When I was growing up my older brother had one of these modified for rallying. Full roll cage, extractors, two Weber 40DCOE carbs, some wild cam grind (not much action below 6000rpm) and a rare factory LSD (as used by the works rally team). The original motor eventually went 'pop' and was replaced with a 1.4 litre motor from a later Datsun Sunny, with a milder cam it was a whole lot more tractable. As I recall it had an appetite for gearboxes, he completed one event with only first and third still intact. Never drove it (way too young) but he did take me out in the passenger seat for some dirt road hoonage in some of the local forests - big noise & big fun!

]]> Doesn't compare to the Frank Zappa version from "The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life".

]]> Great to see that someone can still import themselves some Midship Amusement. No chance of bringing a Beat into Australia anymore. The laws were tightened a few years back, to prevent the flood of cheap Skylines, Supras, Silvias & such that were making our young hoons altogether too happy. My Beat was a personal import (i.e. someone brought the car with them when they moved here) from a few years ago, registered in New South Wales, with all the appropriate paperwork and approval - and they still made me jump through hoops to re-register it in South Australia. When it comes to JDM goodness, the Canadians & New Zealanders don't know how good they've got it, enjoy it while it lasts.

]]> Strictly speaking, it's a 48-215, the FX name is an unofficial one. It was introduced in November of '48, hence the low production number for that year. Not sure it's worth the asking price, but it's nice to see such things preserved.

]]> Much as I love the Alfa 2600, I voted Triumph Roadster 'cause by dad used to own one - though not the 1800 version, but the 2-litre Standard Vanguard engine'd one. No V8 swap for me, though - those cars were MEANT to be slow - it's all part of the charm.

]]> Bolwell Nagari perhaps, or the nearly-almost-went-into-production Holden GTR-X?

]]> Midship Amusement = 102

]]> @Rust-MyEnemy: ...reminds me of the "Location Locating Locator" from the DangerMouse cartoon...

]]> I really hated those ads with a passion. Re the metric system, I'm a collector of vintage pocket watches & I find it fascinating that the American watch industry was working (almost exclusively) in metric way back in the 1860s.

]]> When I was growing up our neighbour had a DB2/4 Mk II that was his PCH. Every couple of years or so you'd see it on the road, moving under its own power - for a week or so. One one occasion my father got the chance to drive it, his exact words were "Never Again!". He said it had the heaviest steering of anything he'd ever driven, including trucks. I noticed he took even slow corners fairly briskly for such a big car, I thought it was for pleasure - actually it was to keep the steering light enough to turn the wheel without doing himself an injury. Still a cool car, though - the whole front hinges forward to reveal that big twin cam 6. And it is physically enormous considering it's cubic capacity - I remember one occasion when they pulled the head off it, two guys with a block-and-tackle, and that really wasn't enough, damn near dropped the thing. I swear that head must weigh as much as my whole car.

]]> Manual for me - an auto would suck all the fun out of my Midship Amusement, and leave me with Midship Unpleasantness (and even less torque). Thankfully Honda never made such an abomination.

]]> @wild zero: Bizarre serial killings aside, Adelaide ain't THAT bad - and our whoopee-weed is excellent (plus we don't mix it with tobacco like some perverts in the eastern states do - ick!). Solar charged electric bus sounds kinda cool to me - though not as cool as a fleet of Mazda Parkway Rotary 26s. Much less environmentally friendly & possibly slower - but more awesome.

]]> @Rust-MyEnemy: A power plant's emissions are roughtly proportional to energy demand - they are typically structured as independent units that can be started and stopped as required. (eg my local power plant is effectively eight separate power stations in one) This is how they can be run a lower output without too much loss of efficiency, it also allows for regular maintenance without shutting down the entire plant. Startup times for individual units are reasonably slow (several hours I think) so some forward planning is required to cope with variation in demand. I've also come across the use of gas turbine power plants to cope with sudden increases in demand (less efficient, but very quick startup).

]]> Don't know about the USA but here in Aus, IIRC the early model coupes were badged 'Alfetta GT', the GTV moniker came a year or two later.

]]> Given that my daily driver is 660ccs of Midship Amusement, you can guess that I'm a top-end power kinda guy - makes me smile. With only 59Nm of torque at 7,000 rpm, moderate acceleration requires downshifting a cog or two and the application of insanely high revs, accompanied by sound effects that wouldn't be out of place with commentary by Murray Walker (or James Allen, to be more up-to-date). It couldn't pull the skin off of day-old tofu, but I love it anyway.

]]> Not meaning to nitpick or anything, but surely the 512TR engine was longitudinally mounted (like the 365BB, 512BB and Testarossa before it) - not that it'll exactly bolt right onto the 912's transaxle, but it's gotta help.

]]>