Safe Speed Forums

That pretty much sums it up I think JT....

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I guess. My point may be a little broader and more general, but you have found a strong example.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Hmmm... I wouldn't mind paying a bit more insurance if a 20yr-old female came with it!!

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"Politicians are the same the world over... We build bridges where there aren't any rivers." - Nikita Kruschev

Like the meriva ad ( i think ) ,trained for the rear portion to go off and find an au pair --

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

I'm not a fan of twin exhausts unless they're on a V or H configuration engine and the exhaust is serving one side of the engine only.

I wouldn't have twin exhausts on my Legacy since it has sequential turbos therefore all 4 exhaust paths have to merge into one anyway. If I converted it to parallel turbos (or no turbo at all) then twin exhausts make for nice simple efficient plumbing (as seen on the 3.0 flat 6 legacies)

But twin exhausts on a straight 4-banger. No chance, especially not that saxo where there is one exhaust per cylinder and it's highly likely that the exhaust diameter is bigger than the cylinder diameter.

With installations like that, it is always a good source of comedy when the engine starts burning oil and the tell-tale blue smoke lets you figure out which pipe is actually connected.

When I was about 5 or 6, I used to think that cars were propelled along by the gas coming out of their exhausts. I was (I'm told!) extremely taken with cars that had multiple exhausts and in particular, the huge 4-port "fishtail" exhausts fitted to some E-type Jags!

Haha yes that is comical!

At very least I can take a pipe from each header

To me on my car at least, having just one pipe looks odd because the bumper valance is cut symmetrically. It looks as though it was supposed to have dual exhausts but Ford decided they couldn't be bothered

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i wouldnt do it to the 2l 16v but i am after the 2.5 V6 galant and i dont mean i want twin tail pipes as in the picture. i prefer twin exit ie 1 pipe each side as Jamie described. i wouldnt get family sized bean cans either. maybe 2.5 or 3 inch

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Richie

SSAFA supporter
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126025031585

There's a lad across the way from me, who does have a noticeable whiff of chavviness about him, who has actually done something to his car that I secretly think is pretty good.

It's a silver Rover 214i. Standard wheels. Standard tyres. No spoilers. No neon. Nothing. Looks like Great Aunt Maud could pilot it.

However, he's obviously spent all his money on the engine because - by f*** - that thing can move. Can't work out what plant he's put in it. Either the K-series engine has been seriously breathed on, or it's been replaced with either a rally-prepped BDA or a Subaru flat four.

Drives like a twat of course, but you've gotta admire his thinking behind the modifications.

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Simon

The K-series is basically a race engine assembled carelessly.

It's a very capable powerplant when dealt whith properly.


Flat 4's make a very distinctive noise and this would be immediately obvious. I personally hate the sound in a car (not so bad driving a propellor) but there are loads more people who seem to love it.

Whichever way inclined you are though, it's not a noise you can confuse with an I4.

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Flat 4s only make the Subaru "burble" in certain exhaust configurations (typically single-exit single-turbo) It's caused by unequal length pipes from the manifold resulting in an uneven noise coming out of the exhaust.

The new 3.0 Legacies don't burble, and I'm sure you could make a 4-banger burble if you made a pointless crazy manifold.

Actually, I wonder if there's a market there. Expensive manifolds to make your Saxo sound like a Subaru

Is that not also to do with fireing order and degrees of crank rotation? A v4 bike doesn't sound like an inline 4 and Mr V Rossi has a inline four bike that sounds and performs like a V Twin.

The mods on my car are as follows: Remove Pioneer casette headunit, replace with Sony CD player. A simple mod you say. Not so. Please mr Spotty Halfords car audio sales man, I would like to purchase from your goodself a car CD player devoid of flashy light, silly graphis and small fiddly bottons please.

Queue blank expression followed by look of bemusement. They all come like that mate.

I'm not your f*****g mate and yes they do, look in any new car and large clear buttons and plain simple displays are the way to go. As you can see I am a sensible man that just wants a good reception on his radio and a CD player that doesn't skip and I don't drive some chavved up Escort, know if you could point me in the direction of a suitable head unit I'll leave you to sell sub woofers to 18 year old Corsa drivers...

Subaru's have a boxer engine (flat twin) as did the original VW Beetles. This has a different firing characteristics to an in-line 4 and depending on the manifold design gives more "pulsing".

V4s are a different thing altogether. There are two types, those that are configured like two parallel twins in a V and those that are like two V twins side by side. This is controlled by the crankshaft design.

In motorcycles Vtwins are popular in racing because of the power pulse effect (this also gives them the "raw" sound).

V6 engines call into two categories odd-fire and even-fire depending on the crank configuration and V angle.

Then there V8s...and that's a whole different ball game. You can get single plane and dual plane crankshafts determined by the priority, performance or refinement. Most have two plane cranks that sacrifice ultimate power for engine balance. Single plane cranks give ultimate performance but have higher vibration and harshment levels and do not have the characteristic "burble" sound.

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Speed camera policy Kills

Yes a V8 with a flat-plane crank just sounds like 2 straight 4 engines running at the same time (which is hardly surprising)! To my mind, they only start sounding nice at high revs - like over 6000, when they sound a bit like old Cosworth DFV engines.

As for flat 4s, I think the noise is just a product of the firing order. Beetles, Alfa Suds and Scoobies all seem to sound the same - quite nice at idle but not so good as you pile the revs on. (IMO!)

One sensible reason for twin tailpipes is ground clearance. On some sports cars, it makes a big difference because as it squats, the last bit of pipe just as it goes under the boot floor tends to catch the ground first. Having twin pipes increases ground clearance whilst maintaining cross sectional area.

Your first mistake was going to Halfrauds, your second was in looking for a new aftermarket radio.

My GF has the same opinion as you, so when it came to replace the stock Ford tape deck in her previous car, she bought a sedond hand Clarion unit that was originally an OEM fitment in a 1995 BMW 3 series. The BMW owner had, predictably, replaced it with a silver blinged up piece of crap from Halfrauds.

A little bit more effort as the wiring had been cut, but it didn't take her long to solder on an ISO connector and enjoy decent quality sound from a plain black headunit with simple square buttons and a green LED 7 segment display that matched the Ford interior quite well.

I think Clarion do still do some nice non-bling headunits, but you wont find them in Halfrauds. Pioneer might still make a couple of good ones too.

The primary cause of the Scooby burble is the unequal length headers, because they changed them to equal length ones on the higher powered Spec C models, and the burble was severely reduced, but torque and response were improved. Of course it means more complicated pipework.

http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=462808

I don't have them, not many in the UK do, although they are available from many customisation shops, but I do have the Prodrive Exhaust (and other bits in the PPP), which is noticeably louder - but more in the style of a Harley Davidson... as you can pick it out from the dealer options catalogue it probably doesn't count as customisation either.

The PPP does count as a modification. Subaru have taken a lot of flak over this.

If you upgrade an EVO from an FQ-260 to an FQ-400 (exhaust, intake, chip and brakes I think) then your car becomes an FQ-400 and you just say "I have an FQ-400" to the insurance

If you upgrade a WRX to a WRX PPP, it doesn't change anything. PPP is not a specific model and very few insurers are aware of it (some are though, I think Direct line have it listed), so you have to say "I have a WRX with an aftermarket exhaust, uprated air filter, chip, 18" alloys and bigger brakes. I am bending over now, here is some vaseline"

You do get to keep your warranty though.

I remember many years ago I had a Chevett. Not exactly a hot hatch by any stretch of the imagination.

I acquired a set of HS Chevett alloys with tires. I told my insurance about the mod to be on the safe side and they refused to insure it Even thought it war 3rd party only.

Had to go elsewhere to get insurance, how crazy it that.

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Speed camera policy Kills

On the subject of mods, I have the car at a garage at the moment, waiting for prices of certain mods.

Most likely I will be able to do one of the following.

Full set of poly bushes, and/or uprated anti roll bars
Replace the 2pots with WRX 4pots.

Which should I go with.

I'm leaning towards the brake upgrade for the following reasons.
The 2pots stop fine, but since both pistons are on the same size, with some stupid cantilever thing doing the other side, the inside pad wears significantly faster than the outside pad and also runs the risk of warping the discs. Also the discs are getting close to the legal minimum, so it'll be a good idea to replace them soon, and they'll need to be replaced for the 4pot conversion. Like I'm said I'm happy with the current braking ability, but the thought of even pad wear and reduced risk of warping is why I want 4pots.

OTOH, the bushes should be done because the car is currently in for new rear droplinks as the current ones are knackered. If those are knackered then chances are the bushes are too. The car has certainly become more tail happy recently, and while I quite like that on open tarmac or grass, it's a litle too random for my tastes when on the road.
The car has done 70K and is 6 years old. I have no idea how long stock rubber bushes are supposed to last. Apparently the droplinks are prone to failure because they're made of plastic. I'm having Whiteline alloy droplinks fitted to the rear.
I don't want the ride to become much harsher, I like the suspension as it was when I bought the car with 40K on it. Will poly bushes make it harder. Is an uprated anti roll bar closer to what I want.

The garage also suggested a front anti-lift kit, but I have no idea what one of them is.

For those who don't already know. The car is a Subaru Legacy 2.0 twin turbo

Nooooooooooooo don't do it.

I worked for a company that made OEM suspension components and engine mounting systems for over 16 years. The BEST material to make suspension bushes out of is natural rubber.

If you want to find out the truth ask the manufacturer of the name of one, just one super car manufacturer that uses poly bushes. Thats because they are crap.

Ferrari don't use them, Bugatti don't use them, Lamorgini don't use them. Even the Mclaren F1 used natural rubber for the suspension bushes (one of my projects).

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Speed camera policy Kills