dcmackintosh

Damn, I wish I was going to be in town!

One more, same road. I've only been able to take static shots before, but I Shanghaied my daughter into making some passes for me.

My restomod 2502 in the Hood River Valley orchards on Friday. Click for larger.

I've taken static shots of my car here around the Gorge, but my daughter was home for spring break and I had her make a few passes for me on East Side Road just south of Hood River today. Best viewed full screen as a slideshow. Check them out if you like.

http://www.dmackphoto.net/Columbia-River-Gorge/2502-East-Side-Rd/

Stunning car!  Drive it down to Hood River and visit my M20 '72 Inka sometime.

I have no stock car numbers, but as a data point, my '72 M20 swap car with IE glass hood and no front bumper is 1,300 lb on the front axle and 1,200 lb on the rear, with me (190 lb) and a full tank of fuel.  While my motor is stock except for intake and exhaust and I wouldn't mind a bit more power, I'd try hard to not add weight to get there.  With my limited electrical skills, I appreciate how little wiring is in the car too. 

I had a set of S.Drives mounted on my 15x6 Panasports last week and have had a couple of chances to scrub them in in the canyons.  The tires are smooth riding, relatively low tread noise, quiet at the limit, and quite good stick in the dry.  In fact, I can't easily kick the rear end out in 2nd gear corners (M20 car) anymore, so that's a bit disappointing.  Comfortable cornering speeds are a lot higher than with the crappy (and bald) tires that came on the car, though.  The actual weight in 195/50-15 is 20.5 lb per tire, if that's of interest.

I'm not a big fan of the wheels, but they would be easy to clean, and I think the car looks great.  I'm not in the market for another myself, but I could check it out for someone on a weekend sometime.

I can usually jump 3 or 4 cars at any given start because I'm holding the car with my left foot

and starting to feed in throttle with my right- it's amazing what that half- second of extra

full throttle does for you by turn 1....

I'm not quite picturing this, isn't your left foot on the clutch immediately before the start? 

Friday night roundie.

Nearly certain the same wheel, only the set on the BMW are much wider....

 

http://www.ebay.de/itm/ATS-Classic-Felgen-7-x-13-ET-20-/141374809706?pt=Auto_Felgen&hash=item20ea98666a

Wow, I love those wheels in 7x13.  Even if I could find them here I'd have to go back to a stock front front brake setup, which I don't have, though.

I hope it was clear that I was joking about putting 185/70-13 P-Zero F1 tires on my tii.

As far as performance is concerned, it has many components to it. My point was that if you increase the moment of inertia of the wheels, by using larger diameter rims while keeping other parameters constant (OD, tread width, tread material, etc) it will take more energy to rotate the wheels. Acceleration will be negatively affected, whether it's a F1 race car or a DD. At least that's how it appears to me. There may be other performance characteristics that are improved. Incidentally, larger diameter rotors would also tend to increase the moment of inertia of the rotating wheel. They might provide better braking, but that is another component of performance...

If the F1 designers were given the freedom to use larger rims and lower profile tires they might indeed choose to do so. But I don't see that it would be due to improved acceleration.

It would look super cool, though!

Absolutely, the moment of inertia of rotating components will effect both acceleration and braking, much more than the same amount of weight placed elsewhere.  I think the biggest benefit to F1 to going to larger rims and low-profile tires would be to suspension development.  Those tall tires are big springs, with damping built into the construction, but no real control over it by the team.  The suspensions would have to be completely rethought, at considerable expense, but I think the gains would be significant.  Introducing a change in the rules like that would be a tremendous hardship to the less well funded teams, though.

It appears that F1 regulations require 13" diameter rims front and rear.  The designers don't get to choose what might be faster.  The maximum tire diameter is also specified and I imagine that the tires are designed to that limit. 

http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules_and_regulations/technical_regulations/5277/fia.html

With larger rims one could use larger brake discs, which I expect would be advantageous, but of course these are also limited.  No ABS is also a signicant limitation, no matter how skilled the driver he or she can't control each wheel independently. 

http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules_and_regulations/technical_regulations/5261/

I don't know what the reasons for these size limits are, I would think that perfomance could be gained by running larger rims and brakes.  Of course comparing what is desireable in an F1 car to any road car is fairly silly in any case. 

All depends on what threads the rad has.

I use a stock bmw e30 fan switch in my car.

Are you sure that is a switch and not a temp sensor? Only one lead on it.

Thanks for the reply. Sensor is probably the correct term. You're correct that it only has one lead. I'm not sure how it works internally, but it's obviously intended to make that wire a ground at the desired temperature. I may have to pull it to determine the threads.

My '02 received an M20 conversion two owners ago, and I've had a few minor things to sort out.  Since I got the car a few months ago the electric pusher fan always came on with the ignition and I thought it must have just been wired that way.  Yesterday I noticed that it wasn't coming on at all, and the temp did climb past it's usual position (parked at 180F on the aftermarket gage).  I know next to nothing about electrics, but I did poke around and determine that there's a relay (top right of the photo) which had switched power, and a thermo switch on the aluminum radiator.  After cleaning the spade contact on the switch and some wiggling, the fan did come on with the ignition.  It also comes on if I touch the wire to the radiator.  The switch appears to have failed closed, at least most of the time.  It also appears to have teflon tape on the threads, which doesn't seem like a good idea, unless the coolant is enough of a ground.

I'm trying to determine if the switch is something I can just pick up at NAPA before I drain the radiator.  It's located next to the hose at the thermostat outlet (I assume).  There's also a radiator hose at the same side on the top (the return?).  The rad cap drains to the ground (no overflow tank), if that matters.  

Would it be easy to get a matching part without pulling this one?  Does a 91C switch sound good here?  What should I use on the threads?  Any other tips?  Thanks!

Very nice!  I love the E28s, 3.0 CSs, Z8s, and of course the '02s. 

By the time you get the second one in you'll have figured it out, and you may still have several fingers. 

"Little Beast" by Radu Muntean

I've found a couple of nice pieces of 2002 art and I thought it would be nice to start a thread.  Post an image along with a link to the artist's site, or how it can be purchased.  

I found this through Petrolicious today.  Emmanuel Margault.

dcmacknitosh, does your hood still have the belt line trim? I've been thinking of getting a fiberglass hood as well, but I'm not sure if the glass hoods can still use the trim.

My car under steers as well. Corner hard and it pushes the outer tire. Before I put swaybars on the car it even had enough body roll to lift the inner tire. Just need to give it more throttle in the corner to get it to oversteer

I have 195/50 15 S.Drives and while I think the tires are great, the sidewalls are really wide and they fit wider than most other tires. On my 15x7 Rota RBs I have a bit of poke in the front with the tires.

I have Ectsta ASTs on my E28 and they're just ok. S.Drive is a better tire for sure.

Personally I would give the Dunlops or Gforce's a try.

My car doesn't have any of the trim except for the rockers. I'm not sure what would be involved in using it with a glass hood. Stick-on would work, of course.

I can easily drift the car powering out of 2nd gear corners, but I'd still like it to be better balanced. I've got the IE bars set on soft up front and hard rear, but I still need stiffer rear springs and maybe more front camber. I'm debating coil-overs, but it's more money.

Good tips on the tires, thanks.

miata's are actually decent (for a tiny car). i have seen lots of them take really hard hits into other cars and walls on the race track.  computer engineered crush zones, detachable drivetrains, and side impact protection make a huge difference.  they are small, but they have some advantages...including taillights that are actually visible! 

I've also got a '94 Miata with stock motor and Flyin' Miata suspension, which I bought to teach my older daughter to drive about five years ago.  It's a much more modern, more comfortable, sweeter-handling, and safer car than my '72 M20 '02.  Also cheaper.  My younger daughter can start learning to drive it in another year or so.  My '02 is much less suitable, but a later one that's closer to stock would be closer.  I almost always choose to drive the '02 unless I want some sun. 

What tires/wheel set are you running?

 

15x6 Panasport Minilites, 195/50-15.  Nice and light!  I forget what tires are on there now, nothing special.  They're done, though, and I'm trying to decide between Kumho Ecsta ASTs (by far the cheapest and I like them on my Miata), S-Drives, DZ102s, or g-Force Comp-2s.  The car could use more tire, but I love the wheels and I'm not prepared to add flares now.  Not a lot of grip does make it fun. 

It's great to see updates on people's builds.  I bought mine already converted and love driving it.  I was curious about the weight, so I backed into a closed truck weigh station.  1,300 lb on the front axle and 1,200 lb on the rear, with me (190 lb) sitting in it and close to full tank of fuel.  The weight distribution is then 52/48, which is pretty good.  Mine is a '72 and also has an IE glass hood, which helps.  No radio, no headliner, no hoses to the heater, which I need to take care of sometime.  It's got H&R springs, Billstein Sports, and IE bars, and the car pushes and eats front tires and is also quite rough riding.  I'm interested in what others are using for springs, if you've got a well-balanced setup. 

I just use some cheap 3/4" nuts over the studs as spacers, very easy.  I like the idea of adding a lever to turn the drum while adjusting, though.

It's hard for me to imagine that one of those springs would go bad, we're not talking about bending a paper clip here.  I would compare the distance between the ends of the one that you think is bad vs. the other one or have someone measure one that's not installed for you.