A post for Mr Rooster.
I took the Family Arragonis on an early trip to not so sunny Spain recently in this marvel of fuel efficient design :
A FIAT Doblo. It has 1.3 Litres of direct injection turbo diesel joy, here is the heart of the beast :
No really please look again, there is an engine in there, honest, next to the battery. Not sure which has more power.
I've been a fan of this little 1.3 Multijet (FIAT's answer to the TDI revolution) for quite a while but this car doesn't make much use of it. The Doblo is really a working van (think Transit Connect) and is therefore expected to carry a lot of stuff - tools, spares etc. So FIAT fitted it with relatively low ratios, which is normal in the commercial world.
Except when it is being used as a car the low ratios mean the engine is revving it's bollestras off at anything like motorway speeds. Our Doblo was geared at 40 KP/H per 1K RPM. For some reason only known in Italy this is combined with 1st gear that can do 20 MPH meaning the gears in between are very close. Great in a Ferrari, not so good in a turbo Diesel.
No idea what the consumption was as I only discovered the fuel computer halfway through the week with an average of 7.7 L/100KM on it, I handed it back with a figure of 7.2.
Anyway more spots. How about a 2CV in use :
And the later updated Dyan kind of in use, but mainly as an advert (it didn't move during our stay but it was off-season)
Both 602cc air-cooled flat twin powered. Also both located next to this monument to Southern Spain's railways :
(Built in Glasgow, Scotland)
I did find this, note the *DI lettering.
That is a TDI without a T, an NA TDI. These didn't sell a lot outside Southern Europe (at least on the Eastern side of the Atlantic, maybe Rooster has more from the West). Emissions limits killed them here - Diesels with Turbos were allowed more generous pass values.
Spain often throws up a few odd items. I spotted this beast in a car park next to a popular market :
It's a merc 200, and was pretty much perfect. Also in the garage on level 2 underground was a darkened room with windows which houses a pretty superb collection of classic bikes :
Not sure what the story is here and the guy taking the money didn't know.
Today
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