Sold! and treachery

Well the R8 is sold. Its always the way, come to the end of a project and its time to start another one. Im not sure why that is. I think I wanted something with a newer setup.
Anyway the bloke who bought it loves it, so thats good. I was going to buy a Jaguar XJR but after driving one decided it could not happen. A new E Series HSV was my destiny!

Prices in the UK are still too high and Ill let Mr Depreciation work his wonders. Until then a replacement needed to be found. Unfortunately in the UK large RWD Sedans are hard to come by unless you like Merc's and BMW's with mega miles on them. I did some trawling around and found a 68,000km Fairmont EL and a 90,000km Falcon Forte AU, both Aussie imports. The Fairmont was £1000 and the Forte £2000. I would have preferred the AU with its more modern equipment and styling, but chose the cheaper option. Mainly because my ebay bid won!


A nice 0550AM start and 12 hours later after a train from London to Scotland I was back in London. The car runs well aside from needing wheel balancing and a couple of rust bubbles dealt with. I will be driving it to Spain and back from London, so hopefully all will be well. Yes I know its a Ford :)

Hopefully my next post will be to show off my new VE HSV R8 aka VXR8 Vauxhall. An almost immediate upgrade with a 427 is planned. Hopefully the old LS2 will fetch enough to pay for the new engine. Fingers crossed.

Track action

Well 2nd day to the track on street tyres saw a 2 sec 60' and 13.2 quarter. One run had a 109mph trap speed, but lots of wheel spin.

Im hoping to get into the 12's. I think there is some slack in the suspension since my last lot of new bushings got fitted. I think Ill be back to the shop to get the front done and sort the backend out.

A new 2009 Camaro is on the cards, the money is changed into US$ and in the bank. Also a possible Holden SS VE Manual trans with the L98 engine similar to the new LS3 corvette but with 6L. But probably nothing for a year or two. So the old R8 must soldier on!

Dyno day. (The end is nigh)

Just about out of things to do now. Rechecked timing and added a little up high resulting in the dyno sheet below. Around 290rwkw, which compares pretty well with Oz numbers with similar spec's. Apparently US Dyno's read higher, so I need to compare with Oz results.

Anyway timing in the low and midrange was still pretty good, fueling on the dyno differed from the street. Now Ill just be driving the beast and trying not to think about getting a magnacharger or anything like that.

My heart is on the new VE Holden so Ill be saving and waiting for depreciation to work its magic until I can afford one.

Just a reminder anyone after Innovate Wideband products or EFILive tuning tools etc please get in touch as I hold rights to resell both brands in Europe. I try to keep prices cost competitive with the US and have stock on hand.

Plus you get to ask me as many questions as you like for free :)

Out of time

The car is running well at present, one broken driveshaft later..
Well I think the mech made a mistake when fitting the clutch and forgot some nuts. But all was resolved in an excellent fashion and things are back on the road.

The car definately pulls harder. Air is 0.96g/cyl. If I can crack 1.0 Ill be pleased. Its all down to the dyno. Peak torque is around 4800rpm. No more mods for me. Drive for a couple of years then either a VE Holden or a 2009 Camaro will be had.

Im still messing about with idle as under some circumstances it can stall mainly doing 3 point turns in carparks when warm. Hot and cold are fine. So Ive moved a few tables around. Follower, base idle speed etc.

Dyno within the next few weeks is the plan. More info then.

All is quiet..

The car is getting the new parts fitted. Including the LS7 clutch, larger diameter primary headers in a 4 into 1 configuration, plus some general messing about with suspension and brakes.

On completion I will have everything fitted to suit the setup. Well maybe better mufflers would be good, but things should pretty well be in balance. Much better to have done it over time, than all at once. It would have been a bank breaking exercise.

I read a collegue in Oz with similar setup recently replaced his 1-5/8 header setup for a 1-3/4 set and gained around 4% airflow, so if I can do the same as that Ill be well pleased and should be well on the way to 1.0g/cyl of air and at or over 400rwhp. If I can match or exceed 405rwhp I would have beaten a stock LS7 C6. I was 55rwhp off that pre fast90 and dyno tune. So I dont think its too far out of reach. All the numbers were from the same dyno to hopefully make comparing apples to apples, though day to day variation may account for a bit.

More updates once I get the car back.

More air please

Well the fast has definitely turned out to be an excellent investment.

I logged a 0.95g/cyl with no other changes. So things are definately on the move.
I need to return to the dyno and do a bit of timing changes.

Im hoping I can beat a stock VXR500. A couple of recent posts and dyno charts showed the VXR500 with hood down putting 359rwhp out. Hood up was closer to 400rwhp.

Ideally Ill break the 400 anyway, we will see.

Home straight

Nothing much to report at present.
Ive ordered an LS7 clutch setup from SDPC, basically LS7 disk and pressure plate with an LS2 flywheel. Add a pilot bushing and new slave to the mix and for $600 you have a stout setup that can handle over 500bhp.

The Fast90 is going well. Looks like an additional 5% VE at higer RPM, going by VE changes in efilive it seems that low rpm flow might be slightly affected, but only just off idle. Midrange is unchanged or slightly better. Max g/cyl of air has increased from 0.86 to 0.90 and that was well under 100% TPS so its definately made a good bit of difference.

Also some minor suspension mods are planned to adjust the camber on the rear and hopefully deal with rear axle tramp.

Strokers are definately out the door until the engine dies of natural death.