Looks silly - works well. If you take your car club sprinting occasionally, you're almost sure to find that the standard brakes aren't up to the mark. Cooling ducts will help substantially, and the larger these are, the better. To really get some cooling drafts going, this person's placed temporary ducts leading to cut-down plastic funnels.
Not a go-fast tip but interesting none-the-less. Inside modern Volvo side panels you'll find this plastic honeycomb, placed there to provide greater impact absorption. See, Volvo's safety message isn't just media hype....
Variable cam timing pulleys allow subtle tweaks to be made to the camshaft timing - in this DOHC engine, separately to both the intake and exhaust cam. The only way to set things up accurately is on a dyno, so budget for the testing time as well as the parts cost when considering this upgrade.
People often regard flowbench testing as prohibitively expensive - but it's not. If you make up an adaptor plate to go onto the bench, most head flowers are happy to test other items as well. Mufflers, throttle bodies, intake manifolds, complete exhaust systems - all can be flowed. You'll pay by the hour, so make sure everything's organised and ready to go.
Fuel pressure on an EFI car should be measured using a remote sensor - that stops the necessity for high pressure lines coming to the gauge and so gives a lot more flexibility to gauge mounting locations.
Rarely seen - even on race cars - are barrel throttle assemblies. A barrel throttle has a core that rotates within a hollow sleeve. As it is turned, cut-outs in the core align themselves with holes passing through the sleeve. This custom design was being machined up by Yuri Bruderhans.
Black cars may look good when they're clean and the paint is new.... But black is a colour almost impossible to keep looking good without a huge amount of on-going maintenance. The paint will never look as wonderful as when it first comes from the paint shop, polished and totally unmarked.
There are lots of terms which include the word 'steer'. Oversteer is when the back of the car is sliding outwards when the car is being cornered...
... while understeer is when the front of the car is sliding. In normal driving the two affects are usually more subtle than pictured here!
When designing intercooler plumbing, make sure that the bends are gentle and that sufficient flexibility is built into the system to allow the engine to move its normal amount under acceleration and engine braking loads.
There are chip cookers and there are chipcookers. Those using Kalmaker software (for GM-Delco) have got a brilliant tool at their disposal - of the others tuning non-GM cars in Australia, we'd say that Lachlan Riddel of ChipTorque is the only one with any idea. But always get a chip custom-tuned in real time - don't use off-the-shelf chips if you want the best result.
The AutoSpeed/Labtronics intercooler water spray system shows very clearly that measuring intercooler core temperature is more important than measuring intake air temp when deciding the operating characteristics of a intercooler water spray. That's because in road cars, the intercooler is acting more like a heatsink than a radiator for much of the time.
If you're taking your normal car onto the racetrack, always - always - empty the cabin and boot of loose articles. Tool boxes, spare wheels that aren't bolted down, oil bottles and fuel containers - all can become lethal in the event of a major 'off'.
The Holden/Chev 5.7 is an engine very prone to heat build-up with power then suffering dramatically. Some workshops are now removing the standard engine cover in an attempt to lower intake air temperatures.
The best way to remove dust from interior vents and headunit fiddly buttons is to use a long-haired, soft paint brush to loosen the dust while at the same time waving a vacuum cleaner nozzle in the vicinity. Do this before applying any cleaning liquids, otherwise the dust will be stuck in place until the surface is again dry.
An easy temporary cold air intake can often be made by removing the headlight directly in front of the airbox. That way, the air can get to the intake snorkel without being restricted or rising much in temperature.
It is critical that any programmable engine management system is set up with accurate air/fuel ratio measuring equipment available. An Autronic AFR meter is being used here - be wary of older readouts that time has shown to have very inaccurate figures. Also make sure that the oxy sensor being used by the workshop is near-new.
Japanese import cars are extraordinarily cheap - and get cheaper at an extraordinary rate, too! It's not too long ago that a twin turbo Soarer like this would be selling for sixty or seventy thousand dollars - here it is now for $16,500. Expect only appalling retained value on any Japanese import that you buy.
Definitely not a good place for the air filter - right behind the radiator. When you are planning your mods, placing the air filter so that only the coldest air can be breathed should be a major priority - not the afterthought it so often is.
Although rarely done, a self-relieving pressure regulator like this can be used as a turbo boost control. It is simply plumbed into the wastegate pressure line and holds pressure in the wastegate hose at a fixed ceiling.
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