Intercooled Holden V6!
A while back you did an article on Yella Terra's
boost upgrade on the factory supercharged Holden V6 (see
Blowing Harder). Now Yella
Terra have a water-to-air intercooler package which I and a few others on the
Street Commodore forum have put on our cars netting some good results (185kW at
the wheels) with factory quality running and reliability. This could make very
good and informative article as a follow-up to Yella Terra's last available
upgrade.
Here's a link to my post on the forum...
http://forum.streetcommodores.com/showthread.php?t=8473569
Peter Chalkias
Australia
That’s great news. We’ll certainly keep our eye
out for step-by-step installations to cover in AutoSpeed - especially given
blown Holden V6s can now be bought quite cheaply.
Rough Ride
I stumbled across your magazine and your article
regarding your less than comfortable relationship with the Peugeot PR guy
(
Of Peugeot Press Cars
).
My daily driver is a Jaguar X Type 3-litre Sport
which, with all its faults, goes and hangs like the clappers and has taken me
for 245,000 (mostly rapid) kilometres in just on three years. Point is, it
doesn't ride nearly as well as my ancient Pug 504s nor my 505. I bought the Jag
because I wanted "something nice" and even with its firmer sport suspension, it
gives a better, more comfortable ride than the new Pug that I nearly bought to
replace my faithful 505 STI. (The Jaguar dealer didn't like being told that
"his" 2002 Jag doesn't ride as well as my 1972 504 either!) You would think that
within 30 years ride quality would have to improve across the board, wouldn't
you?
Ron Boaden
Australia
My Compliments
My compliments to you on your magazine content. I
love the technical articles but find the new car reviews are very practical and
take into account value for money as well as performance. Keep up the good work
and I will keep subscribing.
David Mueller
Australia
Diesel ‘Wallet’
Re
Mitsubishi 380LS New Car Test
- a diesel 380 is a great
start for a car that is otherwise heading for sales and marketing disaster.
Firstly, to replace the name of a car with the engine size is lunacy. Blind
Freddy knows larger engine = more fuel consumption. I can't see soft-drink
producers calling their cans '20' after the teaspoons of sugar in each drink...
BMW might do it, but drivers of BMW's don't tend to care about upcoming mortgage
repayments. We all know the leaps made in diesels and Mitsubishi - with its
existing diesel technology - could have had a winner. A car with the torque of a
six and economy of a four and drives like a big car should. Piece of cake. What
irritates me is that Mitsubishi doesn't have to reinvent the wheel. Long
suffering Europeans demanded that - take a look at the BMW M5 Diesel, Alfa 147
or JDM Diesel Galants. Perhaps if my taxes weren't keeping the 380 (why don't
they call it the ‘Wallet’) alive, diesel or gas might be a more urgent option.
Meanwhile the humble Corolla sells like hotcakes.
Jason McIntosh
Australia
Little Ripper
I am hunting for a small (500-660cc) lightweight
four-stroke engine to put in my Ultralight Powered Parachute for a reasonable
cost. The Kei car engines look interesting - you have more experience with them
in Australia than we in the US. Air cooled would be lighter but a lightweight
water cooled engine is okay. Have you heard of these engines going for
Ultralight use? Where can I buy such an engine?
Brian Moore
USA
We’re not aware of any air-cooled late-model
Kei engines. From 1990, the Kei engines were allowed to ‘stretch’ to 660cc and a
maximum of 47kW. However, with very mild mods it’s quite easy to achieve 50
percent more power. They’re also quite reliable given suitable mixtures, no
detonation and a good oil supply. We haven’t heard of any going into an
Ultralight but that’s not to say it’s a bad idea! Engines can be exported via www.adelaidejap.com.au/
Fuel Consumption – Who Cares?
I'm sick to death of hearing about how bad fuel
prices are. "AutoSpeed’s Prelim Verdict" on the VE Commodore (see
VE Commodore Tech Overload
)
is a just another typical bitching journo's pile of crap.
"Where’s the common rail diesel option or the
hybrid version (which the Alloytec engine is designed to accommodate)?"
I'll tell you where - in development still. Holden
has been very open about the fact that they're seriously looking at both these
options. The Direct Injection V6 is scheduled for 2008 (with associated gains in
both economy and power). By the way, a diesel will add AUD$3000-$4000 to the
price for no better than 10 percent fuel efficiency and a probable drop in
performance. As for the hybrid, add an extra AUD$8000 with a definite drop in
performance and substantial weight gain.
You're argument doesn't stand up so well against
that information now, does it?
As for LPG, the V6 can be optioned with petrol/gas
and Holden has approved kits for the V8s that even log into the computer
displaying LPG tank level on the existing screen (no dodgy add-on displays etc).
"And introducing a near 2-tonne 6-litre V8 at a
time like this? Sure, it’ll be great in the role of a ‘hero’ car but who on
earth can afford to run it?"
Lots of people, actually. Driven sensibly, these
cars can easily achieve 11-12 litres/100km and even better economy on the
highway. My 1990 VN Commodore (V6) struggles to get 12 litres/100km on the
highway! So you know, I live in the country and am paying AUD$1.45/litre at the
moment and the Perth prices are AUD$1.25/litre. These V8s have over twice as
much power, are ten times better in handling, safety, comfort, quality, etc.
I'm a third year apprentice on AUD$370 a week
after tax. If I can afford to run my car on this amount, pay for rent, food,
insurance, rego and lifestyle, I'm sure there's no problem for the general
population (I understand the average wage is over AUD$500/week) to get 2
litres/100km worse economy than me (for the V8s).
How about this point; the VE has put on around
100kg over the VZ, but the BA Falcon put on over 200kg compared to the AU. Now
the VE, with massive advances over the VZ - and BA/BF Falcon in safety and power
alone - is only about 10-20kg heavier than the Falcons. For the record, the V8
Commodores still achieve better fuel economy than the Falcons. Why don't you
quit bitching? Sure, fuel prices have gone up but so have wages. If you love
cars fuel prices wont matter. They don't faze me.
Evan Smith
Australia
We imagine a common rail turbo diesel version
of the VE would achieve much better than 10 percent better fuel consumption. Why
else would anyone bother? And it is quite possible a turbocharged diesel would
provide BETTER torque and performance in normal driving than the base V6.
This can already be seen when comparing the petrol Astra to the turbo diesel version
– the diesel is much gruntier.
A ‘proper’ hybrid version of the VE would
absolutely slash fuel consumption – especially in city driving (where the hybrid
engine automatically switches off).
Granted, diesel or hybrid versions would
probably cost more initially – but have you checked out the retained value of
diesels or hybrids lately? Clearly, a lot of people are fazed by fuel
prices!
The factory LPG systems are looking really rosy
at the moment – we plan to cover them more in future articles.
Oh, and we very much doubt the 6.0 V8 will achieve
11-12 litres per 100km being driven away from the highway – at best, Holden
claims an average of 14.3 litres per 100km!
Did you enjoy this article?
Please consider supporting AutoSpeed with a small contribution. More Info...
|
More of our most popular articles.
|
|
|
|