I don't think there's ever a 288GTO ever brought in & neither on F40 (I may be wrong & I think they were all LHD) but there are at least 3-4 F50s here. There is at least 1-2 F40s in Malaysia though & one was written off in wet weather & a couple of F50s there as well. The Malaysian chatters will give some light in this. 1000+ F40s were made & several went & had some success in GT races, Michelotto tweaked 19 cars (from 478 to 760Bhp!) named F40LM & fielded some (LeMans 24hrs?) as well & I remembered there was one or two LMs that were never raced. These are very valuable to collectors & not street legal. You'd get cooked in those in our weather, plastic sliding windows, no air-con, stripped interior & deafening exhaust. http://www.qv500.com/ferrarif40p2.php I thought there were only a small handful of F50LMs ever made while only 349 street cars were made. Somehow, they are not as prized as F40s. F50 has a much more advanced chassis & a F1 V12 4.7L NA engine while F40 used traditional double wishbones & a V8, 2.9L twin turbo. However, many owners paid speculated prices for them when they were sold new/almost new then so they are still losing money if they were to sell them today. Today, they are still quite shy in price compared to an Enzo which is about US$1mill? Except maybe the LMs. But don't forget about the import & registration taxes you have to pay to put them on the road. In fact, I thnk the F40 won't even pass our smog test (Euro4 emission). But you can buy them & register in Malaysia then enjoy your life with it. Investment? Unless you have a few million cash to spare which includes servicing & maintenance. Some just get drained & cocooned. Before that you need a house with proper parking facility, your life must be comfortable & IRAS knows that you can afford it. It's just not a hobby for most common folks like me. Our resident expert Tifosi66 can tell us more from the weight of the pistons to the correct tyre sizes. Yoohoo, where are you?
Sf, thanks for the enlightenment... yesterday saw a 348 plate 80 turning into joo chiat lane, was that yours previously? the music it produced is not as loud as another 348 i saw couple of months back... owner residing at one of the condo along Fort rd, that was loud, suppose its a Tubi?..(",) 3-4 F50? are they RHD or legal on our road?
CT, pardon my mistake..of coz the lotus doesn't belong to the list... it is just one of the rare fast car i see on our road...
No prob. & hope I didn't give wrong infos that's all as I didn't have time to check on details. Again, I think all F50s were LHD? Brunei Sultan has them in RHD, specially altered by factory. Even if they were RHD, doesn't make sense to have it registered here in mid-90s when COE & ARF was all time high. That would cost the owner over two millions dollars to put it on our road? The freaking insurance would maybe be at least S$50K/yr. That's why only one or two Paganis are registered here. The market for LHD cars is several times bigger than RHD, our LTA refuses them blatantly, strange taxations & COE+tight TP rules makes a lot of bling bling cars go away. One dumb rule is the classic plate.
That Fort Rd F348 has a different exhaust system & it's the only updated '92 model here with the battery in front. I guess his motronic is a 2.7 over 2.5 & engine has a higher plenum over other 348s as well. I think that one & only F348 spider is a post 92 too! Now, I wouldn't mind that car as it has a manual roof=easy maintenance.
Wow, you mean 500 of the 500th? I have a feeling this is a car that is worth investing & it's still not in the exorbitant level yet. It's the ultimate Testarossa & only a handful in RHD.
(rubbing hands) yes, waiting in the wings .. You mean smart rule ? LTA got those cars of the road for 337 days every year which was the objective - Its damn smart if you ask me. Its the owners who took the bait that were dumb - (sorry to say) - hoping to save some bucks - if want to save then should not be buying these cars at all. Saw a white XK150 FHC - was damn nice - would have bought it on the spot except for the classic plate - owner (was in newspapers btw) wanted 150 k and said he spent over 200k on the car. I passed. I think after he changed to classic plate he will not even get 10k for the car. The restriction to 28 days means that a Classic plate car is practically a 1/1 scale model except for 28 days a year (and must pass inspection some more !). Classic plate owners are usually not thinking straight when they convert. I have yet to meet one who said "Glad I did it". Many are motivated by idiotic reasons such as "even if I cannot drive it, I would like to keep it because I like looking at it" Its not for me to say how others spend their money but frankly, if can't drive the car regularly whenever I want to then buy for what ? Pai Sui ? 150 k is not a small sum even for the rich and certainly not willing to do so unless its some priceless classic like a Ferrari 250GTO. But for a XK150 ? Its hardly a scarce classic although very nice. Its almost cruelly and comically ironic that the car they swore they would never sell, now really cannot be sold though they want to sell it. Every single one I met has regretted. Proof that its the owners who are stupid and not the rule - The only other XK150 owner here kept his COE status. Not suprising that he is a retired Judge (superior brain power and a very principled man) and did the sums. What's really sad about the XK150 owner was he spent the 200 k on the car and then convert it to Classic plate. Why ??? The whole point why a XK 150 can cost 150k to 200k here when in reality in the UK it will cost what ? 60k Sing, is precisely because its here in Singapore. So having got a XK 150 here and repaired it to the hilt, he then converts it to classic ?? and loses all value overnight - ugghh !! Furthemore, the Judge apparently told him that if he did it, he would lose all value. This owner also thought he would keep the car forever but oddly after converting he wanted to sell !! If you really want to keep a car just for looking at it but want to avoid high road tax but still preserve value, lay it up la. At most every few years occasionally renew road tax for 6 months or so la.
Just some tech questions. Can anyone please explain what is a dog-gear & why some cars don't use synchromesh (what does it do)? All I know is that dog-gear boxes are very expensive & usually found in race cars. FF, you mentioned about that quick steering rack. Can we get someone to modify on existing piece? Oh yes, Fong. I saw the advertisement of that Eagle lightweight E-type in Octane magazine. A lot of goodies packed in it but a whopping GBP95K Yucks!
Haha, I almost flipped when I saw the 1/1 scale model. Actually it's the road tax on these cars that's luring owners to do it. So, have you been laying up your S$9K+ taxed cat recently? They (LTA) should come up with some incentives like reduced taxes on classic cars. They always complain that old cars break down & hog traffic. Come'on we classic car owners restore them, sleep with them, polish the chrome & ship parts in & open them like Santa's presents then use the best lubrication possible to maintain them, unlike poor folks who take up 10yrs loan on brand new cars then skipped on servicing them. We wouldn't even leave them stranded on the roadside so how can classic cars cause traffic problems? We even give businesses to dying workshop trades. All the money we spend into restoration gives a cycle to the economy.
Unlikely to be an investment. Too many Testas as it is. At most slightly more than normal. Testa Spider worth more (if you can get one).
But of course. Wa you remember I have a 9k+ road tax car ? In the UK, old cars (of a certain age) pay no road tax and insurance is paltry as it should be. Frankly, I don't need special treatment - just treat my car the same as other cars. After all, my car passes the same test as the 10 yr COE cars so why is it taxed more ?
allows for full throttle upshifts sans clutch action , ie , very quick shift times. matching of g/box and engine speeds very important as there is no synchromesh to 'synchonise' the speeds for you. cheers.
Erm...a little more specific please. How does the dog-gear actually works & is it just a design on the gears which can be fitted into any gearboxes eg. BMW, Merc, Porsche, Honda, Toyota etc. Why do some race cars remove their synchros? That F40LM has it removed but fitted a triple-plate clutch. As for synchros, we're supposed to rev & match the engine speed against flywheel so they adhere @ the correct rpm? My 911 has worn synchros & I was told to double clutch & rev then engage so to match the speed but the synchros crunch worse than usual but works fine when I upshift. I read that to test worn synchros on gearbox. We warm up the car, on stationary, we clutch-in/rev then engage gear, if it crunches, it means it's worn. Is that right?
Well, you've been hinting us about E-type so I guess you have one? I'm not familiar with them, are they 3.8/4.2? I have only seen the one & only red roadster ex-Dr #1234. It was with my mechanic in Bt Merah once & I remembered there was an antiquated glass container for the battery or windscreen wiper. One thing I know is they sure are a lot cheaper in UK. So, what is the rarer one? The convertible or coupe?
hi Jon, in your g/box , there are two shafts. the main shaft, and the lay shaft. the main shaft ( iirc ) , is the one which is connected to the clutch output (ie , from engine). the lay shaft is the one connected to the wheels vide prop/drive shafts , whatever. before the invention of the synchro (more anon) , when you shifted to connect the main and lay shafts vide the appropriate intermediate gear (1 , 2 , 3 whatever) , there would be gnashing because of the different speeds of the two shafts. Hence those times , drivers developed shifting styles like , double-de-clutch , to try to minimise the gnashing. then they developed the synchromesh. A synchro is usually a cone shaped ring which lies between the appropriate main-lay shaft gears. What it does is that when you move the shift lever , the shift fork in the g/box will begin to push the mainshaft gear towards the layshaft's gear , but the synchro ring which lies in between these two gears will 'contact' the two gears first and because it coneshaped, it will 'speed up' the other gear to the speed of the mainshaft's gear, thus avoiding the gnashing. .. but , a synchro will marginally slow down the engagement process but for road-use , nobody cares. .. for race use , it becomes a factor and thats why some race-boxes do away with the synchro and use a dog system. Dog , as in there is no intervening ring between the two gears which want to marry. Its direct. Ie , the driven gear will mesh directly with the drive gear. but with dog-system , the driver will need to manually , match the revs himself (with fancy footwork and/or throttle control) , if not , the gearbox will die very fast. I hope that made sense. .
Car Trader, sorry but what do you mean by 'Hong Seh's Tanglin viewing gallery?'. I'm a bit confused, you mean the guy with the Enzo and F50 outside his house doesnt actually own the cars?
I hope that made sense. .[/QUOTE] Good effort. even I understood and I know very little about the real workings of the gearbox. One thing I would add is that most road car gearboxes have 'helical' gears which basically means that the tip of each gear tooth is tapered slightly to help ease the two gear sets together when changing. Race cars use Straight Cut gears which are harher to get together but which mean less power is lost through gear flex and greater gaps between gears etc. My $0.02. FF
Pistole. Thank you! That is enlightening. I happen to come across a thread on fixing Ferrari's F1 system. There was this guy who almost paid US$16000 for a small but complex pump for his '99 F355 F-1, it was made by Magnetti Marelli which made the similar Alfa's Selespeed. This pump is part of the F1 system which uses actuators to engage the gearbox/clutch etc. Anyway, in the end he found a good used piece for US$3K. It is a lot cheaper for a F360 F-1, something like US$2000. If you have a 6speed manual, don't worry about that. It's development cost & scarcity of parts which made the parts expensive. Here's the link http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85500 for a moment I was really thinking maybe I should really buy any F1 Ferrari NEW but seems that parts/labour has come down quite a lot over the years. Now even the latest Honda Civic is using paddle shift!
That's true, I saw some 'gutted' boxes with the tapered 'heads', I don't know about you but those bunch of gears look nice to me. Looks like Porsche guys are definitely more obsessed in modifying cars, I see many specialists in gearboxes & engines in their magazines. There was one article which featured a company specialising in making pistons, cranks etc in UK. Apparently this is the company that made parts for F1 cars & aircrafts. We can engage their services to produce precision parts in exotic metals. Let me see if I can dig that out. Turbo is another big book altogether & a mention of 911 most often refers to it. I believe Ferrari did recently mention about turbos in their future cars.
