Mmmm,Aston makes some sexy stuff! Alas, too rare and expensive here for my bank account....The first car I can remember staring at was a new Aston Martin DB6 in metallic blue that turned up at school. It belonged to a classmate's parents.
What car did you lust after as a teenager?
- Thread starter Danddd
- Start date
KarinS
Active Member
The British cars are like the Italian cars. They're always in the shop, and they're expensive to fix. As I told an old flame once who was ready to sell everything he owned for a Ferrari, "it would be like having the most beautiful woman in the world, except she's sick all the time".
And a full-size hoist in the garage.
My favorite version of that was the absolutely mental GTA Junior 1300, the later version with the 4-valve cylinder head. 180HP out of 1.3 liters. Just a little raving lunatic of an engine. Would do close to 10000RPM.
That's about 138.5HP per liter.
Normally aspirated. In the mid 1970s.
To put that into perspective- the modern Corvette Z-06, with the LT-6 flat-crank V8, normally aspirated, puts out 670HP from 5.5 liters. Impressive- but "only" about 122HP per liter.
Regards,
Gordon.
180BHP from a normally aspirated 1300cc engine is crazy. That's like a super hopped-up racing motorcycle engine.
Seems like around 10:1. Those engines prolly needed 100-octane leaded. My old 2002Ti ran 9.3:1 compression with a mildly hot Alpina cam. It would ping like crazy on unleaded 93-octane. I had to go to electronic ignition and Stellite valves to run unleaded pump gas.
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I'm going to guess something bonkers, like 13:1 static compression ratio, on the GTA Junior 1300 four-valve, to get 180HP out of 1.3 liters. That's about the only way to get enough cylinder pressure, with as big of a cam (massive overlap) as it likely needed, to make its power peak at 9300RPM.
Same trick as the guy from PDM Clark used, to get 130HP from a 1273cc Opel engine, that turned between 7500-8000RPM. Static compression of probably close to 12:1, but with the cam overlap- cylinder pressure was low enough, to run pump gas (95 motor octane, which is probably compares to between 91 and 93 octane, by US measurements, which are IIRC, research+motor/2). The high compression lets it keep some degree of midrange torque, but the big cam lets it scream on the top end.
Regards,
Gordon.
An advanced ECU-controlled ignition with O2 and knock sensors has made high performance easier on today's pump gasoline. My S2000 has a 240 BHP 2.2-liter engine at 7800 RPM, yet it's still very driveable in city stop-and-go traffic.
My next door neighbor had an ‘85 notchback in grey metallic. 5.0 HO and a five speed, as I recall. He put a 3-angle valve job on it, hotter manifold and carb, battery in the trunk, AL bumper, and gawd knows what else he did to that car. Last I heard, he gotten an ET in the high 13’s of which he was quite proud.
The crazy thing now? You could take that same Fox body car, slap a junkyard GM LS engine and 4L60 or 4L80 transmission in it, slap an eBay turbo kit on it and some big injectors, do a little tuning- and be in the 9s.
Like this- this is a different Fox body, but that exact idea:
(and yes, he does basically, effectively, get kicked out of every track he goes to with one of these cars like this, after one pass- for going WAY too fast without real safety equipment. Not just roll bars, chassis certification, helmet, neck braces and such- but he's only 5MPH from requiring a PARACHUTE. And some of his later cars were SIGNIFICANTLY faster than this one...)
Regards,
Gordon.
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Still a dream 
Quadman2
Lunatic Member
As a younger, it was a "toss-up" between the Jaguar XKE or an Alfa GTv, somewhere in the 60's...and it had to be a drop-top (convert)...and RED!
There was just something mysterious, almost sexy in the curvy lines of both cars. They BOTH looked like they were doing 60mph, just parked.
Only took the Alfa out or a test drive the once, but the SO said it was impractical because there was so little in the way of a trunk.
Yep, my heart was stolen by these two above mechanical works of art...but did eventually end up getting a 70's BMW Ti, that went like the wind. It had the nickname, "Flustern Bombe" (Whispering Bomb) and it ran like a scared rabbit. It lived up to this reputation so much so, I got to know some of the highway patrol...on a first name basis!
But with coming kids, and such, it too became impractical, so some other guy down the road got to enjoy this great German racer.
Q
There was just something mysterious, almost sexy in the curvy lines of both cars. They BOTH looked like they were doing 60mph, just parked.
Only took the Alfa out or a test drive the once, but the SO said it was impractical because there was so little in the way of a trunk.
Yep, my heart was stolen by these two above mechanical works of art...but did eventually end up getting a 70's BMW Ti, that went like the wind. It had the nickname, "Flustern Bombe" (Whispering Bomb) and it ran like a scared rabbit. It lived up to this reputation so much so, I got to know some of the highway patrol...on a first name basis!
But with coming kids, and such, it too became impractical, so some other guy down the road got to enjoy this great German racer.
Q
I had a 1602 and a 2002Ti. Great cars!As a younger, it was a "toss-up" between the Jaguar XKE or an Alfa GTv, somewhere in the 60's...and it had to be a drop-top (convert)...and RED!
There was just something mysterious, almost sexy in the curvy lines of both cars. They BOTH looked like they were doing 60mph, just parked.
Only took the Alfa out or a test drive the once, but the SO said it was impractical because there was so little in the way of a trunk.
Yep, my heart was stolen by these two above mechanical works of art...but did eventually end up getting a 70's BMW Ti, that went like the wind. It had the nickname, "Flustern Bombe" (Whispering Bomb) and it ran like a scared rabbit. It lived up to this reputation so much so, I got to know some of the highway patrol...on a first name basis!
But with coming kids, and such, it too became impractical, so some other guy down the road got to enjoy this great German racer.
Q
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