The SWAMP! - Volume One

[drf]

1994, 4litre inline 6 cyclinder. The performance arm of Ford Australia (Tickford) have enhanced the motor with an ECU remap, and larger valves. It puts out about 164Kw. Straight out of the box these cars were capable of around 15sec's down the quarter. Total vehicle mass is about 1440Kg.

When the exhaust goes in this one (I expect next year) I intend to replace it with a decent set of extractors and a 2.5Inch pipe. I am currently redoing the kick panels in black. They are scratched and need some attention. I intend on cleaning up the dash and doing a manual conversion also. I may get some shiny wheels as well but that will be much later down the track.

Flip pic: If your like your 4 cyclinder performance, this ones got to be in the top 5:

[atledreier]

164kW.. That's around 230hp, right? We may be metric, but horsepower just make more sense. Bust be pretty torquey with a 4L I6 that put out 'only' 230hp. My 1.8L VW Passat gave me about 220hp and it was incredibly fun to drive. That was forced induction though. About 360Nm from around 2000rpm and up to 5500, then tapered off to redline. I bet that slushbox is stealing a good portion of the torque, though. Get cracking on that manual conversion!

[Sonnie]

Just popped in to see the flip pic.

[drf]

Not exactely a fair comparison. My car is 14 years old and has 286 thousand on the clock. Forced induction will add serious HP to just about any motor. I was looking at a budget super charger for this thing that would give it another 80Kw (100HP) But I can't justify that kind of money on a non-essential mod. The other thing about the passat is (as you probably know) the difference between a 4 and a 6 or 8 is the revs at which the power is created. I have left a few high end nissans (200sx, r33 & r34) behind even though they had more rear wheel power, what they lacked was get up and go.

I believe the gear box absorbs about 60Kw (yes Horsepower sounds better than Kilowatts) yet the box is very responsive. And too be honest the thing I will miss about it after the conversion will be the fact that I don't think I can change gears as fast as it can.

[atledreier]

Like I said, I had my torque peak at around 2k rpm, and about half a second to get full boost, 1,45Bar. Mostly due to the (too) small turbocharger, so it just couldn't deliver at high revs, but it got up and went, something fierce. I held an Impreza WRX STI out onto the motorway once. Really had to drive the thing hard, though. But I held him. Up until I gave up at about 180kph, but I had really ran out of steam at that point. I'm not much of a racer, but it was just too much to take at that point. He was literally laughing at me for driving the Passat, so I had to show him..

[Sonnie]

Good morning fellers...

I am soooo glad that it is Friday! I get to eat today...

[atledreier]

Um... don't you eat everyday?

[drf]

Now that would have been fun, there is no better feeling than holding your own. especially when your opponent has just laughed at you. Today I am going to re dye some of the interior. First time I have tried this so It will be interesting to see how it turns out.


Sonnie, have you been on a special diet or fasting? I tried fasting once to help with a few things but all I did was think about food. So it wasn't helping.

[Sonnie]

I only eat lunch on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The other days I eat 4-5 small meals per day, but I mean small small small. Some (most) Wednesday evenings I eat well. I have been doing this since April 1 and have lost 35lbs. But, I also work-out, walk and jog 5-8 times per week.

[drf]

Well done!!! Is it hard work? did you have to make any lifestyle changes to make it easier?

[Sonnie]

Thanks!

I have gotten use to it now, so it is not near as hard. The key is cardio ... getting the heart rate up. I do about 20-40 minutes of cycling on one of the high-tech machines to get my heart rate up to about 125 or so. I start out usually at 20 minutes. It is not hard, but it is steady. Then I work out one set of reps, lower weight with reps of 20. Back to the cycle for another 10 minutes... then weights... back and forth. Then I go to the park and walk for 30-45 minutes, depending on how long I spent in the gym. Generally I will do this a couple of times a week. The other three days I just do cardio with cycling and walking... with some sit-ups on one or two days. I mix it up well so that I don't get too bored.

The real kicker that I believe has helped me more than anything is jogging three nights a week at the park. I started out only being able to walk a couple of laps, then slowly worked my way up to more laps... up to as many as 7 laps at times (.7 miles track = almost 5 miles total with 7 laps). Then I started jogging... first a quarter lap. Then a quarter lap and walk a lap, quarter lap, walk a lap. Just kept working it until one night I jogged the whole lap, .7 miles. For a 46 year old, that was good... my lungs are awful... so are my weak legs and knees. Anyway... I am up to 4-5 laps of steady jogging now, with a couple of laps walking as well. I always walk my first lap, then jog. After jogging 4 laps last night, I then walked a lap and on my last lap I did sprints... sprint, walk, sprint, walk, etc. I have been doing that for a while. One thing is it sure is a lot easier when you are 35lbs lighter. I am down to 214lbs, but plan on getting on under 200.

I was about to have to move to size 44 waist because I could not button my 42's any longer. That is when I said "whoa". I am down to a very loose 38 and working on a 36.

Yeah... I would say it is a change in lifestyle, but it seems to be an enjoyable one for the most part. There are mornings when it is hard to get motivated, but I keep on at it. Most of the time it just happens like I've been doing it for years... just routine, which is how I like it. 5 months solid now... not bad. I sure hope I will keep going at it, but there will come a time very soon here that I will simply maintain, not needing to lose any more weight.

I eat like a pig on the weekends, which is nice to be able to do. It has worked for me thus far. My body never realizes I am on a low calorie diet for most of the week and therefore cannot adjust my metabolism downward to compensate for it. The weekend splurge confuses it I suppose... keeping it up and burning calories faster. I have heard it called the zig-zag diet, or a form of it.

[atledreier]

Oh, I wish I had the willpower! I'm just too lazy to keep at something like that, and way too fond of sweets.

[drf]

Thats fantastic progress. I am only 32 (70Kg) and have a fairly physical job (a lot of walking mainly) yet I don't think I could handle that kind of fittness regime.

[Sonnie]

Mav... I love sweets too. Last night I ate a medium Snickers blizzard after eating out. It is a normal Friday night desert for me. I just finished eating 3 cinnamon rolls a few minutes ago. Every day during the week that I eat my small meals throughout the day, I eat a Smores bar... delicious. I am sure we'll have something for desert tonight after we eat the rib tips I'll cook later this afternoon. Tomorrow after services we usually eat out and my favorite desert is pecan pie. During the week I eat a lot of fat free Jello. I am a sweetaholic myself.

Doc... you are a worm bro. You don't need a fitness regime at that weight. Lots of walking is one way to keep it off though.

[atledreier]

You are my new hero, Sonnie!

I seriously need to start looking after my body, though. It's not doing it itself any more, apparently. Walks for starters should do the trick. How about a new subdomain, Sonnie? Healthclub.hometheatershack.com?

[drf]

I know, but family history tells me that if I don't stat looking after myself now I will be in trouble later. my father is dealing with diabetes and has a fairly strict diet in order to maintain his weight, so I kinda figure I need to be prepared. I am also an ex-smoler and have a very sweet tooth (a few of them actually). I also am the only one left to look after my kids so I tend to over react to every little health problem I encounter.


Well, on a different note, I dyed some of the car yesturday and I am impressed with how it turned out, except for the color of the blue which just seems wrong. Pics to come soon.

EDIT: here they are

Did the centre of the wheel black, it looks much better than grey:


Did the kickpanels black and they look awesome:


I did the drivers door blue and black, but I am not happy with the blue it doesn't suit the rest of the car.

[atledreier]

Awesome, dude!

I can't wait for the RX-7 to get back on the road after a turbo upgrade. It's not mine, but I drive it and take it to track occationally. Got a lot of mods on it, moves really well. With the original twinturbo setup we squeezed 315 horsepower out of the 13b engine, at the wheels. We're hoping for 450 with the new turbo. Going to a big street meet this coming weekend, and we're both bummed we didn't get the turbo in time. Still, it'll be a fun weekend.

Got a vid we made a while back, while at a local gokart track. We snuck in on a Porcshe club meet, that's what all those weird european cars are..
At that point the car did about 280 wheel hp, basically done ECU upgrade, streetported, 3,5" exhaust and FMIC. And running the turbos non-sequentially. The track is REALLY tight as you can see, and we only got up to about 140kph on the back straight and about 110 on the start/finish. Still, that's decent for the short straights we had, and the relaively long braking for the tight corners. We were on regular hard street tires, not even performance tires. No suspension mods at that point, just the stock 15 year old suspension.

High quality, 50-ish Mb
http://www.xsadclan.com/files/rx7edit.wmv

[Fincave]

Hello everybody!

Good to see that everyone is around and kicking. Have been on holiday hence the lapse in posting from me, it just seems that when I am back at work I find more time to post, does not make sense I know.

Sonnie: Great going! I weighed 116 kg roughly two years ago and decided that I needed to do something about it. I managed to lose 20 kg and have kept the weight off even though I eat quite alot, just try and make sure that I eat sort of balanced meals. My reason for slimming was health related, my father was always overweight and died of a heart attack aged 43, I am 36 now and plan on being around for quite a lot longer!

Nice work on the car there DRF. It would be great to have a big powerful car but with the petrol price what it is at the moment, 1,50€ a litre even running a frugal car becomes a bit pricey! (maybe I am just tight) I have a friend here who is into older cars, he has a 68 Corvette, very nice wheels and cheap to run, it only uses 28l/100km city cycle, he can get it down to 18l/100km with freeway driving.

[drf]

Good to hear from you again Fin, the 68 vette is very nice piece of machinery indeed. One whitch I wouldn't mind owning if I had the money.

Now that is a wicked video Mav, Who's version of cowboys is that? I don't think you could have picked a better sound track. I never was a big fan of porches, now I know why . I wouldn't mind getting onto the track and learning to drive like that. Alas time and money kills many dreams.

[atledreier]

I'm really not sure what version it is, I'll try to find out. I have the file back home 'somewhere'(tm)...

The driving is nothing special. It's a very tight track so there's not much speed. It's a matter of finding braking points and not overdoing it, really.

[Sonnie]

Hey guys!

Been a lazy "Labor Day" for me thus far. Well, except for this morning's normal routine of working out and walking. I am about to go to the park for a jog in a bit.

Fin sounds like you did pretty well and still keeping it off is key. It always seems like keeping it off is much tougher than getting it off.

Doc... the car dying looks good. The problem I see with the car is the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car.

[atledreier]

drf: The song is 'Cowboys from hell' by Panthera.

[drf]

No no no Sonnie, the car is on the wrong side of the wheel. I think. But I seem to recall we have been through this before. I am happy with most of the dying, just not the arm rest/handle. I think the blue is wrong.

Mav, 140Kph for a go cart track is better than average driving, and truth be told probably better than mine. Is Panthera a cover band for Pantera, I am a little confussed, the song on the vid is a cover isn't it?

[atledreier]

No, I'm pretty sure it's not. I'll search my videoediting computer for the file, but I think it's the album version.

[drf]

Wow, it just sounds so different from the two versions I have.