Motorjournals by PSN Jr.

Chapter 8: As we ended the last chapter, one particular memory came flashing in my head. It was of a particular event that made 'Mumbai' standstill for nearly 4 days. That was the very fateful day of 26th July 2005. Massive floods that had engulfed Mumbai & it's suburban areas in water, some almost neck deep. I was in school when the flooding began & since we were the senior students, we were tasked with taking the kids to safety through almost 2.5 feet to 3 feet of water that flooded our school ground. My Dad was back home from his Project, just a day before, Jetlagged. Even in that situation, he kept is calm & went to pick up my Mom from her office premise near Tekdi Bungalow area in Thane. The office was in an elevated level, hence did not face any trouble of flooding, but that was not the case with the areas around it. Some areas had almost 550-600mm of waterlogged. Such depths are enough to test some of the "so-called" SUV's of the current gen...

Chapter 7: Continued......   Automatic   Most modern North American and some European and Japanese cars have an  automatic transmission  that selects an appropriate gear ratio without any operator intervention. They primarily use  hydraulics  to select gears, depending on  pressure  exerted by fluid within the transmission assembly. Rather than using a  clutch  to engage the transmission, a fluid flywheel, or  torque converter  is placed in between the engine and transmission. It is possible for the driver to control the number of gears in use or select reverse, though precise control of which gear is in use may or may not be possible.   Automatic transmissions are easy to use. However, in the past, some automatic transmissions of this type have had a number of problems; they were complex and expensive sometimes had reliability problems which sometimes caused more expenses in repair, have often been less fuel-e...

Chapter 6: Continued......   Automated manual / Semi-automatic, also called Automated-clutch manual, this is a hybrid form of transmission with an integrated electronic (electromechanical, electro-hydraulic, or electro-pneumatic) control system handling manipulation of the clutch automatically, but the driver can and still may be required to take manual control of gear selection. Most modern automated manuals with automated clutches can operate as conventional automatics transmissions in a fully automatic driving mode, removing the need for the driver to take any manual control of the gear selection. This is sometimes erroneously called a clutchless manual or a semi-automatic transmission.    Modern automated manuals can simply and best be described as a standard manual transmission, with an automated clutch, and automated clutch and gear shift control. Many of these transmissions allow the driver to fully delegate gear shifting choice to ...