Your fleet running reports

[JLv3.0]

He's not.

[Nic]

I know I’ve got a thread lower down but I just don’t find time to update it so I’ll just stick stuff in here when I remember.

After the previous power run of 240 just to get it safe and running it had massive lag issues and far too much torque, there was a big shove of it at around 3300rpm which would cause massive torque steer and it made it pretty scary to drive to the point it dragged me around in which ever direction it wanted.  Coming out of a bend in 2nd, do you want oncoming traffic or the side verge? Attempting to pull in 4th on the motorway, do you want the car next to you or the centre reservation? But it was driving and this made me happy!  So while Ieuan was on holiday I thought it best to get the suspension set up done properly to eliminate any chance of that being my torque steer issues. I headed up to a business called avia autos in Bridgend, run by an old racer and his daughter (her daily is an old patina’d F150) and he spent a few hours on it, corner weighted and camber set up with a bias towards fast road use.  

He was brilliant to talk too, lots of racing stories. Shane came with me and asked him what equipment he was going to use.  Andy replied with a piece of string, the seat of my arse and what’s between my ears  :D corner weighting and geo done and for the first time ever I’ve got an actual real figure of what it weighs with a tank of fuel.



928kgs.  Not that I was specifically aiming for a set power to weight but in my head I’d thought that 300bhp/tonne would be an achievable and realistic goal, and now the car is a good 100kgs heavier than I thought it would be, fingers crossed the mapping gives me what I want.

Roll on another week and Ieuan is back from holidays and we set about mapping it again, new Bosch 550 injectors in, change of spark plugs for ngk’s and we go at it again, this time I asked Ieuan to reduce the torque as much as possible and make peak torque higher up the rev range too, this should help with the torque steer issues and result in a much better drive. Don’t quote me on this as I’m no expert but having variable valve timing with the AUM engine means you can still get the power you want but by retarding ignition you can reign in the torque, this might be total bollocks but it’s how I understand it.  End result is this.



274.6bhp and 260lb/ft torque on a dyno at 22 degree with peak boost of 18psi, the after resulted in a lower output due to heat soak, something that was inevitable in this freakishly good weather we’ve been having.  After this we went out on the road to check for flatspots and pulled peak boost of 20psi and over boost of 21psi  :D Even though the turbo, intercooler and injectors are good for more I think the block is at its reliable limit.  More importantly is how it now drives, it’s still scary, more so than before but a lot more controllable, power is linear and relentless.



Not sure if I really went in to any detail about the interior before, it was pretty much perfect since Dave did it but I’d always wanted a CAE shifter but they are mega bucks so I got the boys to fab up a box to mount the cheapy eBay short shifter under, the feel and weight is spot on and it looks fantastic  8) Are gear changes quicker as a result? Probably but who cares when it looks that good.

And that pretty much brings it up to date, the last week weeks have been about testing it out for reliability and now I’m just going to enjoy it while we still have the weather, I’ve booked a hill climb at Shelsley Walsh for a couple of weekends time and I hope to do a track day before the end of the summer, other than that I’ve used it as much as I can after a year or two of barely looking at it  8)

[speedingfine]

Brilliant Nic

[JLv3.0]

Wonderful, and wonderfully mental, and looks wonderful. And is wonderful.

[unzippy]

See - that's what Aussies are supposed to be like. But they're not! Most of them are bloody vegan fair-trade coffee shop barristas who get all bent out of shape at the drop of a hat. Fake News!

They sound Kiwi to me...

[JLv3.0]

Y'reckon? Didn't sound nasal enough to be Kiwis

[Coaster1]

295bhp / tonne

More than my picnic table

[Jimmy Choo]

Good darts, Nic. It looks great and I'm a big fan of the wheels.

Did the setup sort out the torque steer?

[Nic]

Thanks.

Wheels are a love hate for me at the moment, I might go back to my old super turismos now that they’ve been refurbed. These are quite retro and kind of suit it but the super turismos are more motorsport and easier to clean. Talking of which, many a time I’ve pulled it out of its tent with the intention of cleaning it and I’ve just kept on driving it of course then comes back even more filthy and I’m too tired and hyped up too wash it.

Geo didn’t really sort out the torque steer but it gave me confidence in the car that it was setup up correctly and now I’ve learnt to drive around the torque steer, like sticking my left foot on the brake to lock the diff up quicker while accelerating, also the better mapping and lower torque make it easier to avoid torque steering too much. It still crabs left before straightening up at motorway speeds

Coaster, it pulled an extra 2 psi boost out on the road due to the heat soak in the rollers so im pretty sure it just sneaks over the 300bhp/tonne mark

[JLv3.0]

Explain the correlation between heat soak and additional boost to me? Wouldn't whatever boost control device you're using activate at the same pressure regardless of temperature?

[Nic]

Explain the correlation between heat soak and additional boost to me? Wouldn't whatever boost control device you're using activate at the same pressure regardless of temperature?

Car was being live mapped. At 18psi it pulled the above figures, on the next run it shut down and only pulled 16psi and 265bhp. Ieuan then suggested we head out on to the road and continue the live mapping as there will be more air going through the intercooler and radiator, at which point it held 20psi and over boosted to 21psi.

I’ve copied and pasted this from elsewhere -
“Heat soak is when the intercooler can't dissipate the heat that it absorbs from the turbo fast enough. When an intercooler can't cool the charge air by removing the heat from it, it loses its effectiveness. This explains why turbo cars tend to run slower or have slightly less power when the weather is warm.”

[JLv3.0]

Ah so it was actively pulling boost back when it was heat-soaked, gotcha.

[Nic]

Yup! God knows what it will be like when the weather cools down a bit.

[JLv3.0]

What's it supposed to boost to? 1.5 bar / 21 psi is plenty!

[Simon]

Just back from having a hunter geo done on the car. All straight and true and probably drives like's new now.

Still on the lookout for something to replace it but at least I've confidence it'll get through the MOT now.

[Nic]

What's it supposed to boost to? 1.5 bar / 21 psi is plenty!

I think it is capped at 20, with 21 overboost, I mean more how it feels as turbo cars always feel crisper when it’s cool.

[_BP_]

Bought an old car because I wanted to buy one

Nicely done Ste, I have many a hankering for cars of a similar ilk hence my Renault 4 parked next to my FF

I have a complete but damaged Corvette Z06 with LS7 coming soon for parts by the way

I've been meaning to post a fleet update for a while now so while I'm here...


Ferrari FF



Finally got the FF sorted and usable. Perhaps not surprisingly it's mega, extremely fast and sounds amazing. It is massive...



...but that also means it's pretty practical



And this shows how freaking huge it is compared to my F355 (same wheelbase as a full size Range Rover apparently)

But it's too valuable and too thirsty to use every day so...


BMW E92 335i





I had a MK6 Golf R that I didn't really like and I'd fancied one of these for a while and when someone offered this in part ex I jumped at the chance. As you can see it's not exactly standard and was sporting around 400bhp. Unfortunately the power coupled with the suspension mods made it pretty much unusable on anything other than billiard smooth tarmac and there's not much of that in the UK so it went after a few weeks and was replaced with...


BMW 735i M Sport





I've bored the forum enough about these over the years but it's still one of my favourite models so when this one with 30k miles came up in Japan for a couple of grand I had to have it. It's one of those cars you get in and everything feels just right, not evo at all but very good at what it was designed to do and to my eyes one of BMW's best designs too. Very happy with it indeed. Although I do still really want a Supercharged Range Rover.


Merc SLS AMG



Been using this a bit recently too but it's developed a knock from the steering column/rack since the engine was put back in after the rebuild so I need to get that looked at. Still one of the best cars I've had, love it



Projects

So with 3 small children, 2 jobs, and a falling down old house, obviously I need something to do with all my spare time


1986 Alpina C2 2.5







Bought this recently in Japan and as it's already been messed with and the C2 2.5 is not the most exciting model, I'm going to resto-mod it with an E46 Alpina B3 S 3.4 engine. It's already had an E30 M3 5 stud conversion done so I can also put some proper Alpina 17" wheels from an E34 on it. Should be pretty cool when it's done... if it's ever done, should probably finish my 325i Sport first


Renault Clio V6





I've sold a couple of these before and really liked them so when this one came up in Japan for a good price I bought it to hold on to. It's very low mileage but has had a poor paint job in the past so is currently being repainted.


1974 Porsche 911 MFI 'Euro' Carrera



I currently have a 1987 Renault 5 Turbo 2 in stock (which probably most of you would restore and keep rather than the Clio V6) and I've been offered this in part ex. It's a little known model that is mechanically more or less the same as the fabled 1973 2.7 RS although this is an uglier impact bumper car and therefore more of a niche market. This one has had Turbo arches fitted at some point and was originally Viper Green so my plan is to leave the body as is and return it to the original colour.


Stock cars

Some of the more interesting stuff I've got or got coming...

1987 Renault 5 Turbo 2



The aforementioned vehicle, unused for over 10 years and in need of a complete overhaul. I do like them but would rather have the also aforementioned 911 in my collection.


2010 Brabus Tesla Roadster







Another one that's been left standing by it's Japanese owner so the battery is now a brick. Current waiting list is 1-2 years from Tesla but even then they seem to be having problems with the new battery packs. So not sure what I'll do with it but at least it was cheap


2006 Mitsubishi Evo 9 MR Wagon



Super rare MR wagon which there can only be a handful of in the UK


1991 Mercedes G300



Never had one before and don't know what to expect but thought I'd give it a go. Probably terrible.


Also a 5,000 mile Testarossa but no photo as it just looks like a Testarossa, and another oddball estate - a 2007 BMW 550i M Sport Touring in police spec white.

That's it for now, apologies for the stupidly long post!

[JLv3.0]

So nothing interesting?

Begone.

[ste]

Fuck yes Bryn.

I bet you really spend your days worrying about other people's watch straps.

[JLv3.0]

He has a Testarossa but deemed it unworthy of a pic.

Fucking HERO