Oolite Bulletins

CptnEcho wrote:

I know of a mechanic that installed a Porche engine into an old VW Beetle. It got out of its own way very nicely.

There was a solicitor in Middlesbrough that a Porsche (911?) engine in his Morris Minor - initially it still looked like a "normal" Morris Minor - although on closer inspection it was clear it had fatter tyres - discs all-round and better suspension. Then he bit the bullet - it had a customer bright red paint job - widened, flared arches, dropped - all leather and chrome interior and actually it was such a nice job there was just enough moggie left to make it look like a really cool car!!!

With regards to the jag engine in the mini pickup - he could barely see out because of the bulge in he custom bonnet - it was slightly wider than originally designed and the air intakes were inside the cabin space!

Reminds me of a friend who, around 1980, shoehorned a Ford 351 V8 and transmission into an Anglia. Things being not so strict back then, some cash changed hands and he actually managed to get it street-registered.. You had to get into the passenger cabin to change the back 2 spark plugs, and the tail-shaft was around 12 inches long. Changing gears involved a bit of reach-back too...

One night cruising on Cavill Ave (Gold Coast) we were stopped by a cop who couldn't believe the lumpy sound emanating from the little Anglia... I'll never forget the look on his face when we popped the bonnet...

It was a pain to drive though.. coming off the line the rear had a nasty habit of trying to pass the front end..

DaddyHoggy wrote:

CptnEcho wrote:

I know of a mechanic that installed a Porche engine into an old VW Beetle. It got out of its own way very nicely.

There was a solicitor in Middlesbrough that a Porsche (911?) engine in his Morris Minor - initially it still looked like a "normal" Morris Minor - although on closer inspection it was clear it had fatter tyres - discs all-round and better suspension. Then he bit the bullet - it had a customer bright red paint job - widened, flared arches, dropped - all leather and chrome interior and actually it was such a nice job there was just enough moggie left to make it look like a really cool car!!!

With regards to the jag engine in the mini pickup - he could barely see out because of the bulge in he custom bonnet - it was slightly wider than originally designed and the air intakes were inside the cabin space!

Ive heard of a few morris minors with K series engines dropped in apparantly its not that bad a job to do... As I understand it the the morris minors original engine was a precursor to the A-series of the mini and metro and the Kseries will often fit in not much more space than the A-series - as it was also fitted to metro's. and allegedly wherever you can fit a 1400 Kseries you can fit the 1800 K series, the k-series has quite a history with tuners...

Of course the "drops straight in" thing doesnt normally work just like that even fitting a 2litre pinto in a mk 2 escort - the RS2000 used one as standard, but to fit one into a normal escort involved cutting bulkeheads, the right combination of bellhousing, gearbox and propshaft, and a new cross member, and sump etc etc etc...

Diziet Sma wrote:

It was a pain to drive though.. coming off the line the rear had a nasty habit of trying to pass the front end..

I know that feeling my last rally escort (mk2) was exactly like that... You could spin the wheels by flooring the pedal in 3rd Awesome engine, but a PIG to drive, the quaife mechanical LSD made it really prone to sudden bite as well.

The whole thing was completely stripped out as we built from a blasted bare shell, there wasnt an ounce of excess metal to the thing, and there was a lot of plastic and fibreglass involved. It was great for straight line speed, it was great for playing with the back end for fun, but it was a pig to try to keep it flowing at competetive pace. It was brutal acceleration and then heavy on the brakes all the time.

The engine builder was the first guy who ever taught me that bhp figures dont really mean a lot, I initially didnt believe him, I was dissappointed when my 2litre pinto came in at around 180hp on the rolling road... I was amazed by the drive, but still imagined that the 200+ hp pintos out there felt faster Doesnt sound a lot, but it was an engine that had prodigious torque right from the low end, instead of being all top end with a wild cam. I later sat behind the wheel of several of these "higher" powered pintos and realised they were gutless felt really low powered compared to my engine. But because they revved to 8000rpm they had high hp figures...

The thing was just too monstrous though, I ended up being far more competetive with a 90hp 1300 group N Skoda... I could floor the little 1300 everywhere without a concern about it "biting" or chucking me around the place. I learnt that average speed was far more important that top speed or accelleration. The ability to keep a constant pace was more important than fastest a long a certain straight etc.

Theres a lot of commonly held ideas out there that I unlearnt through the process of wasting a lot of money on cars

there I go again another marathon car post...

The engine builder was the first guy who ever taught me that bhp figures dont really mean a lot, I initially didnt believe him, I was dissappointed when my 2litre pinto came in at around 180hp on the rolling road... I was amazed by the drive, but still imagined that the 200+ hp pintos out there felt faster Rolling Eyes Doesnt sound a lot, but it was an engine that had prodigious torque right from the low end, instead of being all top end with a wild cam. I later sat behind the wheel of several of these "higher" powered pintos and realised they were gutless felt really low powered compared to my engine. But because they revved to 8000rpm they had high hp figures...

Accessible torque is what counts.

Cheers,

Drew.

I owned a 1972. Hillman Hunter GT for a three years. The single RWD i ever owned and it was the same age as me. Semi-automatic gearshift (never seen anything similar ), beautiful red color with black roof, handbrake on the left(!) side, fuel consumption of the small locomotive...


Mine was "Marlboro" red and black vinyl roof.

Nice thing to have, not a very nice thing to drive to work every day.

gorans wrote:

I owned a 1972. Hillman Hunter GT for a three years. The single RWD i ever owned and it was the same age as me. Semi-automatic gearshift (never seen anything similar ), beautiful red color with black roof, handbrake on the left(!) side, fuel consumption of the small locomotive...


Mine was "Marlboro" red and black vinyl roof.

Nice thing to have, not a very nice thing to drive to work every day.

semi automatic gear shift? in what way semi automatic? its not something Ive heard of, but then I have to say the only hillmans I know anything about are the imps and the avenger tigers...

Nice car!

This is the only RWD car I've ever owned (this isn't mine - but its the same model and year (H-reg) and the same colour - although mine had less expensive alloy wheels).

I used it on an 80-mile round-trip daily commute and I drove it like a loon - which is why I guess bits kept dropping off it (I started calling it Lazarus). Having spent £800 on a service and engine retune I then, a week later, blew the turbo again while racing a Honda Civic Type R and a R6 round Basingstoke ring-road.

My wife REALLY put her foot down at that point and I sold it for £160...

my current car is RWD, not "fun" but it makes a good armchair. Its a volvo 940 7 seater estate purchased for £750 on ebay. I really have no idea quite why the thing needs a turbo, its a load lugger, not a sports car. Im pretty certain even without the turbo it would have ample power to tow a caravan.

It drinks petrol, but it fits the family in, in fact it does an amazing job of fitting the family and serious amounts of luggage as well. Oh and its an automatic, which really adds to the "armchair and slippers" feel of it...

Its RWD but it doesnt really matter much apart from allowing a unbelievable turning circle for a car of its size.

As for my previous list of RWD cars. I couldnt hope to make an accurate list. In my youth I owned up to 7 cars at a time . There is no way I could recall every car Ive owned to make a list of the RWD's. A few that spring to mind a couple of 3l capris one with a Kat body kit 8" wide alloys and a modified engine - that one managed to turn a prop shaft into a marshmallow twist in one enthusiastic start. The other one I managed to snap a leaf spring from the axle tramp when ldumping the clutch at 6000rpm in 1st... a 1969 Mk1 Capri, a carparks worth ( a quick count which is probably missing a few comes to 11) of MK2 escorts including some relative rarities, from the RS2000 to the nauseating "linnet" Ive had an old Skoda Rapid - an absolute hoot to drive, and the even more fun S110r - 1100cc's of absolute comedy. Ive had a long wheel base sherpa - surprsingly good fun to be had with those, I had that thing airbourne and sliding at times

The Mk2 escort fascination was started by watching a rally at an airfield with some friends in the early 90's when I barely knew one car from another, and one type of car I spotted went through the corners spectacularly, I realised there were several cars of that type and asked my friends what it was, and thats how come I was hooked on the idea of mk2 escorts. The capris, I blame on my great uncle...

Im sure theres plenty more RWD's that I've owned but its hard to remember having owned so many cars...

I lived cars up until I got married. Despite having owned so many cars as yet I have failed to write one off, Ive ran many of them into the ground (in several cases literally leaving trails of sparks and discarded components - often exhausts but sometimes more vital parts) Ive bent several peoples shares of suspension components and wings (consumable items when rallying) but as yet I havent written one off. Although in some of my skodas technically emptying the fuel tank put it beyond economical repair

I'm currently driving my wife's (she refuse to give my ex-Police Astra back) 1995 2.0D Nissan Primera SLX . It's non-turboed and, while it's a dog on long and/or steep inclines it actually accelerates quite well if you're prepared to hold it in gear until just before it runs out of legs - about 4.5k revs - but cruising along the motorway at 3K revs which is *about* 70mph in 5th it'll comfortably do 600 miles on a full tank (60 litres) - infact I've driven it from Newbury to the Highlands of Scotland without filling up once - big cabin and boot and enough room for the family (all four of us) plus a week's worth of holiday clothes - pushchair, travel cot and all the other stuff toddler's seem to need.

I'm actually finding it quite fun to drive - I've just put some "nice" tyres on the front and combined with a fair amount of torque, no turbo lag and reasonable suspension and quite quick and "feely" power steering means that round abouts are starting to get interesting and "squeely" again.

Davidtq wrote:

semi automatic gear shift? in what way semi automatic? its not something Ive heard of, but then I have to say the only hillmans I know anything about are the imps and the avenger tigers...

Now I have to fight with my english again, have mercy...

Hunter had 4 speeds on a gearshift and a regular clutch. Besides that, it had small lever on a wheel, just behind the wipers control handle, that You can tilt up or down. When in 4th gear, tilted it up and (without the clutch) You are in 5th gear. Tilt down - back in 4th. You got the point.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

I'm currently driving my wife's 1995 2.0D Nissan Primera SLX .

Is that one of Sunderland's finest?

I drive a 1996 Clio Diesel -- a 1.9 litre engine that inexplicably generates only 65hp. But it does give me about 55 miles/gallon.

gorans wrote:

Davidtq wrote:

semi automatic gear shift? in what way semi automatic? its not something Ive heard of, but then I have to say the only hillmans I know anything about are the imps and the avenger tigers...

Now I have to fight with my english again, have mercy...

Hunter had 4 speeds on a gearshift and a regular clutch. Besides that, it had small lever on a wheel, just behind the wipers control handle, that You can tilt up or down. When in 4th gear, tilted it up and (without the clutch) You are in 5th gear. Tilt down - back in 4th. You got the point.

Sounds like what we'd call an "Overdrive" - the MGB had a four speed stick shift but if you pushed a little button on the top of the stick in 4th you'd get "Overdrive" - effectively but not exactly a 5th gear.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrive_(mechanics)

Edit: Ruddy brackets in the url - grumble - grumble...

DaddyHoggy wrote:

gorans wrote:

Davidtq wrote:

semi automatic gear shift? in what way semi automatic? its not something Ive heard of, but then I have to say the only hillmans I know anything about are the imps and the avenger tigers...

Now I have to fight with my english again, have mercy...

Hunter had 4 speeds on a gearshift and a regular clutch. Besides that, it had small lever on a wheel, just behind the wipers control handle, that You can tilt up or down. When in 4th gear, tilted it up and (without the clutch) You are in 5th gear. Tilt down - back in 4th. You got the point.

Sounds like what we'd call an "Overdrive" - the MGB had a four speed stick shift but if you pushed a little button on the top of the stick in 4th you'd get "Overdrive" - effectively but not exactly a 5th gear.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrive_(mechanics)

Edit: Ruddy brackets in the url - grumble - grumble...

Ah yeah Overdrive Im familiar with (to the degree of being aware of its existance although Ive never driven a car with it)

As for the primera the only non turbo diesels Ive driven are a peugeot 106 - gutless in the extreme - but good fuel economy and the sherpa which in the lower gears could shift but was SLOW on the motorway fuel economy was so so - it was a BIG vehicle. No chance of breaking the speed limits there .

I actually really like the feel of some modern turbo diesels with lots of low down grunt, back in 2003 I had a 130tdci Modeo estate and loved the engine on that felt like a good old 2valve per cylinder "V" petrol engine... I also liked the 6 speed gear box , alas the car did a good job of persuading me never to buy a new car again I ended up driving around in a economy spec KA courtesy car whilst paying for a top of the range mundano estate, and spent FAR too much time being towed around...

My volvo gets a whole 220 miles out of 60litres of fuel The steering is anything but "feely" and whilst I dont mind a bit of lean the volvo REALLY wallows, still it completely isolates you from any jarring as a result of road surface, the cabin is a place of quite calmness even at fair motorway pace. Ive got 4 kids from nearly 7 to 2 years old, all of them have to have kiddy seats etc, just cant get away with anything with less than 6 seats.

I went back to cheap disposeable cars where I can either fix them myself, or if its more hassle than its worth bin them and start again.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

gorans wrote:

Davidtq wrote:

semi automatic gear shift? in what way semi automatic? its not something Ive heard of, but then I have to say the only hillmans I know anything about are the imps and the avenger tigers...

Now I have to fight with my english again, have mercy...

Hunter had 4 speeds on a gearshift and a regular clutch. Besides that, it had small lever on a wheel, just behind the wipers control handle, that You can tilt up or down. When in 4th gear, tilted it up and (without the clutch) You are in 5th gear. Tilt down - back in 4th. You got the point.

Sounds like what we'd call an "Overdrive" - the MGB had a four speed stick shift but if you pushed a little button on the top of the stick in 4th you'd get "Overdrive" - effectively but not exactly a 5th gear.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overdrive_(mechanics)

Edit: Ruddy brackets in the url - grumble - grumble...

4 Speed Manual + D or J-type Laycock Overdrive
That's it I suppose. There were no OD light on a dashboard. I remember that I could go from 4th to 3rd gear using the lever, but it seems that my memory is failing... should make backup...