Astonishingly strange features on a car

[LuS1fer]

matt uk said:

On my BMW and the Audi before that, the keyfob can open all the windows if you hold unlock - why? Even on a hot day I can open the drivers door and lower the windows myself to air the car for 30 secs before driving off.

I only discouvered this feature on a cold rainy morning when a young family member had been playing with my car keys the previous evening.. which was nice.

Pointless feature.

Mustang has the same feature. Think most American cars do. Think even the Mazda 5 does. Probably more common than you think.

However, one of the most pointless features is remote unlocking. We all do it, we unlock the car about 100yards away thus allowing any scrote hiding behind the car to open the door and steal something when you've got no chance of catching him. No, it hasn't happened but it often crosses my mind.

[J400uk]

Volkswagen Tiguans have some sort of credit card holder next to the air vents, above the radio for some reason..

Top left in the not very good snap:

[odyssey2200]

Its for you motorway toll tickets

[youngsyr]

cptsideways said:

mrmr96 said:

Oh Oh OH!! I just thought of another one!

The Evo's (from 4 to 9 I believe) have a Seccondary Air System installed. The function is to take pressuriesed air from the "intercooler to throttle plate" pipe and then dump it into the exhaust manifold just before the turbo. The valve to do this opens when the driver is off the throttle. The additional air is combined with over fueling and (I beleive) significantly retarded ignition to provoke exhaust gasses to ignite to spin the turbo, so boost is availible as soon as the throttle is applied. Anti lag. (Sorry to those Evo experts if I've not described the operation exactly right, but that's the jist of it.)

Here's a photo. You can't see much of the system, but it's the alloy looking pipe snaking it's way across the exhaust manifold heat shield. It draws air from the underside of the big pipe by the battery.



This is one more feature included for Rally Homologation, as it is not active on road cars but it can be enabled using the right ECU software. So it seems to me to be a bit of a strange feature, since it is on the car but not active.

Celica WRC models have this too, activate it & your turbo lasts all of 1000miles

Not strictly true, on the Evo you can have the ECU mapped to use that system in a mild form, it gives you pops and bangs on lift off, but not enough to spin the turbo.

People have been using it for years with no problems.

[youngsyr]

How about any rear spoiler significantly below the roof line on any car, for example:



Practically zero downforce affect, they just add weight and drag.

[odyssey2200]

youngsyr said:

How about any rear spoiler significantly below the roof line on any car, for example:



Practically zero downforce affect, they just add weight and drag.

how can they add drag if they are not in the airflow?

[Motorrad]

Fort Jefferson said:

Some BMW's have a stick thats connected to some flashing lights to tell people where they are turning. Never seen it myself though.

Can we edit the title so we don't get any more people who presumably haven't used the internet over the past decade trotting out any more lame cliches about BMW/Audi/Insert marque of choice here drivers?


Otherwise I'll have to consider suicide by proxy.

Back on topic I'm surprised nobody has mentioned 'Traffic master' as seen on a million out of date Vectras. Always behind the times on those venerable 90's rep beasties it always used to give me the information about 30 miles too late to do anything about it.

[youngsyr]

odyssey2200 said:

youngsyr said:

How about any rear spoiler significantly below the roof line on any car, for example:



Practically zero downforce affect, they just add weight and drag.

how can they add drag if they are not in the airflow?

Well obviously the drag won't be significant (I hesitated to mention it, as I thought the pedants might jump on me), but are you saying that adding that spoiler will have absolutely zero effect on drag?

[Sport Coupe]

BMW's ///M - Mode = The most pointless button !!!

It should be in that mode permanently, if you want a soft car with a bit of ooomph then by a 550i instead.

[odyssey2200]

youngsyr said:

odyssey2200 said:

youngsyr said:

How about any rear spoiler significantly below the roof line on any car, for example:



Practically zero downforce affect, they just add weight and drag.

how can they add drag if they are not in the airflow?

Well obviously the drag won't be significant (I hesitated to mention it, as I thought the pedants might jump on me), but are you saying that adding that spoiler will have absolutely zero effect on drag?

It could add as much drag as down force.

If its in the airflow it could add downforce.
If its not then it can't add drag.

[Mark-C]

jayfish said:

LuS1fer said:

jayfish said:

A problem nicely solved in the C4 hire car I had recently, the top of the armrest is on a rail and slides back and forwards, shame they mounted the handbrake so close to the seat that you have to push into the fabric to get your hard around it...

Well try using your hand, you filthy boy!

oops

Just reading through this entire entertaining thread but had to stop when I got here ... PML

Typo of the year

[youngsyr]

odyssey2200 said:

youngsyr said:

odyssey2200 said:

youngsyr said:

How about any rear spoiler significantly below the roof line on any car, for example:



Practically zero downforce affect, they just add weight and drag.

how can they add drag if they are not in the airflow?

Well obviously the drag won't be significant (I hesitated to mention it, as I thought the pedants might jump on me), but are you saying that adding that spoiler will have absolutely zero effect on drag?

It could add as much drag as down force.

If its in the airflow it could add downforce.
If its not then it can't add drag.

So the side uprights can't produce drag without producing downforce?

[odyssey2200]

youngsyr said:

odyssey2200 said:

youngsyr said:

odyssey2200 said:

youngsyr said:

How about any rear spoiler significantly below the roof line on any car, for example:



Practically zero downforce affect, they just add weight and drag.

how can they add drag if they are not in the airflow?

Well obviously the drag won't be significant (I hesitated to mention it, as I thought the pedants might jump on me), but are you saying that adding that spoiler will have absolutely zero effect on drag?

It could add as much drag as down force.

If its in the airflow it could add downforce.
If its not then it can't add drag.

So the side uprights can't produce drag without producing downforce?

and if th espoiler is not quite the right shape it could produce lift

[kambites]

Strictly speaking the purpose of a spoiler is to reduce lift rather than add downforce. I'll admit that it's a rather arbitrary definition in practice though.

I suspect the airflow over the back of a 3-series probably hugs the rear window fairly well actually, putting that spoiler squarely in the airflow.

Rear spoilers on modern FWD hatchbacks rather amuse me - of course they're commonly known for lacking rear end grip.

Oh and that wonderful huge loopy spoiler thing you get on the back of some Alfas. It's far too far from the bodywork to actually do anything as a spoiler and completely the wrong shape to act as a wing.

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 9th December 21:18

[carl_w]

swerni said:

It's genuine.
It also appears to be luminous, but I have no intention of locking myself in the boot to find out

VW Passats have the same.

[youngsyr]

kambites said:

Strictly speaking the purpose of a spoiler is to reduce lift rather than add downforce. I'll admit that it's a rather arbitrary definition in practice though.

I suspect the airflow over the back of a 3-series probably hugs the rear window fairly well actually, putting that spoiler squarely in the airflow.

Rear spoilers on modern FWD hatchbacks rather amuse me - of course they're commonly known for lacking rear end grip.

I'm not an expert, but from what I've read, even with a fastback shaped car, the spoiler needs to be close to the roofline to have a significant effect:



This theory seems to be confirmed in reality. If you look at the BTCC cars, you can see that they don't have small lips on the boot, or low spoilers, they have funking great shelf panels very high up and close to the roof line.

[GravelBen]

Didn't BMW claim that the small 'gurney lip' on the bootlid of the E39 M5 was good for a 50kg reduction in rear end lift at speed?

[Sway]

Balmoral Green said:

I had an old '49 Bentley MKVI, it had a hand throttle lever on the steering wheel centre boss, you could adjust it and use it like cruise control.

When my grandfather (RIP) was booted out of the children's home he grew up in at the age of 13, he walked along Camden High Street and got an apprenticeship as a mechanic, for a garage that looked after some lovely cars. This would have been the late '30s.

He used to get in early to get the cars into the yard, and being a resourceful chap, decided there must be a better way to start the cars rather than setting the hand throttle, getting out and cranking it over. This led to the discovery that the cylinder sealing was so good that the unused charge from switching the engine off the night before could be coaxed into cranking the engine over by setting the hand throttle, and flicking the advance/retard lever. He then won his first car (a Austin 7) off his boss in a bet that it wouldn't work!

Sam

[RedexR]

I will be getting a new company car shortly - a new model Skoda Superb , I will be astonished if it comes with "handling" as the old model certainly doesn't

[Cooky]

what about the
'exhaust button' on a porsche 911 (newish one) to make it sound more 'sporty'

I swear it's true, I nearly fell about with laughter when the salesman was giving the 'speel'