Harry’s Garage

[V8Granite]

You could see it was pretty ripe underneath in some of his earlier vids, and anyone who’s ever tried digging out rust will know what you can’t see is probably at least 5 times worse than what you can

Oh this many times over

When it says peekaboo through the paint then 99% of the time it’s because it’s getting cocky after eating half your car.

Dave!

[RobYob]

HarryM on PH.

"I knew all about the rust when I bought the car. I was about to back out when I realised it was bad, despite having a so called bare metal respray just 1200miles and 16 years previously. I then discovered in the extensive history file it was the actual Fulvia Zagato I had seen outside my parents house way back in the seventies, so I couldn't resist and we ended up doing a deal at a much reduced price.

I could have carried on running around in it as the rust isn't in an important structural area (the chassis around the spring hangers is fine) but it still niggled. I'm pressing ahead with the body restoration after we discovered the original orange paint during the strip down and I want to get it back to how I first saw it all those years ago in Birkenhead!"

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... 307&i=1260

Is it just me or anyone else read Harry's PH tag (& old Ghibli #plate) as "M for Sir" not Mazer!?

[Jobbo]

Is it just me or anyone else read Harry's PH tag (& old Ghibli #plate) as "M for Sir" not Mazer!?

I think seeing it on Maseratis in the long term test section of Performance Car makes me read it as he intends it

[duncs500]

I can't believe Lord M is on Boatshoes and not on here.

[Coaster1]

[Rich B]

Another victim of individual panel respraying? I'll have to watch later!

[integrale_evo]

The usual crusty e46 front wings by the look of it. Would have thought that on a cal where they’ve always been £20k+ cars they would have made the effort to blend it in a bit better.

[Nathan]

Harry made an unusual comment about the gearbox still being notchy since the conversion.

It's the same gearbox but with the automated shift removed ?!

[ZedLeg]

I just assumed that he meant the shifter mechanism itself was a bit stiff, as that would be new.

Anyway, liked the car. I can see final drive drops being a popular mod for modern sports cars in the future. Porsche especially seem to get criticised for long gearing a lot of the time.

[GG.]

I was amazed at how cheap it was to do the conversion. I'd expect there to be a massive queue of CSL owners looking to do this and sod the originality... keep a box of the old bits to put it back if necessary.

The e60 M5 would be a great one to do too.

[Nathan]

I just assumed that he meant the shifter mechanism itself was a bit stiff, as that would be new.

Anyway, liked the car. I can see final drive drops being a popular mod for modern sports cars in the future. Porsche especially seem to get criticised for long gearing a lot of the time.

Yes, sorry. That makes sense.

[GG.]

Anyway, liked the car. I can see final drive drops being a popular mod for modern sports cars in the future. Porsche especially seem to get criticised for long gearing a lot of the time.

This would be very interesting but the one downside I guess is its a bit of a fudge in that it would make the car undriveable at motorway speeds.

If you shortened the final drive to put top speed on the 997 at say 150ish instead of 187, I'd guess 80ish mph in 6th would be >3.5k revs at which point the varioram kicks in making the typical 'wooor' noise the flat 6s are known for. That'd get tiring within about 5 minutes I'd guess and be disastrous for fuel economy.

The real solution is 're-gearing' and maintain a long 6th gear, sadly that would be a lot more expensive...

[scotta]

I was amazed at how cheap it was to do the conversion. I'd expect there to be a massive queue of CSL owners looking to do this and sod the originality... keep a box of the old bits to put it back if necessary.

The e60 M5 would be a great one to do too.

Paging @Marv

[mik]

I always loved the CSL apart from the box which was a massive turn off. Which is why I looked at a manuel CS instead.

Marv's car is gorgeous, but if it is easy to change.....

it can't be shifter alone.... clutch and pedal Shirley..... and no dropping the final drive on anything never appealed for the cruising impact noted above. If there was a yearning void between ratios - ok - but otherwise I don't see the point having a moan about 4th being too long if you could be in 3rd.

[Carlos]

Harry made an unusual comment about the gearbox still being notchy since the conversion.

It's the same gearbox but with the automated shift removed ?!

They were always stiff. I remember someone describing it as knuckley back in the day.

[ZedLeg]

Anyway, liked the car. I can see final drive drops being a popular mod for modern sports cars in the future. Porsche especially seem to get criticised for long gearing a lot of the time.

This would be very interesting but the one downside I guess is its a bit of a fudge in that it would make the car undriveable at motorway speeds.

If you shortened the final drive to put top speed on the 997 at say 150ish instead of 187, I'd guess 80ish mph in 6th would be >3.5k revs at which point the varioram kicks in making the typical 'wooor' noise the flat 6s are known for. That'd get tiring within about 5 minutes I'd guess and be disastrous for fuel economy.

The real solution is 're-gearing' and maintain a long 6th gear, sadly that would be a lot more expensive...

It’s depend on how you’re using it I guess.

Something like a Cayman GT4 which is likely to be part of a collection in future would be a good candidate imo.

I’m coming at this from the muscle car/drag racing point of view where swapping diffs is a couple of hours work and people do it all the time though, I’m sure it’s more complicated with modern cars

[Nathan]

Harry made an unusual comment about the gearbox still being notchy since the conversion.

It's the same gearbox but with the automated shift removed ?!

They were always stiff. I remember someone describing it as knuckley back in the day.

I've only sat in E46 M3s but never driven one. TBF E46 330i manuals were not a great shift.

[Rich B]

I had my e46 M3 for 5 years and 30k+ miles, I can't remember the gearshift being any specific notchy/knuckles/etc, so I'm assuming it was just a nice shift.

[integrale_evo]

I was amazed at how cheap it was to do the conversion. I'd expect there to be a massive queue of CSL owners looking to do this and sod the originality... keep a box of the old bits to put it back if necessary.

The e60 M5 would be a great one to do too.

Cheap?

Sounded bloody expensive to me considering the country is littered with scrapped e46s to knock a pedal box out of and m3 gearboxes are hardly rare.

If you want to you can even use a sprung aftermarket shift lever and don’t even have to drop the gearbox. Just unbolt all the smg stuff, stick in a manual pedal box, bolt on the softer and get the electronics recoded. Keen DIYer could probably do it in a weekend for about £500.

[integrale_evo]

Bmw shifts always get stick for being a bit notchy. Everything on the internet says the last good shift they did was the 5 speed 3.0 e36 m3 box.

Personally I never had an issue with the evo 6 speeder which itself is virtually identical to the e46 box, but there are loads of threads of people complaining about them and trying various lotions and potions to make them smoother.