I used the horn on the Golf this morning. Wow! Not enough to wake the dead but enough to make them turn over in their sleep! Very good. What's yours like?
John
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Two tones, but a little girly and high tenor. Certainly loud but not threatening enough
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Not loud enough, but I am one of the many motorists who is convinced the harder you press the button, the louder it gets.
Incidentally, is the thread title 'parp parp' a reference to Noddy?
Last edited by: Iffy on Fri 7 Jan 11 at 13:45
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Thought of Toad of Toad Hall rather than Noddy.
In fact was there a poster in the other place named TOTH who annoyed the moddies to extent that Parp Parp went in the swear filter???
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>> who annoyed the moddies to extent that Parp Parp went in the swear filter???
Just the one moddy, IIRC.
And the reason for that (again IIRC) was because it was a quite serious thread and the 'parp parp' sig he used showed little respect for the subject being discussed.
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 7 Jan 11 at 13:59
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>>> the 'parp parp' sig he used showed little respect for the subject being discussed.
Perhaps... but sadly missed from the perspective of Fenland Towers.
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>> Perhaps... but sadly missed from the perspective of Fenland Towers.
It was only the 'parp parp' that got removed, well initially anyway. TOTH was still around after that *incident*.
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>> >> who annoyed the moddies to extent that Parp Parp went in the swear filter???
>>
>>
>> Just the one moddy, IIRC.
>>
>> And the reason for that (again IIRC) was because it was a quite serious thread
>> and the 'parp parp' sig he used showed little respect for the subject being discussed.
No, the reason is that you have a pathological hatred of signatures in threads.
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>> No, the reason is that you have a pathological hatred of signatures in threads.
Whatever.
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...Thought of Toad of Toad Hall rather than Noddy...
I have a vague recollection from the books of Noddy's little red car going 'parp parp'.
Would Toad of Toad Hall pre-dated Noddy?
Could be where Enid Blyton got the phrase from.
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>> Would Toad of Toad Hall pre-dated Noddy?
Goodness yes. Toad is 1908, Noddy 1949.
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>> I am one of the many motorists who is convinced the
>> harder you press the button, the louder it gets.
>>
>>
It's been true on every car I have ever owned. There is a slight time delay befrore the horn activates, and if I release the button after a fraction of a second, it gives a kind of muted cough rather than a blast.
I think perhaps it might be because older cars have direct-acting horn buttons without relays, so the control is more sensitive.
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>> What's yours like?
Get out the way or else.
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The horn on the Prius is rubbish, the electric motor is louder, probably to do with less noise pollution :0)
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...probably to do with less noise pollution :0...
Or lack of volts.
Does the car slow down when you flash the headlights? :)
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>> The horn on the Prius is rubbish
Not priapic, then?
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I recall an article on Radio 1 about 2 years ago where a survey found that the best horn was that of the Mk 2 Mondeo as it was loud and just the right tone.
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Lorry horns are pathetic, so much so that a lot of us fit air horns..
It's quite nice to sit there and reach up to pull a bit of chain above your head and watch everyone jump!
Think Smokey and the Bandit.
Pat
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...up to pull a bit of chain above your head...
Reminds me of many a happy hour sat on the pot in the days when cisterns were fixed up a height.
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>> ...up to pull a bit of chain above your head...
>>
>> Reminds me of many a happy hour sat on the pot in the days when
>> cisterns were fixed up a height.
>>
Cor..............you 'ad a cistern.
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The old CX still has its original air horns.
The last time it was MoTd, the tester's young assistant hit his head on the bonnet when his colleague prodded the horn button :-)
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The Opel had a really pathetic hi-pitched bleat of a horn.
Fortunately, it was easily accesible, so for about the price of a pint, sourced a real b******o horn from the local version of Halfords.
Wakes the dead! Also very suitable for scaring the local Lycrans (cyclists) when you creep up behind three of the scum riding abreast across the main road early in the morning (Oh, before anyone says anything, part of the local transport revamp was a custom-built and well-lit cycle lane adjacent to the main road, between the road and the sea. But the lycra morons STILL insist on riding on the main drag...)
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Re CX.
Am I right remembering the horn rocker button had a rock one way for the air horns and the other way for a polite parp of a normal horn??
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Often thought it would be good to have some mechanism for choice of horn sounds. One for "emergency out of my way look out end of the world watch it sunshine" and one for "oh I say, excuse me, would you mind terribly?"
As it stands you can hoot meaning the latter and be interpreted as the former, and it all turns into yet another joyless social interaction.
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Did old Mercs not have 2 horns? I'm sure there's a switch in front of, or at the side of the gear shift to choose the 2 horns. Town and country horns?
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>> As it stands you can hoot meaning the latter and be interpreted as the former,
>> and it all turns into yet another joyless social interaction.
You can indeed, and its very simple.
Install some air horns, twin trumpet dual tone is fine. Wire them via a relay into the existing horn circuit.
The compressor takes a while to spool up, so a quick press of the horn just parps the existing horn, leave your hand on the horn button and the air horns come in
Seeemples
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 7 Jan 11 at 14:56
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quite correct zero but to make the horns even more delayed on the ransid ive not used a relay and the amount of times i need the full air blast means i havent yet burnt out the contact switches
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>> Re CX.
>>
>> Am I right remembering the horn rocker button had a rock one way for the
>> air horns and the other way for a polite parp of a normal horn??
Yes, I think that was on the previous version to mine. Later models just had the "get out of the way" mode!
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"Goodness yes. Toad is 1908, Noddy 1949."
In Kenneth Grahame's book of 1908, one finds the phrase "poop-poop" associated with Toad, but the phrase "parp parp" does not occur (and neither does the word "parp").
It is, I suppose, possible that in a subsequent stage adaptation, such as that by A A Milne in 1929 (or even the Disney version of 1949), the phrase "parp parp" was used in association with Toad.
I must confess, however, that I still prefer to associate the phrase with Noddy.
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>> I must confess, however, that I still prefer to associate the phrase with Noddy.
>>
I recall Noddy when he still had golliwogs as adversaries...
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The Kia Rio's horn is the most pathetic I have ever heard.
If the car horn were to ever make a statement, it would be "could you move out of the way please ?"
Very feminine.
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poop poop is my recollection...
and indeed Chapter 2..The Open Road mentions it for the first time...
"Toad sat straight down in the middle of the dusty road, his legs stretched out before him, and stared fixedly in the direction of the disappearing motor-car. He breathed short, his face wore a placid satisfied expression, and at intervals he faintly murmured `Poop-poop!'
The Mole was busy trying to quiet the horse, which he succeeded in doing after a time. Then he went to look at the cart, on its side in the ditch. It was indeed a sorry sight. Panels and windows smashed, axles hopelessly bent, one wheel off, sardine- tins scattered over the wide world, and the bird in the bird-cage sobbing pitifully and calling to be let out.
The Rat came to help him, but their united efforts were not sufficient to right the cart. `Hi! Toad!' they cried. `Come and bear a hand, can't you!'
The Toad never answered a word, or budged from his seat in the road; so they went to see what was the matter with him. They found him in a sort of a trance, a happy smile on his face, his eyes still fixed on the dusty wake of their destroyer. At intervals he was still heard to murmur `Poop-poop!'
The Rat shook him by the shoulder. `Are you coming to help us, Toad?' he demanded sternly.
`Glorious, stirring sight!' murmured Toad, never offering to move. `The poetry of motion! The real way to travel! The only way to travel! Here to-day--in next week to-morrow! Villages skipped, towns and cities jumped--always somebody else's horizon! O bliss! O poop-poop! O my! O my!'
`O stop being an ass, Toad!' cried the Mole despairingly
"
www.classicreader.com/book/132/2/
Last edited by: madf on Fri 7 Jan 11 at 15:20
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It's a real Marmite of a story, that Wind in the Willows. Everyone seems to love or hate it. Afraid I'm in the latter camp, but Mrs C goes all misty eyed over it.
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And some history as to whom Toad was based on..
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/is-this-the-real-mr-toad-913944.html
"The bank's current archivist, John Keyworth, explained that the documents have never before been made public because of their personal nature. "It is now 100 years ago and is part of history," he added. "Walter Cunliffe was renowned as being a very autocratic man – he even had a row with the Prime Minister Lloyd George. There is nothing to back it up, but if Toad was based on anybody [Grahame] knew, Cunliffe would be the obvious one."
Cunliffe's grandson, the third Baron Cunliffe, said he was intrigued. "I remember visiting my grandmother as a boy and there was an ancient Renault in the barn, which was my grandfather's. He was an early adopter of the motor car, so yes, he would have driven around going Poop! Poop!"
"
Last edited by: madf on Fri 7 Jan 11 at 15:25
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I had an early Noddy book and his horn went poop-poop. The same story in later versions had it going parp-parp.
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>> I had an early Noddy book and his horn went poop-poop. The same story in
>> later versions had it going parp-parp.
>>
Poop is rude.
Not as rude as Noddy sharing a bed with Big Ears, but rude enough.
(That was after he had been beaten up and robbed by golliwogs, BTW.)
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Spot on! I think it was described in the handbook as a "Town" and "Country" option. Same in a DS I had.
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The only time I use mine intentionally is to check it works prior to an MOT, and even then I make sure I'm in the middle of nowhere so that I don't annoy anyone. I occasionally use it unintentionally when I catch it with my elbow when I'm getting out of the car. I can't really say whether it sounds worhwhile or not.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Fri 7 Jan 11 at 15:31
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I've used mine once, when a car was letting people out when she had right of away, this caused a major traffic jam. I think she just paniced and froze but in the end I had no choice but to beep her as she had just stopped in the middle of the road for at least 5 minutes letting traffic out when she had full right of away.
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I only intentionally use my horn
a) when approaching blind corners / summits on single track roads, or
b) when I'm miles from anywhere, with no-one within earshot, just for the fun of it.
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>> a) when approaching blind corners / summits on single track roads, or
just as long as you bear in mind one end of the age range of drivers is probably stone deaf, and the opposite end of the of the spectrum will have their tunes cranked up to 11
;-)
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No one owning up to having Colonel Bogey or Dukes of Hazzard air horns then?
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>> No one owning up to having Colonel Bogey or Dukes of Hazzard air horns then?
>>
Got air horns on the lorry, but they're of the "American train" type.
Used only as the Highway code intended, honest m'lud.........
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just as long as you bear in mind one end of the age range of drivers is probably stone deaf, and the opposite end of the of the spectrum will have their tunes cranked up to 11
Oh, I do. Particularly the latter.
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>> ............. in the end I had no choice but to beep her as she had
>> just stopped in the middle of the road for at least 5 minutes letting traffic
>> out when she had full right of away.
>>
Was it really at least 5 minutes or are you just exaggerating again?
You could have just got out of your car and acted as an unofficial policeman and stopped the flow of traffic that was preventing her from moving. There's more than one way to defur a feline.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Fri 7 Jan 11 at 15:52
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I did think about doing that, but then if I got out of my car I would have caused more of a hazzard. It was actually the corner of my round it happened at, United had just finished and they use my road as a cut through.
What is normaly a quiet junction suddenly had 20 cars on it. They saw she had stopped and just kept going through the give way. I did feel a bit sorry for the driver and I didn't use the horn without a lot of thought.
Most people would have beeped a few minutes before.
It really was five minutes, I expected a lot of traffic so at for the first two minutes I didn't think anything was up until I saw all the cars pulling out in front of her. The thing about city driving is you can't let other drivers bully you or you will make no progress.
Still feel a bit bad about it but I don't see what else I could have done, she was the one who had stopped in the middle of the road for no reason.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Fri 7 Jan 11 at 15:57
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...United had just finished and they use my road as a cut through...
Noddy in Toyland 1949.
Rattle's Adventures in Mancland 2010.
Parp-parp, poop-poop!
Last edited by: Iffy on Fri 7 Jan 11 at 16:15
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I bought a Stebel Magnum horn for the R1200GS (a recommended replacement on BMW sites) this was around the time I bought the Roomie, the horn on that was so underwhelmingly awful that I replaced the OE one on that. Good horns them Stebels. The one on the BMW is average, not used it often.
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I see that air horns are legal, so long as all notes sound at once and do not play a tune. I might get one to beef up the feeble noise made by my Ford one. £22 + fitting, if I can't do it myself.
Last edited by: Perky Penguin (p) on Fri 7 Jan 11 at 21:03
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The worst car horn in the world, ever, was on a Smart Brabus I used to have. I think a bicycle bell would have had more impact on transgressors.
Fitted air horns and got much more respect. Oh yes!
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Surely the horn wasn't the only problem - wasn't the Smart Brabus a rather overpriced anomaly, to put it politely? "At £13,520 it’s hard to take the Brabus seriously. But then I don’t suppose you’re really meant to…" Quote from a review by EVO Magazine.
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>> Surely the horn wasn't the only problem - wasn't the Smart Brabus a rather overpriced
>> anomaly, to put it politely? "At £13,520 it’s hard to take the Brabus seriously. >>
At that price, yes. But I paid less than half that for an immaculate 1-owner low mileage model.
You have to try one before you judge - they are are hoot and superb around town. Less so on the open road.
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Twin Lucas windtones on the Jowett....bit like the train horn.....only louder !
One thing the Prince of Darkness got right !
The Vitara and Note sound like Gnats trumping......only hear them at MOT time, not a great user meself ! The Honda's not bad for a bike.
I have a 12V Klaxon, not fitted to anything and a plunger Klaxon for 100 yr old bikes with magneto electrics.........now that is loud as well !
Ted
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>> and do not play a tune.
By that definition we're all illegal. See One6 by John Cage.
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>>I see that air horns are legal, so long as all notes sound at once and do not play a tune.
IIRC tunes are legal on vehicles registered before 1971?
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I am sure you are right BT, now that I have kickstarted my memory lobes! Rather like non reflective metal number plates from around the same era!
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>> I am sure you are right BT, now that I have kickstarted my memory lobes!
>> Rather like non reflective metal number plates from around the same era!
>>
Black background plates are legal up to July 73. K plates allowed, L plates not.
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>> Black background plates are legal up to July 73. K plates allowed, L plates not.
>>
Hate to contradict but...
as with free "road tax"
Vehicles constructed before 1 January 1973 is the cutoff
which does include some L registered vehicles.
L registrations came in on 1st August 1972
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my 2010 hyundai i 10 is pip squeek. its the second one as the first packed up , and that was only slightly better.
noway a lorry would hear it on the motorway
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Never, ever, felt the need to use the horn in all my driving life. Certainly not for reprimanding a idiot. It won't stop them being an idiot and might just make them an unsettled idiot which is worse than a calm idiot.
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I posted a piece on horns in the other place. It was a piece of motoring journalism, done hopefully for a particular outlet which vanished all too soon, before the piece was published or even able to be considered.
People liked it and so did I. Dunno if I can find it at the moment though.
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i sometimes go to a site like here
www.wolo-mfg.com/elec.htm
if i want to blow the cobwebs out
go on you know you want to
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...Never, ever, felt the need to use the horn in all my driving life. Certainly not for reprimanding a idiot...
I can't believe the former, and find it hard to believe the latter.
I've used the horn for its correct purpose several times - to warn other road users of my presence.
I've also used it for its incorrect purpose once or twice, which I know is stupid.
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Believe what you like Iffy. I really couldn't care less.
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I fitted a set of twin air horns on my old Sierra, driven by a compressor the size of a large beer can.
I recall it made the MOT tester drop his clipboard! ;-)
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The standard horn on my Octavia was a pretty weedy affair. Funnily enough (as mentioned a long way above) a pair of MkII Mondeo horns garnered from a scrapyard were a worthwhile upgrade. They could be heard through a double-glazed window far more effectively than the standard item, which is of paramount importance in a minicab. Saved me no end of time :)
Last edited by: Dave_TD {P} on Sat 8 Jan 11 at 20:23
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...Believe what you like Iffy. I really couldn't care less...
Which is just as well, because nor could I.
Although I don't see the need to spit the dummy.
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Rudeness begets rudeness. Simple as that. In effect you are accusing me of lying. I'm not as it happens. But anyway like I said, believe what you want.
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...In effect you are accusing me of lying...
Not really, my comment "I find that hard to believe" refers more to me than you, as does the rest of the post.
I think you are being a little over-sensitive by taking the post as an accusation of lying.
It was certainly not my intention to call you a liar, and I'm sorry you have taken the post that way.
Yet another example of the misunderstandings which happen on text forums.
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Humph said only that he never used his horn - he could spit the dummy several times a day. Could be quite effective especially if it landed inside a BMW convertible....
(Sorry - couldn't resist it...) :)
Last edited by: Avant on Sat 8 Jan 11 at 18:49
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>> it landed inside a BMW
>> convertible....
>>
>>
Or a Focus CC. :-)
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Parp parp - Zero
