onetrack

The new BMW iX3 EV prototype is on show, it's coming in 2025. It looks pretty sharp, as one would expect from BMW. But the lack of switches buttons and controls in the dashboard area, is one complaint area, that is being raised regularly by new car owners. They want the familiarity of switches and buttons, not to have to take ones eyes off the road, to look for a screen icon to touch. The interesting part is BMW is partnering with the Chinese for battery technology, is using cylindrical battery technology, not prismatic cells, and has developed a dedicated, stand-alone EV vehicle platform, (BMW call it "Neue Classe"), which platform is not shared with any other BMW IC-engined vehicle. The new iX3 EV will use batteries from CATL, Eve, and Envision AESC, runs an 800V architecture, and has a reported range of 600kms. Article - https://uk.motor1.com/news/741208/bmw-ix3-2025-patent-photos-leaked/ Photos - https://uk.motor1.com/photos/879224/bmw-vision-neue-klasse-x-2024/#7702468_bmw-vision-new-class-x-2024

I don't think too many pilots would have, they're a relatively rare engine - although I was surprised to see how many twins used them. The crop dusters love them, plenty of grunt with 400HP.

Jerry, why not an IO720? They sound great! Pity about the fuel consumption, though!

Russian criminal gangs have been scamming people with fake tractor sales. They are exceptionally good at it, and operate a professional website with people you can call and speak to, and they use a very similar company name and ABN, as a registered Australian company name and ABN, who ARE trading. But the Australian company doesn't sell tractors. The scammers show superb photos of nice low-hour tractors at very reasonable prices and the suckers pay the money into a Bendigo Bank account. However, the funds are transferred out of the Bendigo Bank account within minutes of being paid and used to purchase cryptocurrencies that can't be traced or recovered. Part of the problem appears to be idiots here who are "renting" their local bank account for the scammers to use. The scammers use photos stolen from U.S. tractor websites, and this should be enough warning if you're perceptive. Two things that I do, that has never failed me, is to look at the vegetation and surroundings in the photos to determine if the scenery is American or Australian (Australian shrubbery and scenery is distinctive as compared to the U.S. Then I go looking for similar photos in U.S. or Australian sites, using Google image search. Google image search is so powerful, it will pick up virtually anything that has ever been photographed. I regularly pick up the scammers on the aviation ads by using this technique. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-15/tractor-scam-fleecing-australian-farmers-out-of-thousands/104586900

So ... it looks like the wheels just fell off the Porsche bandwagon? Oooohh, Look!! I just found the new Porsche company song!!

There are dozens of Straight 8's. Isotta-Fraschini was first, followed by Leyland, Duesenberg, Bentley, Bugatti, Marmon, Pontiac, Buick, Studebaker, Packard, Rolls-Royce, Alfa-Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, Miller, just to name a few. The Studebaker Straight 8's ran in the Indianapolis 500 in the 1930's and gained an excellent reputation for durability and power. The Straight 8's suffered mostly from crankshaft torsional problems, due to the crankshaft length. A crankshaft vibrational/torsional damper is critical to the success of a Straight 8. The Buick 8's were buggers for running bearings if you hammered them at high speed for an extended period. The lack of pressure feed to the GM engines bottom ends in that era, didn't help. By far the most stunning Straight 8 car I've ever seen locally was a 1929 Marmon Roosevelt sedan. It came with a factory radio, and fully silver-plated doorhandles and dash panel, and a huge recessed dash, that was stunning for the era. Incredibly, the Marmon Roosevelt sold for under US$1000, probably a major part of the reason Marmon stopped manufacturing cars in May 1933. https://www.justcars.com.au/cars-for-sale/1929-marmon-roosevelt-collapsible-coupe-roadster/JACFD5245961#&gid=1&pid=6

I think Ozzy can rightfully be described as a "cooker" when it comes to drug use.

Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne before they went punk.

He'll pop the other one in, when he feels a bout of dementia coming on.

D.

With a bit of luck, another Kennedy assassination will be on the cards!

In better news today, the Onion has bought Jones Infowars site at a liquidation auction and plans to turn it into a parody site. Jones is mouthing off and raging - good result for the lying, foamy-mouthed feral, that he is. True justice would be Jones family being massacred by a gun nutter, and then everyone could say he faked it for money. https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/satire-slinger-onion-buys-alex-jones-infowars-auction-115858173

Jazz is all discords, not harmonious chords. It sets you on edge. I'd go for 60's and 70's and 80's rock any day. Billy Joel, Bob Seger, Jackson Browne, the Eagles, that period was the best rock era.

A mixture of lime and cement added to the road base will greatly assisting in the binding of the material - but you'll need at least 4 or 5% lime and cement by volume. The lime and cement needs to be well rotary-hoed in. Road stabilisers are just big rotary hoes with on-board lime and cement hoppers. https://auststab.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Profilers-versus-stabiliser.pdf The track steepness, and heavy rainfall, and leaf litter blockages, can only be handled by large diameter culverts with sizeable inlets, placed at regular intervals down the slope. Keep your eye open for Armco culvert material in ex-mining surplus auctions. Sometimes you can also pick up surplus concrete culvert pipes in auctions, too. https://infrasteel.com/what-are-the-primary-components-of-culverts/#:~:text=Arch culverts allow water to,and an inlet%2Foutlet conduit.

Ya wooden want to have a crash in that!

Wet it down extremely well, and hire a decent-size compactor (preferably a vibrating roller), and it will go down solidly, and stay in place, if done right. Make sure you clean all the loose rocks and dirt out of the holes before it goes down.

We went to the Guggenheim Museum and a "famed" artist was putting on a display of his "art". He was regularly firing big cans of red paint at a white wall with a homemade cannon. Of course, the dribbles and runs of paint down the wall, were his "artistic expression". What a load of crap. And art idiots fawn over this kind of stuff. The fact that they pay huge money for this stuff, shows too much money is in the wrong hands.

Gee, "You Can't See Around Corners" brings back some memories of the 1960's. I wasn't aware the story was originally written by Jon Cleary in 1948. The plot was based on a WW2 deserter, and the storyline was later modified in the 1967 TV series and the 1969 film, for the "hero" to be a Vietnam War deserter. Cleary had a tough life, and I didn't know his father was jailed for 6 mths in 1928 for stealing £5 from his employers (bakers) money bag to feed his starving family. They were tough times.

Can we send both Elon and Donald to Mars, on the first of Elons spacecraft to the planet? That's the best way of saving this planet from their destructive, self-serving rampages.

The bloke with the damaged MG ZS looks like a real "backyarder", I'd be investigating his business "model" and be very wary of buying anything from him. https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/regents-park/auto-body-parts/2021-mg-zs-ev-electric-car-/1327744196

I don't reckon that's a photo of an Australian Raven, our Ravens have white irises.

I was hoping the COVID parties had cleaned out the gene pool, but obviously they missed some. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/13/30-year-old-dies-covid-party-texas

But just look at the number of elbows they saved, doing it this way!

Kerry Stokes and his son Ryan run Channel 7.

The richest people in America all bought this election result. Musk spent $118M of his own money to ensure Trump got elected. We don't have any idea, how much all the other billionaires spent on getting Trump elected. Let's just watch the "rewards" handed out to the rich, now - major tax reductions for high earners, and Govt handouts to their companies, and highly profitable Govt contracts awarded to them as well.