Santa Pod

[Paul Sheridan]

Not Dutton related, but is a good picture of my Daughter and Son racing each other at Santa Pod.  Both engines tuned by yours truly !!  Astra is 2.0lt Turbo and Escort is RS2000.

[John Allen]

was the left lane quicker as normal?

[Paul Sheridan]

Yes, the old RS didnt stand a lot of chance, the Astra pushes out 418bhp with 423lbs of torque compared to the RS pushing out 169bhp.  

[John Allen]

wow massive BHP they're 190BHP standard (i think)

[Paul Sheridan]

Mucho modded,  ......... There is a pic of the engine in my workshop, on here somewhere, but in case you havn't seen it ...........

[Big Vern]

That's an awful lot of power for thr flimsy opel engine. Still its an Astra G so it'll be used to standing by the side of the road      :-)))

[Big Vern]

"As for Astra G they weren't to bad reliability wise" 

I wouldn't wan't to tell our sparky that his spends more time at the side of the road than on it, electrics, engine management, thirsty, eats thermostats but then most Vauxhalls do that, not a pleasent ride, GM's ride and handling still no where near that of Ford Mondeo or Focus.

Z LET's have pistons made form recycled chocolate fire guards.

Vauxhalls really lost their way in the mid '90s round about the time Lotus started to interfere with them.  They only had reliability on their side and they seem to have lost that now as well. Always used to prefer them to Fords but they're just not in the same league anymore. Little wonder they're losing so much money.

C LET engines were pretty good but the ecotec engines are rubbish and that awful V6 arrggghhhh      :-0===

[Big Vern]

I know 6 people who are unfortunate to own Astra G's and they all hate them - reliability being the main reason (when I say reliability I'm refering to the number of probelms/faults rather than actual breakdowns)  My Cosra (C14NZ) has eaten four thermostats in 16 years and the one in it now has died so thats five. Never had that many fail in all my remaining cars put together! Various other friends with Vauxhalls have regular Thermostat failures.X14xe biggest load of bilge I ever had the misfortune to own - what a pile of c%%p - Head gaskets and timing belt idlers - two heads! and then not particularly powerful or economical vs other engines in its class. I'm not the only one to have had those faults either and a stupid radio that gets loader as you drive along - what k&&bhead thought of that..... Mike you're gettin' me goin' again on my hatred of modern Vauxhalls AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!! 

[Paul Sheridan]

Will post some pics of the latest creation when its been mapped. Using a LEH block with modified water ways to prevent the side of the bore fracturing and blowing into the water jacket as it did on the first build :-(  looking for over 600 BHP on this one.  

[Paul Sheridan]

Your NOT wrong there BV.  The engines are just not made to take that sort of power, even with some good internal modifications. But warnings always fall on deaf ears!!   From experience, I have found that keeping the tuning to just under the 300bhp mark, and using a hybrid turbo, will give, a reasonably reliable Zlet.  

[Paul Sheridan]

Mike, I wrote that last reply the same time as you, with your reply to BV on top it looks like im arguing with you..... I'm not ......honest guv. 

[1xf87h8w80hlh]

standing at side of road is the job of the RS pice of sh#t in a pile of rust st focus carnt even keep up with my zafira

[Big Vern]

Liked my RS but then it had some ahem semi-official tweeks what with it being an ex dev car. Didn't like the handling much but it was from the time when John Miles was spoiling they're ride & handling.

RS Focus was fairly well sorted but then Ford didn't engineer it we did...