Comments by "Mikko Rantalainen" (@MikkoRantalainen) on "IWrocker" channel.

  1. 6:00 As a Finn, I'd call -5 °C nearly optimal for downhill skiing, not "extreme cold". And this Unimog has been poorly maintained to start this poorly in -5 °C.
    285
  2.  @peter_althoff  4 men with luggage would if comfortably in Volvo C30.
    66
  3.  @neolerades2987  Average passanger car length in Europe was 4536 mm in 2023. That makes XC60 above average in length so it's not definitely "tiny". You're rigth that it isn't exactly huge either. I couldn't find any statistics for median car length but considering that there's minimum size to fit humans, it's pretty safe to assume that median length is even shorter than average length. (According to ChatGPT and iAsk the median length in Europe would be 4.1–4.4 meters and 4.5–4.9 meters in the USA, but as usual, it's pretty hard to say how accurate these numbers are.)
    30
  4. 6:40 The construction sites use high-vis signals because Finland is pretty dark half the year so everything must be clearly visible in the darkness during the snow storm in the middle of winter and during heavy rain in the late autumn. The yellow stuff is made out of highly reflective tape.
    28
  5. If I've understood correctly, EU legislation now requires all new cars to flash brake lights whenever the car is decelerating faster than a given limit which I think is close to 0.3 G.
    27
  6. Here in Finland, the driver uses active joystick for the side blow to clear up bus stops and similar extensions while driving past them on the road. The controls are fast enough to extend and pull back without slowing the truck down for the bus stop.
    22
  7. I agree. And make sure to check out Pasi ("Passari-Sisu"), the APC analog of Sisu. The most modern Pasi variants are Patria XA-202 and Patria XA-203. The next gen armored vehicle is Patria 6x6 which is part of CAVS Program joint development programme for Common Armoured Vehicle Systems, current members include Finland, Latvia, Sweden and Germany.
    16
  8.  @ra7en114  The only part that was nearly superhuman was that Grosjean didn't lose his consicousness because of crash. Had he been unconscious even for 25 seconds, he would have died in that crash because of the fire.
    15
  9. I think Skoda should be described as a VW counterpart for Seat vs Audi. (Note that all of those brands are owned by VAG.) Seat is basically a low budget version of Audi with tech that's about two years older than Audi. Skoda is basically a low budget version of VW with tech that's a couple of years older than the tech in VW cars. Some think that that's bad, I would argue that it's sensible to let other people to test new tech before deciding if you want to have long term relationship with that tech. The tech that is prone to fail in Audi/VW during first years is never even copied to Seat/Skoda. That said, you have to compare similar class cars for this to make sense. If you take top of the line Skoda Superb and compare it to baseline Golf, the Skoda will appear as the premium car.
    12
  10. If you drive in Finland during the winter, you definitely want Michelin, Continental or Nokian tires because the friction will be pretty low no matter how good your tires are, so any bit of extra traction is a huge bonus. I prefer studded variants but you can use the variant without studs if you really want.
    10
  11.  @mikcnmvedmsfonoteka  You can purchase arctic diesel here in Finland which works just fine down to -30 °C. And if you run something with VW TDI engine, if you can get the engine to start, the diesel pump will heat the fuel filter while the engine is running. And some models will even start to heat the fuel tank if you drive it for long enough.
    9
  12. The studs in these rally tires are sticking 7 mm outwards from the surface of the tire. Here in Finland, the max legal limit is 2 mm and that's for worn tires where the rubber has worn away but the stud is still there. For brand new tires, the legal limit is 1.2 mm so the studs are barely sticking out of the tire. This is the reason why studded winter tires will get better traction on ice when used a bit. And the longer studs are really important if there's some snow on top of the ice. Imagine situation where there's 5 mm worth of snow on ice. The rally tire can still grab the surface of the ice with studs, the street legal tire is fully floating on snow.
    8
  13. 21:40 EU nutrition facts label MUST include per 100 g or per 100 ml data so the packaging size doesn't matter when you compare the numbers.
    7
  14.  @sytricka3318  Cars with diesel engines simply need three things: good battery, working starter motor and fully working glow plugs. It's typically the last one that's broken because with modern direct injection engines you can typically get away with broken glow plugs until it's pretty cold outside.
    7
  15.  @neolerades2987  Yes, the difference in size isn't that huge but my point was that majority of all cars are smaller.
    6
  16. Be sure to check info about their Freevalve engine. It's nice tech but unfortunately too expensive for most roads cars. Gemera year 2020 model had 600 bhp 3-cylinder(!) internal combustion engine with Freevalve tech. That 3-cylinder engine is assisted by 3 electric motors for total power around 1700 bhp. There's also variant of Gemera with V8 internal combustion engine combined with electric motors having total power around 2300 bhp if you think 1700 is not enough for you and you can accept heavier vehicle. Engineering explained with titled "2,300 Horsepower - How Koenigsegg Gemera's Insane Powertrain Works!" has lots of interesting details about the drivetrain explained on whiteboard.
    3
  17. 5:20 Cars yielding to pedestrians are not courtesy in Europe. Here in Finland, if you don't yield on multilane road when another lane is yielding, that's instant loss of the driver's license for 3 months plus pretty heavy traffic ticket as a bonus.
    3
  18. 3:00 This is Golf Mk2 with diesel engine. The design is from year 1983 and there's no direct injection nor turbo here. And the behavior in this video is just an user error. While the yellow light is lit, you should wait with ignition turned on and start immediately then light goes off. This user is clearly trying to start while the yellow light is still lit. The VAG diesel engine from this era started really poorly if you didn't follow the right procedure (yes, I've driven for multiple years with such an engine).
    3
  19. The workload for the drivers is actually less than it used to be. Around 2015 the drivers were allowed to freely adjust engine fuel maps, too, and the drivers had to adjust the engine during the lap according to engineer instructions to extract max power without overheating the engine. And it had to be done by the driver using the buttons because of regulations.
    3
  20. 2:33 About half the glow plugs of this car are probably bad. It shouldn't run this poorly if it has working glow plugs and correct engine oil for the motor.
    3
  21. F1 cars also have ridiculously light flywheels to allow rapid RPM changes as requested by the driver. To get some idea about the throttle response of the engine, see this compilation of F1 engines playing music: https://youtu.be/y5opv-r9nZc The reason they play music with the engine is that they need to heat up the engine in any case with a computer controller warm up routine. Then some marketing people figured out that it would be cool to apply the throttle positions in the warm-up routine to match notes in music. Usually when you release throttle the RPM will more or less slowly decrease because flywheel keeps the engine running without fuel. With F1 engines the compression is high and flywheel is minimal so the RPM drops instantly.
    3
  22. Retired emergency vehicles are sold to public. The colors are typically just plastic tape and the underlying vehicle is typically pure white.
    2
  23. The weight of a vehicle doesn't matter for the braking distance as long as the road surface can cope with the forces and brakes are good enough.
    2
  24. Grosjean was also lucky enough that the barrier wasn't exactly at the exit hole of the cockpit. There is not enough space to get to the side under the halo so if the barrier had been directly above him then he would have burned alive because there would have been no way to get out of the cockpit without moving the car.
    2
  25. TL;DR: the worst European Fanta tasted much better than the best US Fanta.
    2
  26. 11:38 I think you might appreciate some hot hatchback like VW Golf GTI or Seat Leon Cupra.
    2
  27. 11:37 When the lights in the dash a flicker during engine start, the battery has gone bad. Don't ask how I know.
    2
  28. One thing worth mentioning is that teams are not allowed to copy aerodynamic parts from each other. Once a team comes on a track with some special shape e.g. for a wing, other teams cannot make their parts exactly similar. It's kind of like they automatically receive F1 wide patent for any form they show up with, at least for the ongoing season. I think copying last year designs is allowed.
    2
  29. I think most emergency vehicles in Finland have 3 different siren sounds and they select different depending on the situation. I think one is used near intersections and one is for the highways. However, there are no standardized sounds so every emergency vehicle sounds a bit different. I think about 40 years ago it was typical that all ambulances had one sound and firetrucks another but there are no such themes nowadays. As for the color scheme of ambulances and firetrucks: they typically use reflector tape (all the white/grey looking stuff is reflector material which reflects maybe 80–90% of the incoming light directly back. Nowadays ambulances are mostly yellow and firetrucks are mostly orange. Police cars are always mostly white with dark blue/nearly black thick stripes. All emergency vehicles use blue signal lights and any blue lights in civilian vehicles are strictly forbidden (blinking or static). The blue lights are always used if the emergency vehicles do not follow the usual traffic rules but the siren is used by the decision of the driver only. If it's deemed unnecessary for safety, they will switch it off not to cause extra noise.
    2
  30. 2:12 One interesting thing with F1 pit stops is that teams try to keep the exact lap secret. As a result, all the crew must be pretending to sipping coffee and chit-chatting immediately before the car is taken in. And that pit team is actually made out of the team members that usually do other stuff. Even F1 teams are not so wasteful that they would have separate pit crew that does nothing else!
    2
  31. I think you should have also tasted Swedish "Marabou Mjölkchoklad" chocolate or Finnish "Fazer Blue" chocolate, too.
    2
  32. American Fanta seems like the stuff that would actually still exist 200 years after a nuclear war because there's nothing organic in that bottle. Total Fallout universe feel.
    2
  33.  @marian-gabriel9518  Great description of the full system! I would have just said that brake migration is kind of preprogrammed change to brake balance after initial heavy breaking in the corner. For a broad picture it doesn't matter how the car is braking/slowing down but the brake migration is about changing the balance of that deceleration to keep suitable balance through the corner. (And drivers adjust it on the fly because they prefer more oversteer or understeer for different corners and the track conditions change all the time.)
    2
  34. The truck slowing down to 20 km/h despite having 730 hp engine is pretty insane!
    1
  35. 11:40 I think they wanted to line up the truck part, too, not just the trailer and that's why he needed to "do it twice".
    1
  36. The competition for rally games is Richard Burns Rally + lots of mods on PC (commonly known as "RBR"), DiRT Rally 2.0 and WRC 10. I'd skip the older versions of WRC. The RBR is the most realistic and DiRT 2.0 and WRC 10 are about equal, both having minor pros and cons.
    1
  37. 7:20 Skilled Pesäpallo-pitcher can throw the ball with a spin so it doesn't drop straight but still hits the plate!
    1
  38. I think you should also compare US Coca Cola vs European Coca Cola. The US version has crap such as corn suryp that the European version doesn't have.
    1
  39.  @etiosooopse5618  Here's the link: Finnish Rally Crashes 2011-2017 https://youtu.be/rW8rsiPix9U
    1
  40. 21:10 I guess Germany just has police that actually catches criminals. If everybody pumping gas without paying is caught, pretty soon nobody pumps gas without poaying. On the other hand, if police does nothing, nobody is paying for gas if they can pump and run away.
    1
  41. I've been using pretty old cars for my whole life (inherited trait from my father) and diesel cars are definitely more reliable than any gasoline cars. There are two big reasons for improved reliability: (1) diesel engine has very high compression so the engine is built really strong, and (2) diesel is a lubricant unlike gasoline which is a solvent. As a result, diesel engine parts that interact with fuel are constantly lubricated and wear very little when used. Basically if you use correct oil, follow the official oil change interval and replace the timing belt according to the official maintenance schedule, diesel engine should last at least 200k miles without any major repairs or restoration.
    1
  42. One interesting thing to consider is that all cars that cannot get within 107 % of the F1 pole position will be disqualified from F1 race. IndyCar would be disqualified immediately for being too slow so it's totally different class indeed.
    1
  43. I think average speed cameras are good because there's no way for you to benefit from speeding. Regular speed cameras are just too simple to avoid and allow getting to the destination faster so that gives incentive for speeding. If you know there will be average speed cameras everywhere, you know that you have to drive according to the rules. Once everybody follows the traffic rules, you can then increase the official speed limits to maximum safe value without having to wonder how much faster people are going to drive in reality.
    1
  44. The crash was so bad and the fire was so huge that many of the fire marshals weren't brave enough to go close the fire immediately after the crash!
    1
  45.  @xiro6  Diesel engines never needed lead because the diesel fuel is a lubricant itself. Older diesel engines didn't use direct injection because the injectors were not good enough to use in passanger cars. All modern diesel engines use direct injection and most also have a turbo. During the 1980's turbo was still too fragile to put in passager diesel car. Basically the first great turbo diesel engines with direct injection were made around 1995 by Audi (the TDI engine).
    1
  46. Here's a cab over truck in Finland with 104 metric tons (77 metric tons of wood in the load and the total length is 33 m): https://youtu.be/NrASEeaOmDI (Unfortunately that clip doesn't have subtitles and audio only in Finnish.)
    1
  47. And here's how you turn the truck in small space: https://youtu.be/FKYvA3-8uXA
    1
  48. 8:53 I would argue that you shouldn't be doing those things in a car with automatic transmission either if you're driving the car.
    1
  49. Great job on knowing European countries! Americans are not typically known for excelling in world geography.
    1
  50. 5:17 Hitting straight over the rear limit is foul but if you make it bounce from the ground, it can go however far and it's an allowed run. The hard part is to hit the ball so fast into ground that nobody can catch it.
    1
  51. 18:23 This is why you should look at the map instead of simply turning left when GPS says so. When streets are narrow, the probability of GPS misplacing a turn goes up fast so GPS is more like guidelines instead of accurate guidance. Look around you and check the actual street signs!
    1
  52.  @__-fm5qv  I was trying to joke that typically male passangers have a small backback, not a full luggage.
    1
  53. It's interesting that the most sold SUVs are not actually suitable for any kind of off-road driving. They typically have very little ground clearance and only FWD without any kind of differential locking combined with pretty high weight.
    1
  54. 6:20 the amount of driving you have to do with one and was insane. You probably had to visit the gym to train your right hand only to keep some kind of muscle balance!
    1
  55. As far as I know, the USA limit is indeed 80000 pounds or 36 tons. Compare that to 90-105 tons max allowed in EU with extra axles even though most trucks are 40–44 tons depending on which countries you want to cross because max axle weights are different in different countries.
    1
  56. Check the settings of the camera you're using. Whenever you zoom in, the camera applies some kind of extra processing into the audio and audio quality goes down. At least with Samsung devices this extra processing is called "mic zoom" or something like that. I'd recommend turning that off and always record the same audio you get with the normal lens without zooming.
    1
  57.  @Intellistation6225  It seems to be somewhat similar to normal flywheel or part of clutch: https://youtu.be/x63kTUIb4dM?t=105 I don't know about the weight but the physical size seems to be tiny compared to normal cars.
    1
  58. 10:25 Your face looks like "Damn... I might actually like chocolate after all."
    1
  59. As a Finn, if I had to guess the manufacturing year of the bus at 14:40, I'd guess 1992.
    1
  60. 7:30 VW marketing really failed on this one. The engine is "1.2 TDI 3L" which in reality is 1.2 litre 3 cylinder direct injection diesel engine with a turbo. I have no idea why marketing department slapped the "L" there. Perhaps they tried to communicate that it was supposed to run 3.0 litre/100 km or 77 MPG.
    1
  61. In Europe, heavy traffic (e.g. trucks) have different speed limit than cars. As a result, trucks get overtaken a lot. For example, here in Finland, trucks can legally do 80 km/h max and they typically have limiters set to 87–89 km/h. Police starts ticketing in Finland when you go 4–6 km/h above the speed limit.
    1
  62. 10:22 That lego set is designed for pretty small children. Look at some videos about set Lego 42141 to get better idea how modern lego sets designed for (near) adults look like.
    1
  63. Automatic transmission only started to become common with plug-in hybrids and EVs which always have automatic transmission.
    1
  64. 11:40 Again, every diesel car in this video had broken glow plugs but only this video clearly says it. And even the one in 14:55 which actually started fast sounds like it has one bad plug, too. If a diesel has working glow plugs and the engine turns at all, it will start. Low quality fuel may get so thick in arctic conditions that the engine fails to turn, though. 18:30 Was a great example of too low quality fuel in cold conditions. I just filled the tank of our car last week with diesel fuel that's rated to work in -35 °C here in Finland just to prepare for the winter.
    1
  65. 3:13 I think you're onto something. Roundabouts do not work in the US because the minimum bar for driver's license is so low in the US that people cannot follow traffic rules. It's also absolutely critical that everybody yields to cars already running inside the roundabout. US still uses some "rotary" designs where the rules for yielding are different and cause very poor real world thoughput. The hard part is yielding to pedestrians too close to roundabout after exiting the roundabout. That may cause another car to stuck behind you and cause total stop in the roundabout. Even that is not dangerous but destroys the throughput. A good implementation requires underpasses for light traffic.
    1
  66. 5:40 Wow! That drinks sounds like you're getting more thirsty if you drink that!
    1
  67. 6:45 Somehow the driver isn't texting while driving here... Maybe if you don't make the streets insanely wide, the drivers actually take responsibility for their driving?
    1
  68. 16:25 Yes, that's a Seat. It's basically Spanish counterpart to Skoda. Skoda is basically Volkswagen built in Poland, Seat is basically low budget Audi built in Spain. (Seat typically uses the tech that's about 2 years older than the latest Audi. As a con, you don't have the latest gadgets, as a pro all the parts typically work unlike Audis which have lots of failures in "first ever in the world" parts.)
    1
  69. Even on dry surface, the best tyre width is defined by the weight of the car. You basically want the narrowest tires that are strong enough not to shear away with the forces caused by the weight of the car during cornering and braking.
    1
  70.  @1000servus  The idea of "turn right on green BUT give way for pedestrians + bikes" is that you don't need to look to left to make sure you don't collide with cars. You're turning on right and you look for pedestrians + bikes only. The US style of turning right on red but having to look to left to make sure you don't drive in front of another car results in less safety for pedestrians + bikes. It's a compromise: US style turn on right on red is a rule that gives a finger to all pedestrians + bikes to make driving faster. And then US people wonder why practically nobody is walking or bicycling!
    1
  71. I definitely recommend that show. It has some creative video cuts so not everything in the Drive to Survive is actually fully truthfully – especially all the drama is excaggerated as much as possible using the video clips they had. As long as you keep that in mind, it might be better than watching the true thing. All video clips and interview clips are still all totally real. The presentation order of the clips may not always match the reality, though. For example, they may cut a short clip from another race in the middle of comments from other drivers from another race to make drama more serious sounding.
    1
  72. You have to remember that people use car to get to the other side of the street in the US. "10 minute walk" is totally foreign concept to many.
    1
  73. Great driving for a first timer and it was awesome that you used the cockpit view camera!
    1
  74. 14:10 This small diesel engines without turbo are painfully slow to drive.
    1
  75. F1 cars can make up to 6 g in corners. I think that's second only to modern military fighters. Imagine doing that for 2 hours straight.
    1
  76. In Spain, it's mandatory to have hi-vis vest inside the car that the driver can wear before opening the door.
    1
  77. Since amber signals are required for car to be sold in Europe, car manufacturers are already wasting money to make all red special lights only for North America. Amber signals are safer and legal to use in the US and Canada and are mandatory in Europe so why manufacture anything else?
    1
  78. 15:15 Considering the model years those cars seem quite expensive but on the other hand, the mileage is really low for a diesel. Our diesel cars have 150–200k in the odometer and the engines are working fine. I'd skip the Jetta and go or a Passat with 2.0L TDI CR engine instead, though.
    1
  79. If only F1 regulations allowed use of active suspension, then we would see truly insane cornering speeds. The last time active suspension was allowed, in 1992, Williams (the only car with active suspension) was 1–2 seconds faster per lap(!) than the best drivers in best competing teams (e.g. Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna) without active suspension. It's still unclear if the active suspension was banned because it was considered unsafe or if it was considered to be too good technology (similar to ABS brakes and traction control) to make it harder for a truly skilled driver to raise to the podium.
    1
  80. The only problem with roundabouts is that he minimum space required is a bit more than four way intersection with traffic lights. Here in Finland pretty much all new intersections are built with roundabouts but some older intersections cannot be upgraded so we have to use traffic lights for those.
    1
  81. 12:01 Pro tip: you'll get better economy if you switch earlier from first to second, and accelerate faster on third and then skip the fourth and go directly to fifth gear. If your car doesn't have turbo, it's usually most efficient when you floor it around 2000-2500 rpm because pumping losses are the smallest that way. The idea is to keep the accelerator pedal to the floor until you can switch directly to fifth. And the reason to go from first to second really soon is because you cannot floor the accelerator on first or your wheels start to slide. It's also more fun to accerate rapidly as a bonus.
    1
  82. 9:32 I would like to question the roll-cage quality of this rally car. Maybe it wasn't mandatory back then?
    1
  83. It seems that you still haven't reacted to this old classic video where Ari Vatanen (another legendary Finnish driver) drives the car so close to limit that even the co-driver says "Oh, dear God!" in the middle of the course being afraid that they're going to hit a wall: "Dear God"!! Ari Vatanen's big Rally moment in the Opel Manta 400! 1983 Manx International https://youtu.be/cxDz0Z066NI?si=VXYy4Dqf5T7cMZ-U The video has surprisingly good image quality because it was originally shot on film with a small camera attached to the car. He drove a bit slower after the incident, not because he was scared but because one tyre was punctured! One YouTube commentator summarized that video pretty well: That's a more sincere "Dear God" than you'll ever hear in church.
    1
  84. European packages must have contact information of the manufacturer. For example, look at the envelope symbol in the cans and you can see address in Berlin.
    1
  85. Here in Finland, you're supposed to take the warning triangle up to 300 meters before the place worth warning about. Many drivers do not bother and you should expect to enter the scene in maybe 50 meters after the triangle.
    1
  86. 8:05 The cranking is weak because combination of low battery voltage and vegetable oil. You can use filtered vegetable oil in diesel engines but you should preheat the fuel for cold climates. And never ever put any gasoline in modern diesel engine or you'll cause huge amount of wear. Use isopropanol if your car needs some kind of anti-freeze in the fuel.
    1
  87. 12:40 This is how VAG TDI engines should sound like in -10 or -15 °C. Possibly the only well maintained engine in this video.
    1
  88. I don't get it. Why not have at least some safety gear and run safety rope next to tree trunk?
    1
  89. The only reason corn syrup is used in the US because it's cheaper for the manufacturer. There's zero benefit for the consumer.
    1
  90. I don't know about Germany, but at least here in Finland, you have to pay pretty hefty tax every year for every car you own, which makes most people avoid having more cars than they absolutely need. For example, a VW Passat with diesel engine has yearly tax around 700 EUR just for the delight of owning the car.
    1
  91.  @aronbokodi7487  Unimog 416 with OM 352 A engine does have glow plugs. However, most truck scale vehicles in Finland have "Webasto" which is a turbine heater system to warm up the coolant before you start the engine + keep the coolant hot enough in the middle of winter when the diesel engine cannot generate enough heat to keep the cabin warm. If you warm the coolan with Webasto, you don't need glow plugs.
    1
  92.  @m0ntr3alblau  That's acceptable only for older diesels. I wouldn't recommend such a life hack if you have modern common rail direct injection diesel with DPF and turbo. It's better to purchase real diesel antifreeze from store which is commonly available in stores here in Finland. Or just purchase some arctic diesel from local fuel station.
    1
  93. Now imagine playing this with VR setup and direct drive wheel which can give accurate feedback to your hands...
    1
  94. Kankkunen is 3rd most successful rally driver ever: 4 WRC Drivers' Champion titles with three different manufacturers (Peugeot, Lancia, Toyota). Only guys better ever were Sébastien Ogier (8 titles, three manufacturers, too) and Sébastien Loeb (9 titles, 1 manufacturer) and both drove in the era with computer controlled diffs and paddle-shifters on the steering wheel so the amount of manual work was much less. Next year (2025) Kankkunen is going to be deputy team principal for Toyota WRC team so he's still working.
    1
  95. I totally agree that V4 is definitely not a thing. Last car that I know used V4 engine was Saab 96 which was produced between years 1960 and 1980.
    1
  96. At least here in Finland, stores sell both Dr Pepper Original but 7up is only sold as zero sugar version.
    1