Hiro

Toyota forgot to install power when they made the 7AFE....

Either 3S-GE (non-turbo) or 3S-GTE (turbo) :P

You mean LN2, not L2N...

Since every car out on the road will have similar over-reading problems, does it really matter? What I'm trying to say is that if everyone travelled at an indicated 100km/h, the result wouldn't be much different to if everyone was travelling at actually 100km/h, just that overall traffic speed would be fractionally (and not noticably) slower.

Aren't all Sportivos South African-made anyway? When i got a mechanic mate to look into pricing EBC pads he got told that they didnt have any that were compatible for South African models, only Japanese models. Apparently any Sportivo with a VIN starting with AHT is a South African delivered model. But now I'm not sure. From what I am aware, all Sportivos that were sold here were made/assembled in South Africa, whereas the Ascent/Conquest/Levin etc were made in Japan.

Sigh, not this crap again.... BS. Petrol tanks are buried underground precisely for the reason of keeping their temperature constant. Ground temperaure will vary by only a few degrees over the course of an entire YEAR, let alone day/night or winter/summer (this is the entire principle behind ground source heat pumps for year-round reverse cycle air-con - the ground is warmer than the air in winter and colder than the air in summer). And the difference between the specific gravity of petrol at 10 degrees C (an approximate ground temperature) compared to 25 degrees C (air temperature) is in the order of 1-2% - ie over for a 100L tank you might get 1-2L less. Remember the density of liquids is MUCH less sensitive to temperature compared to gasses. Also, I've read that most pumps these days compensate for changes in density - ie they dispense mass flow, not volume. And I have yet to come across a bowser with "high, medium and low" triggers. If I just squeeze the trigger slightly it will trickle in, any more than that and it is basically constant flow (the speed is determined more by the shape of your tank and filler neck - for instance on the same bowser pump the AE102 fills much faster than the JZZ30 because the Corolla tank is under the back-seat whereas the Soarer tank is behind the seats in front of the boot. As for the fuel churning into vapours and getting sucked back out, once again you are only talking about a fraction of a percent in the short period of time that you are filling the tank. If you stand there and let the fuel trickle in you mightn't be churning the fuel up as much, but at the same time you are spending much longer filling the tank and thus allowing the fuel IN the tank more time to flash to vapour and get sucked out. Doesn't matter, since properly functioning car petrol systems are one-way sealed. The petrol cap can let air in to accomodate for consumed petrol, but cannot let vapour out. If excessive vapour builds up in the tank then it is syphoned off and condensed in the charcoal canister and then burnt under vacuum. It does not escape back out to the atmosphere as this is an emissions violation and has been this way for probably 30 years. Improperly operating fuel caps or charcoal canisters (ie ones that aren't serviced properly) can however affect this. So you're telling me that they don't have filters on the bowsers? Even if they didn't, you still have a fuel filter or two in your car, so even if you did suck up a little sediment you're not going to grenade or engine (and it'd have to be a fair bit of sediment to clog up the fuel filter to. Or are you saying that the volume of sediment will mean you get less petrol :P In short, you will save significantly more money by just filling up when the price is cheapest and driving more conservatively than ANY of these so-called "tips".

Aren't all Sportivos South African-made anyway?

Sorry guys not going to make it, been on-again-off-again sick for the last 3 weeks, currently feels like I've got an elephant living in my head, and he's running a snot factory...

It's the reverse, actually. Larger sidewall means bigger rolling diameter which means taller gearing which means slower acceleration (but higher top speed). Smaller sidewall will give you better acceleration but lower top speed. We're talking fractions here though, you'd get a much bigger effect on acceleration/top speed by changing diff/final-drive ratios.

The best place to look for FX gear is probably NZ or Japan, I got my front bar out of Japan but it required going through an importers.

Don't make them angry....

Yeah the Vertex front end definitely is better than the Veilside, but the big problem I have with it (along with all other facelift bodykits for the Soarer, and even the stock kit) is that it flares out at the base (not that evident in the photos), which looks a bit odd around the wheels. The Veilside is designed for the pre-facelift and keeps the nice smooth rounded lines at the rear. Also, the Vertex kit is waay more common and we're after that little bit different look. So far best combination appears to be stock front bar (with painted lip), Vertex sideskirts and Veilside rear bar + wing.

Well, Cara has been in my ear a bit lately about wanting to make the Snoarer more _her_ car (since we bought it with 99% of the mods done to it already), so we've decided to start looking around at bodykits... So far, our attention has fallen on two in particular 1) Veilside Executive Sport Pros: Rear bumper and wing look awesome, full copy kit (minus wing) is fairly easy to acquire Cons: Not 100% convinced about the front, and we'd lose foglights and high-mount tailight, rear wing is next to impossible to find in the country and only genuine 2) Vertex Pros: Cleaner front bar and sideskirts than the Veilside, much easier to find Cons: Rear a bit plain, facelift front end/foglights/grille (which I'm not a big fan of) Thoughts?

Snoarer gets about 14L/100k around town when Cara takes it to work, if I take it then it drops to about 12L/100, open road highway and freeway can see it drop to 10L/100 which is pretty good for a ~2-tonne worked twin-turbo straight six.

I get 8L/100 in the daily commute, although that does involve a bit of highway driving (80k zones with good traffic flow), which is bang-on for the OEM figure. Same goes for freeway/highway (6.6L/100)

If it was weight saved in the wheels it might make more of a difference, elsewhere it would make as much as anywhere else in the car.

There's no real conversion between sprung and unsprung weight, unless you talk about lap times or ride - reducing unsprung weight improves the suspension's ability to react to changes in the surface or cornering, which improves handling.

Neither of these are dual-clutch gearboxes, they are sequential semi-automatics.

No longer exists, and only a small stretch, but Thornton Rd between Glenwood Dr and the New England Hwy at Thornton (right near Thornton McDonalds and Subway where we often go for lunch at work) - we nick-named it the Worst Road in The World, it was absolutely covered with potholes and patchwork, would put even Parramatta Rd to shame. Got resurfaced a couple of months ago and it's now billiard-table smooth

Try Starlet/Glanza seats, they're the same chassis and most importers/wreckers should have some decent ones.

Taillight sold, price drop on everything else, first post updated.

Might try and convince the ball'n'chain to let me bring the Snoarer down this time...

9 times out of 10:

You could probably argue that any input is just "a means of getting you going". To me, it is the entire combination of steering, pedals and gear shifts - they are all integral parts to the experience.