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4X4

Dirty on dirty

20 September 2020 Robert Pepper

So you own a 4WD and you use it offroad. Often it’ll get dirty in the course of those trips, but when it does, take a few moments clean it. There is no point driving around for days or even weeks with a dirty 4WD as some misguided badge of honour – you won’t do […]

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Will another hundred be enough?

17 September 2020 Robert Pepper

Years ago a computer monitor used to be 12 inches across, and 15 was considered large. Having such a behemoth on your desk was a clear sign that you were terrifically important to the company and had done something special to have justified such an expansive display. Now 27” monitors are dirt cheap, and TVs […]

4X4

Pride and Prejudice – Hummer H3 Review

15 September 2020 Robert Pepper

Hummer says it’s like nothing else. They mean the vehicle, but that also goes for the emotions. Reprint of a roadtest from 2009! The pictures show a car, but it’s not a car, it’s an emotion grenade. Mentioning you’re driving this car is the roughly equivalent to saying you’ve dumped your partner; people instantly split […]

4X4

Should I buy a Range Rover Sport or a Defender 90?

8 September 2020 Robert Pepper

A reader contacted me to ask for help with a vehicle buying decision. I will assist with these queries where I can, provided I can use the information in publications. Happy to change names and details if preferred as long as the gist of the vehicle decision is clear to the readers. I also edit […]

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A tank full of electrons.

5 September 2020 Stephen Harrison

This is my co-driver’s story of our drive from Melbourne to Adelaide and back in Hyundai Kona EV in April 2019. When Robert asked for volunteers to ride along on an extended EV journey, I was keen, then not so keen as the logistics started to look challenging. The same journey in a petrol or […]

4X4

More on the 4×4 fiddle blocks – forces and minimum rope lengths

3 September 2020 Robert Pepper

The fiddle block I published a video about, and wrote about on Motofomo has generated a fair bit of interest. Here’s a couple of extra answers to questions: What’s the minimum rope for a given distance? Multiply the distance you intend to pull by 6, so for a 10m pull, allow 60m of rope. Now […]

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Manual cars of all types are dying out, and that’s tragic…isn’t it?

1 September 2020 Robert Pepper

Can car lovers learn to live without manuals? How much fun would golf be if you just loaded a ball into a gun, pressed the trigger, and the ball was shot out of the gun towards the green at exactly the right velocity? And why do people sail boats, when they could far more easily just […]

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How to choose your hobby

30 August 2020 Robert Pepper

Bored? Want to get into something, but not sure what? Lots of people have interests, hobbies, recreations…call it what you will, activities that take up a lot of their time. Many people don’t, and they’re quite happy that way. But there’s lots of others who wish they could find something to do with their time. […]

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Why are diesels turbocharged?

28 August 2020 Robert Pepper

The short answer is “because they need it”. Here’s the long answer, and why. Your internal combustion engine, be it diesel or petrol, draws air in through valves as the piston moves down inside its cylinder. Then the valves are closed, and the piston moves back up. A petrol engine creates a compressed mixture of […]

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What’s more fun – a fast 4WD or a fast car?

26 August 2020 Robert Pepper

I don’t know how many car magazines there are in the world, but it’s a lot. Nor do I know how many car clubs there but, but “a lot” certainly would be an understatement. This is proof cars and driving are fun, but certain types of cars are perhaps more fun than others. For example, […]

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