Bloody Arsed
"Bloody" and "arsed" don't belong in
what I have long thought were the writings of an intelligent and well qualified
person. Otherwise I agree with your sentiments re VE SS Commodore.
For a good size and space balance with good (passive) safety, my old
VR Commodore was about right, rivalling my Volvo 144 and Merc 280 sedans.
The Volvo and Merc (and LH Torana and VC-VK Commodores) all afforded excellent
visibility and were easy to park; something current styling has lost.
Bob Junor
Australia
We’ve looked and looked and still can’t see "arsed" in the test to which you
refer!
DFA Use
I just thought I would point you at a very interesting read regarding
your Digital Fuel Adjuster being used on a Mitsubishi FTO. Although the article
does say that it uses a MAP sensor (so the kit would be less effective) it does
go on to say that the MIVEC solenoid was used to switch the DFA in and out, so
it only worked at higher rpm. The article can be found at
www.ftowa.com After reading it
you will see that although there was no effect on power, the kit did work as
intended. It would also be of use on cars that have anything switched on at
higher rpm, such as VTEC control, the variable runner switch on later model
Falcons, or indeed be used with an aftermarket rpm switch.
Ben Powell
Australia
Things...
What ever happened to the Columns? (Sophisticated Side etc.) They were
always amusing and good for some light automotive reading; any chance of a
similar things coming back?
On another note, I’m loving your articles on the EF Falcon. I recently bought
one (auto GLI) for a mere $3400, and it had only done 150,000km. It really is a
bargain! My EF tends to require large amounts of pedal force (as in almost
standing on the pedal) to obtain the last 20% or so of braking; did your brake
upgrade improve this? Keep up the good articles.
(And just my 2 cents worth, but I can't say I love the repeat articles, I
like something new to read when I log on everyday, and I would be willing
to pay more for it!)
Andrew Lamb
Australia
We dropped some columns five years ago when other changes were made.
Readership stats show that they were little read, although we agree that they
were well written and entertaining. The brake pedal feel of the Falcon with the
EBC pads and RDA discs is excellent – although even the standard system
shouldn’t be as bad as you describe.
Wonderful VE SS Economy
I have owned a VE
[Commodore]
SS auto now for 6 months and was
interested in your write-up but have to disagree with some of your findings.
Fuel economy from Coolangatta to Sydney was 9.8 kpl - this was trickle filling
last fuel up and working out the figures manually, car computer said 9.1 kpl.
This was 2 adults 1 child full boot and aircon all day, car has done 13500k.
Currently after a reset and 2 weeks around town Syd western suburbs 11.8 on the
computer.
The auto was tricky at first but settles down in a few thousand
k's it drives superbly but can be confused with fast on off throttle
applications. My car recorded a 13.47 at WSID in 41c heat and is stock standard
so it performs extremely well. I can't fault the beast. It's actually cheaper to
run than my SV6! Cheers thanks for the review.
Paul
Jarman
Australia
We always wonder why new car purchasers "can’t fault the beast" when we can
always find plenty of deficiencies in every car we drive... Note that the fuel
consumption read-out is in litres per 100 kilometres, not kilometres per
litre.
Aftermarket Diesel Management?
Having read both Common Rail Diesel Injection articles, one wonders whether
or when the aftermarket ECU manufacturers will develop units to suit diesel
engines.
Malcolm Land
Australia
More Tests Wanted
I just got done reading your 'Negative Boost Revisited' series. The
articles were very informative and quite interesting. I was very
interested to see exactly how closely the vacuum drop was proportional to the
horsepower increase. 9 inches of water less vacuum means you should be
getting about 2.25% more air into the engine. That is almost exactly the
gains you saw from the modifications. This makes it easy to see how much
one could gain from upgraded intakes simply from measuring plenum vacuum at full
throttle. However there was some information that I thought was lacking
that might be useful to add. You have a lot of before information and
testing which was really great. However, you only have a small amount of
post modification testing results. Did you measure the vacuum in the same
5 areas after the modifications? If so, what are those new numbers?
Did all areas improve, or did some get worse? Also, a torque graph on your
dyno sheet would have been very useful in seeing more precisely how the new
plumbing has affected your powerbands. I have to admit, I was disappointed
when I saw AFR instead of torque. Despite these things, the series was
great. Keep up the good work!
Tim Fulton
United States
If torque (tractive effort in this case) decreases, so does power at those
revs – so you can see the torque change from the power change. We didn’t do
extensive ‘after’ testing – it was enough that we’d dropped intake restriction
by 40 per cent. Keep in mind that if you want a really detailed analysis of
‘before’ and ‘after’ results, the techniques are cheaply and easily achievable
on any car – do it on your own car and find out!
Falcon Deficiencies
Re your project car EF Falcon. I've looked at the late EF's and early
AU's and see them as great value. But two things turn me off and I'd like your
opinion or even story material.
1. Power-steer is far too light and kills the feedback. I don't think it's
electronically controlled like you did with your other mods? – could playing
around with pulley sizes or a bleed on the pressure lines make a difference
here?
2. Engine braking on the auto trannie is almost non existent when
manually clonked into second, could there be methods to change
this?
Matt King
Australia
We think both aspects are things to just live with. That said, we’ll think
about doing something on steering feel.
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