Camry Bathurst Winner!
Toyota has continued to pursue a major image change with the success of the Camry V6 in GTP racing this year. Against the AU Falcon XR8, VT Commodore SS V8 and V6 Magna, the quad cam V6 Camry driven by David Ratcliffe and Ron Searle came up trumps. During the 3 hour Bathurst race, the car required no brake pad changes and only one stop, whereas the other cars in its class had two stops. Late in the race the car set a lap time more than a second and a half quicker than its best qualifying time.
Locust Attack!
Our Heavy Breather feature on building a new intake into the standard airbox has proved very popular. However, you should be aware that if you're tooling through the countryside and drive through a swarm of locusts, the new intake will pick them up just as well as it picks up air. This is the view inside an airbox after just such an event! A coarse wire mesh across the pick-up will stop most of this ingestion.
STA V8 Intakes
Supercharger Technology Australia has added to their line-up a new quad throttle body suitable for V8 intake manifolds. Using a standard carby stud pattern, the anodised aluminium throttle body has sequential operation of the throttle blades and uses a readily-available throttle position sensor and idle air control motor.
STA also has intake manifolds drilled and tapped for multipoint injectors.
Contact STA on + 61 3 9723 6022
Skin Protection
Exoderm is a new skin protection cream that's now available in Australia from Automotive Burg Design. It is claimed to have some major advantages over traditional barrier creams. These include a lack of sticky or oily feel, no staining of clothes, and the ability to withstand normal hand washing with soap and water. One application of the protective polymer layer lasts for four hours. Many of the fluids, oils and resins frequently used during the modification of cars can cause dermatitis and allergies, so the stuff might have more relevance to you than you might first think!
Dash Upgrades
Also from Automotive Burg Design comes a range of adhesive dash upgrade kits. The films are available in woodgrain and carbon fibre finishes and feature TUV certification and Ford Preferred Quality awards. A very wide range of cars is catered for including Audi, BMW, Daewoo, Kia, Toyota, Honda, Holden, Ford, Subaru, Nissan and many others.
Contact Automotive Burg Design Australia on +61 3 9532 7501.
Stylish Moose Attacker
The release of the A Class Mercedes in Australia has been closely followed by dress-up kits. From Lorinser comes a new exhaust, front bumper/spoiler, new suspension and 17 x 7½ alloys wearing 205/40 tyres.
Lorinser also has a range of products for the Mercedes SLK. These include alloy wheels in sizes up to 18 x 9 inches, sports suspension kits, rear spoilers and side skirts, and new exhausts. The company also has available Porsche-like "Speedster Scoops" - these are aerodynamic fairings that fit behind the driver and passenger. Also unique to the soft top are polished stainless steel roll hoops and a wind deflector that fits at the top of the windscreen.
Contact Car Shine on +61 3 9349 2122 for more details.
Two Stars
We just had to show you this pic. The left hand drive Holden Commodore (badged Chevrolet Omega) was recently voted the 'Most Admired Car' at the Sao Paulo Auto Show in Brazil. We don't know how many votes the lady got, though......
Yamaha's EXUP Exhaust
The discussion of the worth or otherwise of exhaust back-pressure has been robust in our Tech Forum. One system that has come up in that discussion is Yamaha's Exhaust Ultimate Power Valve, that is fitted at the collector of the four-stroke YZF-R1. The servo-operated valve is claimed to improve low to mid-range torque, improve the idle stability and reduce noise. According to a recent issue of The Automotive Engineer, it works like this.
The valve regulates "pipe end conditions" to control the reflection of the exhaust pressure waves. During valve overlap (when both the intake and exhaust are open), it is operated to prevent a positive pressure wave occurring at the exhaust valve. If there is a positive pressure wave condition occurring at the exhaust valve during periods of overlap, less fresh mixture intake is drawn in and there can even be "blow back" through the intake system. The valve causes a reflection of the negative pressure waves by shortening the effective length of the exhaust at low rpm. It does this by partially blocking it. Thus it appears that a negative pressure wave condition is caused at the exhaust valves by placing a barrier partially in the way of the flow!
Quickies
- The Nissan R32 Skyline/late 300ZX/Q45 upper A arms tested here a few issues ago have got the squeaks really badly, so they are up for sale. If you'd like some ployurethaned adjustable arms that have had only five thousand or so kilometres under their belts, e-mail editor@autospeed.com They'll cost you A$200 (retail is $480). No, we're not happy.....
- We've added an About Us on the main menu for those who want to find out something about the people who produce AutoSpeed. Talking about AutoSpeed, in our first 30 days we had over 8000 different readers from 78 countries around the world...thanks!
- CAPA has available magnetic sump plugs that attract any surplus bits of steel or iron floating around in the oil. The SX Performance device is also available with a Quick Drain adaptor, reducing the mess of oil changes. Talk to CAPA on +61 8 8582 3499 or go to www.capa.com.au for more details.
- We don't normally carry news of price reductions on Australian-delivered cars, but this is such a big drop we had to tell you - Chrysler has reduced the price of the Neon SE by no less than 16 per cent to $20,990!
- Ford Australia's Colour and Trim Designer Ania Von Oxenberg suggests that the most popular colours for new cars are white, silver, all tones of green and blue, and classic burgundy. Working three years ahead to select the next range of Ford colours, she sees warmer and brighter tones becoming more popular. "Blues are moving towards more violet tones," she said. It's one area of car design we'd never even thought about!
- Now that some cat converter equipped vehicles are nearly 13 years old, the problem of collapsed cats is becoming common. If the performance of your car suddenly goes away, put the cat on the list of suspects. Note that some cars run the cat hidden in the exhaust manifold...
- The WD40 Company of Australia has released a new penetrating lubricant spray. It's called TAL5 (another meaningless name?) and has a flashpoint of 102 degrees, making it safer to handle in hot spots.
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