Back on the baccy

Apparently my tyres are 'Fulda Monterro 2', which apparently is a winter tyre. How odd then that they perform so badly on wet tarmac.

I looked them up on google, and they get 'interesting' reviews. Most people seem to be giving them 4 or 5 stars, but then when you read the actual reviews they tend to talk about crap handling and increased braking distances. Maybe the people that wrote the reviews enjoy skidding around all over the place.

I'm going to the scrappy at the weekend to see what they've got.

Incidentally, I've just been out a bit ago, and the roads are all nice and dry now but its very cold. I found a deserted area and really threw the car around, and even flooring the throttle from a standing start on almost full lock and keeping my fun down til the turbo kicked in, resulted in nothing more than the most subtle tyre squeak. Put it on a wet surface and it would wheel spin at about 1/4 throttle from a standing start.

 

I think I might know why she got a bit tail waggy. If there's one thing about the old Volvos that lets them down slightly, it is the slightly dire weight distribution. Its about 70/30 between load on the front tyres / load on the back ones, and there is a comment in the service record about the non-standard rear shocks.

Carrying a boot load of weight home tonight, she handled like a dream even on the horrible wet road that she normally gets a bit twitchy on in the cold damp weather.

Anyway, back on the baccy front, slight relapse to report. I forgot to put my patch on this morning, so by tonight, when I had reason to visit a neighbour who is a smoker, I've come away with a few rollies. I'm not too bothered though. I'll just smoke them then put a patch on tomorrow and crack on with the non-smoking.

 

I did 5 month this yr and started again clueless..im sick of myself!,i can give up but not stayed stopped,3yrs is the longest i managed ..i just always feel out of sorts when i give up x

 

Keep at it Clueless ...a friend of mine gave up smoking a couple of years ago ,i say gave up...she is now a 'social smoker' by which i mean she only smokes when she goes out...don't know how she does it but it works for her...

 

I have everything I need to give up, so will succeed. Tonight is just a minor blip.

I'm going tank driving followed by paintball fighting in 2 weeks, and all my comrades are younger than me, so I need every advantage I can muster. Having lungs clogged with black tar and snot will not go in my favour

 

It is an ongoing battle, you never lose the urge, I have not had one for however long it says at the bottom of the page, but this morning coming back from first walk of the day with Maddie, I really fancied one, I always smoked more in mornings.

 

I got some new second hand tyres put on today. @fat controller, see if this makes any sense to you. I told the lad at the tyre place that my tyres, in terms of tread, are good, but that they skid around all over the place on wet tarmac, and I may as well be on ice. He had a look and said straight away, "its the tread pattern. Its because they are 'rotational'". I thought he was made. Of course they are rotational, they are tyres, but I let him talk. He went on to explain that the tread pattern was better for loose snow or wet mud, but on water, even just a wet surface with the slightest sub millimeter film of surface water, the water compresses under the tread and lifts the tyres off, causing it to just spin and slide. I said that's exactly what happens when I'm driving it.

Anyway, £100 later, I have 3 Goodyear tyres and one Pirreli on (he couldn't find the fourth Goodyear ).

Driving home, what a difference. After 8 months of driving on the same tyres you kind of adjust to it and take it as normal, but I noticed the difference immediately. Its like driving a big comfy Volvo again. It was quieter, smoother, and I found myself using less throttle for the same speed. I also felt more 'connected' to the road. Steering was less twitchy, no wandering, and when I had to brake quite hard at one point, the distinct rumble/buzz I've become familiar with just wasn't there. Gothilda gave me the perfect response. I also realised that over the last few months, I have been subtly and subconsciously compensating on the steering wheel. I didn't have to do that today.

While at the tyre shop, I ask the lad what happens to the old tyres and said I'm after a load for the play area I'm building. He was over the moon (I know it costs them to dispose of them), and I came away with the boot space packed tight to the roof with old tyres

 

Good explanation there FC, cheers.

The ones that came off, if I remember right, didn't have the usual grooves going all the way round, as per the vertical arrows in your top pic. In fact the tread on them was more reminiscent of really old tyres that I remember from when I was little.

The 'new' tyres are infinitely better. I've had more of a chance to test them out now, and they grip like mad. I even went to a patch of road where I used to always get a bit of tyre buzz at least, and more typically get a bit of a slide (tight hairpin bend going up a 1:4 gradient). I was able to induce a wheel spin because the road was wet and I floored it to the extent that the turbo howled, but it was only a slight spin, the tail barely flicked, and the car just accelerated in the intended direction. A few other times I used a bit more welly than I normally would, certainly more than would normally be needed to make her drift, yet she just kept tight hold of the road. For the most part I couldn't even get a slight tyre buzz.

I'm also finding that the engine is labouring less. One of the things that I was never entirely happy with was that sometimes I would disagree with the car's choice of gear. She would often be reluctant to change up until the revs were higher than I would have done it had she been a manual. Now I've noticed I'm more inclined to agree. She is making better use of the gears. Its not just wishful thinking either because I have tangible evidence so to speak. Exactly 50mph was a horrible speed before. At 50mph, she could never decide on the best gear so she'd change up, then change back down, the turbo would spin up, and she'd change up again, and keep doing that annoyingly changing up and down willynilly. Tried it today, and she just changes up, stays there, and purrs along at about 2000rpm. So hopefully I might find that in addition to a more pleasant and less terrifying ride, she might also give me a bit better fuel economy.

 

Spot on enough FC!

A few thoughts..................

Not really. Two very different sets of problems. Winter/snow tyres want to pack the snow into the tread pattern to provide traction. Wet weather requires the tread to displace the water away from the tyre. Then there is the issue of compound - more of that later.

The 940 has what I call a birdcage set-up on the rear axle. Basically the axle can rotate within the forward facing location arms (caused by the torque reaction of the differential pinion trying to rotate around the crown wheel) as it is mounted using soft rubber blocks. To counteract this (designed in) movement there is a centre arm that is mounted more rigidly at such an angle that as the axle rotates the forward mount of the centre link tries to lift the rear of the car up, or in reality pushes the rear axle into the tarmac. This is termed "anti squat".

Bit of both. A softer compound of tyre can allow water left under the tyre to be squidged into pockets of water, whereas a harder compound lacks this flexibility allowing more water to remain as a film between the tyre and the road.

Agree! There are also some cracking deals to be had on Yokohama too!

Stiffer/new rear springs will help to restore dynamic (as opposed to static) weight distribution.

Agree. On a road car shock absorbers are more of a comfort feature than handling. Of course, if the shocks are foo-barred it will alter dynamic weights and the speed at which the springs will work.
When replacing springs and shocks always replace in pairs and always new. If doing all round, use the same manufacturer front and rear.

 

Classic anti-squat feature. You can go too far and it will break traction though!
We used to use birdcages when we were racing on the ovals, and when racing in the States.