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For those interested in old cars.


DDolfelin
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That'll be the Espirit S3 with the V8 Lotus engine.

 

The guy who ones the white car has a very tidy S3 in red as well

Excuse the pedantry but the S3 was the last of the original shape ones, made up to 1987. The restyled ones are often called S4 (although it seems officially not until further changes quite a few years later) coming out in 1987, with the V8 engine coming in 1996.

 

All the best

 

Katy

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Excuse the pedantry but the S3 was the last of the original shape ones, made up to 1987. The restyled ones are often called S4 (although it seems officially not until further changes quite a few years later) coming out in 1987, with the V8 engine coming in 1996.

 

All the best

 

Katy

 

Happy to be corrected, Thanks for putting the record straight.

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Anyone know if those supposedly power boosting modules which piggyback the cars ECU are any good?

I have sent them for MGZT diesels and they seem to be a generic product as they do the 115 and 135 models .

I'm concerned that using one could end up melting pistons etc

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Anyone know if those supposedly power boosting modules which piggyback the cars ECU are any good?

I have sent them for MGZT diesels and they seem to be a generic product as they do the 115 and 135 models .

I'm concerned that using one could end up melting pistons etc

 

 

These aftermarket things are always a bodge, get a remap

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Peter Stevens has a massive portfolio of cars he's styled he's done stuff for Subaru and was responsible for turning the rover range into the Z cars

He did a great baby sports car for Reliant. Clearly inspired by the Elan and a frogeye for the '80s. Sadly,never made production. I believe it eventually morphed into a kit car, but by then we had the MX5.

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My ZR has had a remap but its a bit extreme as its now 170 bhp but a bit smokey as the MAF sensor has been written out of the map.

Hope to get it done again but with the MAF sensor reinstated to improve economy but power will probably be down to 140-150 bhp but I'm sure the gearbox bearings won't complain .

I may get the ZT remapped but I don't want to loose any economy as that is why I bought it

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Something for Fiat 126 fans. Found this in the RAF Yearbook for 1974, which was in a pile of aircraft magazines my dad has given me. How times are different these days....in 1974 you had to pay extra for number plates and seat belts. And full anti rust treatment...on a FIAT!!!

 

 

post-5014-0-14185900-1545813231_thumb.jpg

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Something for Fiat 126 fans. Found this in the RAF Yearbook for 1974, which was in a pile of aircraft magazines my dad has given me. How times are different these days....in 1974 you had to pay extra for number plates and seat belts. And full anti rust treatment...on a FIAT!!!

My good lady confirms that THIS is the Flintstone car we saved. A 126 BIS in banana yellow.

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My good lady confirms that THIS is the Flintstone car we saved. A 126 BIS in banana yellow.

in 1980 mate bought an absoloutly rotten 126 stripped all the usable bits to sell on as spares cut the shell up and sold it to a scrap dealer kept the v5 and insured it aged 17 five years later having built up a risk free ncd sold them on to another lad who did the same think it was only the advent of cumputerised records that have put a stop to them being sold on again and again
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Hope to get it done again but with the MAF sensor reinstated to improve economy but power will probably be down to 140-150 bhp but I'm sure the gearbox bearings won't complain .

 

 

Extra stress on bearings is one of those things that get ignored when upping the power output of engines. I had a 1430cc mini that used to push out 135bhp. It went like a bat out of hell but used to eat end bearings.

 

post-7952-0-72109200-1545823435_thumb.jpg

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Supposedly the PG1 box can accept about 300 bhp which a lot of rover coupé turbos are but not sure for how long.

 

On an unrelated not I'm going to halfords later in the hope that oil is in their sale.

Just found out my ZT holds 6.75l of oil seems a lot for a two litre diesel although it is a BMW unit. I wish they had kept the rover L series for the 75/ZT

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Extra stress on bearings is one of those things that get ignored when upping the power output of engines. I had a 1430cc mini that used to push out 135bhp. It went like a bat out of hell but used to eat end bearings.

 

Mini.jpg

lad i used to co drive for had 1380 cooper s on split 40 webbers that went through end bearings for fun if i didint borewash the rings first when it worked it flew
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lad i used to co drive for had 1380 cooper s on split 40 webbers that went through end bearings for fun if i didint borewash the rings first when it worked it flew

Must be the build, we used to race in Special Saloons with a Mini......well Riley Elf actually......long story short, when we replaced the body panels with alloy sheets we managed to site the beam rear axle back roughly 2 inches, with the extra boot on the Elf it looked normal and gave use better handling, no scrutineer ever noticed in 2 years of racing LOL.

 

When we moved onto single seaters I took the engine from the Elf and plonked it into my road Cooper S, the engine was a Longman built 1299 with Longman head and inclined valves, split Webers, super sprint cam( which I changed for just a sprint cam for road use) and a straight cut box.....noisy but strong. Never had any issues with the bearings just the noise from the Weber’s right behind the centre mounted speedo! The occasional spit back would light up the speedo quite dramatically LOL

Edited by boxbrownie
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Must be the build

 

That's a possibility. I used it as a road car for six months as well as on a dozen or so tarmac rallies after installing the Jonspeed built engine. It was only after an engine rebuild when we swapped the twin 1 3/4" SU's for a big Weber that we had problems. The change to the weber was not a great success as it moved the power output higher up the rev band and lost a lot of lower end grunt. In fairness to the engine builder/tuner (who was also more used to working with much bigger engines), I had said that after the engine rebuild I would only be using it in competition. The SU's gave amazing performance up to about 90mph (0-60 in 6.5 secs) but after that the power dropped off although you could coax it up to 125mph, which is pretty scary in a mini! I never did use it in competition as I disappeared overseas for four years and sold it on.

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