Tempest

For the record, over in Germany even today the Rado is 10th on the list of most stolen cars :shock: Tempest

Nah, much as we atre supposed to not like each other and all that stuff, pretty much everyone on that thread gave the chap in question a good verbal beating, which has restored my faith again :lol: What gets me is that this chap really doesn't get it, or he's a bot, but that wouldn't explain the very real photographs (or are they all PSchops :lol: )? Tempest

Went on a single seater experience end of September at Rockingham circuit, and abolutely loved it. Advantage is that you don´t get an instructor sitting next to you, just a pace car gradually ramping up the speed ahead of yopu. Was great fun, since those cars do handle like real race cars. Tempest

It´ll be a new Goof cabrio, production start 2011. The new company will be called Volkswagen-Osnabrück GmbH, to include tooling production, presses, paintshop, assembly and further areas. Tempest

Blasphemy!! Burn the witch! :lol: Erm more like, remove whatever VW remnants my cars still have :D Replace as many VW logos with Karmann badges, the true creator of our beloved cars. Anyway, let VW build Goof cabrios at the Osnabrück plant, which is what´s been announced, along with Porker Boxsters. According to one analyst, the reason VW acquired Karmann was as a thankyou by Piech to Wulff for Wulff having helped Piech fend off Porsche´s hostile take-over bid, and reverse the whole thing, i.e. VW taking over Porsche instead. Tempest

Just been on German telly: The name Karmann will most likely be killed off. So take care of your precious Karmanns, they will become a rarity, that future generations may not even remember unless we make them through our toys :-) Cabrios will be built at the Osnabrück plant. Voices have been heard saying that VW deliberately let Karmann bleed to death so they can buy ´m for peanuts. Shame about all the jobs etc. Tempest

It's official now: VW is taking over parts of Karmann. Machines, plots of land and installations are to be acquired. A new VW subsidiary will be created in the next few weeks for a new car project. Tempest

Karmann sourced its sheets metal from all over the place. Just be gald they didn´t source it from Poland like they did with the Mk1 :pale: Tempest

I know from Fiat X19 owners that a Dutch club has clubbed together their private funds (a few million actually, must have had some high value individuals) to buy the moulds from Fiat. They are now recovering that money (aprtially anyway) from selling new panels. As far as the current C moulds are concerned, as Karmann were toolmakers, they will also own the moulds for the Cs. Tempest

Sorry to hear that, Paul. Makes you almost want to get some sh*t-banger that you don´t care about again, just because as soon as you take something you value a bit more, it seems to get vandalised. Strange society. Good luck getting it all fixed again. Tempest

Latest news: VW have increased their offer from 20 million to 35 million Euros. The 3 owner families want 50 million. None of the 2 parties wanted to comment at this stage. (NOZ 31/20/2009) Tempest

The local press (Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung) today have a very interesting twist on this topic: The liquidator is alleged to have infiltrated a Mr ¨Meyer¨ into Karmann, whose sole role was to spy out what the employees say about each other, find the leak to the 3 owner families (as the 3 owner families knowing the liquidator´s every move apparently annoyed the liquidator), get employees to tell stuff by promising them that they would keep their jobs etc. 2 solicitors in Osnabrück who have started to investigate this matter have now also found handwritten evidence from the liquidator that the whole idea was to make Karmann as cheap and attractive as possible for a take-over by VW; by sacking pretty much as many staff as possible and keeping the 3 owner families in the dark. In the secret notes found, there is talk about Christian Wullf (called Papa), ex-CEO of Karmann Harbig (called 007), his assistant (yup, Moneypenny), and most of all VW (called ... KdF :shock: I hope you all know the significance of that term). The 2 solicitors are investigating the legal implications: Potentially a large proportion of the sacked staff would have to be taken on by VW due to several reasons, one of which is gross misrepresentation by Karmann management of their situation (not mentioning the take-over plans by VW). The plot thickens 8) Tempest

As a matter of fact the then VW CEO, Dr Carl Hahn was married to an Italian lady called Corrado, that´s how the Corrado got its name. Even Karmann were surprised by this decision, so there you go, anorakism straight from an interview with Schwebe in a recent German VW mag. Simple: A NaR, or ¨Not a Rocco¨. Burn him on the stake in his own TDI oil, the witch :lol: Tempest

Err, yes, and to me and its creator, the Rado is still a Rocco Mk3 :D Tempest

The German press is currently buzzing with news that VW are looking at taking over the ailing coachbuilder Karmann, thanks to whom we all have our beloved Roccos. The negotiations are going on at high speed, 11th November VW will hold a final meeting to decide. The 3 Karmann owner families may still pose a bit of a barrier, as they would love to get at least 100M Euros for the bankrupt Karmann, whereas VW have offered a 2-digit million Euro amount. The Porsche Boxster may then very well be built by Karmann, now that Porsche belongs to VW, and the current manufacturer, Magna, has become too risky for VW, since Magna are involved in taking over Opel, a giant competitor of VW, and trade secrets may become at stake. Furthermore the minister president of the state of Lower Saxony, where both VW and Karmann are based, some analysts say, may be owed a favour by VW, since Christian Wulff has helped avoid a takeover of VW by Poprsche. Wulff represents the state of Lower Saxony as a 20% shareholder on the VW board, and has veto rights (the famous VW-law). Wulff has his domestic electorate in Osnabrück, the city where Karmann is based, so that may play a role, too.. Analysts say that VW actually does not have a reason for taking over Karmann, given they have overcapacity in their own works, but now might bne a good tiome as any to take over a specialist manufacturer like Karmann on the cheap. May save the future of Karmann :D Tempest

No use to you, but my Rado originally lived in Viriginia, or at least was sold by Stohlman in Tysons Corner, before via Germany and Scotland it found its way to me in the Midlands, GB :D Tempest

Same route that my mate Dirk has taken, now after 5 years of Audi Coupe goodness (he had the 5-pot 10 valver, so sound was gorgeous, but not the same oomph as my business colleague´s S4 has), he´s ¨moved on¨ to a BMW 523i LPG (nice drive, too, as I found out 2 weekends ago). Tempest

Yup, Sciroccoregister is the place to be for Roccin´ :D I´m on there, too. Tempest

Would have gone over myself, had it not been that I've just been over in D this weekend just gone. Besides, the Irocco R doesn't do enough for me to warrant going over for that alone, and still having to pay the €15 entry fee plus flight costs etc. Tempest

Any priyes for guessing which mate that is ? :lol: Tempest

Money is starting to go on the big end shells. Strange though for a rebuilt engine ... Tempest

No, all foreign-plate cars must in any EU country, if permanently resident therein, change plates and registration of car to local plates within 3 months. So, someone from Germany who lives permanently in the UK, must change his/her German plates over to UK plates within 3 months. At least that's what the UK DVLA website stated many moons ago, when I was importing my Mk1 Rocco from Germany. Terms like "permanently resident", although defined by law, leave space for interpretation, however, and it all boils down to how clued up/vigilant the authorities of the country you're in / or even the authorities of the country you're leaving potentially ar. At the moment the country you're leaving does not have to inform the authorities of the country you'll be moving to, as it is your legal obligation (even though there are no mechanisms other than getting stopped by police who may then do a full check to force you to change) to notify and change. Equally I do know Germans here in the UK, who quite happily take the risk of carrying on driving around with German plates, going across every 2 years to have their TÜV done, and just live with it. It's the SPECS cameras that can't cope with non-standardised fonts on the plates that cause the problem for the powers that be, so they decided to clamp down. In a similar vein 3D fonts and italic fonts were ruled out some years ago, all for the same reason, just when SPECS cameras were being rolled out. As already said, I am very careful what show I visit (those frequented by younger drivers usually get targeted by the powers that be a lot more, ... for I hate to have to admit, obvious reasons, which I won't go into 8) ), and if I do visit a show with potential for increased road checks, I would take preventive measures if needed (not needed on any of my 3 cars, though :D ). Red towel, bull, etc. I think is the analogy that springs to mind here :lol: Tempest

Indeed, that´s the principle that´s used by devices like Race Technologies' AP22. Force is acceleration times mass. So you need to measure acceleration, which this device does (micro-machined accelerometer, eg. as developed at Coventry University, parallel research group to mine, when I was still there). You need to supply the mass (weight) of your car to the device software. Energy or work is Force times distance. The distance you travel is determined by the device from the acceleration (integrated twice by time gives you distance) and the time elapsed. Power is energy or work divided by time. That´s the simple version, but effectively describes what this device does. To then determine the losses in the drive train, it also requires you to do an acceleration to a certian speed, then let the vehicle roll to a standstill, which is measured by the device, from which it can work out the drive train losses. All stored intenally, download into a PC and using Excel or whatever evaluate your runs. Tempest

Make sure you arrive before 2 pm or so, when the Team GB is due to leave the site again for a 5 hour trip back to Dunkirk to catch the ferry :D Waiting for 2cc to turn up, collect my Storm from DG, pack the Storm, do final shopping, and set off toeards further Rocco mates / stopover point in Kent, from where we'll set off tomorrow at crazy am :lol: :clap: Tempest

Hey, well done :clap: So, we'll keep an eye out on tracks and corresponding action soon, then :D Tempest