Ken Block @ Baja 300 Powerdays cu Petter Solberg & Gigi Galli

Made in Romania - How to build a car with 3000 Euros in 50 days (in your own back yard)

19th August 2009
When it comes to hobbies, what's the first thing that spring to our somewhat limited minds? Reading, traveling, listening to music, fishing, i.e. most of the stuff that you'd find at the bottom of a resume. Some of us though, take this hobby thing to a whole new level. I build a small remote controlled car from scratch, while "he"'s built a large 1:1 scale functional car just for the heck of it. Who's "he" ? He's a bigger better man than I am. And he works right here in an office right across the hallway from me.

To cut a long story short, yesterday the AC in my office met its maker and so I had to move to another office across the hall in order to escape certain death. One thing lead to another and this "he" (who shall remain nameless at his request) showed me a picture (look right):

A funny beastly 4 wheeled "car looking" machine, no doors, kinda "square", in bright red. Much to my surprise, he then revealed to me that it's...HE BUILT THE RED BEAST himself, and what's more, it actually works, which is to say that you get in it, sit down, start the engine and drive it around.

It's amazing how people surprise you with stuff. And it's even more amazing when that "stuff" is a homemade vehicle, built by a dude you've been working with for some time. Not something you stumble upon daily wouldn't you say? :)

Anyway, before you make any comments about how the car looks, about the fact that it's not the slickest looking, Porsche like, luxurious "voiture", here's some facts about how it was built, straight from the...builder himself:

"The car has been built in Fagaras, by me and a good friend of mine (very good welder). It took about 50 days and ~ 3000 Euros in total to build. As a concept, the basic idea was to build a low budget, robust vehicle that will successfully handle our country's (crappy) roads.
The body is made out of welded square bars and galvanized 1 and 1.5 mm iron (tin) plates. It's thought out to withstand a potential crash test (which he actually thinks of carrying out), by creating separate successive crash bend zones.
It's powered by a 1.6 longitudinally placed engine from a Dacia Nova, with a gearbox from a normal Dacia. It uses body parts and joints from a Dacia pickup truck and Dacia Nova, 14 inch rims, ventilated front brake discs, etc, and it's been presented to the Romanian Automotive Authority in order to earn the right to be driven on public roads."

Here's the original quite in Romanian, straight from the man himself:
"Este construita la Fagaras cu participarea unui bun prieten (care sudeaza foarte bine). Timpul in care a fost costruita a fost de aprox. 50 de zile. Din punct de vedere conceptual prototipul abordeaza urmatoarea tema: Constructia unui vehicul robust care sa reziste cu succes pe drumurile patriei noastre fara costuri exagerate. Astfel: - Caroseria este realizata din bare patrate sudate si tabla galvanizata de 1 si 1,5 mm sudata cu protectie de CO2. Are zone succesive de deformare (crash test in plan). - Motorizarea este de Dacia Nova (asta am avut:) 1,6 (motor asezat longitudinal) - Cutie de dacie clasica. - Articulatii fata: Dacia papuc diesel - Articulatii spate: Dacia Nova - Garda la sol 200 mm - Rotile sunt pe 14 (Ar fi trebuit sa fie min pe 15, dar asta este:) - Discuri fata ventilate (puntea fata de papuc diesel) - Spate tamburi (puntea spate nova) Conceptul a fost prezentat la RAR Bucuresti. Costuri : 3000 Eur fara motor si cutie"

Beat that !!!

Renault Megane 3 (1.9 DCI)

15th August 2009
The other day I took a trip. Actually two trips, but that's beside the point. One thing lead to another and I got to drive this lovely piece of automotive french mechanized gourmet ... car (look to your right now please):

We're looking at the new 5 door Renault Megane 3, the 1.9 Dci (diesel) version, 130 HP @ 3750 rpm, 300/1750 (Nm) tr/mn, 0-100 km/h in 9.5 seconds, 60 liter fuel tank, trunk space of about 372 liters, expandable to 1162 liters, weighing a decent 1310 kg. Mixed fuel consumption of 5.1.

I did a two stage trip...
First part involved driving it on top quality Romanian countryside roads, where the total number of potholes per square inch is no bigger than 54. Rare were the moments where the mean value of holes lost to the adrenalin inducing, fun loving railroad crossings that have the ability to claim parts of your car such as wheels, front bumpers, or even passengers at times.
During this particular test, I attempted to check for confort and drivability on crappy roads. The acceleration and overtaking are more than decent if you know how to use that 300/1750 (Nm) tr/mn, and obviously the 130 HP @ 3750 rpm, as well as the wind speed and direction.
From an engine standpoint I would place this 1.9 dci somewhere between the 1.9 TDI and the 2.0 boxer diesel from Subaru.
The 1.9 TDI excells in lazyness, while the Subaru boxer diesel is comparable to a turbocharged lower power gasoline engine. So I'd put the 1.9 DCI right in the middle of those two as performance feeling and fun factor.
The level of confort in such conditions for this particular vehicle is decent, and the car feels as compact as a disc (i.e. compact disc). It makes you feel like you can enter turns quite swiftly in perfect safety conditions. But if you attempt to take a turn at higher speed this car becomes about as stable in turns as a large cargo boat, loaded with circus animals and screaming children in unfriendly weather. The animals have escaped, the children can't swim, and there's not much food left.

Second part : I've reached the highway! Oh joy! Comfy ride. Now, you have to know that every car develops a special relationship with it's gearbox. In the case of the new Megane 1.9 DCI, it seems that the first gear was fun for a while, much like adolescent highschool graduates before the prom, second gear would be comparable to one night of sex with a frigid partner, third would be a reasonable marriage, and fourth would be a hot affair of a rich dude in midlife crisis and a much younger female pornstar with a twist. Fifth gear is like a 10 year old marriage (i.e. sex's gone, your main concern now is preparation for death).
Although I've had difficulties testing the top speed of the Megane, I can tell you it's somewhere around 198 km/h. If it goes higher than that I'd be surprised, even though Renault sais it goes 205.

Overall, nice compact @ low speeds family car, ideal for a one child non adventureous family. Nice interior, plenty of trunkspace, slick looking design, unstable as hell.

On my scale of 1 to 10 Renault Megane 3, 1.9 dci earns a : 4 - good small family car, to be driven prefferably on roads that lack...turns !!!