mikuni

This makes me oh so happy. Going to take a decent look at the pictures when I'm not at work.

I fixed the northland bit, as I know the roads up there. Continuing on SH12 through the Wairoa Forest is epic and you can go see Tāne Mahuta (the giant Kauri tree) if that's your bag. Also Kai Iwi lakes North of Dargaville, which are nice but probably nothing on SI lakes. Only problem is the Rawene ferry trip, which is hit or miss. You might want to flag that bit and carry on up/down SH12 through Kaikohe. If you can divert your travels up the East Coast North of Whangarei where possible theres some nice beaches there too, but again it adds quite a bit of time (heading out to Oakura for instance). SH16 out west auckland is better than SH1 too, takes longer, but worth doing. Also, you're doing SH3 down the West Coast but you might want to consider doing SH43 - the Forgotten World Highway. I've not done it yet but it has been mentioned on here numerous times in these sorts of threads and might be better than SH3 if you want to explore? SH3 is cool though, from memory. Alternate link edit: Also, don't underestimate the travelling distances up in the far North. It doesn't look far, but for various reasons it can take a long time to travel anywhere. Kaitaia is a fair hike from Whangarei.

That's some great power. I wonder how it makes that much. It's almost as if it's some kind of breakthrough engine with an advanced mechanism system.

Be honest, did you get a little bit grumpy at that orange commodore?

Bugger any kind of electronic solinoid or anything like that. Even with backup power in a sweet crash I wouldn't trust it. Some Helicopters have a similar issue with forward and up folding doors. They just have a quick release pin system so if you get in the shit you just pull a cord and off they come. I've seen them used a bit because the pilots often remove the doors for flying. Very simple and nice and light. Unfortunately I can't get any decent pics, but you get the idea no doubt.

What model Vectra do you have and what are your plans? Seems to be more and more people playing around with them for some reason Forget the DC5 stuff. While it would probably work without too much work, the ones I got seem to have a welded cast section on them which I don't think would pass certification for road use. I'm probably going to just go with some off the shelf cartridge style coilovers, likely from a BMW E30/36. It will need a little welding to make allowance for the steering and lower mount, but should give the best end product and the easiest to cert if you do want to use it on the road. Cheers for the encouragement. Have stalled a little at the moment but finally have a little bit of money set aside, not enough to get it done but enough to have a think about where I should throw some money first, if anywhere. Check out the opel forum if you haven't already. A bit of info around there and a decent base of parts for many Opels including C20XE engines if you ever need anything.

No, just that they don't help the problem much. You still need one to get a decent vacuum signal for MAP, which you will need to have it run super sweet as a road car.My old Chevette was running alpha-n only and was sweet for power at wide open throttle, but as you probably knew it ran a bit rich everywhere else and had a slight stutter when you blip the throttle. Tims managed to tune most of this out, I think still on alpha-n, but it would be supreme to get a decent vac accumulator and tune it with the MAP sensor connected, not to mention other things like cold start enrichment and some sort of idle control valve/actuator if you want to be real flash. Good idea.

yeah nah, don't do that. do this

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but the old DTM 190 Evolutions had only the upper part of the door, above the lateral cage tubes open. It looked awesome but I can never find decent pictures, just seen it in old DTM vids.

looks so much sweeter with the roof un ranga fied

The Auckland Trabant was at galaxy of cars last year. It's in tidy condition and got a surprisingly high amount of interest, though most of it was with a bit of a smirk, as you might imagine. Looking forward to seeing some more pics of this.

I think R80's are flat twins, so probably won't be the best. Getting the size right is one thing, a 1256 won't need too much and the standard carb has a throat about the size of your thumb, so really anything would run it. Ease of rejetting is the question I'd be asking. Just make sure the carbs you chose are easy to change the jets on, either drilling or buying some to the right size - you should be able to get it nearly right by searching the interweb to see what people are using on similar setups, mini's etc. Problem with v or flat twin bike engines is that the carbs are independant so you'll need to muck around making linkages to have them opperate in unison. Ideally you want a single dual throat carb or multiples that run an inline engine. Even if you get 4 of them you could seperate them of cut them down to run a pair. I'd say little 32's off a 600 Honda or something would be plenty for a 1256. Honestly people will tell you that you need a pair of 45's or some crap but I really don't think that's the case.

Cage?

Just on a phone so can't post sweet pics but check this link for some suggestions for an airbox setup. Obviously you have space issues, but a compact version of below could be worth looking at. http://www.google.co.nz/search?tbm=isch ... ih=208#p=0 But overall who cares. No one does ITBs and my opinion is suboptimal ITBs are better than the perfect setup that doesn't fit or that you will never get going. And any ITBs are better than a standard boring intake!

planning on getting a bit of action there ten phive?

No. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1167&p=835165&hilit=crack#p835165

BMWs use a similar rear setup where the springs are separate to the shocks http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-par ... 250198.htm But you can also get an inverted rear coilover shock, which may work for you as it is designed to work with a small turret http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-par ... 538094.htm the seller above is a good guy and may even sell rear only. XYZ seem to be ok. I haven't heard anything bad yet from anyone who has used them, only people who don't like the name.

|I've been in a standard 3T-C powered KE35 before and i'm pretty sure a clean running 4K would smoke it. I know those guys muck around with 3T's and get crazy power out of them, but only because they don't have anything better to put in like we do.

yeah just a standard chevette open diff, about as big as my fist surprisingly strong though and much more likely to spin both wheels than a Gemini one for some reason (probably not what you want to hear).

awesome man, nice score. this is one million times better than that diseasle one from up here. stoked you got something so (apparently) clean

I can't comment on the Gemini diff, because I know people break them for time to time, but the Chevette diff behind the X20XEV making ~100kw at the wheels is still going strong 5 years later. It didn't get abused too badly, but did see some track time and now a skid or 2, so if you go easy-ish it will be fine.Weighed my flat flywheel tonight and it seemed to be less than 7kg. Pretty inaccurate scale though, so will weigh it again when I get a new battery in the digital one.

If you're going to hydraulic clutch can you just get something like this? I can't comment on the Manta release bearing, but worth looking into, as if you can get things off the shelf that are made to work then everything will be much easier. Cobbling it together and figuring it out as you go like I did isn't the easiest way of doing things.

Gaz, he got two VN boxes with his XE's! Flywheel changed some time in 1993, so if you ask for a clutch kit from a car 89-93 (or thereabouts) you should be right. Then you just need to sort out the release bearing issue I mentioned earlier. On that, here's an example of what I was talking about. Shown below are Nissan release bearings, I'm not sure what exact model will suit still, but you should be able to find it if you take yours into a clutch place and measure ID etc. Obviously the extended one of the left will push out further than the one on the right, which won't even come into contact with the pressure plate. You can see Nissan guys can get it wrong if they buy the wrong clutch kit also.

Sounds like you have the flat type flywheels which is good news. You'd definitely know if you have the pot type, as they are a heavy POS. Pot type from later models on the left, flat type on the right. 7kg sounds about right.