What an incredible collection of cars they have for this event!
Under just ONE set of trees today, was my first-ever car, a Fiat 600 (actually, it's the light blue 850 Abarth, above, but it has the same body shell as mine ); my second-ever car, a Volvo PV544 (the dark blue car above ahead of the Fiat); my third-ever car, a Volvo 122 (this one, again, light blue right, a sedan; I had a wagon); and my fourth-ever car, a yellow-with-red-and-blue-stripes BMW 2002 right beside the Volvo 122 (well, my fourth-ever car if you don't count a bunch of Minis, all of which were either race cars or thinly-disguised parts cars for race cars).
We say in our business that you know you're getting old when you go to a vintage car meet and see a car whose press preview you attended. This was pretty close to Old Home Week for me.
Our Mazda RX-7 seemed to be running OK on the transit up to George Town where the Prologue stage was to take place.
But in the run itself - a tight, twisty town stage - every time Doug revved past 5,500 r.p.m., there was a huge BANG!! and a backfire, which was not only very disconcerting, but slowed us considerably.
We limped through the stage, and back to Launceston, where the service crew fell about the car.
It is typical of today's cars - even, or maybe especially, race cars - that one chap, a rotary engine tuning specialist, hooked the car up to a laptop computer to diagnose the problem.
The collective conclusion was that somehow, a rev limiting function had been programmed in at a very low (for a rotary engine) r.p.m. limit.
The crew think they've got it sussed - we'll see tomorrow when we start the rally for real.
Hi Jim, watching your progress in Targa Tas. doing a trip to Maritimes this year so looking forward to seeing cars and event of Targa Newfoundland. I helped with the build of Paul and Christine Freestone's 48 Holden so hope you had the chance to have a look at that one. Wish you the best of luck and good time in Oz .
cheers Wes
Posted by: wes griffiths | April 07, 2011 at 10:56 AM
Hi Wes:
If I could figure out how to add a photo to this comment, I would!
So go back to the blog to see a shot of Paul and Christine's fabulous Holden.
Wish too I could post an mpg of what it sounds like...
YOU know; the rest of my readers can only imagine.
Make a point of getting in touch when you're in Newfoundland this September!
Cheers,
Jim Kenzie
Posted by: Jim Kenzie | May 03, 2011 at 12:31 PM
Hope you could get that problem fixed. It may just be some sort of miscalculation in the program of its rev limiting.
Posted by: Air Ride Parts | October 07, 2011 at 07:53 PM