[scotiagreg]

The Good:

Wow, this little car is all goodness. I expected to enjoy the car but the quality of the ride has really exceeded all my expectations. The 15 inch tires with their taller profile really lend themselves to a pleasant feel, the suspension is very, very stiff and the car stays very flat but the soft tires make it very, very comfortable. Because of the cars spartan nature it has a lot of sensory feedback… it's quite loud when the rpm's build but not too bad at cruising rpm. The gears, which were a mystery until this weekend, are really quite tall and the car will cruise at 120kph or 70mph at a relatively low, i'm guessing 2500 rpm. ( tach not yet working) very pleasant for the highway.

The Rennshift, Wevo coupler set up is great on the 901 transmission. The shifts are short and really quite firm and metallic, you might even call the shift notchy… something I hoped for but didn't expect.

The engine is tight and the MFI delivers fuel in a way that makes the engine build revs quickly, despite the longer stroke, the engine spools quickly… feels revvy if that's a word. I had a light weight flywheel in my 3.6 conversion and this engine feels similar. It feels quite a bit more energetic than my 85 3.2. Throttle response is right there.

Again, I'm surprised that the ride quality is every bit as refined as my 85 and everything just feels so much lighter. I believe this car will very quickly become my favourite.

The Bad or Yet to be Sorted:

I mentioned that the tach's not yet working, although we have not even investigated the issue and I'm sure it's a minor issue.

2nd gear syncros are FUBAR. You can't hit 2nd without double clutching. Without a sneak approach it grinds like a bugger… so the engine and tranny are coming back out this winter and the 901 is coming apart. All the other gear changes are all sweetness.

When the engine warms up and with the air hose connected from the air exchangers to the MFI Pump, the car will lean itself out a little too much. With this hose off it runs perfect but it doesn't like to start from cold. That said, once started, it idles beautifully. That's just a little fine tuning of the MFI system. I am very encouraged by how well the car runs on our first tuning attempts. We have ordered a diagnostic gauge so we can monitor our air/fuel ratios and avoid the chance of running too lean as we figure it all out.


Overall, I never dreamed that the car would feel this well sorted on my initial shake down…i am very, very, excited !!!