An audiophile and petrolhead's musings: in the hi-fidelity, first class, traveling set - Page 126

Sticky tires are expensive and he's a poor teenager. Reminds me of when I was a kid, my tires always looked like crap (too many burnouts).

Thanks for the info. There's a Cosworth stamp on the cylinder heads, that's what led us to believe that. It's a very strange Frankenstein of a car, one of the mechanics called it a "beautiful nightmare".

Someone did mention removing the valve covers and the breather boxes, then draining and disconnecting the intercooler to reach the plugs... glad I don't have to do it.

From the factory, it was never carbureted at all, except in rallicross. In fact, this identical setup was used in rally racing (turbo, 6 carbs, 3L V6 w/ Cosi heads), to a limited capacity. Which makes us think, ultimately, that's what was dropped in there (then "cleaned up" a little for road use). It isn't shiny and pretty, it's seen some heavy use, and it has some larger-than-OEM cams. I'd say that engine likely has a very interesting story to tell.
Edited by Magick Man - 2/12/13 at 1:35pm

I just love my cars.

The `bird will probably go for near 200k bones, that's the trend right now, for one that's well-sorted. I have to agree on the `39 GMC, that's a cool truck. From my limited experience with Mecum, I say it'll go for a reasonable amount, probably $40-50k. Projects like that don't increase in value like you'd think, because no one will love a heavily modified vehicle as much as the person who built it.

For those who were guessing on the Ferrari 250 replica, you're right, it's the dark Cali. The thing is, it's a real Ferrari, just not a real 250 Cali. Someone took a same-era Fezza and chopped and modded it to look like one. It's the reason why 250 GTEs (and all other "lesser" 250s and even 330s) are vanishing. Opportunistic dweebs are cannibalising them to make highend replicas of the much-coveted Buellermobile. In this instance, someone converted a GTE, however, the market for the copies (which can be very difficult to distinguish from originals) is backfiring on these scavengers and the values are plummeting. A replicar that would, at one time, have brought $200-300k is barely fetching 100k. Sadly, the changes are so extensive that these cars can't be restored to original; tops are cut off (often converted into a removable top), fenders shaved, back seats discarded, etc.. So they simply are what they are, now, rolling modern art that's a not-so-poor representation of the real thing. (BTW, I was wrong about it going for $70k, it's £70k. Oops.) This one is more reasonable, $80k US (a 330 GT chop-job).



The exact thing is happening to the 365 GTC/4, though it's even more rare than the 365 GTB/4, and GTB and GTCs are being hacked into more desirable GTSs, and then sold by nefarious dealers (with fake provenance) to unsuspecting trust fund babies who have more dollars than sense. At least the 250 hackers are largely upfront with what they do, though all of it is still wholesale destruction of automotive history.

All cleaned up and detailed, I think it's an attractive car. She'll get up and move too. It was a good buy, and in a way I like it more than the Daytona.


Edited by Magick Man - 2/12/13 at 8:36pm

As I find out more, it isn't quite so grizzly. These aren't pristine beauties, not by a long stretch. Most are derelicts and headcases that are salvaged from Euro "junk yards" and old garages. Most, if not used in making replicas, would just be left to rust in peace, as they aren't valuable enough to restore to original. That doesn't bother me so much. The car being sold:




The big black bull arrived and it runs, starts right up after connecting the battery. I'm working on the estimate but it probably won't be nearly as much as they assessed ($180k), since they were factoring 60 hours of dealership labor and factory parts to fix it.


Edited by Magick Man - 2/13/13 at 3:17pm

For the big Lambos, there's nothing better. They look mean anyway, so black gives them a more menacing look. When we repaint, I'm thinking I'll go matte black instead of gloss and paint the calipers green, as something different. I was a little surprised by how wide it is, it's crazy.

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Dyno tuning. What is it? How does it help you? Primarily, "it's to squeeze as much performance out of you car as possible", that's what "tuners" will tell you, but that's wrong. It's to get as much reliable performance as possible, within the environment and method you plan on driving. This is tough and not all tunes are right for all drivers and situations, even those from the factory. Today things were a little slow, so I stole one of the garage staff (the owner) and we spent the day tuning my forced induction cars, using our new EZ-Tune/Flash system. The Ferrari 458 (new Heffner TT system installed), McLaren 12C, and Acura NSX (w/ LoveFab Stage3), we'll get the rest of them later. The results were all surprising, and shocking in one instance.

The NSX didn't seem to be tuned properly at all, or at least the boost wasn't regulated for the expected fuel/air rates. Once we compensated for altitude, specified octane, and boost levels, we made 610whp at full boost, which is 40 more. Also it isn't running as lean, meaning it'll get better economy at be less likely to cause pre-ignition (pinging). The fully variable boost setup was causing problems too, so we disabled that and now have 3 presets; 5 (road), 12 (sport), and 25psi (track), and locked out air/fuel adjustments.

Next up was the 12C, and this was the shocker, McLaren's settings were conservative. That's not surprising, but the extent of the conservatism left us baffled (likely economy reasons, and not wanting to be as competitive with their upcoming P1). They claim 17.4psi, but the reading is barely 16, and the turbos and cooling system can easily handle 22 (25 as long as you don't live in a desert). Octane doesn't even become a factor until you reach 25, over that you'd need >93oct. FYI, that's what we figure the P1 will have, a bored and stroked 3.8 V8 (~4.5L) @25psi, which will make around 850bhp. So we jacked the firmware (don't ask), set it to 22lbs, and adjusted A/F. Stock is 618bhp but now it makes more than at the wheels, 637. Without losing much in the way of low-end torque. Crazy! The difference is noticeable.

Finally, the 458, which came with a stock tune on the replacement ECU. Same story, the stock setting was at 5psi from the small turbos, but they're quite capable of 7, and with the modded intercooler that my mechanic fashioned and wastegate adjustment, it handles it perfectly, even on pump gas. 893bhp & 782whp, that's 331hp over stock. Then... we set it back to 5lbs, since we're not sure how much power the transmission and differential can take. Time for more research. I wonder if Ferrari would just volunteer the info. I didn't think so either.