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Response

Some of this week's Letters to AutoSpeed!

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Porky Viper?

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Re Visceral Viper - you say that the Viper has a "mammoth kerb weight" of 1488kg. This would be the same as, say, an Alfa Romeo Spider or a VW Golf R32. Neither car is famous for being overweight. Or is it just that the Viper LOOKS big?

Patrick McAuliffe
Australia

Good point. In the context of a sparsely equipped two seater with minimal cargo space it’s hard to imagine why it weighs so much. On the other hand, yes – it’s not particularly heavy in comparison with some of today’s mainstream cars.

Fusion Go Ahead?

I was just reading with interest your article The Fusion Intercooler and was wondering whether you actually went ahead and made one. The reason I am asking is I have a turbo diesel four-cylinder and a Toyota water-to-air intercooler (without its pump or radiator) sitting here and was thinking it would be worth a try. I'll let you know how I go.

Rick Bull
Australia

No, we haven’t played with a fusion intercooler on a car. Let us know how it goes if you go ahead!

Another Interceptor

In reference to your upcoming series on interceptors. I would like to suggest another interceptor for future articles - it is called the MAFTPro and is produced by Full Throttle Speed. This unit uses TunerproRT Software for adjustment and tuning.

Eric Hamacher
USA

Take Aim, Shoot!

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Re Shooting the Overboost... How did you make the measurements to graph the boost spike? I cannot drive and watch the gauge that closely, and I would like to find out if I am getting a spike.

D.Calabrese
USA

Yes, things can happen pretty quickly at full throttle! Our measurements were made by temporarily locating the boost gauge alongside the tacho. An assistant was then seated behind the driver with a digital movie camera zoomed in on both gauges. Once a couple of full-throttle runs are recorded simply download it to computer and watch it. It works great so long as the camera is held steady!

There Is a UZ Manual!

You article on UZ engines (The Toyota UZ-series Engine Guide) states there has never been a manual behind a Toyota V8.

Except the LandCruiser 100... A manual UZ is available in the current LandCruiser - ask a Toyota Dealer.

Another not well known fact on these engines is that there is now a thriving aftermarket supply of conrods, pistons, fasteners, valves, cams, etc to get the most out of the engine. You can even buy off-the-shelf supercharger systems and a heap of adaptors to put almost any transmission behind them.

Rod Garnett
Australia

Bit Overrated

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In regards to Scribe’s XR6T (Scribe's XR6T)...

In my studies of these great bang-for-buck cars, this example is a bit overrated - power wise, anyway. Many XR6 turbos today are making a lot more power and are running a lot quicker times. Take mine, for example - I have the same mods but with stock wastegate and a full stock exhaust. I am making 305RWKW with spot-on AFRs. Although I have not run mine down the quarter, most XR6 turbos with my power (or Scribe’s power) are easily into the 12 second bracket with an auto. Evidently, this difference in power comes down to the tuner of the car. Having work done to my car by MRT was good, but having my car re-tuned by Nizpro has turned it into an unbelievable supercar. Both Nizpro and HPF are in Melbourne and are, I think, the best tuners for these cult cars in Australia (even though I'm from Sydney). I am not trying to sell any thing here, but I’m just giving credit to where it's deserved.

IK
Australia

Another Multi-Purpose Performer

Re Multi-Purpose Performers... With similar criteria, I ended up buying a 1994 Honda Legend for well within the sub AUD$10,000 budget. The Legend outscored anything comparable in the price range. Its sophistication is incredible, the luxury approaches being decadent and it handles beautifully. According to accident statistics, it remains one of the safest cars on the road. There is also a passionate US following (where it lives under the Acura badge) and apparently there is a "300,000 mile club". Yes, it is 12 years old and has 190,000km on the clock, however this was the AUD$90,000 Honda flagship and has a lot of service life left in it. Anyway, who could go past the electric reclining rear seats?!

Mike
Australia

A good choice – have fun VIP style!

IEBC Consistency

Re the Independent Electronic Boost Control (IEBC)... I was wondering if it gets affected by ambient temperature or load (what gear you're in). I'm assuming that it doesn't, as it reads of the injector duty cycle to determine how much to pulse the boost solenoid.

John Ha
New Zealand

Any boost controller that doesn’t receive manifold pressure feedback is susceptible to some degree of boost variation. However, by taking an input from injector duty cycle there is a degree of feedback because, if the turbo is over-boosting at a given load/rpm site, the injector duty cycle will increase and the IEBC will therefore read from a higher load site.

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