily dependant on what you put in as a prompt, what style of image you select can have a significant affect on the results. Adding extra words like, snow, no red tyres, or decorate the Christmas tree helped improve the images. I spent far to much time playing around with the many excellent variables. I had a bit of fun laughing at some of the results, then on the other hand some were pretty impressive. Where will all this go in the future? I don’t know, but one thing is for sure – it’s here to stay and it will get better!
The last two car shows I hadn’t attended as the weather was supposed to be raining. My app said rain, my wife said rain so therefore it will rain and I wouldn’t go. The show in particular I was most hacked of about not going to was the Helmingham Hall show which is always a good show and I even pre-paid the £10 entrance fee, but as it’s for charity I didn’t mind. It threatened rain at our house but it didn’t and was a nice day and I ended up painting. I did hear from a friend who braved the day that there was rain for about half an hour at Helmingham. Not that I was glad it rained, but just because I could sort of justify it to myself that I didn’t go. Anyway the weather was due to be nice for the Sunday show, I got the bag packed on the Saturday night, I even tempted fate and put some sun creme in the bag!
The sun came up and stirred me awake as I forgot to pull the blinds down, then what seemed like five minutes later the alarm went of. I was greeted by broken clouds, the nice white ones and not the ominous really dark grey jobs. I got the car out and had a nice steady cruise up until I got to some speed restrictions of 50mph, where I slowed a little to abide by the restrictions. Low and behold some dick head lorry driver tried to push me along as I obviously was going much to slow for the inpatient idiot. At one point I couldn’t even see the lorry’s number plate due to his tailgating, which is a offence now in the UK. Nearing a turn right the traffic was busy to cross the junction and there was a queue, unfortunately the lorry driver had to wait, just like me which did make me smile.
The minor country roads are OK once you crossed the busy junction, but this time there was a traffic jam to get to the show about a mile away from the entrance, I sat in traffic for about forty minutes. Not ideal, and a couple of cars turned around in front of me and obviously decided not to attend. I eventually arrived at the venue and followed the other cars in. Bury Retro Car Club usually has a nice tarmac hard standing pitch every year which is great. This time there was the first cock up, although the barriers had the Bury Car Club sign hanging on it, the traders had seen the marked up on the floor and pitched up already by the time myself and the rest of the club turned up, about fifteen minutes after me. I asked where to park and the marshal had no idea and said to park up in front of one car also from the club waiting for some information. We decided to park in front of the stalls as they didn’t want to move.
The organiser found us about thirty minutes later and came up with a compromise to park by the white marque tent, it wasn’t ideal, but we agreed and parked up.
After we parked up and had another chat I decided to go of and take some photos. Throughout the day I took just over three hundred and seventy photos, of which I will use around three hundred and forty, so I will split this show into three posts. I have the Mart’s Car of the show in part three, and a runner up this time which I will share in part two’s post, it was a close run thing to choose. As usual this event had the official cars of the show which is totally corrupt, I will explain in part three.
This little field was in front of us and few cars hadn’t turned up at the time I wandered over.
The main field was the second cock up; they had arranged the cars in a couple of rows where they were parked bonnet to boot (hood to trunk) and the lines were a bit all over the place. So in no particular order as I was zig zagging the lines taking the photos. So in this show there is a number of rear end of car photos as you couldn’t get a good one from the front.
This volks wagon had a 2.5lt Subaru engine bolted in the back of it and sounded rather awesome as it pulled in.
One of favourite super cars was the Ferrari 308 and this was a great example. I could have picked this as my car of the show, but it’s just a bought Ferrari and they made thousands of them. Still a very pretty car to look at. The paint was badly swirled and could do with a really good detail and paint correction.
A few cars up was this Audi 1000 Saxomat which has two clutches, I had never seen one of these before, and very VW Beetle-esq for styling. The radiator was at the back of the engine bay.
This guy had a second Saab that he turned into a trailer during lock down for Covid! The guy had done a good job even matching the wheels.
The weather was playing games one minute it sunny then it cloudy, but at least it wasn’t raining. The cars were still coming in and the show was getting quite busy.
The sky had started to turn a nasty shade of dark grey in the distance and the air felt cooler, although the sun was trying to stay out. But as yet still no rain, but it didn’t look good. I started off on my wander round again, picking up where I left off just after the Ferraris corner taking the rest of the photos. As this was a ‘Classic’ car show, I didn’t bother to take photos of cars that were only five or ten years old, all of which can be seen in any super market car park doing a weekly shop. I have one question; why? I can understand an exotic car sports car, but your dad’s taxi just doesn’t do it for me.
With the wind still blowing around I was glad I wasn’t under the trees this time. I could see the sap on the paint on some of these lovely cars.
It was a busy as the day even as the day wore on, although the grey sky looming ominously closer might have put people of, it didn’t.
This F350 nearly got my vote of the day, I think it was the biggest vehicle there.
My blog wouldn’t be complete without a grouping of Mustangs, old and new.
Marts Car Of The Show:
This stunning 1960 Aston Martin DB4 GT.
I eventually got back to my car for a sit down and a well deserved rest after all the walking. I spoke to really nice people throughout the day. Including a couple who had their own photography business who I hope will get in contact with me. After a few minutes it happened, a few spots of rain. The reaction was quite funny to see, the car owners rush to wind windows up and shut soft top roofs, me included. The few spots only lasted for a couple of minutes then the sun came out. The rain drops had disappeared within a few minutes as the still warm cars along with the welcome return of the sun and the continuing light breeze helped the process of evaporation.
As I was talking to my friends back at the car, a ‘Health & Safety’ marshal came round and told us that the way out would be the way we came in, but not to move before three thirty, which was around two hours away. It got to three pm and few cars fired up, the marshals tried to stop them, but they carried on. A few minutes later there was a number of cars firing up ready to go, me included as I didn’t want to get caught in the queue of traffic to get out, maybe it might rain again. I think a lot of people had the same idea.
I pulled up home and gave the car a quick wipe over before I put her away in the garage and covered her up. All this rushing around and it didn’t rain anymore for the day. I was happy as it was a great show, chatting to wonderful people and catching up with great friends again. Looking forward to next year already for another really well run car show.
Looking forward to the first car show of the year today so I spent yesterday afternoon giving my car a final wax and once over to check fluid levels, tyre pressures, lights working etc. as you normally do after a winter lay up. All was good except the fuel was a bit rubbish and was not running nicely. Over the course of the winter lay up, I tend to run the tank down low with some fuel stabilisers in it too. The car fired up second time around after pumpin’ a little more fuel into the carb from the first turn over.
The go to wax of choice is Mitchell & King ‘Lily’ which I love and used on her as a treat.
I went to bed fairly last night and thought I would look at the Stonham Barns ‘Kustom Kulture’ car show webpage to check what time I could get there for the gates opening; all was good, ten till four. The alarm was set and by the time the alarm went of I hadn’t had a great sleep. I looked out the window which was grey and overcast, but no rain was forecast, in fact the sun was due to come out. I was tempted to flop back into bed and grab a lay in. But, as it was going to be my first show of the year I made the effort to get ready and went to the garage. I turned on the dash mounted GoPro and fired her up. I needed some fuel on the way to the car show and headed to the planned stop at the Shell garage for some V-Power fuel. As I was filling the tank a rather nice McLaren 720s pulled in next to me. We were chatting about cars and the fuel we were putting in – we both agreed it’s more about the ‘smiles per gallon’. He told me he was off to a track day, where if he gives his car a thrashing around the track he gets 2mpg where he drain the fuel tank in 18minutes! But, he said he’s not looking forward to changing the ceramic brake set up as it costs a staggering £22,000. I took the picture below left handed as I was filling up, so it wasn’t a to bad an effort considering, although not centred as I would have liked.
I paid at the counter and looked for a packet of jelly babies to enjoy at the car show. I continued the drive to Stonham which was about ten minutes from the petrol station, enough time to have a quick blast to clear some of the old fuel out which helped, still not perfect, but getting better. Strange, not many cars near the village as I normally see, so I suspected that my timing for arrival was perfect. As I got near the show there was the expected queue but moving fairly quickly, just normal daily cars, not old school or pre 1973 as the requirement said. I pulled in the gates and there was a single bloke directing the traffic straight into a field for the car boot show. I stopped and said “No I’m here for the car show”, his couldn’t give a sh!t attitude was, “It’s cancelled mate.” Stunned and quite aggravated I turned around in the car park to start the journey home. There was a couple of chances on the way back to clear the carb a bit and the running was improving all the time.
I got home to park up on the drive and wiped the car down before moving her back into the garage.
So my first car show was cancelled and the sun was out. So why was it cancelled? I checked the website when I got in, nothing about it being cancelled, it was still on. I reluctantly logged onto Facebook to see if anybody mentioned it. Somebody had posted that it was cancelled due to a water logged field. Yet the cars were being parked up on field next to it.
I’m not impressed that they didn’t update their webpage, I HATE Facebook at the best of times so I don’t rely it – ever. Not everybody has a personal Facebook profile where they share what they had to eat this morning and other such trivial rubbish. (Rant over). I must concede that on this occasion checking Facebook would have helped.
Underside
A couple of weeks ago I applied some Lanoguard to the underside of the car and reviewed it here. Or, look for it under the “Rust Treatment” menu on the header with my other rust reviewed products.
The process is dead simple and took around half an hour to do the underside of the car. Just remove any old surface rust and spray on to coat and protect the car.
Before pics of the axle with the POR15 paint on it has a semi gloss look to it.
Then after the application had fully cured, about one week later or so according to Lanoguard, it looks like this:
The slightly rusty U-clamp bolts have changed back to their more natural colour without the slight surface rust on them now. So far I’m pleased with the results and how easy it was to do. In fact if you have somebody who wants to help out with your project car, this could be a great way as you can’t really go wrong with it. Tell them where to squirt and let them get on with it. In fact I’m now going to buy some more to treat the underside of the wife’s car too.
To sum up the day, I got up early so missed out on a Sunday lay in, I missed out on a car show and now I’m pretty sure that I’m gonna be asked to help my better half in the garden. 🤦♂️ I’m sure I can find something in the garage that needs cleaning to avoid that one! 😉
Next week another car show, in fact two on the same day so I will choose which one to go to, providing it’s not raining and not cancelled, so hopefully I can kick start my car show season properly.
As for the Jelly Babies, they’ve all gone now as I was eating them while typing this post up.
There has been mumblings of this ‘new’ type of camera being trialed on the UK’s streets since June 2019 when it was first published by the Department Of Transport’s website. So what is it exactly and how will affect the glorious engine note of a classic v8? First we need to look at the reasons behind the noise cameras.
A note on the information that I have found from many different sources. Depending on where you look and what you read the noise level limits are all over the place. Some say 80db others say 72 to 80, one even says 68db. So the lack of documented consistency is worrying.
Why are they being introduced?
The reason it seems is for anti-social behaviour of the typical stereo typical boy (or girl) racers who enjoy the loud exhaust note or the much sort after pop and bang of revving, and if you’re unlucky a flame to cremate your front bumper if you are behind them.
From what I have found out, the actual legal noise limit for road cars is 74 decibels – the equivalent noise of a vacuum cleaner at full pelt or a chain saw.
For non-compliance, it can lead to a £50 on-the-spot fine or as much as £1000, that’s worrying differences. Persistent offenders in ‘extreme cases’ could have their vehicle seized.
Where are they?
Postcode lottery for the initial trials by the looks of it. The scheme is backed by a £300,000 government investment towards efforts to tackle the “social cost” of noise pollution which is estimated to be £10bn annually. (Where do they get these figures from?) Great Yarmouth was chosen to be included in the scheme as ‘Boy racers’ have congregated at Great Yarmouth’s Golden Mile for decades with drivers showing off their souped-up engines into the early hours.
Other locations are Bradford (from October this year), Bristol and Birmingham following along after a competition launched in April. The locations for the new cameras was decided based upon the impact to locals from illegal noisy vehicles, after MPs across the country applied for the cameras to be set up in their area.
I suspect that they will start popping up all over the place soon, maybe portable versions ones for car cruises and car shows?
How do noise cameras work?
The new technology uses a video camera and several microphones which can accurately pinpoint excessively noisy vehicles as they pass by. When the camera hears a vehicle making a noise of 80db, it takes a picture and records the noise level to create a digital package of evidence.
This will then be used to issue a fine — much like a regular traffic camera would for a speeding ticket. An earlier trial in Chelsea in London – a magnet for supercars – saw more than 130 drivers fall foul of the limits in the first 11 days.
What do they look like?
There are varying designs that are getting more sophisticated as time goes on. Some virtually hidden and other more traditional looking. However, unlike the speeding cameras that need to show warning signs and the speed cameras themselves have to be visible usually being marked in yellow, these sound cameras by the looks of it don’t need to follow those rules.
Or you could get something like this that could be slapped on the side of a road in minutes and looks super safe – NOT! Now I’m pretty sure a friendly lorry driver on a narrow road like this one, could cause enough draft to knock it over if they got close to it, and that would be a real shame I’m sure.
I have done a few searches for some ‘official’ signs and there aren’t any I could find, the only pics I did find are these below and I suspect they aren’t official either.
CurrentUK MOT Rules
In the UK vehicles older than three years must pass an annual MOT test in order to inspect the roadworthiness of a car or motorcycle. When a vehicle fails an MOT, it is prohibited from being driven on the public highway, other than to or from the test center if appropriate, until the defect is corrected. The testing consists of the following:
The exhaust system is examined visually for any defects during the MOT test, such as holes in the pipes. Although this is an inspection that is undertaken mainly for safety reasons, it does identify exhaust systems that may be producing excessive noise due to poor maintenance or simply an old exhaust.
A subjective assessment is also made as to the effectiveness of the silencer in reducing exhaust noise to a level considered to be average for the vehicle.
I personally want to know who decides this ‘average’ limit and what experience do they have to determine that!
Powers
Police Reform Act 2002 and Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 Section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002 gives the police powers to stop, seize and remove a vehicle if they have reasonable ground for believing that the motor vehicle is being used on any occasion in a manner which constitutes careless and inconsiderate driving (as defined by the Road Traffic Act 1988 [18]) or which is causing, or likely to cause, alarm, distress or annoyance to members of the public. Section 60 allows the relevant Secretary of State to make regulations relating to the removal, retention, release or disposal of motor vehicles seized in accordance with Section 59. Following the amendment in Part 1 of Schedule 4 to the Police Reform Act 2002 (powers of community support officers), Schedule 10 “Powers of Community Support Officers” outlined in Chapter 12 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 has been modified to provide authorised officers with additional powers to issue a fixed penalty notice under Section 42 of that Act of contravening or failing to comply with a construction or use requirement about the use on a road of a motor vehicle in a way that causes excessive noise.
What are the limits?
There are two parts to this ‘report’ the first being 103 pages from 2019 and part two 70 pages from 2020. A lot of this documentation is technobabble and technicalities. I have better things to do than read all of it thoroughly, so I tried to pick out a couple of relevant parts. But, as the DfT hasn’t updated their pages, all I can do is show what they have. The final report looks to be two years old already with more ‘trials’ taking place from April this year. I haven’t seen any ‘trials’ being removed when it comes to motorists, have you? these are the full documents if you are having trouble sleeping;
Regulation (EU) 540/2014 The noise levels accepted for vehicle type approval are set out in Regulation (EU) 540/2014 [2] for motor vehicles and Regulation (EU) 168/2013 [3] for motorcycles. Regulation (EU) 540/2014 which repeals European Directive 70/157/EEC [4], outlines limits on the sound levels from road vehicle and gives more representative procedures for measuring sound levels from exhaust systems and silencers. These limits have been tightened through several amendments. Limit values for eight types of passenger and goods vehicles range from 72 dB(A) to 80 dB(A). These limits are expected to be again tightened over 10 years. By 2026 the limit for most new passenger cars is expected to be 68 dB(A) [5].
Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 [9], also made under the Road Traffic Act 1972 (as amended) [8], aim to ensure that vehicles used in the UK are built to a high standard. These Regulations are also used to implement EU Directives. The following regulations address noise emission controls on road vehicles:
Regulation 54 requires equipment such as silencers not to be altered in such way that the noise is greater than when it was first manufactured. Replacement silencers for mopeds and motorcycles
must comply with certain noise requirements which effectively imply there is no increase in noise
emissions compared with the original silencer. In addition, no increase in noise must be caused by
poor maintenance.
Regulation 55 (for cars) and Regulation 57 (for motorcycles) require new vehicles to be controlled by type approval limits.
Regulation 97 requires avoidance of excessive noise which includes the behaviour of the driver in operating the vehicle including the use of audible warning systems.
There are certain tests that can be performed, stationary or accelerating.
Category M vehicles are ‘Passenger vehicles’, category N vehicles are ‘goods vehicles’.
ISO 362-1:2015 – Measurement of noise emitted by accelerating road vehicles – engineering method. Part 1: M and N categories ISO 362-1:2015 [11] specifies a method for measuring the noise emitted by road vehicles under typical urban traffic conditions. The test aims to approximate real world part throttle vehicle operation with a weighted average of a wide open throttle test at a target acceleration with a constant speed test. To achieve stable and repeatable test conditions, the procedure requires a Wide Open Throttle (WOT) test and a constant speed test. The WOT test specifies that a target acceleration be achieved. The gear selection for this test is determined by the target acceleration. The constant speed test is undertaken at 50 km/h. These tests are then combined in a weighted average which is a function of the actual acceleration achieved in the WOT test and the Power-to-Mass Ratio. The test track construction and road surface are required to meet the requirements of ISO 10844:2014 [17].
ISO 5130:2007+A1:2012 – Acoustics – Measurements of sound pressure level emitted by stationary road vehicles ISO 5130:2007+A1:2012 [13] specifies a test procedure for measuring the noise level from road vehicles under stationary conditions. The test method essentially involves holding the vehicle at a set engine speed and measuring the noise level when the throttle is released. The microphone is positioned 0.5m from the exhaust outlet. As specifically stated by the Standard, this procedure is not intended as either a method to check the exhaust sound pressure level when the engine is operated at realistic loads nor a method to check the exhaust sound pressure levels against a general noise limit for categories of road vehicles. ISO 10844.
75% of the rated engine speed, where the rated engine speed is ≤ 5,000 RPM
3,750 RPM for a rated engine speed 5,000 – 7,500 RPM
50% of the rated engine speed, where the rated engine speed is ≥ 7,500 RPM
It all gets very technical, but to break it down; somebody sets up a sound meter to listen to the noise of the exhaust. At some points these guides even go on to mention the use of “mobile phone apps”, I kid you not. Can you imagine some jobs worth police saying “according to my iPhone 11, your car is loud”. Yeah like that’s gonna hold up in court. Even the report goes on to say that the apps are inaccurate!
Simple Answer For Our Classics….
Most vehicles, including imports and classics aged over 10 years, will not need vehicle approval. Therefore, however loud your classic car or motorcycle is when idling or driving sensibly, it shouldn’t be a cause for concern in areas that feature noise cameras.
A ‘Classic Car’ definition according to Wikipedia;
A classic car is anolder car, typically 25 years or older, though definitions vary. The common theme is of an older car of historical interest to be collectible and tend to be restored rather than scrapped.
So from what I can make out, a 10 year old Honda civic worth £2000 with a frying pan sized exhaust bolted on it is not a classic, sorry.
My Opinion (for what it’s worth)
All this as far as I can see is pointless, the types of people (boy or girl racers) who have these types of exhausts are mostly over ten years old. So somebody in a beautiful Skyline R32 with an exhaust you climb into doesn’t have to worry either.
If you have a hotrod with straight pipes – that seems to be OK as well.
The point is where these police “powers” come into play could be subjective. On one hand stop the noise, but a car over ten years old is fine, as it’s a ‘classic’. So if you have a nicely tuned, Charger, Plymouth, Chevy, Mustang, a blown v8, turbo Porsche or some other classic American muscle, is the police going to know what the car should sound like or not? Cars over forty years old don’t even need an MOT, so they wouldn’t be pulled up on it then either. There are very strong chances that the car in question is older than the person trying to gauge how noisy it is. The contradiction of it’s over ten years old verses it’s ‘too loud’ is a joke.
The only people this legislation will effect will be the new Super or Hyper car owners like a Ferrari, Pagani, Lambo, Aston Martin etc. These cars come from the factory with loud ‘performance’ exhausts as standard because that is what the car needs. Perhaps restricting the noise from the factory in that case would be the answer? Good luck with that at the manufacturers. The owners buy the cars like that and then you fine them for buying that car often without any modifications being made. Besides, if they did get pulled over and given a £50 fine, will they be bothered? Of course not, that would just be the tip for the valet to park the car for them outside the casino. If they drive like an idiot, then they should get their just rewards, you need to be sensible.
The worst type of culprits are the cheaper boy racer cars made to sound loud and intentionally make noise as if to prove something. This type of ‘upgrade’ is done for no other reason than noise. Then yes – these are the idiots that need the fines, for being stupid. Just because it has a very big exhaust, it does NOT improve performance. Formula 1 cars rarely have an exhaust bigger than 3″.
This post was intended to be a quick one stating that sound cameras are being introduced and to beware of them. But, the more I looked into it, the deeper the rabbit hole went. After hours of reading and research, I came up with this; at the end of the day, people should be considerate with their cars, revving up at two in the morning is unacceptable.
As usual there was a fair for the family and plenty of food stalls. I was tempted to buy a cheese and onion pasty for lunch which I wouldn’t mind paying for, but when the cost is £6 for a pasty, I decided I wasn’t that hungry after all. However the smell was just exquisite, it was a very difficult decision to not be tempted, but I resisted. I wouldn’t mind and people have to make a profit, but when a super market sells them easily at less than a third of that price, I’m not sure if it’s profit or just greed.
On my travels back to the car I came across am interesting little club of old London Taxis. There was some very early examples right up to the more recognisable designs.
Some great UK Fords were there, even these standard Ford like the 1.6Ltr Orion in the UK now commands some serious money. The more exotic cars like the Lotus Cortina, Sierra XR4i or the Cosworth variants will require a mortgage to buy a good one.
There was a couple of unusual cars there with extension or additions to them.
In the middle of the grounds there was a tent which had this car in there roped off. I don’t know if it was something special or just a nice example. Perhaps somebody could enlighten me.
There were plenty of auto jumble with some nice parts for sale and then some rather (crap) stuff for sale, more like a car boot or a rubbish yard sale.
There was various shows in the arena and the stunt team were there again doing some rather mad stuff.
As ever there were plenty of dogs there, and this guy was just happy to lay in the walkway of the stall and people were just stepping over him and he never stirred from his sleep.
I eventually got back to the car and lifted the hood as it seemed to be the norm for the American corner.
I left the show at around four in the afternoon before the usual bun fight starts to get out of the venue. A gentle and steady drive home was very enjoyable and I even had a few people wave to me as they went past. I always try to make a point of waving back at the kids and give them a little hoot as well.
A great day was had by all at the Mustang Maniac patch out as I expected and top it all of there was no rain either, so I class that as a win – win scenario. There was a downside however, filling the car up again on the way back home with some more Shell V-Power fuel. In total I spent just under £120 on fuel for the day out. As it was the end of the month and I hadn’t been paid yet, my mate Barclay (Card) helped me out with the expenses and pay him back in a couple of weeks.
Owning these cars it’s not about the miles per gallon, it’s all about the ‘smiles per gallon’, when you have a good day out, it seems worth it.
My last post showed my ‘homework’ for a prototype part kit I was going to install on my car. I mentioned a while ago to Adam at Mustang Maniac that on longer journeys it would be nice to have a little more legroom. He said that had been asked about it some time ago as well, but there wasn’t really anything on the market. Until now that is, those discussions with Adam have been ongoing and he has had a prototype developed by his engineers. We then discussed how this was going to be done, the original plan was to do some filming of the fitting for their YouTube channel, we decided on a slightly different approach to the original plan for now. Two reasons, the first being the UK’s protest morons that have made getting fuel difficult in some parts of the UK. The second was ‘how difficult would the kit be to fit at home without professional workshop equipment?’ The challenge was accepted, fit the rails at home and share my results with Mustang Maniac while saving myself a fist full of dollars in fuel costs and time.
The seat extension runners came from Mustang Maniac. They are designed to allow an additional 2″ or 4″ movement backwards of the seat for additional legroom while still allowing the seat to adjust on the original runners. These runners are made from a heavy gauge steel with threads and cut-outs which allow for a straightforward installation. These extensions bars will fit all Mustang models from 1964 to 1968 by the way.
From my last post here the rails are dried and already painted with satin black ready for fitting.
There are four studs provided with the extension bar kit to allow the repositioned seat to be bolted back into the car without having to cut the floor pans or seat base.
Depending on your preference of course, you could respray these bars to match your interior as they will be a little more visible from outside as the seat will sit further back on the seat base, but not noticeably so. Satin black is always a good starting point and goes with pretty much everything.
Removing the seat.
Under the car there are four rubber grommets (or should be four) in place where the seat rail studs come through the seat base.
Remove the rubber grommets and inspet the inside. If all is good the studs won’t be correded up and will be easy to remove. If the rubber grommets are missing, or there is corrosion on the studs, then you may need to spray a some WD40 (or similar) to help loosen them up and remove. Make sure to use a good quality socket, if you round the fasterners off then you are in for a whole heap of hurt.
Tip:
Fold the back of the chair forward to the seat base as if you were getting out of the back seats. This helps to balance the weight of the seat and allows the fasteners to be removed without the chair tipping back making removal difficult or even bending a seat stud.
Use a deep reach socket to undo the fasteners.
With all four fasteners removed the seat should lift directly upwards out of the car. Notice in the left-hand pic that the seat falls naturally to the rear. Keep the fasteners safe as they will be used again to refit the seat back into place.
With the seat out, now would be a good time to inspect the seat runners and clean the runners up if needed. Apply a little grease to keep the free movement.
Fitting The Extenders
The bars have to be fitted to their correct left or right hand sides and the right way up. Looking at the seat from below the right hand side has the seat movement handle and a extending bracket. This side will need the cut out sectioned runner to be fitted, as the pics below. You can either attach the studs at this point or later the choice is yours. I prefer to do it later so nothing got in the way.
You will notice that there are holes, recessed holes and threaded holes. The standard holes are to allow flush fitting of the bars to the seat rails where the rivets are. The recessed holes allow for the original seat studs to be held flush to the bar. The threaded holes are for the studs position where you want the actual length of the extension to be.
Below shows the third hole down which is recessed and where the original seat stud(s) will go through.
The top hole is the 4″ extention the second one down is the 2″ extension shown in Red.
Yellow shows the location for the seat rail rivets.
Teal colour shows the seat stud holes.
From the position above turn the bar over to fit onto the seat rail flush. Fit the rail over the original seat studs and use some nuts of the correct thread on the seat studs and tighten the bars firmly into place.
You will now need to cut the original seat rail studs flush with the top of the nut. This has to be done in order to fit the seat back into the car and be bolted back into place. Before you do any cutting, make sure that the seat can still freely move with the seat adjustment handle with the extension bars bolted in place.
You can either mark the studs for cutting and remove the fasteners and bars away from the seat, or do it with the bars still bolted in place which is easier to be honest. I used a Dremel and a thin cut off wheel. Take your time and use goggles in case the cut-off wheel breaks or sparks fly. Going old school with a hacksaw will work just as well. You can see my Dremel in the right-hand picture bottom corner. I also got pretty OCD about it and ground the studs perfectly flush with the fastener.
Fitting The Studs
These new studs have a collar a quarter of the way down. The shorter thread screws are fitted into the extension bars, the longer thread will be going back through the seat base using the original holes.
I painted the top of my studs to match the bars so they were less visible from the outside, just because I could.
You will need a locking pair of grips to screw these replacement studs into place tightly, or a strong hand grip an pliers. I also used a little thread locker to keep them in place. The left-hand picture shows the correct stud fitting.
As I said earlier, if you want the full 4″ extension use the top threaded holes, for the smaller 2″ extension use the second hole down. Fit the second stud at the bottom of the rail extension use the threaded hole just above the larger hole (for the rivet) for the 4″ extension, and the 2″ threaded hole is below the larger hole. See the marked up image earlier on the page. If you are in any doubt measure the original seat stud gap and apply the same gap to the 4″ or the 2″ stud holes.
Refitting The Seat
Take the seat back to the car and drop the studs through the original holes in the seat base and carpet holes. From there screw on the fasteners from underneath the car to hold the seat in place. Refit the carpet spacers and then tighten up the seat properly.
Replace the rubber grommets and the job is done. I sat back in the car and was amazed at the difference that the extra few inches of leg room gives you. For a 6’4″ bloke like me I was always a little crunched up on leg room, that little bit extra makes it so much nicer to drive. Also as the seat base actually slopes down towards the back of the car, in effect I have also gained a little more headroom too. Win/win all round then. 🙂
The fitting was straight forward and I reported my work back to Adam with the photo’s. He has now decided to go into production with the current design. Their measurements were spot on so no need to make any modifications. I suspect they will be on the Mustang Maniac WebShop Soon, along with some of the photos and description of the fitting.
The second part of the my little upgrades I promised was the hood springs. There was nothing wrong with them at all, except that Adam showed me a set he has just fitted to the project car they have in a workshop. I see them, I wanted them it was a simeple as that. Not the cheapest replacement part just for looks, but why not? These springs are super strong and will have the Devil’s bite on you or the car if you get it wrong when replacing them. I packed an old duvet cover around the hood springs and levered of the springs carefully and under control with a large screwdriver come crowbar. They were replaced in a matter of seconds. I was so worried about the springs pinging off and damaging the paint or parts under the car, or flying up and removing part of my jaw that I forgot to take pictures. I do have the before and after pics for you. Most people wont even notice the change and think they are stock parts, but I think they just add a little bit of something extra to look at.
Right hand side:
Left hand side:
The last part of the day’s work was the annual oil and filter change. I tend to do around two thousand miles a year at most. But, I would rather pay £35 for fresh oil just to be on the safe side each year. The K&N gold oil filters I use are a bit bigger than the standard Ford oil filters, which means that I have to put in more oil in than the standard recommend five US quarts to get the levels right.
Now I’m all set for the car show season, apart from a quick wax and once over that is! Lets hope the weather stays fine for the shows. I will let you know as the season goes on.
Earlier in the year I submitted a photo to ‘Frost Restoration’ Who were running a competition for a calendar. Frost is a company who offer all sorts of tools and sundries for car restoration projects and maintenance. Before you ask; no I’m not on any sort of commission or retainer. Yes, I have used their services a number of times in the past where they have provided me with excellent service. Anyway back to the photo I submitted. The mini competition was for a charity calendar that Frost produce in aid of a good cause ‘Rosemere Cancer Foundation’. If you win – the prize was to be in the calendar, simple as that. I’d forgotten about it until I was contacted a few weeks ago about winning a place in the calendar. I’ve been waiting for the calendar to be released before I actually got too excited about it. Well it’s now available here if you wanted to by one, or click on the top image.
I made it into the calendar for the month of September 2022
I have bought two copies of the calendar to help support a worthwhile cause. A great present for a classic car fan and helps a good cause in the process. (No I’m not selling them.)
This picture was taken a couple of years ago before I swapped my registration plate over to 1966 OX.
For Sale..
When it rains at a car show I often get asked a question, where did you get that cowl cover?
This got me to thinking; could I even get to sell some for a little pocket money?
I looked into sourcing the materials and got to work on the design.
A few months later, I’ve now just had my first small batch of some rather cool covers. These covers provide an answer for the age old ’64 – ’66 classic Mustangs problem; rusting cowls!
The vents under the windscreen are responsible for a fresh air feed into the cabin. Unfortunately it’s also a place where water can pool up if the drain points are blocked. Eventually you will get a foot shower of leaks when it rains.
How do I know? Simple, this was my car!
There are various fixes on the market like solid screw on covers which are expensive, can crack and they can even leak when the foam seals fail. The most common sort are the screw in Scott Drake style plastic covers. I personally think that they spoil the clean lines of these cars and they also say; ‘I have a leaky cowl.’
My solution is simple and different; it’s a magnetic cowl cover. I currently have a few of both styles in stock; black carbon and plain gloss white. The white style you can add your own stickers or vinyl wraps.
These covers aren’t designed to be a permanent fix for the problem, they are there to protect your car from water or other undesirable debris like leaves entering into the cowl space. Once in this space it’s almost impossible to clean them out. These magnetic covers are placed on the vents in seconds and removed when protection is no longer required. This allows the fresh air back into the car. The magnetic backing conforms to the contours of the cowl forming a nice seal. I always use my magnetic cowl cover when washing my car, just to be on the safe side.
When you have finished with the magnetic cowl cover, just dry them with a wipe over, then stick them somewhere flat. I store mine inside the truck, stuck on the inside of the rear quarter where it’s a flat surface. It’s out of the way and easy to grab when you need it also keeping the magnetic material working too.
Other covers can be square cut with no cut out for the wiper arm as it’s cheaper obviously. My covers are cut to the contour of the cowl’s sweeping lines along with the wiper cut out. If you want to move the cover, lift up and reposition, don’t drag it!
For more information on the product click on the for sale menu or click here for the link. Or email me on the “Contact Me” menu on the mail heading.
Ideal for simply washing the car, or for getting caught out in the rain at a car show, like me – many a time. These covers make great presents for the ’64 to ’66 Mustang owners from £21.50 to £24.00 (inc P&P), for the standard UK postcodes. Ask for details on other regions.
My Webpage
My menu heading on the webpage have been a bit of a pain recently and causes errors when I try to save them for increasing the drop down list for ease of browsing. After more calls to WordPress they advised I list the heading and make a submenu page. I have taken that a step further to make it easier on the eye.
I have started to list the pages for the sub menus which is now an on going project. I will slowly work my way through most of them to make them all similar.
When you click on the new worded sub menu, it will take you to a page where all the pages are now shown with a picture and description. I think it works, but any feedback would for the new style would be a help to me whether it’s good or bad.
Hope you are looking forward to the Holidays, I know I’m looking forward to the time off more than anything else.
