Thousand Dollar Supercar

Yeah, those teledial alloys are still on my grey car. The steel wheels that came on that car went to the scrapyard on the silver demolition derby car. Don't you powdercoat your wheels that yellow, that looks awful. I reckon the tire bulges (there were two) can't really be blamed on the accident, even though they were on the wheel from the area which got hit by the other car. That tire had been requiring weekly inflation over the past month and it was feeling slightly square on the trip down to Hamilton, before the crash. The bulges developed gradually on the motorway on the inner shoulder of the tire, where you don't think to check. =|

Black car: Failed its WOF again for the same reason both 33s keep failing - right drum brake weaker than left. I stalled it in busy traffic in the middle of a main road in the Albany Mega Centre area today, and it decided to do its slow cranking thing so I couldn't get it restarted. I spent a minute or so cranking it over in the hopes that the intermittent fault would go away again, but it didn't. So I pushed it off into a parking lot where I picked up enough speed that I could roll start it. And later, when I opened the bonnet to stare angrily at nothing, I found something! Big surprise, a bad electrical connection. (where the cable is crimped into the battery terminal connector) This would only play up sometimes, but this time me cranking the engine for ages got it hot enough to melt insulation and give itself away. Death. Ripped out the battery ground wire. Ripped out the engine earth strap. Ripped out the positive lead from the battery to the starter motor. Threw them all in the bin. Bought new battery terminal connectors. Put in shorter runs of fresh and thicker cable. Chopped off and replaced every other ring terminal which used these same grounding points. The wires I threw in the bin vanished in smoke and the electrical gremlins scattered to the darkest reaches of the wiring loom. (You thought they were dead? Dead? No, you cannot kill them. No.) Grey car: Was painting roof and hatch (above), now finished. Looks like rubbish but is still the best painting I've done so far. One day I'll bother to get the proper gear and do a good job! (yeah right..) Car passed its WOF, got a wheel alignment and torn steering arm ball joint boots replaced. Still keeps blocking a carby jet despite new fuel filter and rubber fuel hose. Company car: No longer having trouble starting. Someone else crashed into it though - she thought she could turn right from the outside lane of a roundabout, while I was in the inner lane trying to exit. And on the way back from Hamilton that same day, one of the tires did this: All the tires had been dodgy since we got the car, but now I had proof. Car got a new set of tires and is going in for panelwork for 5 working days (hooray!)

Yay the Cordia! 1985 would probably be an AB model, from memory. They were the fastest but I don't think they had the vented front discs of the later models? You might want to deal with the cause of the white smoke first and then reassess the misfire situation afterward. The trusty Cordia GSR seems to have a hundred different common faults, like cracked exhaust manifolds or air leaks or bad vacuum lines or leaky injectors or dodgy sensors etc, so I'd assume nothing and start eliminating the easiest possibilities first. Spark plugs? There's still some Cordia gurus who hang around at the cordiapower.com forums - give them a try too.

Looks very tidy. Before you lower it or change the wheels etc, you could see if it could earn you a bit of extra cash as a wedding car. Might have to be bogan weddings though...

If I understood you guys right, I should be able to use the Link to dial out my cam lobe wear, recalibrate my suspension and upload a new fuel map to the carbs. The turbo boost should help crank my engine over faster on startup, and excess can be plumbed into my ventilation system so it finally blows a decent volume of air. Sorted. I took the source files for this image at 640*480 by mistake. If I rub the Link on my camera's memory stick, perhaps I can get it to increase their resolution...

Black car: Wheel alignment done (plus lower balljoint boot replaced), and fingers crossed the car can clatter through another track day this weekend. I'm liking the feeling of extra high speed control from my super rigid and bouncy suspension, but not the feeling of springing up and down in the spongy old seats all the way down the motorway.. Grey car: Thought I might improve some of the rubbish paint on the roof and the hatch. I should have left well enough alone, because what did I find? Rust (along the edges of the roof).. And more rust (at the lower corners of the rear windscreen).. Car is slowly being painted really badly using spray bombs. And when that's done, it can get a wheel alignment so it'll drive straight when I push it over a cliff... Company car: Somebody spilt takeaways on the passenger seat, and another somebody backed into a front guard and didn't leave a note. The transmission, the traction control and I are coming to a mutual understanding - I understand that they suck and they understand I hate them. Accordingly, the 'check engine' light is now on because some newschool problem is causing intermittent hard starting.

My mysterious slow cranking speed problem reared its Italian head too. It only seems to happen when lots of people are watching. Engine soon decided to crank over fast again and start up, so I was sweet (until next time...)

I don't think I actually went faster last trackday. The fledgeling motorsport startup, ThoUsand dollar supercar Race Development Specialists, are still a bit inexperienced and I.. um.. they didn't realise the car would need a wheel alignment because of the change of ride height. So I spent a lot of track time understeering, spinning wheels and producing unusual tire wear patterns. But anyway, Phase 2.5 - shorter rear shocks. http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/lowering/newrearshocks2.jpg http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/lowering/newrearshocks3.jpg http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/lowering/newrearshocks4.jpg Zing, shiny new suspension components! The guy at the suspension shop and I chose these shocks from the specs catalogue because they were the right length and had the closest match to the Alfa's mountings. To make them fit, I first had to grind 1mm off each end of the metal eye which runs through the rubber bush at the bottom of the shock. I then had to drill out the holes in the axle's shock mounting brackets, because apparently nobody but Alfa uses 8mm bolts to hold shocks on. The new shocks took 10mm bolts, and I got some spangley ones plus nyloc nuts from Mitre 10. I had to get the upper spring pan thingies (between spring and rubber seat bush) welded because they'd both cracked through since having the new springs in with the too-long shocks. And how does it drive with the new shocks? The rear is preposterously firm. It felt about right when I had 100kg of work gear in the boot, but I think I'll have to run less tire pressure and hope things loosen up. That's what I get for fitting my little hatchback with shocks designed for a Mercedes! At least now I can get that wheel alignment. Grey car: Scored the normal-length rear shocks out of the black car. These replaced its curious Alfa-branded ones that had lower bushes too narrow for the mounting brackets, which allowed dodgy-looking free play as the shock could slide along its mounting bolt. Grey car still continually blocks the same idle jet, which will eventually unblock after a long drive. I am going to try replacing the transparent plastic tubing some previous idiot installed as fuel hose, incase it is decaying and causing the jet-blocking debris.

I've got a work job which starts at 5:30.. It should be pretty quick but I may turn up late and driving a groovy auto Atenza. Ooh ooh how about this?

If you're doing it while braking, see if you can keep pressure on the brake pedal with your toes / ball of your foot and use your heel / side of your foot to blip the throttle. May be difficult depending on relative pedal positionings in the Skoda. I find it's only necessary or possible to do this when you're driving hard - the rest of the time I brake as normal then worry about the gear when I need to accelerate again. If I've slowed enough I may not need double clutching to engage the lower gear. This is making me depressed that my company car's an auto..

These cars are rear-engined RWD aren't they? Would they have a cable-driven speedometer? If they do, no wonder it wobbles around! My car has an electric speedo which flicks around when the electrical connections play up. With the gearbox thing, it wouldn't hurt to check the oil level. Also, have you tried double clutching? Basically when changing from 3rd to 2nd, begin by shifting to neutral, take your foot off the clutch, give a quick rev to approximately the revs you expect the engine to be doing if you were in 2nd at that road speed, put your foot back on the clutch and engage 2nd. The exact technique might vary a bit between cars, but this helps me change down more easily in my 33s. It is pretty essential if I hope to get into 1st while the car's moving! It might also be something Skoda drivers have to live with. Just tell yourself it's forcing you to think ahead and become a better driver / legendary gearbox ninja.

If something was organised I'd go along to it if I was free, but I'm also fine with Dominion Road / Ellerslie / the regular monthly meet.

Botany Downs is too far from anywhere. Alistair, just bring some black lights and an inverter, then we can bask in the glow of the Bellet!

I dunno dude, you kinda look like a Wiggle.

Fun but too easy for everyone here, which means if your kart is a teeny bit slower or you're a teeny bit fatass you haven't got a shot. Maybe the electric karts can be more easily matched in power?

Is the BX GTi the same as the BX 16 Valve, with the Peugeot Mi-16 engine? I almost bought a tidy black BX 16 Valve years ago after my Cordia, but I was spooked by its recent bottom end rebuild. It was a close call - I nearly ended up a Citroen man, all height-adjustable and with a plastic bonnet..

Ohms are the units that electrical resistance is measured in, like how you measure current in amps, distance in metres etc. Every speaker has a resistance (sometimes called impedance instead), and common values are 4 ohms or 8 ohms. As far as I know, all you have to watch out for is that you don't connect a 2 ohm speaker to an amp only designed to drive speakers of 4 ohms or higher, for example. Also, everyone seems to have assumed the single RCA output is the only output from your head unit. That would be a weird head unit, only capable of working in mono! The RCA might be the subwoofer output, and it might only send out low frequencies. In that case you don't want to use it to drive anything other than an amp which will power a subwoofer. Some of the other wires from the headunit will probably be for connecting to normal speakers, through an amp if you want though not required.

Spot what's new. So I got to thinking, how can I get the edge this trackday? Thorough scientific research was employed. Phase one was to reduce weight. Not just any weight, unsprung weight. Because I read this will have additional benefits to handling, traction, acceleration, everything. I looked at my mags. http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/wheels/coating_marks.jpg http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/wheels/corrosion.jpg http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/wheels/flaking_off.jpg Not very pretty. So I bought a cheap power drill and stripped the coating off the rims. Result - many grams saved. Probably. I had to audition various attachments and techniques over bloody ages until I achieved this finish: It doesn't look too flash up close, but my goal was ultimate performance. Phase two of my plan? Track-focussed handling. I'm talking fixing the hilarious Alfa body roll to improve cornering speeds, reducing dive to increase braking performance, improving aerodynamics for maximum top speeds.. Booyah, lowering springs! Bet you didn't know they made them specially for the Alfa 33! (nor did I, until I saw them on TradeMe second hand..) They're some German brand, and the installation guide says things like "An all-inclusive programme is offered with four different product lines, customized to specific needs of pretentious customers" and "Mounting should therefore not be carried out by private persons but only by trained personnel from a workshop, who dispose of appropriate mounting instructions from the manufacturer..." After careful consideration I decided it would be more in keeping with the spirit of oldschool to fit the springs myself, at the last minute. http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/lowering/finished1.jpg http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/lowering/finished4.jpg The rear springs aren't exactly captive at the car's generous full extension (bonus 50% longer than competitors at no extra charge), but we won't mention that for now. Shorter shocks shall be purchased later, in Phase 2.5. I've still got more to finish than I've got days to do it, but the main bits are mostly done. This evening I even changed the oil. So as you see, my rigorous performance development program will have the Supercar going better than ever for its oldschool trackday comeback. http://www.axys.co.nz/ben/alfa33/lowering/lrfar_sm.jpg The only thing that could possibly be my undoing is the rear brake bias valve. This senses the height of the back axle (hence the weight over the rear tyres) and regulates braking force to the rear accordingly. My lowered suspension may lead to a few wheel lockups. I'll probably have to set my engineering team to work on that problem at a later date. Whatever the fix, rest assured it shall be precising and scientificable. Grey car: required more money to get its latest WOF (brakes AGAIN), and a certain carb jet keeps blocking up. Need to sort this and one or two other bits before I can put it on the market.

He's my saboteur. I brought him along to take out my competition for the track day. By the time Sheepers figures out what's in his petrol tank, it'll be too late!

Shuddup you. I'm going to be collecting a friend from Royal Oak so I'll have to leave earlier and won't be meeting anyone at Foodtown. I tried to convince my friend to meet at my house so we could each take one of my 33s, but somehow he wasn't keen on that idea.

Yeah but you think your mini will be finished and make it to a track day. The voucher says "This is legal tender for $2.00 off any Burger at Burgerfuel Ellerslie."

And last time we were there, they gave us vouchers that can cunningly only be used at Burgerfuel Ellerslie.

Alfa Romeo used either Weber or Dellorto twin carbies on their boxer engines, 36mm on the 1490cc engine and 40mm on the 1712cc. So 40s should logically be fine for a standard Hunter engine. Fuel economy from my two 33s is almost never worse than 10l/100km. It won't win any awards but it's not guzzling gas to a significant extent. I've had cars with hilariously out of tune carbs, but when I get them put right they stay that way for a good while. Not just a month, maybe a year or so - something else always interferes with them. (I've had dirt get stuck in jets causing missing on idle or light throttle, I've had an accelerator pump jet unscrew and fall out, and I've made things worse myself on a few occasions. Most recently I removed emulsion tubes from my grey 33's Webers to blow them out with compressed air, but I must have dislodged more muck and now there's occasional backfiring even when I'm on the throttle. =| ) (Edit: And now the car runs on three cylinders half the time.) Murray from Weber Specialties said he liked the Alfa boxer engine setup because the linkage between the carbs was substantial and well made, not like Triumphs etc which use "knitting needles". Conclusion is twin carbs are not the devil, but are something to have even just for the cool factor.

Welcome to my first ever venture into the scary Tech Forum. This is me right now. I've taken three factory painted wheels back to bare metal with stripping discs and a power drill, then sanded and polished them. Power drill is almost wrecked, work area is a mess, I still need to source another wheel and the shine isn't so great. Using fine grades of wet-and-dry prior to buffing with a buffing attachment and cake of magic polishing compound gave a dull and cloudy result for some reason - surface needed to be rougher? But my question is, how do I protect the wheels now? Presumably the bare metal will be harder to clean, more vulnerable to brake dust and will eventually oxidise etc? If I spray them with any old clear topcoat, I'm worried that the heat from my front brakes might fry the clear coat off next track day. A former flatmate works at a professional wheel repair place, and he showed me the clear coat stuff they spray straight onto bare metal. It said nothing about heat resistance. Apparently this is followed up by coats of the normal 2-pac clear (or something), and I could talk them down to $100/wheel to coat mine in this manner. Not worth it considering the quality of my preparation work! (Curbing? Meet mister rigid sandpaper disc..)

Pity they weren't Cheviot Turbos, you'd have been set for life! '70s GTOs are awesome and must never be allowed to die. You have a responsibility to all of us here to keep that thing going, we'll be watching!