skippydiesel

Mike G - you are to be treasured above all - never mind your myopia, your perception is 20/20. Question: how are you located in so many disparate places ??

I never had the pleasure of driving a Gemini petrol/diesel but on an extended holiday in the UK I purchased a Vauxhall Chevette. Great little car! Cornered like it was on rails. Vigorous use of the gearbox could elicit quite sprightly performance. I also believe the model did well in rally comps. Again my limited understanding suggest the car was well engineered with its main fault being a tendency to corrosion ( a common problem with many EU manufacturers of the time) a build quality issue.

Me thinks you are giving the Gemani diesel a bit of unfair criticism- it was produced in the era of naturally aspirated diesels.Most of which were indirect injection. True there were a few turbo charged diesel car engines (Mercedes W123 300D was available in the US and EU with a turbo but not in UK/Au). The W123, 300D naturally aspirated 5 cylinder engine accelerated like paint drying (especially the more common 4 speed auto) BUT it kept on accelerating right up to Autobahn speeds. I had a 5 speed manual (private import) which was a little better and could easily achieve 7 L/ 100 km at AU motorway max speeds.(115 kph) - terrific car/unstoppable

Please forgive my ignorance but wasn't the Gemini a rebadged (possibly modified for Au conditions) Opel/Vauxhall? I guess I was aiming my comment at the Commodore range - big cars with thirsty petrol engines. I would have been in the market for a nice Commodore Ute with V6 (or similar) turbo diesel, 6 speed manual.

Others may have made the following observations/rant - if so I apologise in advance. What is it with Australian drivers that they: Must drive as far to the right as possible. This includes multi lane roads of all descriptions (right lane hoger's), but can also be observed on single lane roads -hugging the crown and where there are passing lanes - immediately move into right lane without any apparent condition that would warrant it. Do not understand how traffic circles work. It's been somewhere in the vicinity of 40 years since they were first introduced and it is still common to have people stopping when not required to do so, changing lanes when not supposed to, not indicating or using the wrong indicator sequence. Unable/unwilling to reverse park and then blaming the car for reversing out over the kid/dog/ play things/ causing an accident at the shopping centre/etc. Doing a "swan neck" turn when turning left/right - the worst I have seen ,involved entering the "hard" shoulder to conduct a right turn, also common to cross solid white lines to turn left. When manoeuvring; not indicate at all, indicate after or during manoeuvre, feel that 2-3 flashes is sufficient. Are so "panicked" by a sign indicating that the left lane will end within 500 m, that a sudden sharp (speed not a factor) turn into the right lane is required usually without/limited warning indicator. On approaching a speed reduction sign, apply hard braking as if suddenly caught unawares of the change in conditions. Drive, often erratically, well below the posted speed limit, without any consideration to the queue forming behind them (may be towing a caravan/ driving a motor home - not exclusive to this group). Drive at speed & close to; playing children / livestock/ cyclists. Ignore prolonged signal for an intention to change lanes or worse, actually manoeuvre to prevent the change. To compound this we; Have (often local council) road rules that require/facilitate the wrong behaviour e.g. the many parking zones that require front parking/the traffic circles that direct "turning" traffic into the wrong lanes. 50 kph zones on "through" roads, often for a ridiculous distance before/after buildings. Stop signs, where good visibility & low traffic speeds exist. Give way signs, where poor visibility and high traffic speeds exist. Recommended max cornering speeds that are so inconsistent as to be laughable/dangerous. Road work signs/zones where no work is being conducted. Have passenger rail "drop off zones" so far from the station that anyone with luggage/small children are placed at considerable disadvantage. AND, completely illogically, we accept the authorities obsession with speed, as the primary factor in traffic incidents. RANT over (for the moment)

True in part Nev but dont forget the world tended toward more fuel efficient cars (With the exception of certain countries with low cost fuel and/or a big engine fetish) Most overseas manufacturers offered turbo diesel variants, particularly in their larger vehicles. Holden never had a diesel, as far as I know. (the diesel option may not be so 2020 but certainly was in the 1990 -erly 2000's) For whatever reason - Holden just didn't produce a car for other markets - end of story.

For me the question is - how do you know they are religious ? If the information has been pushed/advertised/displayed in some way, I get very uneasy. If it is something you find out quite naturally, over time, is obviously a personal matter - no problem. I am fascinated by religion & the "faithfull" - What terrible insecurity drives them toward a doctrine that removes responsibility from the individual and gives it to some nebulous deity? It seems to me that we all (psychopaths aside) have some sort of visceral need to explain why we a here? and what happens when it all goes dark ? That some accept a faith (defined as without factual foundation/proof) and abdicate responsibility for thought & action to a deity (and intermediaries/priests) is quite astonishing. I have a distrust of priests of all types - what does it say about a person, that they not only claim to believe in an invisible all seeing god but that god somehow speaks through them - nutters every one! Politics & religion have always been intertwined. Career politicians are indistinguishable from priests, in that they also appear to believe that they have somehow been chosen/ordained to lead the common heard - more nutters! Weirdly we vote them in at every election, no matter their lies and cheating - what does that say about us? Politicians worship power, priests pretty much do the same, they just call it god. In my world religions & their franchises (schools/hospitals/clubs/ charities/etc) would have no greater standing than Bunnings. Pay the same taxes, be subject to the same laws and penalties. AND STOP putting tax payers money into religiose franchises - it's just a recipe for future social anarchy. What of the good works/charities that many religions are involved with? No problem - have a threshold - at the end of the financial year assess their net worth, tax at normal business rates, all capital gains & profits above the threshold - after all they are not there to accumulate wealth (as many do).

Times were different "back then" - children were creatures to do with as adults saw fit. The Catholics may have been particularly bad in the treatment of children, however it is clear that ALL institutions who cater for the voiceless, religious & state, have been willfully negligent in this area and continue to do so with the handicapped and elderly. I went to boarding school in N Ireland (Ulster) - As with all institutions in that blighted community, heavy on religious indoctrination/discrimination. From the age of 8, I was flogged with a cain (up to 10 strokes/beating, blood would occasionally stick my underpants to my bum) on a weekly basis. It only stopped , when I became physically large enough to defend myself, at about 15/16 . Who did the caning? Teachers and later in my secondary school, student Prefects. In my early teens I had my front teeth smashed by a teacher. The schools cooks had a talent for turning perfectly good food into excrement - None of this so much as raised a parental eyebrow - "Teacher must know best, I was probably lying/exaggerating and anyhow I must have done something to need chastising in this way". This was accepted/normal, back then. Authority was not questioned. Brutal hardly covers it. It amazes me that I and my peers not only survived but most went on to have professional careers and lead apparently normal family lives (that is the few I know of). A small number of our teachers had (on reflection) serious mental problems . I only recall one who had quite the peedaphil habit for giving out sweets - the deal was he had to place them in our trouser pockets. I & my mates, never thought that much about it, until very much later in life - such is innocents taken advantage of. My experience turned me into a confirmed atheist. I respect an individual's personal beliefs but have a horror of institutionalised religion of any/all type. Its influence on Australian Governments is scarry. The rise & rise of, Government sponsored, religiously affiliated schools/clubs/hospitals/etc, could easily lead us down the Ulster path - you doubt this? Australia was divided along sectarian lines, as late as the 1960's, it could easily come back, all it would take would be something like a serious world economic recession to see religiose tribalism raise its ugly head. Society still has this crazy notion that clergy/priests and their organisations, are above/outside the law. If the law even acts at all, they are treated much more leniently. They get massive tax breaks no matter how wealthy they are. It does not seem to matter how badly they behave, they still comand some sort of "moral authority" - what is the matter with us?? We even have political leaders who subscribe to variose forms of mumbo jumbo - who voted for them?? What of the Jewish peedaphil headmistress, Malka Leifer, late of Melbourne? Spirited out of the country by the Synagog elders (have they faced prosecution??) and now defended by the Israeli legal system - crazy but illustrates how, even now, the authorities close ranks. Pell is GUILTY - no doubt in my mind, as are all the other institutional leaders (dealing with children) of that era. They looked the other way/covered up/hid the truth, even when not perpetrators themselves. It astonishes me that religious institutions still have their congregations but thats blind faith for you. Considering the so called "sanctity of the confessional" - this has no justification other than the misuse of power by the clergy - remember knowledge is power . You have the "goods' on someone you can manipulate them. There is no moral justification for any person keeping criminal behavior secret - send all who practise this to jail for a good stretch & then expel them back to the Vatican. Love a good rant!

Hi all, After 3 years of drought we have received just about three years of rain (460mm & rising) over 5 days. I live in an area with quite a few steep climbs/descents (roads) and some quite interesting bends. As I say it's been 3 years since any decent rain, so I guess if I am feeling at all charitable (not) I might try & excuse the behavior of fellow motorists somehow being presented with a novel (ha!) situation, who seem to believe that when water is "sheeting" down a slope like a river, there is no need slow down (from the posted 100 kph) or take any sort of precautionary action (may be stay in the left lane) - at last count we have had about four vehicle accidents, in the our immediate area, over 4 days and we are lucky that there have not been very many more - all due to loss of control on grades with a lot of water running down them. I wouldn't mind so much if they were just endangering themselves but what of the "collateral damage"?? The rain has just started to fall again.