By Goran Freske You've probably all seen little Hondas and other tiny Japanese car on the road,
all tricked out visually and audibly (exhaust systems, not stereo!). Did you know that there is
a whole new growth industry dedicated to souping up these little rice rockets?
Group 5 Motor Sport,
8268 Miramar Rd., the subject of April's Porsche Club Tech Session, is one of many places
responsible for these quick little cars. Although they work on very few Porsches, preferring
instead to send them to Porsche specialists, the attraction to the club was the computerized
dynamometer on the premises. This machine measures the horsepower and torque where it actually
counts -- between the driving tires and the pavement. (Most auto manufactures brag about the
astronomical horsepower rating of their engines, but it is measured If you are ready for new brake rotors, visit the Brake Depot at 10438 Mission Gorge Rd. in Santee. This is an independent shop, and the proprietor, Patrick Korch, happens to be born in Stockholm, Sweden, and thus has a special empathy towards Volvos. I had my front discs replace there on my '64 1800S. Yes, replaced. As you may know, the front rotors for the early cars are not available from Volvo or ipd, and they are quoted at $125 to $173 each (with hub), plus shipping, from our friendly sources back east. I paid $164.95 each, installed! That included separating the rotor from the hub (which was quite a job), and checking and re-packing the bearings. The symptoms, when the brakes were applied, were surging as the car slowed down and severe steering wheel shaking. The rotors were obviously warped. According to Bill Webb's book, "Swedish Iron" (page 86), the minimum thickness allowed on the rotors is 0.48 in. Mine were in the 0.460 to 0.463 range, so they needed replacement. These are Brembo rotors, which are sold by ipd for different applications and supposed to be better that most. Patrick also told me that he'll do a complete brake system flush, using Castrol brake fluid, for $25 for our SDVSA members, which is certainly worth it for the hassle and the mess if you have ever done it yourself! GOOD NEWS!! Old style 1800 upper ball joints, which have not been available from Volvo, or any other source, have just become obtainable from Swedish Classics! They are made by TRW with an adapter plate which makes them fit perfectly on the older style upper A-arm. Around $36 apiece!! Also, Volvo just lowered the price of the newer style upper ball joint to $26 ($21 with your 20% discount)!!! |
at the flywheel,
and usually without power robbing accessories,
such as everything belt driven). Group 5 is in the business of increasing horsepower through
add-ons and tweaking. How about 300, or even 400, horsepower from a 1.2 liter engine
- at the wheels? It's hard to believe, but they do it. And they claim that the life of
these engines is two years! Even the tail wagging Porsche 911 drivers with their 3 liter engines
with barely over 200 hp (actually tested right there) were shaking in their Adidas. Anyway,
YOU can have your car dyno-tested for only $45. That includes four runs, and you also get
a computer-generated graph of your car's horse power and torque at the rear wheels vs. engine RPM.
If you want any performance enhancing treatment, that is, of course, extra. By the way, they sell
Red Line Water Wetter for less than $6 / 12 oz. bottle (two bottles will do three of our cooling
systems), and K&N filter cleaner and oil for about $10 / twin pack.
