Aussie Motoring

Back in June 2006 Aussie Motoring ran an article on Grease Cars - diesels that had been modified to run on used vegetable oil from fast food outlets. You can read the article by following the link.

Back when Russ Egan wrote that article Grease Cars were confined to the United States but now they’ve arrived here in Australia and there’s even someone who can supply conversion kits for your diesel. You can find out more at VegieCars.com

by Stuart Livesey

I’ve been driving now for a few months shy of 40 years and in that time I’ve travelled over some pretty crappy bush roads and tracks. I’ve even had to drive over some fire-trails that simply take your breath away - imagine what it’s like to to be able to see anything on your right or left hand side - and sometimes not even the track in front of you because the fire trail has been hacked into the crest of a very steep ridge line.

That trip was 18 years ago and I still remember it … and I’m sure the lawyer who was riding with me has never forgotten it either even though she had her eyes closed for most of the 90 minute trip.

But most people have never encountered the kind of roads you’ll find on Fraser Island. It’s a major tourist destination and people live in various parts of the island too but despite that, this is what a main road looks like on Fraser Island

That’s one of the two main east-west crossings on Fraser Island and it doesn’t get any wider than that. Just imagine who you would feel if you were into that road and rounded a bend to find this coming the other way.

They’re big, they’re ugly and, in most cases they take up the whole road. On any given day there are as many as four or five of these big buses and as many slightly smaller buses on the roads on Fraser Island. They’re all 4WD, the bodies are made of aluminium (otherwise they rust too quickly), they generally need rebuilding every two to three years and they usually need replacing after about eight or nine years.

Oh … and did I mention that they take up the whole road and if you meet one you might have to reverse for kilometres to find a place to let him pass. There’s one spot, coming up out of Eurong Village where these big boys can’t be stopped otherwise they just don’t reach the top of the hill.

But not all roads on Fraser Island are quite that narrow. Between the beach and Happy Valley there’s actually a divided road but just don’t expect to get out of perhaps third gear - low ratio - while your on that road.

The sand is deep and even relatively light 4WD vehicles struggle to get through.

Of course there’s always the main north-south road and lots of people have heard about driving on the beach on Fraser Island. The beach is an officially gazetted road and it’s subject to speed limits - 80 km/h in most places. It’s also a road that the police patrol and from time to time they’re out there with their radar and random breath test stops too.

But frankly you would have to be crazy to drive on the beach at 80km/h unless you knew it very well. You see there are no lane lines (of course) and there are a lot of overseas tourists and inexperienced beach drivers so don’t expect vehicles to keep to the left. Rollovers are quite common. Nor should you expect to have the beach to yourself … even in quiet times there can be as many as 10 or 12 vehicles in sight at any one time.

There are three other driving hazards on the beach as well. The first one are the planes …

… I may have forgotten to mention that the beach is a road and a landing strip as well. It’s not uncommon for drivers to find that the planes just appear in front of them because the surf and the sound of the tyres on the sound make it hard to hear anything.

Then there are the freshwater creeks that run out of the sand hills, across the beach and into the ocean. Here’s a 4WD crossing one in this photo:

Many of them don’t look all that deep … until your heading down into the ditch and you’re wondering if you’re going to rip your sump out when you hit bottom. Many of them also change position from day to day and the outlets on one of the biggest creeks has been known to change by kilometres rather than hundreds of metres.

And the third driving hazard on the beach is the tide. There are two points on the island where the beach is submerged at high tide. You can get around one thanks to a short detour but the other … at the north end of the island … cuts Orchid Beach off from the rest of the island every day. If you want to drive up to that beautiful spot you need to get your timing right so the tide doesn’t leave you stranded.

Yep, if you you think your roads are bad just come over to Fraser Island and see what ‘bad’ really is. Of course, don’t try and bring your AWD or your 2WD … the barge operators will just laugh at you and send you home.

by Stuart Livesey

I don’t know about you but I’m one of those guys who likes to have lots of buttons and switches, gauges, dials, flashing lights and whirly bits on the dashboard of my car. There may be a bunch of computers driving my car for me but I want to at least pretend that I’m in control damnit!

So that’s why I’m never going to by a Tesla Roadster - you know, one of those electrict sports cars that are being developed in America that will do 0 to 100kph in under four seconds. Well to tell you the truth I’ll probably never be able to afford one but who wants to admit that they’re not buying a cool car like the Tesla simply because you can’t afford it?

Still, for a high tech car like the Tesla there’s not much on the dashboard as you will see from this photo.

There are two gauges and an odometer on the dash and the centre console is positively lacking in knobs and buttons. There’s the hazard button at the top , two buttons - the purpose of which is unclear, a temperature control, two more buttons that do something, a fan control, a button that looks like it controls recirculating air and one that opens and closes the vents.

Below those is a gear selector and another button labelled TC and that’s it. I haven’t seen a dashboard so devoid of controls since my 1966 Mini

You can see more of the Tesla - a car that definitely has style and panache - at TeslaMotors.com

Of course the lack of dials and gauges and price is not the only limiting factor in buying a vehicle like this. Here in Australia there’s a problem with distance and this car will only travel 352km before the batteries need recharging and, in Australian terms, that’s not very far at all.

Well the enquiry into fuel pricing here in Australia has returned its predictable result and we’ll go on facing fuel prices that seem to exploit the Australian motorist. You would think that with three different brands there would be at least some competition but it doesn’t seem to work that way and no one in authority seems to think that’s a problem.

So in the light of those findings it’s interesting to have a look at the average cost of a litre of unleaded fuel around Australia thanks to MotorMouth.

In November the cheapest city for fuel was Brisbane were the average price for a litre of unleaded was 124.3 - Melbourne was the most expensive at 133.3 and Sydney was next at 132.7

I should point out that MotorMouth does not report on fuel prices in Hobart and if they did I’m sure the price there would be much higher than they record for Melbourne.

Of course, for those of us who live outside of the metropolitan areas, those prices are 10 cents per litre or more cheaper than what we’re paying.

If you’re interested in keeping up with the daily fuel prices around the capital cities then head over to MotorMouth and sign up for their daily price updates.

by Stuart Livesey

I’m not sure who is the greenest car maker here in Australia … if fact you would have to wonder if anyone has actually compiled such a list … but in Europe Peugeot tops the list as the greenest car maker followed by Fiat, Renault, Toyota and Honda.

BMW and Daimler were at the bottom of the list and VW could only manage to appear in 9th position.

The manufacturers were graded on the fleet emissions for 2006 and Peugeot had an average of 142 grams of CO2 per kilometre. But in the future Peogeot and the other car manufacturers are going to have to do much better because the European Union expects all European car makers to reduce their emissions to an average of 120 grams per kilometre by 2015.

Back in 1904 though things were much different and the Peugeot didn’t have to worry about emissions when it built this beautiful little machine.

Photo courtesy of Morguefile

Queensland issued a wake-up call to Australian car manufacturers today when the Premier, Anna Bligh, announced that the state government fleet was about to undergo a major overhaul and public servants would be driving greener, cleaner vehicles.

She said the number of diesel, hybrid, micro, light and small vehicles in the passenger fleet would be increased and the size of the fleet would also be reduced.

“In three years I want emissions for the entire fleet of 14,000 vehicles cut by 15%,” Ms Bligh.

“I want that to grow to 25% in five years and 50% in ten years.

“Based on current annual carbon dioxide emissions for the QFleet fleet this would result in a reduction from 79,300 tonnes per annum to approximately 39,000 tonnes per annum.

“This is the equivalent of taking approximately 8,000 vehicles off the road.

“These are ambitious targets but it is essential if we are to play our part in helping mitigate the impacts of climate change.

“I want to use our buying power to help change attitudes and promote the benefits of more environmentally friendly vehicles.”

Minister for Public Works Robert Schwarten said rather than the current practice of focusing on the number of cylinders, QFleet will apply the Australian Government’s Green Vehicle Guide Greenhouse Ratings to compare the environmental performance of vehicles. He said all passenger vehicles in the QFleet fleet will be required to have a mandatory minimum CVG rating of 5.5

“By introducing these tough new standards the poorest environmental performers will be eliminated,” Mr Schwarten said.

“There will be cases where less fuel efficient vehicles such as 4WD’s will need to remain in the fleet especially in rural Queensland.

“However from January 1 any vehicle that does not meet the CVG standards will have its carbon dioxide emissions offset by participation in a vehicle emissions offsets scheme.

The Premier said she would lead by example and by the end of January would be driving a new ministerial car.

“The Holden Caprice that I currently drive does not meet the proposed minimum rating of 5.5,” she said.

“I have asked that all the options be looked at for more environmentally friendly cars.

“Unfortunately this may mean that I won’t be able to drive an Australian made car but in a small way I hope it will help serve as a wake up call for Aussie car makers.

“The push for more environmentally friendly, fuel efficient cars is inevitable and as demand grows I believe our car manufacturing industry has a unique opportunity to position themselves as world leaders in this field.”