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THE 1.9 IS SHIT

Damn, couldn't help myself

;-)

You know, sometimes i get the distinct impression that WCA doesn't really like the baby beemers.......

Something must have been lost in translation at the show Dave, the only modification to the Z3 base car, apart from stripping off the outer panels of course, is to cut off two small brackets from the front grille area. I will post up some pictures when I have them.

An interesting point with the taller profile tyres that are fitted to my SWB is that it corrects the over reading on the Z3 speedo, according to my GPS, almost exactly.

Oops, didn't mean to muddy the waters there and I stand corrected. :tape2:

As for the speedo error, from experience of checking uncalibrated speedos on a lot of cars against laser speed guns (100% accurate), almost all read around 10% higher than actual speed, so 70mph is actually 63 and 100 is 90. A 10% increase in rolling diameter on the tyres will take out this error and that's exactly what happened with mine. Just bear in mind that if your speedo under reads significantly you'll probably pick up points from average speed and Gatso cameras.

This tool is useful to work out what tyres will fit and how they'll affect the speedo -

http://www.kouki.co.uk/utilities/vis...ize-calculator

This one sounds nice (with the stereo turned up).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOZEmywf91A

Enjoy...

Does anyone know the paint code for the silver car? The origibnal car below looks good in red.. Has Chris published a price yet?

http://www.kidston.com/kidston-cars/...Ferrari-250GT#

Slver was yesterdays colour! today i am going for Red! tomorrow who knows , Geoff .

must agree with how painfully slow the 1.9 is...

Is that because the bm weighs quite bit or is it just the gearing. Possibly it needs a turbo :-)

Might have found the perfect donor -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2715972152...84.m1423.l2649

Three litre manual of course, as I hear the 2.8 auto is, well, shit.

smart alloys, you may be able to fetch a few £ back on them.

I still think the best tip for buying a z3 is to buy in Jan/Feb when the prices hit the lowest!

Also I've found people seem to sell cars cheaper on www.gumtree.com, not sure why though but they always seem cheaper....

Yep, will be aiming to get as much back as possible from selling off the redundant panels/wheels/interior so a mega cheap donor could be a false economy.

With the Vitesse I used for my Spyder I got more back for the spare parts than I'd paid for the whole car in the first place. £££!

Really hoping to find a 2.0 or a 2.2 with a/c, when the time is right, but won't walk away from a 1.9 if the deal is too good to pass up.

I've done a bit of research on the perceived weakness of the 1.9 (M44 16v) on t'internet - it seems its flywheel is too heavy to allow it to spin up freely and the inlet tract is too restrictive to allow enough air to flow for it to develop any more power above about 5k rpm.

On the plus side, with half decent maintenance they last 200,000+ miles, will return 35mpg and would cost pennies for me to insure. And with a car as good looking as the SWB I'll want to go a bit slower to show it off anyway. :)

So ,with a lighter fly wheel possible different cams and a sports filter and turbo charger/intercooler with the lighter engine could be a good option :-) oh brain wave how bout a mini cooper 1.6 engine with the turbo. Lighter more bhp. Better mpg.

Will it fit? By that I mean does it just bolt up to the z3 gearbox?

Having read up a bit about the 1.9 motor, most forum contributors just recommend buying one with a six in it in the first place if you want more than 140bhp, as engine swaps will quickly soak up the gdp of a small country.

This type of car really should be about more than just going fast though. If you want fast you could always pick up an M3/Evo/Scoobie/Skyline for similar money. It won't make you feel anywhere near as good as driving a SWB with even a humble 1.8 under the bonnet though.

How about fitting a V8 Corvette engine in a Z3 ?

http://hasanmotorsports.com/images/F...l/DSC00179.JPG

Just been looking at that possibility -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytjLO1Xf_h0

Wouldn't exactly be cheap though...

Wouldn't be very light either, I would guess the handling would suffer on twisty roads, be okay in a straight line though.

Ls7 is light than the BMW straight six 2.8 I checked.

The LS7 is a seven litre engine, and the totally dressed engine weight is given as 497.2 lbs or 226 kilos, and that is without the gearbox. I would have thought that the BMW 2.8 was a bit lighter than that?

Still musing over the side window treatment I'm afraid. Rather like the way these two Ferrari's have theirs at Goodwood:

Simple 'hatch' on perspex runners -

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...psde078bc8.jpg

Slightly more elegant solution on this one, the forward section slides back and the rear section is shaped to accommodate it. Viewed from above the rear section is 's' shaped in the fashion of the lapel badges on an ss officer's jacket, allowing the front section to overlap without going too far back -

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...psbf955c7d.jpg

BMW Short block engine weight

Aluminum block M52B28
engine _______ weight(kg) _ weight(lbs)
VANOS _______ 170 _______ 374.8
Double VANOS _ 180 _______ 396.8

Okay, the LS7 is lighter but then again, you are quoting for a fully dressed engine so perhaps not that much in it

Look at that simple door catch. Lovely.

I was at colourtech last week where i had my gto sprayed and he was spraying another Tribute MRS200, (they didnt fit the kit, they are just spraying it. had to get that in as some of you will see the car probibly come up for sale on ebay and i dont want colourtech to get a bad name!, you'l see what i mean if you see the car!) anyway, it had some nice sliding perpex side windows, maybe ask chriss if he supplied them with the kit? they looked the part.

Perhaps the SWB is an ideal car to build because there were so many variety of alterations and changing profiles with the original we can each build one with the features we prefer to keep them reasonably unique

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...05bcdf3cd3.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...4B56040113.jpg

Reminds me a little of the Scaglietti Corvette.

http://image.vetteweb.com/f/features...estern-006.jpg

when will we see this car painted???????????

Think it is. Filler white i believe ;-)

Have found a company to make a pair of half leather/half vinyl seats but waiting for a price to have the coloured inserts from the Z3 in the same style , the Red inserts in attached photo removed and waiting developements , http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...9/DSCF1508.jpg , Geoff .

You found them! Good luck with the trimmer.

This solution looks ideal. Now where's my grinder and some time ........

For upholstery try contacting the guy who did the work on this
http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk/showthrea...=229942&page=4

Afternoon car should be on the road in about 6 weeks , so after that assuming i can stick to a colour choice! Geoff .

My unfinished BMW doors retrimmed. The leather needs to be shrink fitted

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_...918_152304.jpg

Just when I thought I'd seen it all -

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6725e3d1.jpg

I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but, noooooooooooooo!

Yeah does look out of place considering the Ferrari curves seemed to disappeared from the roofline. Thinner chrome round the side windows would have softened the blow. Maybe putting the quirky window shape in the last pain would have made more sense. Or slanting the so it drops as it gets to the back. Aston did one.

Bit like an attractive women letting a unibrow grow

It does emphasise how 'Cobra' like the rear wings are, although the 250 came first of course.

Wow! Imagine being crap at car building AND spelling!

Pobodys nerfect.

Now, with the roof and tailgate off the Reliant Scimitar, this should be possible!