That one lasted long enough to wear the tread off it Get caught driving on a biscuit spare you get booked here and yet I recently saw a beatup Honda with 3 fitted, must have been fun around corners.
Open road limit is 100kph here those biscuit tyres are 80kph limited thats why youll be booked tyres need to be pairs on either axle or yer unroadworthy.
..one good thing ..there is a decent weight reduction to lump around in the rear ..actually chucked-out my full size spare in the 6G74 wagon and located a ‘skinny’ from an Auckland kid parting out his elderly jap import 6G72 saloon ..an open road petrol head needs every dram of available power in times exposed to danger to count ..and weight is the killer ..
..one also cuts out nasty heavy things like the ‘cat’ and big triple-chambered mufflers, and installs bullets and a baffle-free super-turbo or the like
..another thing is friction reduction ..it is amazing the difference a little top-end lubrication makes when it comes to getting pistons moving more freely in their tight encirclements (a vacuum-inducted light oil product called ‘moreys’ blended 50/50 with 2 stroke outboard anti-scuff works wonders here)
..and then there’s the cotton air-filter ..and the piggy-backing VP12 chip ..and 5/30 oil with teflon additive ..multi-electrode iridiums ..low impedence HT’s (new leads) ..fuel value at 98 RON minimum ..and outrageous tyre pressures (44psi min)
..ensure all four wheels spin like frictionless roulette wheels (caliper piston lube, trued-up rotors, grease packed bearings)
..the difference between doing none of this (on the same vehicle) ..and all of it ..is quite amazing
..literally the difference between overtaking just one lumbering RV or a full Mack-track semi-trailer on the same piece of road at the same commencement speed
..the only downside is now that putting a sudden 5,000rpm thus optimised power through one front wheel becomes unnerving unless the road is straight and level ..and dry
..the same issue of unnervingness came into play when putting 10 psi of chemically intercooled boost through the rear wheels of a ’99 vct coon (it became very tail happy on wide open throttle and just a little dangerous as the lsd and irs combination on it didn’t have the progressiveness and on-throttle controllability of an earlier live axle e-series watts linkage set-up)
..but it’s all good fun ..and we shouldn’t be scared of a ‘skinny’ if it is just used for a few kms to the nearest Firestone or whatever if you’ve just changed a flattie
I had a brother in law with a serious gambling problem. He had no money for anything else, and drove his car from L.A. to Vegas and back with a temporary spare. Dude was nuts.
I knew a guy who used one for similar distance although he would have been doing only 65mph not 75+. He was a strange unit in quite a few ways too.
Bryce I can understand having mis-matched tyres is illegal, but do people actually get booked driving on space saver spares over there? If it is that bad you wonder how manufacturers get away with selling cars with them.
I was I was booked for travelling at 100kph on a speed limited spare couldnt believe it but thats the rules they lay down you can use em sure but only to go get the proper tyre fixed and at reduced speed. The cop said read the sidewall, that was in my 406 Puegeot wagon the 7 seater only had a biscuit not full size but NZ is plagued with Jap imports that all have them.
So the reality was not that you were “booked” for driving on a temporary spare but for unsafe driving by driving to fast for conditions, in this case going too fast for the rating of the tire.
I’m shocked that you call them “cops”. Surely New Zealand has some kind of colorful local slang for “police officer” like you do for seemingly every other person/place/thing, right?
I have thought it would be fun to have a race with four hobble tires on small Honda/Nissan cars; till they either finish the race or run out of tires. Think of the drifting they could do! Maybe a new series of Lemons.
It would be like driving fast on skinny crossply tyres, no thanks I tried that recently on my Minx even with only 60 odd hp it skates all over the place without going fast.
That’s just the point Kiwib; I had a 1959 English Ford Anglia that altho slow and had 5.60×13 tires ; it would slew all ’round Winding Way down in Sacramento back in the 70s and would keep up with faster cars and was the most fun I’ve every had with a non-motorcycle vehicle on the road
yes yes yes ..my mother’s ’63 Cortina 1200 had only 5.20×13 rubber and it WAS A TOTAL HOOT to drive, wet or dry, absolute FUN ! !
Wolfgang
Posted April 14, 2014 at 12:40 PM
There you go, you can have the most fun with the crappiest equipment. I drove a Porsche Cayman during a driving experience with an instructor. It was fun alright, but I had no chance getting even close to the cars ability. That’s were the real fun begins. So let’s do some reverse tuning: lower the car’s limit. That way you will be at that limit for the whole race.
tmt
Posted April 14, 2014 at 3:14 PM
@Craig: I had a ’61 Consul that had I think pretty much the same engine (seems like it was a 1500, but don’t quote me) and was much faster than the Anglia but had the same tossable nature.
@Wolfgang: It’s been said many times: It’s more fun going fast in a slow car than slow in a fast car. Driving the Anglia, which on the freeway or city traffic was too slow, on twisty roads you could go all out and not get in trouble as you were just keeping up with traffic.
Craig
Posted April 15, 2014 at 4:37 AM
Wolfgang, yes absolutely! You go to a skid pan and this is of course what happens.. the instructor can alter the car’s traction and stability infinitely with hydraulically adjustable outriggers with trolley wheels …the vehicle’s four main wheels in road contact can be made to lose traction/contact at the lowest speeds imaginable ..you can have immense fun at five kms per hour trying to directionally control a car that is behaving like a twirling greased pig in a mud pool..
..in my civilian occupation this was ‘required training’ ..we also did regular race track circuits with the outriggers just barely kissing on the seal at decent speeds.. reproducing the true road handling events that would occur at 160 kms per hour or whatever without the outriggers.. also amazing fun but a tad ‘safer’ in the event of ‘losing it’ ..lol
Craig
Posted April 15, 2014 at 5:45 AM
tmt ~ the Consul Capri 315 was one gorgeous looking vehicle back then ..i remember a sea mist green one that was driven by a very MILF thank you very much silver blonde tidy mother of one of my Form 1 school mates ..quad headlights (the Capri) and a very nice rear end ! Our NZ ones came with the 1340cc engine I think ..one of the prettiest little coupes of it’s day in my opinion
tmt
Posted April 15, 2014 at 10:05 AM
Craig; I looked up the Consul 315 capri and that’s one nice looking fastback, but I’ve never seen one here in the states, too bad. The car I had looks like the British ’60 Consul so while it was registered as a ’61 it must of been manufactured earlier. Was going to post a picture of one but my windows EI 11 is not pasting pictures for some reason every since I downloaded Realplayer cloud. Here is a link if ya got the time:
Was looking around CC for pictures of the Consul Capri and came up with Rodger Carr’s current article on the 70s Capri, another nice British car that I wanted and never managed to acquire; though I did test drive one and really liked the 4 speed and handling. The dash reminded me of the ’68 Cougar XR7 I had; but what I read here it was a copy of another British car.
tmt ~ the Consul Capri 335 (turns out the ‘315’ was the four door version with an Anglia-like reverse rake rear screen!) had some truly unique features for it’s day, such as variable windscreen wiper rate and some other good stuff not found on bread and butter transport. The article I read slated the 1340 engine as being ‘weak’ in the crankshaft although that was never widely known here in NZ. I guess it was a slightly enlarged version of my mum’s 1200 Cortina (that has amusingly been called ‘crap’ machinery back in the post by another commenter LOL …I’ve never heard of any Cortina being referred to so derogatively… the 3 bearing crank engine honked …the 5 bearing version was smoother. but lacked the ‘vitality’ and pure energy the 3 bearing crank small English Ford engines just radiated. They were pure joy to drive because there was just nothing else around at that level at least that was anything like them. The Anglia (997cc?) version was not up there however as it was just a tad too over-square maybe ..it didn’t have the urge of the 1200 by a country mile.. .. .. 🙂
..well remember the top speed of the ’59 Anglia was 73mph EXACTLY ..my dad leaning forward ..pressing a depression in the floor ..me (the 8 year old kid) carefully watching the needle rise up there and ..stop ..as we “whizzed” along the Otahuhu motorway… hahahaa (it was a brand new motorcar in dark green with two-tone grey upholstery, and it wasn’t too long before it was fully run-in at that rate) ..we used to zip in and out from Mangere grass strip aerodrome and latterly Ardmore (ex-Corsairs ‘whispering death’ US WW11 airfield) and we used to go flying from there every weekend all over NZ in the Cessna 180 ZK-BUF, and the Apache ZK-BLP …God what wonderful days they were ..and the Anglia got us out there and back ..my mother left fuming at home ..but to me that little Ford represented ‘freedom man’ ..the freedom of the skies
@Craig- The Anglia I had was registered as a 1959 but not the one with the reverse slanting window, it was the older style, had a flat-head 4cly that put out like 35hp. I’m only going by what I remember cause looking at wiki and other sources can be confusing, as the model change that happened about then has the over-head listed as a ’59. So mine might have been built in ’58. I seemed in good shape, didn’t smoke but would never do 73mph. With just me it could do about 60mph. One time I had two guys in it and they were razzing me how slow it was all I could get out of it with the three of us was 55mph. It also had no synchronizers (maybe worn out?) in the 3sp on the floor. My dad being a truck driver, I knew about double-clutching, which was one of the things I liked about the little “puddle jumper” as we used to call these types of cars. My sister had a slant window ’62 or so with the overhead engine, which while faster, seemed lighter and flimsier and smaller on the inside.
It does seem like the same cars are always faster in NZ then here in the US; do they get hotter engines from Europe or is it just the “down-under” air? 🙂
tmt ~ did your ’61 Consul have the 1703cc version four cylinder engine by any chance? was that the 217E? …i learnt to drive behind the 1703 in the ’62 Zephyr 4 ..it was a torquey engine down low and quite smooth ..but it was a large bodied car for a 4 cylinder engine really …i see the ’61 Zodiac 2553cc version had a reasonable zero to 60mph by even today’s standards at 13.4 seconds ..Audi’s A4 1.9 turbo diesel was 13.3 seconds and that felt ‘powerful’ underfoot as late as ’95 even ..so those English Fords were not too bad at all in their day and could give most other family cars a good run for the money ..and the Mark 111’s had decent brakes too!!
@Craig- You got me, back then there was little information on the English Fords, when I went to get parts they had little in their books at the parts houses, so the 200e, 217e numbers meant nothing, just the cc size. The consul was a 1500cc, pretty sure in that, when did the 5 bearing come out? At this time I was in college in Sacramento and the important thing was MPG, it’s why I drove small cars. The best one of the bunch was a 1967 Cortina 1600 with the 3 speed auto (I know it should have been the 4sp but beggars can’t be…) and was slow at first off the line but would cruse at 65-70 on the freeway and had good torque. When I left college I needed something to sleep in as I moved to Oregon to look for work; so found an old Thames van with a bad engine and transplanted the Cortina’s engine with the auto as the 100e (there’s one number I remember!) transmission would not fit to the 1600. After putting the engine into the van on a shoe string (one of the motor mounts wouldn’t line up so I cut a chunk out of an old tire tread and put it between the starter and the cross-member) the kick-down lever wouldn’t hook-up to the transmission so for months a had a 3 speed manual shift automatic. Had to run it up in first till it would shift into third then drop down into low, it would go into second, then bring the lever back up to high, it was fun! That 1600 pulled that heavy Thames body up the Sisquis mountains into Oregon and many months had a dry place to live till I found a job. What we can do when we’re young and don’t know any better.
“..another thing is friction reduction ..it is amazing the difference a little top-end lubrication makes when it comes to getting pistons moving more freely in their tight encirclements (a vacuum-inducted light oil product called ‘moreys’ blended 50/50 with 2 stroke outboard anti-scuff works wonders here”
I had a 1972 Torino with 302 that had a vacuum injection system into a two-barrel carburetor with a bottle on the fender wall that used Marvel Mystery oil (which has been around since the 1920s) to lube the upper cylinder area as you drove and also squirted a little in just as you shut the engine off using the last little vacuum from the engine so when you started up the car it had a little lube to coat the normally dry rings and valves. It must have worked as the car had over 200,000 miles on it and used no oil, got 18-20mpg, never needed plugs changed while I had it, always started up first try, even in cold weather. The choke quit working and we never needed it to start the car, had very tight compression right up till the bearings went in the lower end. I didn’t think they still made such a device for modern cars with the fuel injection and improved oils. Seemed to me that start-up is the hardest on a car with no oil pressure or upper cylinder lubrication.
yes there is still a boxed product you can buy complete with your first one litre bottle of oil ..it costs around 70 bucks and comprises a plastic vacuum chamber complete with venturi and needle valve adjustment, two sizes of tubing, and a flat compact one litre oil container and detailed instructions ..it is for older non-efi or for all modern efi vehicles regardless..
I have it installed on three vehicles at present (an ’89 3049cc inline six aussie Falcon, on an 3497cc jap V6 Mitsi, and on a ’69 225 slant six Mopar)
They ALL LOVE it ..when it runs out (not often at all) they all noticeably run more roughly and more noisily and with less power
The Auckland company selling it is called (from memory) ‘South Pacific Oils – Moreys’ or something close to that ..you can easily find it on Google
It has been around for many years, successfully
Detractors say the slight oil mist stuffs-up O2 sensors and will give you a rich idle, but the truth as I have found it is that that is not happening ..it is only a few drips per minute and it all gets atomised and completely consumed in the combustion chambers having minutely moistened the top of the cylinder bore..
Others tell me I shouldn’t be diluting it with anti-scuff two stroke oil as this compound is quite acidic and will eventually ‘eat away’ the tiny plastic venture of the vacuum tube, but this hasn’t yet either (as the drips per minute have remained constant)
The fascination of how well this simple sytem works has lead me on to experimenting with water droplet induction under vacuum ..then a 50/50 mixture of water and methyl alcohol (meths)..
Amazing results in increased power AND economy (as it is a way of introducing more oxygen {and some clean fuelling} into the in-filling cylinder charge
I haven’t tried it with diesel engines as they receive their upper cylinder lubrication via the atomised diesel fuel spray..
I then went one step further and installed an automated micro-processor hi-pressure system produced by ‘Snow Boost’ of the USA, and used it on my supercharged Falcon as a form of chemical intercooling ..the result was an immediate dynoed increase of 14 kws at 3500rpm (to save the gearbox and diff somewhat) ..that was the simple direct effect of the introducing water into the combustion charge ..the H2O both cools the charge AND furnishes an increase in molecular oxygen
Craig: You auto see Paul about posting some of you improvements in a CC article; it’s just what some of these high mileage cars need to keep going that extra 100,000 km/ml. I for one would like to read it.
I’m told Moreys works well on diesels I might try it on my Citroen though it already does around 50mpg and wheelspins at the speedlimit if downshift to 4th and floor it.
Did this happen on gravel or an actual paved surface? I have a very hard time believing that 145lb/ft of torque (peak) is spinning the wheels beneath ~2,600lb. of car in 4th gear at 60MPH. Unless this is another one of those mythical cars that was underrated from the factory by 200% or so.
Twincamr2
Posted April 15, 2014 at 1:09 AM
No, you’re mistaken Sean. Bryce is talking about the vanishingly rare Lamborghini Xsara. A co-development between Citroen and Lamborghini, it placed a modified Lampredi V12 diesel in the engine bay of the humble Xsara powering the front wheels via a strengthened Renault 25 transaxle lifted from a Lotus Esprit V8. It could easily break traction at 100 in 4th, especially seing Bryce drives it around with a pair of space savers on the front end.
.”the H2O both cools the charge AND furnishes an increase in molecular oxygen”
I believe the first part but I seriously doubt the second part. H2O does not like to split up. What happens is that the fuel’s hydrocarbons split up and combine to H2O and CO2 + byproducts. All this happens at very high temperatures so the H2O is building steam and steam pressure. Adding a little extra H2O increases the amount of steam since there is plenty of heat present.
Feel free to disagree and correct me but I maintain the effect of the introduced H2O in the inlet tract is to introduce more molecular oxygen (ie: approximately 21% of the air present) into the charge due to the charge temperature reduction (if a gaseous mixture is cooled it’s molecules become more tightly packed), conversely without the added H2O the charge will be hotter and thus expanded and containing less molecular oxygen within the finite space above the piston crown. Is this incorrect?
The addition of denatured H3C-CH2OH by 25% and up to 50% by volume in solution with the water noticeably further enhances power production within the engine. Perhaps you would like to give your opinion why this should happen and the chemistry involved?
Car and Driver once had a ‘pimp your ride’ contest with Motor Trend and Road and Track. Each magazine was given an early eighties’ Nissan 200SX. As you might imagine, the other two magazines’ entrants were lame. The most memorable thing about the C&D car was it used four space-saver tires (and one of those small diameter chain link steering wheels).
That was the 200SEX. Car and Driver also entered the 200EXTRA in order to win the competition. It was more conventional, with Epsilon basket-weave wheels, aftermarket buckets, extra headlights, and suspension upgrades, IIRC.
Well – I think Chris summed it up perfectly in his last sentence.
“On the street – fun is better than speed.”
Looking at the reviews of Toyota/Scion/Subaru GT86 that utilizes the tires from Prius and is much more entertaining BECAUSE of the smaller grip level – maybe this Prairie/Stanza owner wanted to alter his peoplehauler’s driving characteristics…
While in college my kids drove thousands of miles at above the speed limit until the steel belts were showing. Our son-in-law drove from DC to Myrtle Beach on a Subaru at the speed limit. No problems!
That one lasted long enough to wear the tread off it Get caught driving on a biscuit spare you get booked here and yet I recently saw a beatup Honda with 3 fitted, must have been fun around corners.
Illegal to drive on a spare tire? Hmm I’ll take my Freedom! (What’s left of it, anyway).
Open road limit is 100kph here those biscuit tyres are 80kph limited thats why youll be booked tyres need to be pairs on either axle or yer unroadworthy.
60 MPH. Not that fast.
those tyres are only good for 50mph
You can’t drive 10 MPH under the speed limit? What about less-than-ideal conditions? Is it a “law” that one still has to go 60 MPH then????
It’s more because the tires are narrower and smaller in diameter than the standard tires.
There have been a few attempts to get biscut spares banned.
..one good thing ..there is a decent weight reduction to lump around in the rear ..actually chucked-out my full size spare in the 6G74 wagon and located a ‘skinny’ from an Auckland kid parting out his elderly jap import 6G72 saloon ..an open road petrol head needs every dram of available power in times exposed to danger to count ..and weight is the killer ..
..one also cuts out nasty heavy things like the ‘cat’ and big triple-chambered mufflers, and installs bullets and a baffle-free super-turbo or the like
..another thing is friction reduction ..it is amazing the difference a little top-end lubrication makes when it comes to getting pistons moving more freely in their tight encirclements (a vacuum-inducted light oil product called ‘moreys’ blended 50/50 with 2 stroke outboard anti-scuff works wonders here)
..and then there’s the cotton air-filter ..and the piggy-backing VP12 chip ..and 5/30 oil with teflon additive ..multi-electrode iridiums ..low impedence HT’s (new leads) ..fuel value at 98 RON minimum ..and outrageous tyre pressures (44psi min)
..ensure all four wheels spin like frictionless roulette wheels (caliper piston lube, trued-up rotors, grease packed bearings)
..the difference between doing none of this (on the same vehicle) ..and all of it ..is quite amazing
..literally the difference between overtaking just one lumbering RV or a full Mack-track semi-trailer on the same piece of road at the same commencement speed
..the only downside is now that putting a sudden 5,000rpm thus optimised power through one front wheel becomes unnerving unless the road is straight and level ..and dry
..the same issue of unnervingness came into play when putting 10 psi of chemically intercooled boost through the rear wheels of a ’99 vct coon (it became very tail happy on wide open throttle and just a little dangerous as the lsd and irs combination on it didn’t have the progressiveness and on-throttle controllability of an earlier live axle e-series watts linkage set-up)
..but it’s all good fun ..and we shouldn’t be scared of a ‘skinny’ if it is just used for a few kms to the nearest Firestone or whatever if you’ve just changed a flattie
🙂
In most parts of the USA, you could put four donut spares on a car and it would be 100% legal!
I had a brother in law with a serious gambling problem. He had no money for anything else, and drove his car from L.A. to Vegas and back with a temporary spare. Dude was nuts.
I knew a guy who used one for similar distance although he would have been doing only 65mph not 75+. He was a strange unit in quite a few ways too.
Bryce I can understand having mis-matched tyres is illegal, but do people actually get booked driving on space saver spares over there? If it is that bad you wonder how manufacturers get away with selling cars with them.
I was I was booked for travelling at 100kph on a speed limited spare couldnt believe it but thats the rules they lay down you can use em sure but only to go get the proper tyre fixed and at reduced speed. The cop said read the sidewall, that was in my 406 Puegeot wagon the 7 seater only had a biscuit not full size but NZ is plagued with Jap imports that all have them.
So the reality was not that you were “booked” for driving on a temporary spare but for unsafe driving by driving to fast for conditions, in this case going too fast for the rating of the tire.
I’m shocked that you call them “cops”. Surely New Zealand has some kind of colorful local slang for “police officer” like you do for seemingly every other person/place/thing, right?
I have thought it would be fun to have a race with four hobble tires on small Honda/Nissan cars; till they either finish the race or run out of tires. Think of the drifting they could do! Maybe a new series of Lemons.
That’s exactly what I was thinking: Doughnut racing!
It would be like driving fast on skinny crossply tyres, no thanks I tried that recently on my Minx even with only 60 odd hp it skates all over the place without going fast.
That’s just the point Kiwib; I had a 1959 English Ford Anglia that altho slow and had 5.60×13 tires ; it would slew all ’round Winding Way down in Sacramento back in the 70s and would keep up with faster cars and was the most fun I’ve every had with a non-motorcycle vehicle on the road
yes yes yes ..my mother’s ’63 Cortina 1200 had only 5.20×13 rubber and it WAS A TOTAL HOOT to drive, wet or dry, absolute FUN ! !
There you go, you can have the most fun with the crappiest equipment. I drove a Porsche Cayman during a driving experience with an instructor. It was fun alright, but I had no chance getting even close to the cars ability. That’s were the real fun begins. So let’s do some reverse tuning: lower the car’s limit. That way you will be at that limit for the whole race.
@Craig: I had a ’61 Consul that had I think pretty much the same engine (seems like it was a 1500, but don’t quote me) and was much faster than the Anglia but had the same tossable nature.
@Wolfgang: It’s been said many times: It’s more fun going fast in a slow car than slow in a fast car. Driving the Anglia, which on the freeway or city traffic was too slow, on twisty roads you could go all out and not get in trouble as you were just keeping up with traffic.
Wolfgang, yes absolutely! You go to a skid pan and this is of course what happens.. the instructor can alter the car’s traction and stability infinitely with hydraulically adjustable outriggers with trolley wheels …the vehicle’s four main wheels in road contact can be made to lose traction/contact at the lowest speeds imaginable ..you can have immense fun at five kms per hour trying to directionally control a car that is behaving like a twirling greased pig in a mud pool..
..in my civilian occupation this was ‘required training’ ..we also did regular race track circuits with the outriggers just barely kissing on the seal at decent speeds.. reproducing the true road handling events that would occur at 160 kms per hour or whatever without the outriggers.. also amazing fun but a tad ‘safer’ in the event of ‘losing it’ ..lol
tmt ~ the Consul Capri 315 was one gorgeous looking vehicle back then ..i remember a sea mist green one that was driven by a very MILF thank you very much silver blonde tidy mother of one of my Form 1 school mates ..quad headlights (the Capri) and a very nice rear end ! Our NZ ones came with the 1340cc engine I think ..one of the prettiest little coupes of it’s day in my opinion
Craig; I looked up the Consul 315 capri and that’s one nice looking fastback, but I’ve never seen one here in the states, too bad. The car I had looks like the British ’60 Consul so while it was registered as a ’61 it must of been manufactured earlier. Was going to post a picture of one but my windows EI 11 is not pasting pictures for some reason every since I downloaded Realplayer cloud. Here is a link if ya got the time:
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQbwrwnHhUIxUCZ49ITv4w1R6Vd2tYohM6ktCYSORdsi5pwqvID
Was looking around CC for pictures of the Consul Capri and came up with Rodger Carr’s current article on the 70s Capri, another nice British car that I wanted and never managed to acquire; though I did test drive one and really liked the 4 speed and handling. The dash reminded me of the ’68 Cougar XR7 I had; but what I read here it was a copy of another British car.
tmt ~ the Consul Capri 335 (turns out the ‘315’ was the four door version with an Anglia-like reverse rake rear screen!) had some truly unique features for it’s day, such as variable windscreen wiper rate and some other good stuff not found on bread and butter transport. The article I read slated the 1340 engine as being ‘weak’ in the crankshaft although that was never widely known here in NZ. I guess it was a slightly enlarged version of my mum’s 1200 Cortina (that has amusingly been called ‘crap’ machinery back in the post by another commenter LOL …I’ve never heard of any Cortina being referred to so derogatively… the 3 bearing crank engine honked …the 5 bearing version was smoother. but lacked the ‘vitality’ and pure energy the 3 bearing crank small English Ford engines just radiated. They were pure joy to drive because there was just nothing else around at that level at least that was anything like them. The Anglia (997cc?) version was not up there however as it was just a tad too over-square maybe ..it didn’t have the urge of the 1200 by a country mile.. .. .. 🙂
..well remember the top speed of the ’59 Anglia was 73mph EXACTLY ..my dad leaning forward ..pressing a depression in the floor ..me (the 8 year old kid) carefully watching the needle rise up there and ..stop ..as we “whizzed” along the Otahuhu motorway… hahahaa (it was a brand new motorcar in dark green with two-tone grey upholstery, and it wasn’t too long before it was fully run-in at that rate) ..we used to zip in and out from Mangere grass strip aerodrome and latterly Ardmore (ex-Corsairs ‘whispering death’ US WW11 airfield) and we used to go flying from there every weekend all over NZ in the Cessna 180 ZK-BUF, and the Apache ZK-BLP …God what wonderful days they were ..and the Anglia got us out there and back ..my mother left fuming at home ..but to me that little Ford represented ‘freedom man’ ..the freedom of the skies
@Craig- The Anglia I had was registered as a 1959 but not the one with the reverse slanting window, it was the older style, had a flat-head 4cly that put out like 35hp. I’m only going by what I remember cause looking at wiki and other sources can be confusing, as the model change that happened about then has the over-head listed as a ’59. So mine might have been built in ’58. I seemed in good shape, didn’t smoke but would never do 73mph. With just me it could do about 60mph. One time I had two guys in it and they were razzing me how slow it was all I could get out of it with the three of us was 55mph. It also had no synchronizers (maybe worn out?) in the 3sp on the floor. My dad being a truck driver, I knew about double-clutching, which was one of the things I liked about the little “puddle jumper” as we used to call these types of cars. My sister had a slant window ’62 or so with the overhead engine, which while faster, seemed lighter and flimsier and smaller on the inside.
It does seem like the same cars are always faster in NZ then here in the US; do they get hotter engines from Europe or is it just the “down-under” air? 🙂
tmt ~ did your ’61 Consul have the 1703cc version four cylinder engine by any chance? was that the 217E? …i learnt to drive behind the 1703 in the ’62 Zephyr 4 ..it was a torquey engine down low and quite smooth ..but it was a large bodied car for a 4 cylinder engine really …i see the ’61 Zodiac 2553cc version had a reasonable zero to 60mph by even today’s standards at 13.4 seconds ..Audi’s A4 1.9 turbo diesel was 13.3 seconds and that felt ‘powerful’ underfoot as late as ’95 even ..so those English Fords were not too bad at all in their day and could give most other family cars a good run for the money ..and the Mark 111’s had decent brakes too!!
@Craig- You got me, back then there was little information on the English Fords, when I went to get parts they had little in their books at the parts houses, so the 200e, 217e numbers meant nothing, just the cc size. The consul was a 1500cc, pretty sure in that, when did the 5 bearing come out? At this time I was in college in Sacramento and the important thing was MPG, it’s why I drove small cars. The best one of the bunch was a 1967 Cortina 1600 with the 3 speed auto (I know it should have been the 4sp but beggars can’t be…) and was slow at first off the line but would cruse at 65-70 on the freeway and had good torque. When I left college I needed something to sleep in as I moved to Oregon to look for work; so found an old Thames van with a bad engine and transplanted the Cortina’s engine with the auto as the 100e (there’s one number I remember!) transmission would not fit to the 1600. After putting the engine into the van on a shoe string (one of the motor mounts wouldn’t line up so I cut a chunk out of an old tire tread and put it between the starter and the cross-member) the kick-down lever wouldn’t hook-up to the transmission so for months a had a 3 speed manual shift automatic. Had to run it up in first till it would shift into third then drop down into low, it would go into second, then bring the lever back up to high, it was fun! That 1600 pulled that heavy Thames body up the Sisquis mountains into Oregon and many months had a dry place to live till I found a job. What we can do when we’re young and don’t know any better.
Craig wrote: Quote
“..another thing is friction reduction ..it is amazing the difference a little top-end lubrication makes when it comes to getting pistons moving more freely in their tight encirclements (a vacuum-inducted light oil product called ‘moreys’ blended 50/50 with 2 stroke outboard anti-scuff works wonders here”
I had a 1972 Torino with 302 that had a vacuum injection system into a two-barrel carburetor with a bottle on the fender wall that used Marvel Mystery oil (which has been around since the 1920s) to lube the upper cylinder area as you drove and also squirted a little in just as you shut the engine off using the last little vacuum from the engine so when you started up the car it had a little lube to coat the normally dry rings and valves. It must have worked as the car had over 200,000 miles on it and used no oil, got 18-20mpg, never needed plugs changed while I had it, always started up first try, even in cold weather. The choke quit working and we never needed it to start the car, had very tight compression right up till the bearings went in the lower end. I didn’t think they still made such a device for modern cars with the fuel injection and improved oils. Seemed to me that start-up is the hardest on a car with no oil pressure or upper cylinder lubrication.
yes there is still a boxed product you can buy complete with your first one litre bottle of oil ..it costs around 70 bucks and comprises a plastic vacuum chamber complete with venturi and needle valve adjustment, two sizes of tubing, and a flat compact one litre oil container and detailed instructions ..it is for older non-efi or for all modern efi vehicles regardless..
I have it installed on three vehicles at present (an ’89 3049cc inline six aussie Falcon, on an 3497cc jap V6 Mitsi, and on a ’69 225 slant six Mopar)
They ALL LOVE it ..when it runs out (not often at all) they all noticeably run more roughly and more noisily and with less power
The Auckland company selling it is called (from memory) ‘South Pacific Oils – Moreys’ or something close to that ..you can easily find it on Google
It has been around for many years, successfully
Detractors say the slight oil mist stuffs-up O2 sensors and will give you a rich idle, but the truth as I have found it is that that is not happening ..it is only a few drips per minute and it all gets atomised and completely consumed in the combustion chambers having minutely moistened the top of the cylinder bore..
Others tell me I shouldn’t be diluting it with anti-scuff two stroke oil as this compound is quite acidic and will eventually ‘eat away’ the tiny plastic venture of the vacuum tube, but this hasn’t yet either (as the drips per minute have remained constant)
The fascination of how well this simple sytem works has lead me on to experimenting with water droplet induction under vacuum ..then a 50/50 mixture of water and methyl alcohol (meths)..
Amazing results in increased power AND economy (as it is a way of introducing more oxygen {and some clean fuelling} into the in-filling cylinder charge
I haven’t tried it with diesel engines as they receive their upper cylinder lubrication via the atomised diesel fuel spray..
I then went one step further and installed an automated micro-processor hi-pressure system produced by ‘Snow Boost’ of the USA, and used it on my supercharged Falcon as a form of chemical intercooling ..the result was an immediate dynoed increase of 14 kws at 3500rpm (to save the gearbox and diff somewhat) ..that was the simple direct effect of the introducing water into the combustion charge ..the H2O both cools the charge AND furnishes an increase in molecular oxygen
Craig: You auto see Paul about posting some of you improvements in a CC article; it’s just what some of these high mileage cars need to keep going that extra 100,000 km/ml. I for one would like to read it.
I’m told Moreys works well on diesels I might try it on my Citroen though it already does around 50mpg and wheelspins at the speedlimit if downshift to 4th and floor it.
CX diesel?
98 Xsara 1905 Hatch
Did this happen on gravel or an actual paved surface? I have a very hard time believing that 145lb/ft of torque (peak) is spinning the wheels beneath ~2,600lb. of car in 4th gear at 60MPH. Unless this is another one of those mythical cars that was underrated from the factory by 200% or so.
No, you’re mistaken Sean. Bryce is talking about the vanishingly rare Lamborghini Xsara. A co-development between Citroen and Lamborghini, it placed a modified Lampredi V12 diesel in the engine bay of the humble Xsara powering the front wheels via a strengthened Renault 25 transaxle lifted from a Lotus Esprit V8. It could easily break traction at 100 in 4th, especially seing Bryce drives it around with a pair of space savers on the front end.
.”the H2O both cools the charge AND furnishes an increase in molecular oxygen”
I believe the first part but I seriously doubt the second part. H2O does not like to split up. What happens is that the fuel’s hydrocarbons split up and combine to H2O and CO2 + byproducts. All this happens at very high temperatures so the H2O is building steam and steam pressure. Adding a little extra H2O increases the amount of steam since there is plenty of heat present.
Feel free to disagree and correct me but I maintain the effect of the introduced H2O in the inlet tract is to introduce more molecular oxygen (ie: approximately 21% of the air present) into the charge due to the charge temperature reduction (if a gaseous mixture is cooled it’s molecules become more tightly packed), conversely without the added H2O the charge will be hotter and thus expanded and containing less molecular oxygen within the finite space above the piston crown. Is this incorrect?
The addition of denatured H3C-CH2OH by 25% and up to 50% by volume in solution with the water noticeably further enhances power production within the engine. Perhaps you would like to give your opinion why this should happen and the chemistry involved?
Car and Driver once had a ‘pimp your ride’ contest with Motor Trend and Road and Track. Each magazine was given an early eighties’ Nissan 200SX. As you might imagine, the other two magazines’ entrants were lame. The most memorable thing about the C&D car was it used four space-saver tires (and one of those small diameter chain link steering wheels).
That was the 200SEX. Car and Driver also entered the 200EXTRA in order to win the competition. It was more conventional, with Epsilon basket-weave wheels, aftermarket buckets, extra headlights, and suspension upgrades, IIRC.
Driving on sparesavers can be actually quite good experience!!!
😀
That is crazy scary there with the AMG Benz!
Well – I think Chris summed it up perfectly in his last sentence.
“On the street – fun is better than speed.”
Looking at the reviews of Toyota/Scion/Subaru GT86 that utilizes the tires from Prius and is much more entertaining BECAUSE of the smaller grip level – maybe this Prairie/Stanza owner wanted to alter his peoplehauler’s driving characteristics…
😀
Not uncommon to see that here in Cleveland. With our badly pock-marked roads they don’t have much of a life expectancy though 😀 .
While in college my kids drove thousands of miles at above the speed limit until the steel belts were showing. Our son-in-law drove from DC to Myrtle Beach on a Subaru at the speed limit. No problems!