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Philip Tonkin

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Posts posted by Philip Tonkin

  1. Why arent TATA the multi billion, multi national owners paying for new vehicle development.....was a bad idea selling out to them!

    Why should they? good question.

    Imagine you are a family owned business which has grown in a fast emerging economy. You continue to expand by acquiring other businesses.

    Land Rover a going concern and successful during the boom time hits hard times, do you bail it out to develop a car to try and keep things ticking over. Bailing it out with money from the businesses that are still making money or do you sit back and see what happens.

    If investment is not made in the UK the business would likely fail. No hardship to Tata. They walk away with all of the intellectual property and the brand and once the economy makes an upturn they start making vehicles in asia.

    Why would you put your own money into keeping the business in the UK, it adds no value to the brand. I am happy for the Government to intervene using tax payers money to keep the business working here in the UK even when it does not make financial sense. That way when things pick up they will more likely keep those jobs here.

  2. I'm now working on a Cruise Control for the older types of ECU's (the MSBxxxxx ones) which should work in the same way the newer types are working and from what i've discovered untill now it is possible to get it working without upgrading the ECU to the newer MY2002 type.

    Keep us informed, I want to keep my current ECU and this was the only reason for me wanting to upgrade

  3. There seems to be a lot of confusion over SVA. An SVA test is not an engineering inspection of the chassis. I've built a number of kit cars, the SVA inspectors are looking to make sure that your vehicle is safe, and will for this reason check the quality of construction but most failures are on technicalities of the regulation. Spacing of lights, unprotected radius, exposed nuts/bolts and non working lights/wipers etc.

    To SVA a land rover should be easy as everything important goes in one place, you would have to go out of your way to get it wrong.

    These cars on Ebay should maybe go through the test and they would most likely pass but unlikely keep their registration. Most would get a Q plate once it was proven that all of the parts where legit, even if from various other cars.

    People have been doing this kind of thing for years and I often think that the people selling them don't know what has been done themselves. It may be that the technical legality of these cars should be questioned but most people buying will understand that. The safety of the vehicles is a different matter and without seeing it we can't really comment. There are plenty of factory standard cars out there that shouldn't be on the road.

  4. That's the site

    In case navigation is difficult you can find the products like this here

    The only problem I can think of would be how you manage lots of wiring going to your cubby box if it houses a stereo or CB. Not that it would be impossible, you would just need to be tidy and bundle everything together.

    I would love a cubby box that looked as good as the new Loc-Box, with it's tuffterior finish, matched cloth (for me Techno Trim) and that nice lock/catch but like the Storage Solutions cubby with somewhere to put my stereo and a space underneath it like this to raise it up and give me somewhere neat to put an amp or maybe my ECU and fuses to free up the seat box and have the whole thing hinged for convenience.

  5. Browsing some of the european shops I have come across lots of new products and ideas I haven't seen in the UK part dealers or mags.

    One of which is this:

    Unterfach-150mm.jpg

    Available in different widths for different boxes and looks really well conceived. I really like little details like the ECU diagnostics socket cutout. It might not work for vehicles with a bulkhead but Stationwagon/110/kingcab owners might be able to make it work.

    Has anyone else found any interesting products on the other side of the sea?

    I often think there are not enough UK innovators in this marketplace. Short of new products from the likes of X-Eng, Mudstuff and the tuning developments from Bell/IRB I often find there is nothing new happening. Maybe it is happening and these new ideas are just not being pushed.

    I think this cubby box would complement the Mud Rails very well due to the increase in height and angle correction

  6. I'm going to Billing this year, my reasoning is quite simple.

    Newark is three hours of motorway driving in a tin can, Northampton is only two.

    Not sure why most people seem to think Newark is so much further*. If you live in the South East you just come up the A1 rather than the M1

    From the North it's closer

    from the Midlands it's 6 and 2x3

    Say you are travelling from Stafford, Newark is closer but the roads are a little smaller. No real issue in a land rover, Trunk roads and Motorways are always about the same.

    *This is not meant as an endorsement of Newark the Show venue or Newark the place. I lived there for a while and have attended many shows (kit cars mainly) I would not sing it's praises for either although I would rather go to a show than move there..

  7. I am sure I read recently (maybe in one of the mags) that the problem is caused by prolonged heavy usage followed by rapid cool down rather than increased pressures or tuning but that some modification can prevent the problem entirely although I don't know what they changes are.

    Some kind of heat sink may help?

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