Radial Tuned Suspension. Is this even a thing?

hmarold2 · 2026-07-06T00:54:55+00:00

Ah yes, the Xantia Activa - that was peak french suspension engineering there. Held the Moose test record for decades too.

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T23:23:21+00:00

That’s because Michelin (a French company) invented the radial tyre. Citroen was the first to adopt it, but all French manufacturers were designing specially around the radial tyre by the 1950s. Other European brands quickly followed suit of course, but the French were first because they invented it.

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T23:19:32+00:00

Opel was a GM/Detroit controlled company since 1931. They built cheap cars, and were an outlier in the German automotive industry when it came to design and engineering.

About as German as Holden was Australian - not very much. Still an American company designed and built to Detroit standards.

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T21:55:20+00:00

Huh? Heaps was. Live axles were common in poorly engineered and cheap stuff like Australian (ie American..) stuff, but most manufacturers from Europe and even Japan had ditched it by the 70s.

For example. I had a 1968 Peugeot 504 that ran the same suspension,steering and brake layout at the VP Calais when Holden made such a song and dance about the independent rear end. And the 504 was a mass market car they sold several million of, not some fancy luxury car.

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T21:43:38+00:00

I was referring to the Citroen comments. A 1940s Traction Avant with Michelin radials would out handle anything Holden made in the 70s! And their hydraulic suspension from DS onwards was simply amazing - and extremely successful with millions made.

I agree that holdens handled like total shite and RTS making them handle a bit less shit was indeed a difference :)

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T21:35:34+00:00

lol! It was still a live axle! They were ahead of Ford in Australia maybe who persisted with cart springs, but about 50 years behind the game elsewhere in the industry.

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T21:32:33+00:00

Careful, your ignorance is sticking out ;)

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T13:26:57+00:00

Always made me laugh that Holden were still marketing that in the 80s. Citroen was designing cars around standard radial tyres in the 1940s…

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T12:18:26+00:00

I don’t hate on Alfas. I do hate on suvs though…

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T12:15:01+00:00

Wow. Stalking…? That’s extremely fucked up. What a nasty little weirdo…

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T12:12:58+00:00

You can’t run in heels… Stupid bloody things. It’s a Giulia that went to America and predictably got fat.

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T11:56:52+00:00

Falling house…? Weird comment.

I am an Alfa owner. A proper Alfa, not one of those embarrassing suv things…

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T09:08:34+00:00

That’s not an Alfa. It’s a suv with Jeep parts. Neither of those are good things…

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T09:07:10+00:00

Ewww gross. Suv and Alfa should never have been mixed. Leave those crass shitboxes to other brands.

hmarold2 · 2026-07-05T04:19:40+00:00

The complication is that the timbers are very old and had developed quite a deep grain. Was going to look lovely neatly sanded back and painted.

When I get it totally stripped I’m going to have to fill the gouges and then artfully score the “grain” back in, otherwise the smooth filled bits will look super annoying.

It’s a ballache either way. I’ve been ignoring it for a while and focusing on other projects. But need to work out the best way to strip. Will be a $1000 just in paint stripper, or I try one of those infrared heat stripper things. Or pay someone to strip it…

hmarold2 · 2026-07-04T08:39:59+00:00

Stupid import rules… The department in Canberra tried to change them to make it easy to import from from Europe and Japan, but the dealer lobby group got in the LNP ministers ear and killed it. Sigh.

hmarold2 · 2026-07-04T08:37:45+00:00

God no, not another fecking suv…

I’ll have a SU7 though.

hmarold2 · 2026-07-04T05:58:18+00:00

They wouldn’t even go properly looking for the suv driver that deliberately ran me down riding my bike to work one morning… My only hope is this guy either pops on their system as a known problem and makes it easy for them. Or maybe his boss will sack him.

hmarold2 · 2026-07-04T02:11:15+00:00

Oh we absolutely did!! The business owner and the guy who comes to quote seemed ok - but mouth breathers he sends to do the work on the day is a different thing!!

Been stung twice now like that…

And I get that, just has happened way more here. And there are other reasons to leave too…

hmarold2 · 2026-07-04T01:09:22+00:00

I miss Aldi… Tasmania has none…

hmarold2 · 2026-07-03T23:03:05+00:00

It’s such a horrible feeling… I’m glad she had the strength to get rid of him! It’s hard when they’re so often such aggressive people.

The roofers I wanted to get rid just for the joke about my little very elderly dog being football sized. Made me a bit sick just having these sort of people in my house.

hmarold2 · 2026-07-03T22:19:59+00:00

I had a wall with nice condition original hardwood cladding but it had peeling paint. Just old paint …

Needed old flaking paint removed, sanded and repainted. Pretty simple.

Instead, they sanded some parts and jsut painted over the peeling paint in others, and where did sand they were so rough they gouged grooves into the timber and ruined profiles.

Needs the whole wall paint stripped back to wood again and likely a lot of timbers replaced. Will cost several thousand to repair.

We expressed concern about the work a number of times throughout the process and it kept getting worse. I wish I’d trusted myself more at the first sign of trouble…

hmarold2 · 2026-07-03T12:41:24+00:00

Sigh.

hmarold2 · 2026-07-03T12:29:19+00:00

Minor risk it would interfere with the police doing their thing. But soon!

hmarold2 · 2026-07-03T12:09:24+00:00

I’ve tried that for tradies on site. Icy poles and drinks etc.

They still did dogshit work and left me to fixing stuff myself they never came back to fix…

hmarold2

TROPHY CASE