Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

One for the hive mind. Any thoughts on Land Rover LR3s? Steaming, megaton bomb of unreliability or comfy, largish, off road capable tow machine? Looking at the V8 versions, natch.

Steaming, megaton bomb of unreliability or comfy, largish, off road capable tow machine?

All of these things.

Get a Hummer.

You think the whole front of the car has been knocked over to one side and that somehow one of the most well respected car suspension companies in the country missed it while checking and adjusting every setting on the car?

The bloke from Centre Gravity has driven more 996s than probably anyone else anywhere ever.

I'd say it's unlikely he missed it.

That's the rear of the car, so clearly even the best miss things. It's just about the only explanation for the alignment to be like that. I'd be curious to see the sheet before work was done. If it was "aligned" but still pointing to the right, there has to be an explanation. Some call cars with alignment like that "dog tracking".

@Dammit
Subframe can be shifted and still all green on the alignment at the end. See the dog tracking comment above.

This is a crude measurement because the body panels can be off, but measure the offset of the rear wheels from the quarter panel fenders. Are they symmetrical?

Also grab a pic of same bolts now. Are they closer to symmetrical?

Not trying to be a pain in the ass. I'm not a car guru, but I actually have a reasonable amount of experience with alignment.

It may be perfect! I'd just be checking it out if it were my car. At the very least it's interesting.

That's the rear of the car

It's a 911. The back is actually the front.

:)

I agree that it's very odd that it was set up as it was and that it's worth a chat with Centre Gravity, but I'm convinced an experienced 911 driver would feel it crabbing and that they would have been looking for this type of misalignment during the process.

Ha - I'd totally have a proper ex-military one. They flog them for peanuts here but they're next to impossible to street register in CA.....not sure the Mrs would agree that it fits her remit either.

Are the LR4s notably better or more reliable? Seems like the sort of thing you'd require an extended warranty for I suppose.

Pete felt the car doing something odd under power on the test drive, we got back, he put it on the Hunter, said aha, then got under the car and saw why- I thought I had posted the pictures but clearly not. It had been set up badly.

The car is, according to CG, totally straight.

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I came from a powerful front wheel drive car- so to me the car wanting to change lanes when in the throttle is normal.

The LR4 is better.

Engines are nicer, interiors a bit more refined. My folks have had one since 2010, after not being super impressed with the LR3, no really serious issues. Epic towing machine, comfy to do miles in, surprisingly speedy for a 3 ton truck. However, theirs is relatively low mileage and only really does big journeys.

Has anyone been with Hastings for insurance? All 3 of there offerings (cheap/standard/posh) are much cheaper than any other insurer for me but I've never heard a lot about them

I have. Never claimed so it's hard to say whether they are good or not. I paid my money and drove my car. Standard.

Yeh bit of a bone question really, ta though

Excerpt from an email that the engine designer sent me last night:

"On to your heads; we have spent over eight hours on the flow bench testing all the various combinations and some very interesting things have emerged. I will compile some data for you sometime soon, perhaps sharing it with the forum too, though some of it is fairly juicy! Suffice to say that we think we have plenty of data to indicate why the 3.7 conversion works so well, Baz will find it very interesting too. One snippet I can feed you is that the heads alone are capable of giving much more power, as long as the intake and exhaust systems, cams and compression are optimised. Interesting stuff"

Moar powers.

Yah.

as long as the intake and exhaust systems, cams and compression are optimised

That's a very polite way of saying 'more money pls'..

He's had no money so far, but this will not be without cost ultimately.

So different intake, different exhaust, new cams and pistons? Oof.
I'd be tempted to keep the motivation as close to stock as possible if you want to drive it a lot.
OEM is good is my new mantra....

A little more than that, we're upping the capacity to 3.7 litres, so the existing cylinder liners need to be machined out and new (Capricorn) liners installed - a nice consequence of this is that it closes the deck. There's some other stuff also.

Can I revise my initial entry on the costs sweepstake?

By an order of magnitude?

The engine designer sent me the below picture of a vehicle that one of his clients was using as a delivery hack:

SWB innit. Prefer the Lusso loik.

Don't know whether to post this here, the bike or the epic win thread but this is one CRAZY Frenchman. And I want a go. Chapeau! Look how fast this thing hits 150mph....

https://youtu.be/Q1eQw4ycgQM

It's one of those BMW based kit car jobs innit?

The 250? I believe it's real, the chap was dropping off four V12 Ferrari heads.

I may however be wrong - I know little enough about these.

I no rly.

If you don't take them too seriously I quite like the Z3 bodykits:

http://www.tributeautomotive.co.uk/250swb.html

A ratty looking one on steels would be an amusing daily.