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It’s that time of year when we beg your forgiveness for taking a suitably seasonal but lighthearted look at the many tricks and treats to be found, all year round, somewhere in the motor industry.
So here are some FOXY things to consider this Halloween…
Spooky – how motorists in the know can often pay SO MUCH LESS for new cars than others who trust their car salesman to be fair by them.
Eerie – how we sometimes get sold things we don’t actually need or want, especially when we don’t know the right questions to ask or what homework to do first.
Ghostly – the shortage of women throughout the motor industry (from the Boardroom to the showroom floor) and, in fact, in management roles in business generally in the UK.
Witches – high flyers all of course, we couldn’t possibly criticise our own gender but suspect others might have their own description to suggest here…
Ghouls – those politicians, business owners and companies who don’t appreciate that women are equal BUT DIFFERENT – and need to be treated accordingly.
Things that go bump in the night – the sound of our jaws on the floor when we see our ‘female friendly’ message is gradually getting through in the motor trade!
Whatever you get up to on the night, we hope you enjoy your Halloween.
And please remember, being a FOXY Lady Drivers Club member means you never have to have motoring nightmares again!
If you fancy a motoring holiday that takes in the best sights, you’d be hard pressed to do better than consider this selection.
And whilst the image of the perfect road trip might suggest the USA as a destination, due to its sheer size and the choice of vast highways, you don’t have to travel that far to see equally spectacular scenery that might even be on your British doorstep!
When you know where to look.
Luckily for us Your Parking Space has done most of the heavy lifting here (by driving their favourite European Road Trip routes (what a tough job guys) so we’re happy to mention them and feature the detail they supplied to help FOXY Lady blog readers plan their perfect road trip next summer.
Here are our favourite five for your consideration.
Stelvio Pass, Italy
Copyright Touring-Italy.netThe Stelvio Pass is one of the highest and most dramatic mountain passes in Europe.
This mountain pass shot to fame in 2008 when it was voted one of the best driving roads by Top Gear and provides stunning views of the Italian and Swiss Alps.
Approaching the Stelvio Pass from the North West side you get to drive up the Stelvio Pass’s renowned wall of 48 switchback turns. Not to be attempted by cumbersome cars and you’ll need power steering of course. Each of the turns is numbered with stones so you can count your way to the top (in case you’ve nothing better to concentrate on that is). Heading back down the pass towards Bormio provides several vantage points for photographs to mark this motoring achievement.
NB: The Stelvio Pass can become very busy during peak times, so it is advised that you drive it early in the morning and outside of the peak months of July and August.
Distance: 30.3 miles
Estimated time: 1h 17min
Points of Interest: Forte Venini di Oga, WWI Fort; Albergo Tibet Hotel, Passo dello Stelvio; Stelvio National Park, Trafoi
Old Military Road A93 & A939, Scotland
A93 at Glenshee. Copyright SabreRoads.org.ukWe’re told this is oft regarded as the best driving road in the UK – the Old Military Road A93 and A939 right through the heart of the Cairngorms National Park in Scottish Highlands.
You can enjoy endless stunning views on a road filled with twisting hair pins, rollercoaster-like ups and downs and steep gradients.
The route starts at Bridge of Cally, following the A93 into the Cairngorms National Park, driving through Braemar and past the Queen’s private residence Balmoral Castle. From there head onto the A939 for some more stunning highland views all the way to Grantown-on-Spey.
There is a wide variety of different wildlife in the Highlands so keep your eyes peeled for deer, haggis, snow rabbits and grouse.
Distance: 73.3 miles
Estimated time: 1h 53min
Points of Interest: Cairngorms National Park; Balmoral Castle; Lecht Ski School
Susten Pass, Switzerland
I’ve been driven over this myself and I can describe it as one of the most spectacular roads for drivers in the world. The Susten Pass is commonly referred to as one of the ‘Big 3’ passes which also includes Grimsel and Furka. Although not as well-known as the other two, you’ll enjoy sweeping valley roads, stunning forward views and its challenging switchbacks which take you to the summit at 2,224 meters.
The route starts in Wassen and finishes in Innertkirchen, and provides multiple places to stop and take in the spectacular mountain views. The road down to Innertkirchen takes you through forests and across fabulous stone bridges.
Due to its altitude, the Susten Pass is open seasonally usually at the start of June and closes at the end of October. The pass can get extremely busy during this time and is a favourite with bikers, so we recommend you choose to drive it mid-week to avoid the heaviest traffic flow.
Distance: 28.5 miles
Estimated time: 1 hour
Points of Interest: Gelmerbahn Funicular Railway; Sherlock Holmes Museum, Meiringen; Titlis Mountain
Black Mountain Pass, Wales
Heading back home again – the Black Mountain Pass (A4069) connects Llandovery with Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen and is regarded as one of the best roads in Wales, if not the UK. This A road twists and turns over the Black Mountain in the Brecon Beacons National Park and features sharp corners, hairpins and switchbacks.
The route begins at Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen and joins the A4069 at Brynamman. The road then winds across and over the Black Mountain range and comes out near Llangadog before continuing onto Llandovery.
The Black Mountain Pass is extremely popular with drivers after it was featured on Top Gear, but you can still expect little traffic on the road apart from on the sunniest weekends. One word of warning though, watch out for livestock (especially sheep) that have strayed onto the road particularly after blind corners.
Distance: 19.9 miles
Estimated time: 40 mins
Points of Interest: Carreg Cennen Castle; Brecon Beacons National Park; National Showcaves Centre
Route 500, the Black Forest Germany
The Black Forest region of Germany is famous for its winding roads and is a popular choice for road trips amongst the biker community.
One of the best and most accessible is the Schwarzwald Hochstrasse (route 500). This elevated road starts just outside Freudenstadt and travels north to Baden-Baden, it combines smooth and sweeping fast sections with dense forest trails and tight switchback turns.
Near its highest point, around the Hornisgrinde Mountain there are some great elevated views with plenty of place to park up, take in the scenery and take pictures.
The only downside is that Route 500 is a major road in the region so can become busy at certain times, we suggest that you plan your journey in the early morning to take advantage of the reduced traffic.
Distance: 31.1 miles
Estimated time: 53 mins
Points of Interest: Hornisgrinde Mountain; Geroldsau Waterfalls; Lichtenthal Abbey _________________________
Well those are our clear favourites but what about yours? By all means add ones you know in an email to me via steph@foxyladydrivers.com or use our Twitter @FOXYTweets or the FOXYLadyDriversClub Facebook Page.
Get that book of European road maps out over the Christmas break perhaps. Plenty to keep you busy planning next year’s touring holiday and road trip highlights. Happy motoring!
If you’re planning to go to AAPEX/SEMA this year be sure to stop at the Know Your Parts booth at AAPEX. The Know Your Parts exhibit will be at AAPEX Sands 340001. All shop owners and technicians who visit the exhibit and learn about all the new things planed for the Know Your Parts site in 2018. Plus they’ll receive a free Know Your Parts cap.
Know Your Parts is a go-to resource for repair professionals seeking reliable diagnostic and auto repair articles and videos. There is much more coming in 2018 including more video content and more content direct from the manufacturers. Come back often to see what’s new and come by to meet us at AAPEX.
Vehicle diagnosis and repair is a difficult job. It requires dedication and technical skill. In fact the average ASE certified technician has training that equals two years in engineering school. Even the best technicians can run into a problem or have questions about a repair. That’s why we developed the kypTechLine web app. You can access it here: KYP Techline. It’s free to download and free to use.
The web app gives you access to the technical help lines of all the major parts manufacturers all in one place, right from your smartphone, with touch to call capabilities. The manufacturer tech lines connect you to experts who can help you with diagnostic and installations. It’s there to make your job easier and save you time.. Go to the site and bookmark it on your phone today.
Understandably, James Bond has always had his pick of cream of the crop cars.
But what about Bond girls and the cars they drove?
To remind us, the London Film Museum has installed a new display of original film cars driven by female characters starring alongside 007 in the James Bond franchise.
Also included are previously unseen costumes, props and storyboards.
The Bond in Motion exhibition has over 100 individual items on display including the Aston Martin DB5 from GoldenEye, the ‘Wet Nellie’ Lotus Esprit S1 from The Spy Who Loved Me, the Rolls-Royce Phantom III from Goldfinger, and the ‘Little Nellie’ Wallis WA-116 Agile Autogyro from You Only Live Twice.
New movie cars added to the permanent exhibition include: + Land Rover Defender Double Cab – as driven by Eve (Naomie Harris) in Skyfall + Ford Ka – as driven by Camille (Olga Kurylenko) in Quantum of Solace + Ford Thunderbird – as driven by Jinx (Halle Berry) in Die Another Day
Additional costumes and props on display for the first time at the London Film Museum include: + Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) costume including Belstaff jacket, H&M silk vest, J Brand leather trousers and a Skyfall film poster showing Naomie wearing the outfit + Skyfall clapperboard signed by Sam Mendes, Daniel Craig, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe and Javier Bardem Skyfall storyboard showing Eve Moneypenny chasing the train sequence by Jim Cornish + Camille (Olga Kurylenko) costume from Quantum of Solace created by Jasper Conran Jinx (Halle Berry) costume from Die Another Day – Versace leather jacket and skirt, Gina leather stiletto boots + Japanese film poster showing Jinx from Die Another Day + Crossbow from For Your Eyes Only used by Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet)
Tilly Masterson (Tania Mallet) was the very first Bond actress to drive a car in the film Goldfinger, and the Mustang she drove was a pre-production car acquired from Ford especially for the film. An original production memo from January 1964 requesting driving lessons for Tania Mallet forms part of the new display.
More Information About Bond Girls In Motion
To celebrate the new exhibits, Bond in Motion is offering 2-for-1 tickets until the end of 2017 using the code GP001.
The London Film Museum is located at 45 Wellington Street, Covent Garden and is open seven days a week. Tickets are available at the box office daily or in advance from www.londonfilmmuseum.com.
I’m fed up with the negativity and pessimism we’re forever reading, whether it’s in the media or from self-appointed thought leaders.
With so much uncertainty about Brexit I’d rather see more of us talking up the UK economy and for each of us in business to do what we can to identify good news and steady the ship.
Instead of majoring on a scenario of doom and gloom despite knowing the exit die is cast.
Personally I relish a good challenge and I think we have the talent to respond well to this in future. I’m confident that if we all pull together (which we aren’t doing at present) and see pluses rather than minuses, we can make things better, sooner.
I want us to imagine and create a better future that puts the UK first. It can be done assuming a positive mindset. Looking on the bright side for starters, I was relieved to know we won’t be part of the EU when it ramps up its plans for more and more financial and taxation integration in future…
Brexit Fears
As I see it, those that are so negative about Brexit are acting like ostriches. They have their heads in the sand, are fans of the status quo (despite this not being nearly good enough) and blind to bright lights on the horizon.
Worst of all, many clearly feel superior to the majority of UK voters that opted for Brexit and change.
How can they (the ostriches) be wrong, they ask themselves, expecting to get their way like spoilt children crying in a sweetshop?
They seem frightened to take a step into the unknown, have depressingly little confidence in our country’s ability to succeed on our own, and don’t appear to appreciate that all our family futures depend on us all doing something positive towards the future, not wasting the UK’s collective time, resource and talent through moaning and a daily diet of scepticism.
We are where we are…
If those who don’t like where we are, instead of moaning about it, were to commit to making sure that the UK laws we inherit from now on are correctly interpreted and more robust, wouldn’t that be a more positive agenda to pursue? To lobby local MPs to make things better than they are, regardless of who’s at Number 10 Downing Street. Left, green, centre ground or right wing regardless, we all need to do the best we can for our country remembering we ARE leaving the EU in March 2019 and we’re still carrying a substantial national debt that we MUST pay back, not carry forward to our children.
There are no Brexit ‘experts’ just those masquerading as such. We are EU Exit Pioneers, going where no man (or woman) has gone before – we need to pull together, not apart and forge a new script that works. We’re also making it easier for others to follow us later of course – which is another reason the EU fear, castigate and plan to penalise us in equal measure. How dare we?…
The Good News About Brexit
There is good news for the EU, of course, in that we’ll remain close. Europe is our neighbour and we’ll happily choose to spend our holidays there as before. We’ll also contribute towards whatever agenda is in our shared best interests, maximising our comparative talents. And pay our fair share of any exit bill (whatever that might be) and for future alliances.
We’d like to carry on doing business of course but we don’t want to pay for EU bureaucracy any more. And we want to be free to trade with the rest of the world. Therein lies the challenge and opportunity!
Trading within the EU might be easy as is and future tariffs are undoubtedly a shared concern but they work both ways and there are clear deals yet to be done.
In addition there are huge new markets for us to trade with, just over the EU horizon. So let’s get to know these markets better NOW so we are prepared for when the EU’s comfort blanket is removed…
Falling off any cliff isn’t an attractive option but it has to remain on David Davis’ negotiating table until we know whether we can seriously afford to trade within the EU or we need to shop elsewhere. For now, we have EU handcuffs stopping us from doing trade deals elsewhere. But they can’t stop us from doing this for much longer.
If we can’t afford EU food or EU cars (as if France and Germany will let that happen?) we’ll need the time to source and buy these products elsewhere, address job implications and ramp up our own production of course. So let’s be sure we have Plan Bs for all industries, just in case.
This is potentially an exciting time for young entrepreneurs to add new talents to UK plc. They aren’t used to having this freedom of course but the ones we need’ll find it liberating. Yes there will be those we must support who may be adversely affected by Brexit and we’ll want to welcome those from overseas, bringing the skills and talents to help us build a new future together.
Most importantly, threats can create considerable opportunities as anyone who has done a thorough strategic TOWS analysis of their business or industry sector will appreciate.
Good News About Brexit Invited
So if anyone in the motor industry has an uplifting or optimistic Plan B/business story in this vein or wants to share good financial news with me, to benefit the UK economy through reality and perceptions, I’d be happy to help them spread the word to UK women drivers ie FOXY’s audience.
I want to put the spotlight on positivity pre and post Brexit – so no negativity, bad or fake news please.
To misquote Buzz Lightyear here’s to ‘Reality and beyond…’ in like-minded and determined company I hope.
To help us create a female friendly support message for this year’s Tyre Safety Month marketing campaign, ‘Bad Air Day’ we are delighted to be partnering with PurePotions to promote their range of natural hair products as part of our #TyreSafetyMonth activities.
As everyone knows, when your hair feels and looks neglected, we feel the same and it affects our personal confidence levels.
Now imagine how your car feels when its tyres have been neglected and they don’t have enough air in them to do their job properly! They don’t perform as well and it’s definitely a ‘Bad Air Day’ in terms of your motoring safety.
Our Competition With PurePotions
Thanks to Brighton business PurePotions, we are running a competition to draw attention to this topic. One lucky winner will receive a hamper of their natural products worth up to £50 including their Natural Shampoo, Natural Conditioner, Scalp Oil with borage and rosemary, Intensive Facial Oil and Seabuckthorn hand cream.
All you have to do is enter the Facebook competition at the FOXY Lady Drivers Club Page, which we posted on 6 October, LIKING and commenting as requested.
We’re anxious to alert women drivers to the fact that safe car tyres need taking care of, especially by checking the AIR pressure in them regularly.
This is because, when your car tyres aren’t properly inflated, they can’t grip or hold the road well enough so you feel this through your car’s bad road handling. When your tyres are over or under-inflated, your car is a harder steer, you’ll wear out expensive tyres and you’ll use more fuel BUT what matters most is the fact that your tyres will not perform well enough when you need them to brake in an emergency. And the wrong air pressure MIGHT cause an accident that could have been avoided if you’d taken better care of your tyres.
About Hair And Air Care…
Award-winning PurePotions was founded by Brighton mum Natalie Balmond in her search for an effective, safe, natural and non-steroidal moisturiser to treat her daughter’s chronic dry skin condition. All Pure Potions products are fragrance-free, paraben-free, not tested on animals and made in their UK workshop so you can be sure that you know exactly what is going on your sensitive skin.
Here’s where to choose a FOXY Lady Approved tyre centre that has signed a promise to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell you anything you don’t need.’ They will check your tyres for free, advise you about the right tyres if you need new ones AND give you a free gift membership of FOXY Lady Drivers Club in exchange for your feedback about their customer service.
If not for you, perhaps a wife, partner or daughter might be helped here? Here’s where to either join The Club yourself or buy her the gift of improved motoring knowledge.
Bending brake lines to fit perfectly in a chassis just takes time and the right tools. A good flaring tool makes working with stainless steel much easier. The one shown below works well and with 45 degree and 37 degree tooling both brake lines and AN coolant vents can be completed. All brake lines should be double flared to ensure there is no cracking at the flare transition. Double flares can also mandated in circumstances where road compliance is required. There are many howto guides available describing how to perform these flares correctly.
A good hand tube bender with a tight center-line radius is also worth having. Universal benders with multiple tube sizes on the one tool tend to make it harder to bend the tubing in tight installations. I prefer benders like the one below.
The main coolant lines that run to the front of the car and back are located in the center tunnel. They are fully insulated to minimise heat transfer. The rear brakes line, hydraulic clutch line and radiator upper vent run with the coolant lines. To control them all in the tight tunnel plastic tubing supports are manufactured to fit in the chassis as shown below.
The brake lines in the engine bay run through the center tunnel to each rear brake and the transaxle clutch. The lines had small buffers on them to stop them rattling in the tunnel.
Once installed into the rear of the car the plumbing is well supported and fits closely to the chassis.
The rear brake lines run within the chassis behind the engine mounts and this requires careful planning to negotiate other car structures.
At the front of the vehicle space is also limited. With the requirement for brake residual pressure valves and a brake light pressure switch the installation was a challenge to keep neat and functional.
Flexible lines run from the brake master cylinders to allow pedal position adjustments in the footwell. A plastic tube retainer was used to support the tubes in the tunnel here as well.
Once the radiator plumbing was installed the front under bonnet area becomes quite crowded.
A cover will be made to deflect the hot air off the radiator and away from this area.
If you fancy a motoring holiday that takes in the best sights, you’d be hard pressed to do better than consider this selection. 
The Black Forest region of Germany is famous for its winding roads and is a popular choice for road trips amongst the biker community. 
Understandably, James Bond has always had his pick of cream of the crop cars. 
I’m fed up with the negativity and pessimism we’re forever reading, whether it’s in the media or from self-appointed thought leaders. 
To help us create a female friendly support message for this year’s Tyre Safety Month marketing campaign, ‘Bad Air Day’ we are delighted to be partnering with 
We’re anxious to alert women drivers to the fact that safe car tyres need taking care of, especially by checking the AIR pressure in them regularly.
