At 3:44 PM -0400 5/10/00, Bulley wrote:
>If your highway has mile markers, time your travel between the mile
>markers. Interpret your result as the number of seconds, it should be in
>the 40-60 second range, dependent on speed. For giggles, lets say it took
>you 39 seconds from one mile marker to the next.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:   robot . [SMTP:robot_works@HOTMAIL.COM]
>Sent:   Wednesday, May 10, 2000 3:03 PM
>
>So without a stopwatch, how would you confirm the speedo accuracy?

Except that mile markers are often placed a surprising distance from
where they "should" be.  That'll throw your calculations off, and you
can't know in what direction.

Find an "odometer test section" (these are the sections on the
interstates with the small black signs marking miles off 0, 1, 2,
3... usually for 5 or more miles), and time from there.  The sweep
hand on your wrist watch will do just fine.  Being a diesel westy
driver, my math is easy: I hold it at *exactly* 60 mph indicated--if
i do 5 miles in 5 minutes it means my speedo is bang on.  OK for me,
since I always drive 60.

Sounds like it might be hard to slow down that much for some of you cowboys!

T.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin Copley   Bowen Island, BC, Canada              tobin.copley@ubc.ca

'82 westy 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell                                   =============
'99 daughter Margaret                            /_| |__| |__|:| clatter
1995: 'Round US, Mexico, Canada 15,000 mi       O|.           .| clatter!
1996: Vancouver to Inuvik, NWT   7,400 km        ~-()-==----()-~
Previous buses: '76 westy deluxe (Daisy), '76 westy standard (Mango)
http://www.sfu.ca/~tcopley/vw/