Blerv's Car Chit-Chat

[Blerv]

I was always the same. My first Mustang was an '88 GT. When I got this coupe I knew I wanted to find an '82 GT nose for it.

Oh, and I was rocking the Mad Max look for a looong time before it finally got painted lol. /quote]

Oh interesting! So what year is your green car if it has the 82 nose? Sorry if I'm just confused and this isn't what you meant. It's a Friday. :o

That's all the same car, just before and after paint. It's an '85 with an' 82 nose and hood. Ford never put this nose on a coupe body, they only came on the 79 pace car and the 82 GT. There were similar noses in 79-82 but the grill was different and looked like a milk crate and they didn't have the lower valance.

Ahhh thanks. Yes, I should have put that together quicker, lol.

It's a great look :D. Back in the day I remember some folks used Mercury Capri panels for a bit of a retro look. The 82 nose you used has even more flair though.

[Mad Mac]

It would probably be easier and faster to simply set a $100 bill on fire,
but I reserved an Elio for $100 and locked in to buy a base model for $7,300. https://www.eliomotors.com/



Saw it in an ad on Fox. At first glance I figured it was rear engine, rear wheel drive like the Polaris Slingshot, Campagna T-Rex or Can-Am Spyder, gas powered, 3-wheeled, open air motorcycles. Instead it is front wheel drive which is surprising, but may make for better handling.

Corbin is still putzing around with the Sparrow, an electric trike, albeit enclosed. I first saw the Sparrow and the T-Rex at the 2001 Daytona Bike Week.

To be manufactured in Shreveport, Louisiana, the main thing is that the Elio is enclosed, all weather, air conditioned and gas powered. (In Texas it will be a car and not a motorcycle. A saddle is the difference. Can't use it on the HOV lane solo.)

Elio is on the right track, in my opinion. However, two dollar gasoline makes an economy vehicle a hard sell right now. I don't see how they can be manufactured and sold for $7,300. It probably needs to be at least twice that if not three times.

Start up car companies have little chance of success, but I wish I could have put a $100 down on a DeLorean. It will be fun to see how it turns out.

[Blerv]

It would probably be easier and faster to simply set a $100 bill on fire,
but I reserved an Elio for $100 and locked in to buy a base model for $7,000.

That's downright cool! If the price stays true that looks great to me. Sporty and economical. I would personally probably find a set of sticky tires for it just so it's extra agile. Safety equipment that comes with it is mighty impressive but you only have so much safety when you weigh 1200 lbs. Still, it seems about 500 percent safer than a motorcycle or even an old pre 80's sedan.

[Blerv]

88 Mustang update:

So last I posted we had ordered the MAF conversion kit and 30lbs injectors. It arrived and my friend got to work.

We discovered behind the air box was a MAF sensor hiding...I guess he DID do it after all but was all stealth :o. Apparently the MAP was retained for some factory metering (barometric pressure or something) so it was an easy mistake to make. It seems the previous owner did go with the Ford conversion kit but the injectors were too small for the supercharger and mods. The old MAF was a crude design with a shoddy inlet tube.

So all in all the sneaky MAF wasn't a bad thing. The now discontinued Ford conversion kit is a very quality kit with an adapter that removes all the wiring hassles with the Computer. We also have a spare one now and can know for certain it wasn't contributing to our problems. The other wiring in the kit was extremely professional too. Three cheers to Fiveology Racing :).

After install it fired right up and idled! The crowd rejoiced! But...fuel pressure was 20psi at idle...and it's supposed to be 39psi. The crowd booed!

We ordered an Aeromotive adjustable fuel pressure regulator designed for Ford EFI that can be tweaked 20-70psi. We also ordered up a Walbro 255 liter fuel pump as the previous owner went to a 190 liter in 1993 and then. Ack to a 150 liter one 2 years later for some reason. It came with a 110 liter pump but the 190 is good for heavy normally aspirated bolt-ons and the 255 is the popular pick for boost.

After install it not only idled but was fast! It pinged a bit so he played with the timing both at the distributor and also at the MSD ignition box which has dial to retard timing per psi of manifold pressure.

I drove it today. It humms like an old truck and screams when you push into it :). You wouldn't know it has a 6psi supercharger as it's dead quiet and doesn't even whine under throttle. The Dunlop Direzza Star Spec 2's (aka, DZII's) hook up hard and snapping second they hardly shimmy. Not bad for a 200 treadwear set of 225/50/16's.

Next up? Suspension. Bushings and new control arms. It's pretty quick now but akin to a shopping cart with a rocket pack. A bit scary, lol.

[Evil D]

No blower whine is either really fun or kind of a bummer depending on what you want. It can add to the sleeper effect or you wish you could hear it for the fun of it. These days it's kind of hard to build a Fox body sleeper unless the thing makes insane power because everyone who knows anything about cars is suspicious of them when they see them out on the street.

I remember the first Fox Mustang I ever saw with a blower. It was back in about '93 or so, one of the local towns was a big cruising spot and my best friend's older brother had a Capri (same Fox platform) and we had it out raising ****. This car came up behind us and all we could hear was the whining until he came up past us and we heard the exhaust. That was also the first time I really paid attention to the coupe body style and I fell in love with that car. It was a 306 with an old Paxton.

[Blerv]

No blower whine is either really fun or kind of a bummer depending on what you want. It can add to the sleeper effect or you wish you could hear it for the fun of it. These days it's kind of hard to build a Fox body sleeper unless the thing makes insane power because everyone who knows anything about cars is suspicious of them when they see them out on the street.

I remember the first Fox Mustang I ever saw with a blower. It was back in about '93 or so, one of the local towns was a big cruising spot and my best friend's older brother had a Capri (same Fox platform) and we had it out raising ****. This car came up behind us and all we could hear was the whining until he came up past us and we heard the exhaust. That was also the first time I really paid attention to the coupe body style and I fell in love with that car. It was a 306 with an old Paxton.

Yea it's one of those things at least with centrifugal blowers that's silent or "all in". Our old coupe had a Procharger that whined like a banshee :D. Not only on-throttle but at idle. IMHO, if they whine when you want them to that's great. At the light if they sound like a horrible fan belt it's kind of annoying.

The Fox thing is funny. It seems less and less younger people know about them. The MK4 Supra they know from a mile away. That said, not having everyone and their uncle trying to race you isn't a bad thing. :)

[Mad Mac]

Has anyone been to the big October car show in Hershey ?
I'm going to be a couple of hours from Hershey that week but not sure I can deal with that much walking.

Sorry to miss this until now. Car shows are certainly fun but can be tiring. The biggest one I've been to was a trek out to Hot August Nights in Reno, plenty of places to sit there but it's extremely hot.

Let us know if you end up attending :D

Well folks, I made it to West Virginia but did not make it to Hershey for the big show. Got roped into doing family stuff.

[Blerv]

Well folks, I made it to West Virginia but did not make it to Hershey for the big show. Got roped into doing family stuff.

Ah bummer. Well family is family and fun regardless. Plenty of car shows left to see and next summer they might actually be warm :D.

[Mad Mac]

In 1961, when I was 14, my grandfather taught me how to drive in his 1956 VW beetle. My recollection is that it only had one instrument on the dashboard, a speedometer. The odometer went to only 99999. After 100,000 miles you had to remember it had turned over. The face of the speedometer included small lamps for turn indicator, oil pressure warning and the high beam.

There was no tachometer, no temp gauge (it was air cooled) and no fuel gauge. Instead, you turned a lever on the firewall to switch on the reserve tank when you began to run out of gas, like you would on a motorcycle. You only forgot to return the lever to the main tank one time. The four speed manual floor shifter had to pushed down to shift into reverse.

It was a blast to drive. With only 36 horsepower, you could go flat out and no one would notice. Hills had to be approached with a full head of steam. Mastery of the slingshot pass was mandatory. A slim owners manual was in the glove compartment. Making out in the back seat was called fahrfergnookie. I think it cost him $1800. But enough reminiscing.

My wife bought a new car. It has an instrument cluster full of gauges, two screens and buttons on the dash and steering wheel. The owners manual is more than 500 pages and the navigation manual is more than 300 pages. You can put it on cruise control and it can stay in its lane, follow the vehicle in front at a prescribed distance and slow down and stop if necessary. It has a nine-speed automatic transmission with a buttons, "D" for dowager mode and "S" for Oh Yeah, 300 horsepower. Its price broke the $50,000 barrier.

Somehow, I liked the Beetle better.

[Blerv]

In many ways cars have become better. Some older models such as the Beetle were amazing and still stand up today. Sure...slow, unsafe, and all that. Rugged, stylish, easily customizable, and easy to work on. Makes sense Mexico only recently stopped making the original!

Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of "new classics" and other originals that were inherently flawed. Just good to look at them with context and an enthusiast's eye. Newer does not always mean better.

Restomods really make things interesting. If I had a ton of money there would be a trail of eccentric engine swapped and conversion vehicles in my wake. :p

[Blerv]

Another update:

So the suspension was tired. In the words of my friend, "Every piece of rubber looks like a 30 year old tire." We ordered a bunch of parts from Summit Racing. Free shipping on orders over $150 (I recall) is great because everything weighs a friggin ton on this car. :p

The Ford Racing front a-arms couldn't be installed. We are going to drop it off at a suspension shop as we already were planning an alignment there.

Eibach front and rear swaybar kit is installed with new poly bushings and endlinks.





BBK rear control arms (upper and lower) with poly bushings are installed too.


It had a single A-Pillar pod with a boost gauge. We removed it and found a cleaner solution :). Salvaged the boost gauge and added an AEM UEGO wideband O2 (A/F) Gauge and sensor.



Tuning is a different matter. The factory EEC-IV system with MAF does a pretty good job of figuring out fuel. This time around we didn't want to go with "good enough" so picked up a Moates Racing Quarterhorse and supporting software to tune the ECU. This weekend we are going to do a few third-gear pulls and figure it out. It's pretty lean off idle and then seems pig rich at WOT; timing is being pulled at the distributor and with the MSD boost control knob. Tweaking the fuel curve and adding timing should make it more economical AND punchy. As for if it's going to put down more than 320whp (ish)? Not really sure. 6psi of non-intercooled boost on a bolt-on Windsor isn't anything to brag about but we already had one fast Mustang that drove like crap. It will be interesting to see what the 21st century has to offer. If it's anywhere in the 12's and runs nice that is scary enough for us :D.

[Blerv]

The Grand Tour premieres tonight on Amazon at 4pm pst or 7pm est!! Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May's exclusive show since their departure from Top Gear UK.

[SuckSqueezeBangBlow]

Any updates on your car?

[Blerv]

I joined this group on FB. Every day brings crazy daydreams of "what if?" =D
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ObscureCarsOC/

Any updates on your car?

A few little things. The Mustang is back together now. It idles rock solid and is quite a bit quicker with the ECU tuned a bit. We still need to have the front control arms installed and it needs a good alignment. Early 2017 we are going to bring it to a dyno place and have them really dig into the timing map. It's a bit luggy until 1500 rpms.

The Miata has a hardtop now! I'm tempted to buy an OEM turbo and have someone rebuild it with a 16g turbine. That's a bumpy road I should probably avoid though

Anything new in your world?

[SuckSqueezeBangBlow]

Not really, I was really wanting an E39 M5 but luckily for my wallet my wife is too sensible. I have to keep concentrating on paying down the mortgage.
One day I will get another beast but it won't be for awhile.

The Isuzu Dmax is going ok, i might get a remap when it's out of warranty in 12 months.

The Volvo V50 is also going ok but the automatic really kills any real joy, but for a cruiser it's ok. It could also do with a remap but will probably highlight any handling deficiencies

[Blerv]

Not really, I was really wanting an E39 M5 but luckily for my wallet my wife is too sensible. I have to keep concentrating on paying down the mortgage.
One day I will get another beast but it won't be for awhile.

The Isuzu Dmax is going ok, i might get a remap when it's out of warranty in 12 months.

The Volvo V50 is also going ok but the automatic really kills any real joy, but for a cruiser it's ok. It could also do with a remap but will probably highlight any handling deficiencies

Oh probably for the best. Those things are warranties with fuses, lol. Maybe it's a "the grass is greener" but if I lived where you do there are funky dream cars that make the M5 seem drab (but I'm quirky). Built Holden's and Falcon's.

Ever consider trading to a C30 with a stick? I'm also curious if a MT swap is possible with the V50. However, if so it would be an odd duck to explain to the second buyer. Haha :)

[SuckSqueezeBangBlow]

Manual c30s are only FWD so I'm not really interested. Converting the V50 to a manual wouldn't be worth it.
I've had a fast Falcon and do miss it, I would consider getting a V8 Commodore wagon though.

[razorsharp]

I need to get onto the spyderco forums more often, here is my car. Its a Ford XR6 Turbo BA 2004 . 4 speed automatic, "Barra" engine with a factory Garrett GT3540. Comes factory at 320 HP at the flywheel. I have done a few mods such as a Battery Re-Location, Dose Pipe, Airbox delete, Rear muffler delete and various aesthetic mods using plastidip (because you never know if you're going to want to undo a mod). I am going to be buying some larger fuel injectors and possibly some new Valve springs. Then I will will get it tuned to around 400 Rear Wheel Horsepower (thats being conservative so I dont blow up the transmission). Should be a lot of fun with its factory LSD (it already pops skids with no effort) . Us people down under consider it the Australian 2JZ :D






Heres something I did yesterday - Black diffuser



The battery mount I made



Engine bay as it is now, I am going to be getting somebody to relocate my Pod filter to where the battery used to be so it should still dose pretty hard. Crank case breather filter should arrive tomorrow.


Heres a link to a stock engine bay for reference
http://imgur.com/zFQG10H

[razorsharp]

Future mods-

Some fat 18" wheels with an aggressive offset
Super low springs
440cc Bosch fuel injectors
Valve springs
Professionally done vinyl work on the bonnet and sides.
Bring dose pipe to old battery area.
FPV Typhoon style front bumper (or BF XR6T bumper)
Dyno tune

[razorsharp]

This was my last car-