POLAR NEWS No. 30 April 2006

From your editor

Many thanks to Bill and Karen, Keith and Ann and Brian Short who all donated colour inks, and more thanks to Jim and Alyson for paper, envelopes and stamps. Any donations are welcome - even £5 or £10 can buy stamps and will keep your Polar News coming through your letterbox! Thanks also to Jim Harris and Nigel Atkins for some copy and to George and Sheila for an article on the new driving test hoops - which I’ve heavily edited!. --- Helen

Auchen Castle Lunch

17 souls braved the threatened snow and ice to drive to Auchen Castle in glorious sunshine - all of us dressed for the cold, so we had to peel off layers as it was far too warm with the sunshine and the hotel’s heating. Everyone enjoyed the usual Sunday Lunch, which was followed by the raffle. Only a small number of prizes this time, but some judicial wangling on my part meant that every couple went home with a prize! Jim even got his Mini Cooper Easter Egg in red after I persuaded Brian K not to take it and Brian S kindly took it and swapped! After the fun, we all settled down to discuss the Dream Rides the Polar Bears are doing at Thirlestane Castle.

Bears will be Bears...

I was wondering what happened to all those bits that fall off TVRs, MGs and Ford Capris - well as you can see this is one we made earlier.

Yorkshire Paddi.

Well we are off on a road test, chocks away!!!! Sorbit and Buster.	Smil"e" and Y.P. had to go one better and build a Fire Engine, typical.

Supreme Champion

Celebrations

Lots of anniversaries this month - for Mike and Fiona Davies, Lorna and John McGregor and Pete and Cathy Catchpole. Ian Lumsden has a birthday - although I don’t know if it is a significant one!

Petrolprices.com

Nigel has registered at www.pipelinecard.org which has been set up to secure cheaper petrol for its members - hopefully between 5 and 10p a litre for petrol and diesel. Worth a look?

More hoops...

The Driving Standards Agency has come up with some new hoops for hapless learners and driving instructors to jump through - they have to show they can drive in an ‘eco-safe’ manner. The key to being a ‘green’ driver is to scan all around, constantly reading the traffic and driving as smoothly as possible. No sudden or harsh acceleration or braking - far better to read the traffic and just lift off when required and use the engine braking to slow you down. In other words, be an advanced driver!
For petrol cars, it is better to change up before 2,500rpm and for diesels, it is 2,000rpm. This is all very well in an old MGB with its hugely flexible and torquey engine, that can pull well from 1500rpm in 3rd - but not such a good idea in a typical modern Ford Fiasco that can’t pull the skin off a rice pudding below 4,000rpm!
All this anticipating the hazards reduces accidents by 35% and smooth driving decreases wear on the engine and tyres and of course, decreases stress on the driver. If you drive at 70mph, rather than 60mph, your car will use 30% more fuel and only save you 5 minutes on your journey time between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Yes, I know that and you know that - but try telling that to a White Van Man!
Personally, I think Dippet Saft Agley would be better just training learners in advanced driving from the beginning - then we’d have a driving population that can make good, smooth, safe progress through heavy traffic. If we all became advanced (sorry eco-safe) drivers, then Europe would save 25 billion litres of fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 million tons by 2010.
However, Doolie Scunnering Aggravating have not satisfac-torily answered one simple question - sitting your driving test on a very hot day, is it better to a) open a window, so increasing drag and fuel consumption by 15% or b) switch on the air con, thereby increasing fuel con-sumption by 15% or c) keep the window shut and air con off, saving fuel but making the examiner sweat - on the grounds he’s going to fail you anyway??

Polar Calendar

May 14th - Polar Bears Lunch and Raffle at Auchen Castle Hotel. Last meeting for our Dream Rides to be organised. Contact Tony at 0131 445 2908.
September 17th - Selkirk Show. We need to start collecting bears to sell and I’m pleased to say we have at least 30 already.
October 6-9th - Polar Bears Highland Fling Tour. Starting Nethy Bridge and finishing at Aviemore Ski Centre - places filling up fast - only 3 rooms left.

Dream rides

Sunday June 4th at Thirlestane Castle - this has had approval from the committee and is now ‘all systems go’. The maximum number of cars we can accommodate is 20, but we’d be happy with 12 to 15. If anyone has a suitable car they’d be willing to drive at this event, then please contact Tony. If you are driving or helping, you are welcome to take part in the BVAC Saturday run (about 80 - 100 miles) so you can make a weekend of it - just let Tony or Helen know so you can be entered for the run. We’ll also try to get an accommodation list out fairly soon so you can get booked up.
So far the allocated duties are:
Brian Short - loading and unloading the happy punters.
Alyson Harris - collecting money with the chip and pin system and she’ll need lots of helpers.
Karen Niven and Tony Woods - contacting suitable car owners and persuading them to come. Karen already has all the indemnity forms and documentation for the Dream Rides and will also do the info sheets about the cars and Helen Kirkness will laminate them.
Tony will look into getting the banners and notice boards for the info sheets.
On the day, we are also hoping to get a full page advert in the BVAC programme and hand out membership forms and Chris Glaseby's info sheet about the Bears.
July 16th: Kimbolton County Fayre and Charity Classic - Contact Mike Norton at 07774 167105 or visit the website for more details.

Trips abroad

July 7-9th - Classic Le Mans III: Contact Andy Mitchell at 01527 592282
Sept. 10-20th - Pyrenees Tour 2006: Tour the Pyrenees, then to Angouleme for Circuit des Ramparts and then back through the Loire Valley - cost £735 per person. Contact Ray Guiver at 01805 603454.