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Lovely car, marred by iffy photography; is it me, or does anyone else think that the contrast and colour balance are out of whack? It's considered fashionable and arty these days to make your photos look like they were taken on a dodgy old compact film camera, printed, framed and then aged in direct sunlight for about 20 years.
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I felt sure that this thread was going to contain a project to install a Polo GTI drivetrain into a base-model Starlet, or a Starlet Turbo drivetrain into a base-model Polo.
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I don't see how the Scirocco would be all that much more fun than the Passat. If they're both going to be equipped with the same 1.6td engine, the Scirocco isn't really going to be blazingly fast. You're really only getting the benefit of the coupe styling, and a small weight saving, at the cost of two doors and half the boot.
I'm a strong believer in the coolness of wagons, so I would go for the Passat all the way. And personally, the Scirocco styling does nothing for me at all.
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Bathurst is surely 'the' Great Race. To a petrolhead, maybe. It gets pretty minimal coverage anywhere but Australia though. in fact your average guy on the street (in the UK or the US) has probably never heard of it. I think it's a regional perception. In fact your average American will probably be along soon to tell us it's the Indy500. I think if there had to be only one for the whole world it'd be LeMans, I'm pretty sure most "average" people have heard the name. Paris-Dakar might be in with a shout though. Personally speaking though, for me it's the Nurburgring 24h ;D I meant that in terms of a naming convention, rather than being objectively the greatest race in the world. In Australia, people (and media/advertising, etc) often refer to the Bathurst 1000 simply as "The Great Race" and everyone knows what they're talking about, hence the title of this thread. I agree that the 24 hour races at Le Mans and Nurburgring are probably even more challenging, if for no other reason than the speed difference between classes. I really love Bathurst, but in terms of the most awesome and death-defying challenge to man and machine, I'd probably have to vote for the Isle of Man TT. The idea of flying down a main street past telephone boxes and trees at 170mph, protected by only 3mm of leather is just astonishing to me. Big respect to everyone who rides it, and to the organisers for being probably the last such lethal event still running in this safety-obsessed age.
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It's a cross between a hot-rod '32 roadster and a jerry can. I kind of like it, but mainly because it's a low-slung two seater with a Maserati engine. I'd like it better with a '32 Ford body on it in the same proportions.
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Rotary engines are cool, but they were never really sufficiently better than piston engines to produce a marketable advantage. If any new technology has to compete with an existing one, then it must be convincingly better in order to win. It's the exact same reason why electric cars haven't taken off yet.
Having said that, I do enjoy the rotary engines. However, would I buy a brand new car with a rotary engine in it? Never, not in a million years. I would like to see a single-rotor wankel in a chainsaw though, I reckon that would be great.
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Bathurst is surely 'the' Great Race. I've never been but for at least the last five years (I think) I watch the whole thing live on TV, start-finish. Six hours of joy, complete with a beer or two and a barbecue! Unfortunately this year I might have to miss some of it doing a uni project. I'll have to make up for it by attending next year!
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Sept 30, 2012 9:15:06 GMT
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Great cars, great post. Loved it!
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Sept 26, 2012 13:11:47 GMT
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Well, in South Australia they've got rid of our rego stickers now. But we still have to pay it, and just trust that the electronic system has recorded our payment. You get a receipt number to write on your renewal form and that's it. They've made an official government app for iPhone and Android which lets you check the expiry date on any vehicle from the registration number, to make up for the loss of stickers. Yes, but don't you get basic third party insurance with your rego there? IMHO that makes a lot of sense. Yes, third party insurance (personal injury only, not property) is included in SA rego and is priced according to the address where the car is garaged. So, it doesn't matter how old the driver is or how many crashes they have, but if you live out in the country you save about $100 a year on rego costs due to lower accident risk. Most of the eastern states have to organise their own insurance though. For reference, my rego including third party is about $340 per year on a motorbike, about $700 per year on a four cylinder car and I think roughly $800 on a six cylinder. There is no accounting for weight/size/power/capacity of vehicles, just the number of cylinders. Owners of huge four-wheel drives with four cylinder diesels in them benefit greatly from this!
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Sept 26, 2012 1:07:53 GMT
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I love a fast wagon, but the stripped interior and cage kind of ruins it for me. I would have to have it sleeper style with a full stock interior. In fact, I'd have it completely stock except for the engine. Small wheels, stock height, nice shiny paint all one colour.
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Sept 26, 2012 0:46:57 GMT
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Awesome. Thanks for sharing.
I have to say that if I was ultra-rich, I would probably take the mickey with my dress sense as well. How about suede brothel creepers with tartan golf trousers and a lime green waistcoat? Why not? ;D
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Sept 25, 2012 14:28:33 GMT
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Well, in South Australia they've got rid of our rego stickers now. But we still have to pay it, and just trust that the electronic system has recorded our payment. You get a receipt number to write on your renewal form and that's it. They've made an official government app for iPhone and Android which lets you check the expiry date on any vehicle from the registration number, to make up for the loss of stickers.
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Sept 25, 2012 14:24:05 GMT
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Nice show!
When you said that you went down with a group of GT-Rs, I was thinking, oh yeah, a bunch of old import R32s and R33s. But no, they're brand new ones! You guys have real money over there! In Australia I have never seen more than one new GT-R at a car show.
For me, the Honda City Turbo with matching Motocompo is pretty much the ultimate in cool retro Japanese cars. I mean, it's an optional moped that fits in the boot! So '80s it hurts, it's like something out of the original Transformers.
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Sept 25, 2012 5:02:51 GMT
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Hmm, don't have time for any of this at the moment with the Shitbox underway but just spotted a duel fuel series 2 for sale in SA for $2500 currently being used as a daily driver... I wouldn't get too excited, cheap Jags seem to come up all the time. Whether they're any good or not is another thing altogether.
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Sept 24, 2012 12:26:51 GMT
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The amazing thing about this car is that Gene Winfield actually flew out and did the fade job here in Australia, not in the US! For those who don't know, Gene Winfield was pretty much the originator and king of 'fade' paint, and has been since 1957.
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Sept 21, 2012 12:40:18 GMT
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Big motor, small car, JPS colours. You surely can't go wrong!
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Sept 21, 2012 12:28:40 GMT
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The 70's stuff looks good but once you've dabbled with Digital and modern cars with mags and without you won't look back. I only have limited experience from racing at a friend's house as a kid, but in my experience the magnatraction just completely ruins the fun. On his track, you could hold a modern F1 car with magnatraction at flat chat almost all the way around, I think there was only one tight corner where you had to back off slightly. On the other hand, bring out the old sedans with no magnets and they were all over the place. You barely got to full throttle at all and your speed was determined by your skill in feathering the throttle all the way around. Much more involving.
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Sept 21, 2012 10:05:07 GMT
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If you don't like HQ-WB utes, have you thought about looking at other makes? Falcon utes? Chrysler utes? Maybe a Dodge or an International? The Internationals are pretty common and usually quite cheap. They handle heavy loads well because they're more of a proper truck than any of the other locally-built utes. Also thirsty though. All of these utes have cavernous engine bays and are built to take a big straight six. If you wanted to, it would be easy to swap in a Jag engine and trans into any of the Aussie utes. You could even do the front suspension and crossmember as well if you wanted, there are plenty of chassis shops which have experience with welding Jag suspension onto other chassis rails. Also, if it's just for work and you want fuel economy, you'd be mad not to look at the Japanese four cylinder utes. A cheap Hilux from the 1980s-90s will drive better than most of the old full-size utes and use a lot less fuel, especially if it's on gas or diesel. There are plenty out there with either. The Japanese stuff is more likely to come with creature comforts too. Remember that most old utes are extremely unlikely to have power steering, let alone air-conditioning. The steering can be very heavy for parking.
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Sept 21, 2012 5:24:31 GMT
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Well, let's say that the Jag six will do approximately 14 litres/100km on petrol and 16 litres/100km on gas. I'm not sure how accurate that is because I've never owned a Jag, but my six cylinder Holden ute does 12.5 litres/100km with a four-speed and the Jag would have to be worse with the extra weight, plus an auto trans and a bigger engine.
Estimate petrol at $1.40 per litre and gas at about 70 cents.
That means your fuel cost is 19.6 cents per km on petrol and 11.2 cents per km on gas.
If you do 20,000km per year, which I would call a lot of km, then the petrol is costing you $3920 and gas would cost $2240. So you save $1680 per year, which should pay for a decent gas conversion in the first year and then you're saving money after that. I don't really believe that you would actually do that many km per year in a home-built Jag ute though. What's the work/job that you need a ute for? If you genuinely need it for work, then you should get something that's registered as a commercial. That way, you can claim it as a tax deduction.
Personally for me, I don't do very many km in my ute and I decided that I'm unlikely to own it for more than a few years. I did the rough numbers and it wasn't worth the cash outlay to convert mine to gas. If my circumstances change and I need to commute long distances, I'm going to be selling the ute anyway and buying something else, so there was no point getting it converted.
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Sept 21, 2012 5:10:50 GMT
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Why would the older car have to pay it's way? That doesn't make any sense. Your Focus doesn't have to earn you money.
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