Spacers Legal?
Are bolt-on wheel spacers legal in Victoria,
Australia? I was going to
install 30mm spacers to my Nissan Skyline. The wheels and tyres still fit inside
the guards so do I need an engineer’s certificate?
Simon Birch
Australia
For legal advice on mods we suggest
contacting the road traffic authority in your State/Territory. If an engineer’s
certificate is required, the RTA should be able to provide a list of accredited
engineers.
Missing Handling Contraption
Congrats on your mag. I have been a member for years - you're doing good
work, blah, blah, blah... You've heard it all before because it's true!
But now I'm annoyed. As a former owner of a Fiat X1/9, how can you possibly
leave it off a list of the best handling cheapie RWD cars (Cheap Cornering Contraptions - Part One)???
Of course I am biased, but I had the opportunity to drive many of its
contemporaries (MR2, Laser 4WD, etc) and none of them could match the turn-in
and mid-corner poise of the X1/9. I also raced a sprint kart so I can say with
conviction that nothing handles like a go kart, but the X1/9 came closest!
And, yes, it didn't have the power to pull a sailor off your sister - but I
still loved it (there’s a photo of it in the wedding album!) I'm just sorry I
had to sell it to finance the kitchen renovation!
Anyway, I had to get that off my chest. I'm sure you will get lots of other
letters claiming you left off this car or that, but I still think on the
criteria of good handling cheapness the X1/9 rules!
Donal Storey
Australia
Yep – we thought we’d get some
‘extras’ come in following that article! We did look at the X1/9 and recognised
its handling finesse but, together with the Alfa Sud/Sprint, we thought they
were getting a bit too old to include in the context of the article. The
X1/9 (1978 – 1983) is fast becoming a classic - something to restore. But, yes,
point taken..
More on Handling Contraptions
I was just reading through your latest article on good handlers for under
AUD$5k (Cheap Cornering Contraptions - Part One)
and noted the BMW E30 in there.
It made me think; I have a friend who has done the interesting conversion of
dropping in a SR20 turbo from an import S13 half-cut. He did the conversion
himself including Hybrid front-mount intercooler, hand-crafted polished
pipework, new exhaust, custom tailshaft, hooking up the engine management and
loom into the existing BMW gauges and instrumentation, suspension upgrade, etc.
It's a ‘work in progress’ but nicely done and, from all accounts, a very
pleasing car to drive.
It wasn't an expensive conversion (including purchasing the Bimmer and the
half-cut) and he's done a lot of the work himself with the help of friends.
Michael O'Brien
Australia
Good Idea!
How about an article on ‘high flowing’ standard injectors? This would be of interest to a lot.
Tony Goodlich
Australia
An excellent suggestion! We’ll get
onto it.
Totally Cheapened?
Can I please make a quick comment on your recent "Tweaked Type M" article (Tweaked Type M)?
You have now totally cheapened the appeal of your mag in my mind by offering the
car for sale. I don’t read your mag because it’s an advertisement - if I wanted
that I would read CarPoint or some other site and see what guys have done to
their cars and what they reckon their power figures are...
Instead, please ponder the following. If it’s such a great car why are they
selling it? Also, you are either being used as a vehicle for free advertising or
(more cynically) you are being paid for the privilege of 'advertising' someone’s
car. BOTH of these are unacceptable and if I ever see you do it again I will
cancel my subscription to your otherwise helpful mag.
Anonymous Reader
Australia
We do not receive any payment for
mentioning a car that we feature is for sale – this is purely a courtesy that
we extend to the owner, and one other readers might find of benefit. And why would someone be selling
their car “if it’s so great”? Well, there’s a whole list of possible reasons...
Waiting, Waiting...
Wondering if you could advise how long it will be before
Australia gets
the Peugeot 307, 6 speed, 136ps HDi and the BMW 120d. I own a 306 HDi and am
eager to update. (Yes, I have driven the Golf V Tdi and the engine and DSG
gearbox were superb but the suspension didn't quite have that balance of
acrobatic handling and plushness I admire in the Pug.)
Ash Rushton
Australia
We’re not sure – your best bet is to
get in contact with Peugeot and BMW head offices in Australia. Give ‘em heaps until they’re
released!
Speedy XR?
In the atmo Ford XR6 review
you quoted a 0-100 km/h completed in just over 8 seconds. I would like to know
how many kilometres were on the clock in the test car and was this time achieved
using a manual gearbox or sequential shift auto gearbox?
Gaetano ANZÁ
Australia
We no longer have a record of
kilometres of our test car. We can tell you it had the sequential shift auto
trans together with the XR6 diff ratio (which is shorter compared to base Falcon
models).
Bit Sceptical...
I’m just wondering if you can do a review on the Ecotek CB-26P? If possible,
it would be good to see a dyno test on a turbo car – I own a Nissan R32 GTS-t so
a review on turbo and NA cars for comparison would be really cool.
Here's the website for the product... www.ecotekplc.com
I'm a bit sceptical about devices like this (and I’m sure you are!). It
bypasses the airflow sensor so I dunno how good this would be for the motor
given that this would probably give a leaner mixture.
A guy in the office where I work has had one fitted to his Mazda SP20 (2001
model). He says that he used to get 400kms per tank of Optimax and with this
thing fitted he can now get anywhere between 450-500kms per tank. Sounds pretty
amazing... He also claims that the flat-spots (which he used to get at high revs
being a non-variable valve timed engine) are gone too. The website claims that
the gadget improves off-boost performance for turbo cars – but when you're on
boost it makes no difference.
Frank
Australia
We don’t have any plans to test the
product. We suggest enquiring about a money-back guarantee before handing over any
cash...
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