Alfashark

Currently waiting a couple of years for the Cupra Born to start being traded in - Similar size to a Mk7 Golf, sufficient power and decent range. 

Being VW's slightly mental Spanish cousin, it'll be a lot of fun if SEAT/Cupra past models are anything to go by.

So, from discussion last night, this is a roll your own adventure - He simply got the idea from sharning with some friends of his who ride - Like him, they've done their time on farm bikes and small road bikes and progressed up to some decent sport bikes.  

As far as route planning goes, that's to be worked out yet as it's over a year away, so plenty of opportunities to avoid certain death. The wife is keen on joining for some legs, as her titanium spine won't deal with prolonged 2 wheeled punishment but is already in talks with my sister about providing service vehicle + trailer duties.

Further details to come when planning actually results in firm ideas.

24 minutes ago, square said:

I played the confused boomer at one in omarama yesterday, drove there from chch, car told me to stop there and force feed it. The thing ( charger and car ) made some interesting noises getting juice rammed in at 600 odd amps.  The car said it was preconditioning the battery pack for superchargering before we got there whatever that means 

 

Impressive though, 350ks extra range in 20 minutes 

Tesla yeah? If you pick the charging station on the nav screen, it starts preconditioning (elevates, or cools I suppose) the battery back to the optimum to achieve the maximum available charging rate.  

@Ned will be able to explain it better.

Unsure myself yet - Will attempt to find further details tonight.

So, the bro in law just sold his S1000RR and bought this:

with the intention of doing the 125cc or less, Cape Reinga - Bluff? ride next year...

I said I'd do it in the most punishing style on something 50cc or less. I'm thinking Gyro for maximum grot/durry punching goodness.

Come on now, start with a full size one and whittle it down...

If you feel like going back to pleb-spec with a brush, a lot of Japanese armour was painted with brooms...

That way you be historically accurate and it hides a lot of sins.

The usual italian crunch on upshift to 2nd?

I got very good at splitting scavenged 33 boxes to find good synchro rings, or just taking the one from 5th and slipping it into 2nd. 

Stab in the dark, but a povo-spec 147/156 box won't fit?

Ahh true, I'm not well versed in transverse setup Italian cars. I thought there would be a bit more plug and play Latin Lego going on.

What flavour box is it? Would a clutch from something like a Punto turbo work? I imagine that'd be a bit higher rated than one from an NA combo.

10 hours ago, flyingbrick said:

I would like to re-iterate that Hamilton's charging situation is terrible. 

Had two cars lined up behind me yesterday and I have way less fucks when people try muscle their way in.

It seems like every second use of this particular public charger has someone tapping on my window asking how long I'm going to be, then loudly talking amongst themselves about how busy they are etc.. then they pace around between their car and the charger, constantly checking the amount of charge I have and looking at me like I should care.

Nah mate, im on 70% and this was going to be enough but since you are being rude and making me uncomfortable, I'm going to 90.

 

Got em at the BP and Z stations up there yet?

3 new chargers at the Z in Putaruru,  2 at the BP in Tirau and 2 Chargenet ones in the public carpark in Tirau behind Enchanted Cafe.

Cleveland Station this arvo... Spied the 33 from a distance and thought, fuck yes a Series 3. Got up close and even better, Series 3 P4!

18 minutes ago, locost_bryan said:

Isn't that true for all hybrids? Don't they rely on regen braking to top up the battery, so only work well in urban areas, or maybe hilly winding rural areas.

No, try a Niro. 

Putaruru - North Shore - Papakura - North Shore - Putaruru = 3.7L/100km, and of that, the journey from Papakura onwards was 3-up with around 300kg in the boot.

Without trawling through banana boxes of car magazines/stick mags from the early 2000s for one of the multitude of articles decrying it, here's a snip from Wiki:

Yes - Perhaps not from the same generation as the Vectra C, but yeah there was a big song and dance about Alfa using a GM core from their modular family and adding their own heads to give it a proper Alfa sound and feel. 

Seemed to do the trick, it's no Busso, but they make all the right noises and certainly feel right.

If you were feeling brave, I'm sure you could find a stacked Alfa 147/156 GTA and use that - GM 3.2 core with their own heads etc. Should be a lot more room for belt & tensioner changes too.

15 minutes ago, VitesseEFI said:

It’s out of one of the Vauxhall/Opel Omega family I believe. Most of them were auto I think. Possibly because GM don’t have a manual that will last the warranty period. 
I’ll see if I can get more detail.

 
If he were to put it up for sale I might struggle to resist the temptation…..

Found in Saab 9-3 and Vectra C down this end of the globe

It's the shit for painting canopy framing on aircraft models - Let's you run a super fine line that's dead straight and then Boom! Peel it off and you'll be the envy of all the kitset Barry world.

Is Maskol still a thing? Clear liquid latex in a bottle, slather it on then when it's dry, run your blade around the edge of the wheel and paint to your heart's content. When the paint dries, peel the Maskol off and you're done.

That said, look at the mileage on some of their rotary powered daily-drivers...

Puts the local ones to shame.

That half finished Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind kit I've got stashed in the garage, must be taken from the regular Panzer IV mouldings as there's about a million parts on the sprues that aren't mentioned on the instructions and wouldn't work on what's supposed to be a mobile anti-aircraft battery.

42 minutes ago, locost_bryan said:

Read somewhere Toyota are bringing them in through Signature Class.

That's what he was meaning. They have a team on the ground clearly buying them new in Japan and shipping them here straight away, hence seeing some single or double digit odo readings. 

The yellow one on TM hits the spot - Leather and AWD, although I'm not sure how big a difference the added weight of the AWD makes in the grand scheme of things.