Kickstart

Yes. 3 valves per cylinder isn't that unusual (for example quite alot of old Honda bikes had 3 valves per cylinder), but the way they did it was quite strange. It has one overhead cam per bank, with the cam operating directly on the buckets (the inlet valves were set up with 1 offset to the intake side and the other offset to the exhaust side). On the exhaust valve it was conventional, on the inlets the edges of the buckets operated the valves. Not sure any other engines used this design. When they switched to the 24 valve heads they moved to a more conventional system. Except that the cam belt drove one cam on each bank, while the 2nd cam was driven by a chain from the first cam (with the chains hidden at the back of the heads where they are a pig to change). Maserati did show off some plans for a 6 valve per cylinder setup in the mid 1980s. Not sure if they did anything other than draw some pictures and issue some press releases. All the best Katy

Partly we have the forces to defend against previous threats. Once forces are in place to counteract a threat then any aggressor is likely to come up with a new method of attack that bypasses the defences. All we have been doing for the last 15 years is small scale engagements against insurgent forces, and what we have developed for that is likely to be of very limited use against a conventional aggressor nation. Drones have the risk with a sophisticated enemy that we will find them defeated entirely by electronic countermeasures. Big powers are countered by nukes. They are very cheap compared to a conventional force of equivalent deterrence. All the best Katy

Depends on the exact model, as they evolved quite a bit as time went on. Sometimes for the better. The early ones were called Biturbos (or BuyTrouble), and they dropped that name in the late 1980s. Early ones had 4 stud wheels as an easy external check. The original ones used a single carb that lived in a plenum chamber. Could have hot starting problems. Diffs were weak. Engines have the water pump driven by the cam belt, hence a seized water pump snaps the cam belt and bends lots of valves. Electrics are not good, but not that bad. Biggest problems are the fuse box (think it came from the Fiat Strada, and was seriously over stressed on a few circuits on the Maserati - although Maserati carried on using the same fusebox until the mid 1990s), alternator (a 65 amp unit that can pop when you turn all the electrics on - not what you want in the rain; our 222 went through 2 before we switched in the 105amp AC Delco unit from the Ghibli) and the relays (in themselves not a problem, just that the ones used have an unusual pinout hence people forget, stick normal ones in a then cause real problems). Rust again isn't perfect, but not that bad. Realistically better than Fords of the same age. Early lhd cars had manual steering racks that were quite slow. Think all rhd cars had powered racks. Thing I like about them is that they are subtle and few people notice them. But can go fairly quickly. Ours is a 222SE built in 1989. Compared to the earlier cars there are a few cosmetic differences such are plastic bumpers, slightly rounded on the fronts of the wings. They switched to 5 stud wheels, and the steering was quite substantially revised. Engine grew a bit (the Italian market got 2L cars, export cars were 2.5L for the Biturbo, growing to 2.8L for the later ones - all with 18 valve heads). Water cooled turbos. Fuel injection with intercoolers (some earlier special editions for some markets had fuel injection, but a rather different system). The auto got a 4 speed box rather than a 3 speed box (the 4 speed auto works well with the turbos - no need to back off between gears). The 2.8 injected engine was a claimed 250hp in most cars (less in the convertible). Late on there were loads of limited editions with various changes such as differernt headlights, 24 valve heads, cats for some markets, etc. Speedos on all of them are very unreliable. If you are looking at a car then do not be in the slightest bit surprised if it has had a few speedos in its life. All the best Katy

I have a vague feeling that it might have been the importer who tried bringing in Maseratis at that time. Would need to look it up though. All the best Katy (we have a Maserati 222SE in the garage)

Apparently many cars are filled with a specific oil from new for running in. Possibly a particular rubbish oil All the best Katy

Suspect some of it is also the move to increasingly more cars using very thin oils as a way to try and improve fuel consumption. 5W30 is very common not. Suspect with diesels this is a way to wangle the emissions tests. Catch the nasties when it is in a situation that might happen when it is having a homologaton test, and when safe from tests it just burns it all off and dumps smoke over everyone behind. While that is often given as a reason, I suspect it has more to do with marketing than the actual engineering. Although possibly people these days are more likely to incur extra wear by revving engines when still cold. All the best Katy

Pics are very good, especially for a point and shoot All the best Katy

Solves the biggest problem with them. The older 16" wheel ones had self destructing flywheels, which tended to lose the magnets around 20k. We have had 2 of the older ones. They are low enough that my better half can ride them easily. Last one got stolen a few years ago. Still have a few spares for it All the best Katy

Quite fun little bikes. Good on fuel and with a decent tank range, but quite a low seat height. Is it an early shape one or a late shape one (ie, 16" wheels or 17" wheels)? All the best Katy

We tow a bike trailer fairly often. Problem these days is finding a car with anything more than a nominal unbraked towing capacity. Tow cars we have had:- Audi 100 Avant - pretty awful to drive normally but only marginally worse when towing. Borrowed Rover 827 - Did the job OK, and the auto box on this coped well. Alfa 75 2L TS - remarkably nice to tow with. Even managed to be rather better on fuel when towing than when driven normally. Alfa 155 2L 16V TS - had a pair of these. Pretty good for towing, not bad on fuel when towing (not as good as the 75). Quite a surprise as they are not that low geared. Jaguar X Type 2.5 - towed well enough, but quite a revvy engine (heavy flywheel on a revvy engine is not a good combination). Not as good as the 155, and when towing used a lot more fuel. BMW 318 - tows OK, but fairly gutless low down and not so good on fuel when towing. Wondering whether to try and convert the trailer to braked, which would make choosing another car far easier. All the best Katy

Problem for a replacement ECU is likely to be the cost. Quite probably not financially viable for most less 'premium' vehicles people keep as classics. As to factory coding, I honestly don't know. I do know of people who can recode the 'red key' type ECUs (or at least those used on some bikes, assume they could do cars if they wanted), but again not that cheap. With the Audi he did do a fair bit of hunting round but didn't find any options like that; maybe he should have looked harder. With the way things are going with various rules I would expect it won't be long before an aftermarket ECU is an automatic MOT fail in the UK. I admit I killed an engine in a flood many years ago. Came around a corner, saw the puddle which didn't look that deep, and thought 'it hasn't been raining that hard, it can't be that deep'. Result was hydraulicing the engine, blowing the head gasket out on 1 cylinder. All the best Katy

For me, it seems to vary between cars. Some driving slower makes a big difference, some it makes very little difference. And some it probably mainly affects by driving more smoothly (old carbed Alfa 33 I had was very good on fuel sitting somewhat above the speed limit but smoothly, but speeding up and slowing down caused it to drink fuel - all the fun of accelerator pump carbs). My assumption was that part of the reason for the lower limiter setting was PR, especially for more public facing companies. If doing 53 then the lorry isn't likely to be the one sat blocking the over taking lane and annoying all the potential customers stuck behind them. I don't like the effect having cruise control has on my driving. Way too tempted to get overly concerned with fuel consumption. I suspect there are way too many different ECUs for that to be viable (and how many people could afford the cost of a new ECU for an older car (*)). Minor change to the car and a different set of software in the ECU = new part number. I suspect we have also landed up in a situation where many ways around this with aftermarket ECUs would (or possibly more likely will) be illegal. All the best Katy (*) work colleague had the ECU die for the dual clutch transmission for his car. Turns out it was factory coded to the rest of the electronics rendering getting a useful 2nd hand unit impossible. And the replacement ECU was close to £2000.

Been told that it was a specific offence until the 1970s but the act was repealed. All the best Katy

Woman I used to work with got done for 32mph in a 30 limit. All the best Katy

Hi Maybe, but given we are not allowed to use grenade launchers on them it doesn't surprised me some people get really annoyed about it All the best Katy

Hi I do tend to like to be in the left hand lane (like to be near the heard shoulder should I need it). Yes I will move around and back when someone is hogging the middle line, although not chop across in front of them All the best Katy

Are you really doing 50mph? Depending on the class of vehicle you are driving / riding and indicated 50mph might legally only be 41mph. All the best Katy

Suspect for most people over the age of 30, the level of ASD would have needed to be very severe for any kind of diagnosis to be made. Probably has made things worse for a lot of those not diagnosed (and hence sort of bullied into complying with normal behaviour). All the best Katy

Sorry to ask, but which test. There are 2 mentioned here I think and a score of 10 would mean very different things for each one! There is a cut down 10 question of the main test, consisting of the 10 questions that give the most differentiation. As an aside, as I understand it the level of autism among TG people is quite a lot higher than in the general population. 0.5%~1% for the general population and ~7% for TG people. All the best Katy

Sounds a bit like me. Think with me I need to build a mental logical understanding of the process; doesn't matter so much if it is an accurate model in my mind, rather one is consistent. With real things this works well as there is a logic to them. Where I struggle is with artificial constructs. For example in maths at school for general things I was fine. When they started with matrices I suffered from a large element of 'who cares' as it appeared to be an artificial construct rather than something with a natural logic behind it. All the best Katy

You have the mad mullah of the traffic taliban to thank for that. One of his moments of madness was rewriting the manuals on how road accident investigations should be treated. All the best Katy

Hi This is something I really couldn't do. Talking about things as an 'expert' is just about impossible unless I really do know the subject. Making it up or telling lies would be very obvious (I am a terrible liar). I am probably far too open to admitting my own faults or lack of knowledge than is good for me. All the best Katy

Hi Thought about this thread a few times over the last few months. Things are going fine for me. Going back in to work after everyone had been told and I had a week off was a touch stressful, but far less so than some other things. Most people don't seem to notice (advantage of being skinny and short), but still quite paranoid about peoples reactions. Bit strange becoming someone at work whose name everyone knows. Been out and about, including quite a lot of model railway shows and a few gigs. Not sure I should post this, but this was at a Hazel O'Connor gig:- All the best Katy

Hi I just tried the empathy one. Came out at 11 (out of 80), and I didn't think I was that bad. Not sure how all those tests combine (ISTP for Meyers Briggs, 46 score on the autism test). All the best Katy

Hi Comparing your thoughts with how my brain seems to work. Not sure as it is difficult to know whether the way I tend to talk / swear at / cajole / insult myself in my mind or normal Never really done a proper test I can remember. Times I have played with online ones I come out as ISTP. From 2 results I can find these were:- Introvert(67%) Sensing(12%) Thinking(62%) Perceiving(44)% and Introverted 44 Sensing 12 Thinking 50 Perceiving 33 For me it very much depends on the pressure. Give me one task to do under pressure and without planning and I tend to cope pretty well(I tend not to like planning - and when I plan things I tend to over plan them so much that nothing happens). Throw several things at me at once under pressure and the chances are none will get done. Same here. No chance I will negotiate a price on something. If the price is reasonable for something I (might) want and can afford then I will buy it; if the price is unreasonable then I will walk away with pretty much no chance I will buy it. This for me is an odd one. Sometimes I do land up agonising over whether a word I am using is precisely right for the way I am thinking, but with my memory / vocabulary I quite often can't think of a better word. All the best Katy