Hidden Data Hidden?
I was looking for an article I saw some time ago - I have done a search but
couldn’t find what I was looking for. The article was about Holden Commodore
onboard diagnostic/trip computers and the extra info you could get out of them
and different configurations you could have. I’d appreciate if you could dig
this article up for me.
Birol
Australia
The article you’re looking for is... VT/VX Hidden Data
MIVEC Magna
In an article titled 2004 Engine Epic - Mitsubishi Engines
a V6 MIVEC engine was mentioned... “This is a highly sought after engine in Magna tuning circles.” I was
wondering if you know of Magnas with this 6G72 MIVEC conversion successfully
completed? If so, is there any information that you could provide? I've thought about
this for my TF Mitsubishi Magna but was worried about the fact that it was
designed for an automatic car - I plan on keeping my manual
transmission. The other issue would be about the engine management system
side of things.
Great article BTW.
Peter Cook
Australia
Unfortunately we have never seen a
MIVEC V6 transplanted into a local Magna. However we've seen plenty of
discussion about it on various Magna and Mitsubishi forums. We’re not sure on
the complexities of the swap but as always, we suggest starting with a
half-cut. That way you’re assured that you’ve got everything that’s necessary.
3T Song and Dance
Re Kick-Ass Corona!...
The Toyota 3TGT-EU is one of the least known
Toyota engines, primarily because it was so closely guarded
– it first appeared in the Celica GT, which was
Toyota’s first attempt to
turbocharge the Celica. They homologated this car and I was lucky enough to get
one of the homologated engines. I've had it in a TE-72 4 door 1982 Corolla since
1985, complete with AE86 front struts with disc brakes all around. It was the
fastest accelerating car in
Jamaica, and in
those days on a stock ECU ran 12.1 seconds on the 1/4 mile. The next day I would
drive it to work in air conditioning and my tie...
Dan Gurney ran this engine in the Toyota GTP race car in the Miami Grand Prix
in the USA,
making 600hp at 9000 rpm in a 12 hour endurance race.
Great article - thanks for doing justice to such a pedigree of an engine.
Horatio Williams
Jamaica
Re Slow Bikes #11
I'm responding to the article by Julian Edgar about "Why are motorbikes so
slow around corners?" Driving Emotion.
I ride a motorbike and also consider myself a reasonably good driver. There
is no doubt that a decent high performance car can out-brake a bike and hold a
higher corner speed. After all, it has a lot more rubber on the ground. If you
compare lap times of a V8 Supercar to a bike they are about the same. Given that
a bike will hose any car in acceleration, the only way a car can do this must be
in braking and/or cornering. So, the car should have higher speed into a corner.
However, as soon as the bike gets on the power at or after the apex, you can
wave goodbye.
Julian mentioned in his article a particular corner in the Gold Coast hinterland
signposted at 70 km/h, where he would do 110 "as hard as (he) dare(d)". I know
the GC Hinterland very well - it's one of my favourite places to ride. On a
recent ride there, a mate on a ZZR250 was maxed out through most of the corners
(~160-ish) trying to keep an R1 and a Fireblade in sight. Many of these corners
are signposted less than 70 km/h. Which makes me wonder how good a driver Julian
really is.
As an example, I just got back from a trip to
Victoria. I flew to
Melbourne, got a new Falcon auto
hire car and drove to Warrnambool along the Great Ocean
Road. In a stock car I was easily, and mean easily,
doing twice the advisory speed through pretty much every corner - with a damp
road surface (some of it very wet), bits of dirt and gravel in places, on an
unfamiliar road, driving an unfamiliar car, with a cig in one hand and mostly in
the dark.
There's no way I would have done that on my bike. The dirt and gravel in
places would have made me come unstuck for sure, not to mention the damp/wet
bits and the sections that had tree branches and sh&^ everywhere.
On a recent trip to the Oxley
Hwyon my VFR750 Honda motorcycle, I was taking
signposted 70 km/h corners at ~150 without much trouble at all. Now, I consider
myself a decent rider - better than most - and have done a braking and cornering
course on a track to improve my skills. So, perhaps I'm not representative of
the riders Julian has come across. My bike is certainly not a cornering weapon
like many pure sportsbikes, yet I still manage to waste riders of much better
machinery.
A bike is much harder to ride fast than a car, and the consequences of
getting a corner wrong are much worse. Some bikes don't like 'difficult' roads,
if by 'difficult' he means bumpy and less than a perfect surface. Some riders
haven't a clue how to setup their suspension either, which makes a hell of a lot
more difference to a bike than a car. I've had my suspension setup properly,
though the rear still needs some work. I've also had some decent rider training
and I'm yet to find a car/driver combination that doesn't hold me up in any
situation. The closest was an R33 Skyline over Mt Tamborine, though the only
corners he pulled away were blind and/or over a crest where I wasn't prepared to
risk my life. I suspect the driver knew that road a lot better than me, yet he
still held me up.
The car vs bike topic will always attract a lot of attention, but let's face
it - it's all up to the person controlling the vehicle. As far as bang for your
buck goes, a bike will win every time. I paid $6300 for my 11yr old bike and
nothing short of a 6 figure car (new price) will beat it in a straight line. As
a bonus, I get more enjoyment from being banked over in a corner on my bike,
even at slow speeds, than I've ever got from driving a car fast. There's nothing
like doing 140+ through a corner with your knee an inch off the ground (or even
touching).
Peka Lika
Australia
Re Slow Bikes #12
Re Driving Emotion...
I'll give you an interesting example. There is a road racing track, 1.6 miles
in length near Denver,
Colorado. On weekdays you are able to rent
this track for semi-private testing. When I called to reserve time I was told
that there would be a couple of racing bikes also using the track but, if I
wanted to share, I could get a reduced rate. I agreed.
The bikes were both 1000+ cc 4-cylinder full road racing bikes. Not street
legal with no lighting or number plates and minimal mufflers. They were both
equipped with competition road racing tyres front and rear and their riders were
wearing full leathers and race gear. The longest straightaway on this track
(called Second Creek Raceway) is 1300 feet (or 1/4-mile). There is a tight
decreasing radius turn before the straightaway and a banked sweeper at the end
of the straightaway. The acceleration of the bikes down the straightaway was
AWESOME! They were able to come out of the tight turn at the head of the
straightaway at a maximum of about 25 MPH. They were probably well in excess of
100 MPH before braking for the sweeper. I WAS ABLE TO BLOW THEIR DOORS OFF IN MY
125CC SHIFTER KART! They were turning lap times of approx 1m,15sec. and I was
doing 1m,11sec. Oh, and one of the guys on the bikes is the current
Colorado motorcycle road racing
association points leader!
I think it has a lot to do with the amount of rubber on the ground and the
fact that if I 'loose it' and spin out, it hurts a LOT LESS than if the bikes
'loose it'. Now, if only I had 1000cc's!
Jim McNaul
USA
Re Slow Bikes #13
Just read your bikes/cars article (Driving Emotion)
and I would consider myself reasonably qualified to answer the question - I've
been riding since I was 7 and driving since I was 10 (grew up on a farm). I
currently own three cars - Audi A4 quattro, Daimler Double Six (Jag V12) and a
'63 Jaguar Mk2 3.8 (the WRX of its day). I also own two bikes - one a touring
bike (Suzuki Bandit GSF1200) and one a sports bike albeit a little older - '89
KR1- 250. I've owned a variety of reasonably quick cars and bikes over the
years.
Ok, so the answer to your question, IMNSHO has a couple of facets.
The first is that for a bike to go quickly through corners, it is 95% rider
and 5% machinery (of course any idiot can twist the grip and go quickly in a
straight line). I know of several riders who have taken 35hp 175kg
learner-legal, $2500 250cc motorcycles to Eastern Creek and happily and easily
rounded up people on $25-35,000, 140- 160hp, 180kg supersport weapons. The big
difference between bikes and cars is how little the machinery compensates for
lack of skill. I personally have been able to lap Eastern Creek quicker on my
15yr old 250cc race replica (60hp, 150kg primitive suspension) than people on
new sportsbikes costing 10 times as much and with double and triple the hp. Mick
Doohan I ain't - there's heaps better riders than me around (but there's also a
few worse).
The next issue is one of physics, all things being equal, a high-end car
(Mclaren, the Porsche 911 AWD, Ferrari, etc) will always be quicker than an
equivalent bike, say a Ducati 999R or Yamaha R1. 4 wheels, AWD, heaps more
rubber on the road, heaps bigger brakes and, far more importantly, aerodynamics
(down force greater than 1g for a car, but bikes can't have that because they
tilt in the corners). The best of the cars are quicker than the best of the
bikes. Compare F1 lap times to MotoGP lap times where they run the same
tracks.
Having said that, the best of the bikes cost a tenth or less of the best of
the cars - and generally you'll be seeing on the road the bike equivalent of a
Ferrari (an R1 cost $18K brand new...) being put up against far less exotic
machinery. Generally speaking you'll need to spend *at least* $100K on a car to
get equal performance to a $20K bike
Another factor is suspension and inertia. Inertia comes in on rough roads and
it's very noticeable when I swap between the Daimler (2 ton+) and the Audi
(relatively lightweight) on a rough road. The Daimler feels relaxed and easy to
drive and the Audi feels very skittish. Similarly a bike is a helluva lot
lighter again and hence more easily disturbed by rough roads generally. Heavier
bikes like the Bandit (240kg) aren't particularly phased by rough roads but as a
touring bike it has less ground clearance (comparatively speaking) and hence the
maximum lean angle is affected by the fact that it has a centre stand (for
example) that sports bikes don't. Once metal touches down you can't lean any
further.
Last thing is suspension - modern sports bikes have wonderfully good
suspension. Older bikes and cheaper less sporty bikes have lesser kit. The funny
thing though is a lot of people with the modern sports bikes don't know how to
set them up correctly, and it's not uncommon for people to make the handling
*worse* on a multi-adjustable suspension (there's about a million combinations
you can come up with from the preload, rebound and compression damping settings
on a modern bike). Most of the highly focussed sports bikes come out of the
factory setup for the race track, which is WAY too stiff for Australian
back-roads, a significant portion of their owners don't realise they need to
soften up the settings a little when on the road, adjust the settings according
to their weight and adjust the settings if they add or remove a pillion etc.
A good rider on a modern sports bike should leave a good driver in a modern
sports car costing less than a $100 grand behind on a windy road, however the
quantity of straights will also be a factor (advantages the bike- acceleration
and top speed) and fast sweepers will advantage the car (assuming it has
effective aerodynamic kit), along with the willingness of the driver/rider to
ignore the speed limit (top speeds tend to be higher for bikes)....
The explanation of your Adelaide Hills incident is very obviously that you
came across a very poor rider given that he managed to fall of the bike in an
unforced error.
In short, the biggest factor in bike performance is the rider. That's how
Rossi can take a bike that's been languishing in the lower half of the top 10
and win 7 out of 10 races on it. While driver skill is very important, not even
Schumacher could take the Jaguar to a win in F1 (for example).
John Littler
Australia
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