The future for classic Volvos......

[simon roberts]

Wish I had read that before my large G+ T!😎

[Groundes-Peace]

Whilst no expert myself, it seems to me that,Colonel Froth's contribution adds more perspective that I have seen previously.
Now what does one do as an individual? Try to set an example of what should be the way forward, as an individual, or follow ones passion for classic cars that have possibly reduced the need for yet another new car to be manufactured with whatever production carbon footprint construction causes.
So which way to bend and then for how many years....?

[pstevens3307]

Colonel, there's no point in arguing with climate deniers. It's a religion for them. I follow the climate science journals (as well as the more general science journals like Nature and Science) pretty closely. There are no credible "experts" who suggest that anthropogenic climate change isn't real, and isn't happening much faster than they expected even five years ago.

As for how to think about the impact our cars are having on the world we're leaving to our grandchildren, I've come to a few conclusions that work for me:

1) Driving an old car sends a message to the world that new and complex things aren't necessarily better than old, rugged, and simple ones.

2) Fixing my car myself and teaching my sons how to do it helps preserve a set of skills that are increasingly rare. I don't necessarily mean the specifics of how part A fits into socket B, but the skills of patient troubleshooting, careful planning, expecting the unexpected (why did that &$@#* bolt have to shear off?!?), and general applied physics and geometry. Tasks that I don't have time or skill to do (like rewinding the alternator) get farmed out to old-school guys who specialize in that sort of thing, thereby helping to preserve their skill sets as well.

3) Given how few old cars are left in the world, our net emissions impact is vanishingly small. That said, we have a responsibility to try to ensure that we keep it as small as we can, like everyone else, and to explore ways to reduce it further as much as practicable without adding a lot of additional complexity. Some ways to do this might include:

4) Keep your car in the best tune you can. I've recently acquired an AFR meter and will be experimenting with it to see if it can help achieve an optimal tune on the SUs. (Yes, the meter adds complexity, but once I'm done with the tuning I'll pass it on to another old car guy.)

5) Do the usual stuff like keeping the tires properly inflated, make sure your gas tank cap seals properly, track down and fix fluid leaks promptly, all that sort of thing.

6) I don't think converting to electric is the right solution, for a whole lot of reasons that I won't go into here for lack of time. Thinking about the future, I'm pretty convinced that ethyl alcohol conversion could be the way to go with these old redblocks. Alcohol produces far, far less toxic pollution and less CO2 than fossil fuels, and can be made at home (with proper permits, of course) from almost any organic substance, including waste fruits and veggies from the market.

The biggest problems with alcohol are a) cold-weather starting, b) reduced horsepower, and c) reduced range. The range issue is pretty hard to fix - since alcohol already contains a lot of oxygen it's simply not as energy-dense as gasoline, which doesn't. So you need to burn more to get the same energy output. Maybe install a bigger fuel tank, or just adjust your lifestyle so you don't have to travel as far. Goes well with reducing complexity, too.

Cold-weather starting can be addressed by adding 5% gasoline/petrol to the mix (required in the USA anyway in order to make fuel alcohol).

Engines set up for gasoline will produce less power when burning alcohol, for the same reason as they have less range: oxygen in the fuel. That can be more than compensated for by increasing compression (which our stout Volvo engines can definitely handle) and adjusting timing.