The POOL ROOM

[trularin]

Aren't you all heading for winter there?

I mean, isn't getting cool and like the trees are loosing their leaves and all that stuff?

[boxhead]

It is getting cooler in Alice Springs, only got to 36 yesterday

[BMK]

Cooler here though at 19c - about 68f.

The only fires around here are the farmers burning off and the fire staff doing some clearing.

[Tatsushige]

I have read on this site a few guys have LS motors in their Cobras.

Maybe this might interest guys who have or are looking at LS motors in their Cobras

WET AND WILD

Take 6.2 litres of Chev Alloy, add one blower and stir it in water. Instant 470kW insanity.
Four hundred and seventy kilowatts. That's a figure so formidable, mere numerals don't do it justice. Here's another worth spelling out: seven hundred and eighty Newton metres. Who on Earth throws around such numbers? Massey Ferguson? Kenworth? The Royal Australian Air Force? Even for Lamborghini that's impressive. But when they apply to a humble HSV VE Clubsport, you know you're pushing the envelope like a coked-up postman.
Most casual gawkers during our test presume it's some new whiz-bang model in Clayton's line-up. Nope. On day-release from Walkinshaw Performance's Braeside headquarters, in Melbourne's suburbia, this Clubby comes bellowing and screaming across the ever-changing Aussie muscle-car landscape like a red exclamation mark. Not just figuratively, but literally. On a quiet morning, you can hear it coming long before you see it. And it's not its guttural exhaust note - imagine a V8 Supercar engine gargling rocks - piercing the air, but the cat-in-a-blender shriek of a supercharger. It's like motoring's classic rock at full noise, and a sonic giveaway to anyone with a passing interest in horsepower hedonism.
"No, officer, it didn't come like this from the factory."
And yet, in many way's, it's bloody close. WP is renowned for creating OE factory-style engineering and presentation. With WP and HSV kissing cousins under Tom Walkinshaw's corporate umbrella, you'd expect as much, too. No wonder punters get duped, despite WP's effort in crafting a unique identity for its cars. HSV badges are removed, there's no '470' horsepower boast on the bootlid, and it's lettered with WP logos. As a one-off rolling demoof of WP's VE-ready aftermarket goodies - and not a turn-key showroom model - it has no name. Of course, 'No Name' looks ridiculous in print, so we'll call it the 'WP470'. No worries. You're welcome.


....... READ HERE



WP470 v LAMBORGHINI LP640
Which brand-spanking turn key cars on offer in Oz has WP470-like stonk? The $476K CL65 AMG (450-kW/1000Nm), $375K Bentley Continental GT (411kW/650Nm) or $595K Ferrari 599 GTB (456kW/608Nm) perhaps?
They all come up a bit short. Laughable, innit?
But how about a Lambo Murcielago LP640?
Here's the theoretical shootout. The Lambo offers one extra kilowatt (471kW) from its 6.5-litre V12. But, with 660Nm, it's shy by 110Nm. But the LP is lighter - 1665kg verses 1842kg - which suggests a bloody close-run race.
Sure enough, it is. During last year's PCOTY Round Two, the all-paw Lambo nailed a 4.0sec 0-100 time and scorched to the 400m mark in 11.9sec. Meanwhile, the rear-drive WP470 is just 0.2sec slower to 100 kays and a mere 0.6sec shy for the quarter, their terminal speeds split by just 5.5km/h. Sobering?
There's more. The Murcie demands $675,678, plus some frightening on-road costs. For that money you could buy a WP470 ($100K) and park a Gallardo ($415K) next to it, and have enough change to park an HSV W427 ($155K) in storage as a so-called 'investment' to help put the grandkids through uni.

[Aussie Mike]

Garrett (justbetter) on this forum has a blown LS1 in his Superformance Cobra that's probably making those numbers. It makes 400KW at the rear wheels on the dyno and is frighteningly fast and brutal to drive. All of this on a bone stock LS1 5.7 bottom end.



Cheers

[tomcat racing]

my 6.3 ltr naturally aspirated ford windsor [no puffers] does 11.5s all day, and its a kitten to drive. its not about how many neddies youve got up front its how you put them to the ground. 12.5seconds for the blown wp470 is nothing to brag about, theres unblown street commodores up here that do those times and they dont cost a 100k or more. tomcat

[Tatsushige]

Well have the run down on the Laws in Japan in regards to Kit Cars and it is way too bloody hard to try to even start something here.

So I have decided to pack up shop at the end of the year and head to the UK.

I have a small Aussie Pie Company here that I will sell or shut down, but I will keep the family home here as we will fly back and forth between the UK and Japan.


The plan now is to move to the UK (As I hold British Citizenship) and get cracking on a 25th Ann Countach Replica and sell the things in Japan as turnkeys. The Brother-in-Law works for Subaru Japan so he said he can help with Selling the Countach in Japan, he has looked in to the sale of Countach Replicas and from the information he has found the US made replicas sell for about $105,000AU so if I can do them for about $90,000 I should be on a winner.

The Govt here have said I will have no problems selling fully built replicas as long as they have been built outside of Japan, but they will NOT let me build cars here as the building of Replicas will break Japanese copywrite Laws and a few other BS laws.

So looks like I will not be getting my Cobra Oh well things happen for a reason I guess.

Anyway a nice photo from a Kit Car Show in the UK. This is a DC Supercars Countach 5000QV Replica, mould taken from a REAL Countach, so the car is 100% Correct.

Well keep safe all and chat again soon.

[Cameron Parsons]

I thought twice about posting this as seemingly innocent questions can turn into flame wars, and that's not the intent.

I truly wish you all the best with your venture, but am intrigued to ask.

1. Why a Countach? Are they in super high demand in Japan?
2. When you can buy a real one for similar money, why would people buy a replica, regardless of how well it's put together?
3. If there's that much $$$ in selling pies in Japan, I'm moving

OK, So 1 & 2 were serious questions...

Thanks

Cameron

[Tatsushige]

Why a Countach,

Cobras are a dim a dozen here, they are imported from the USA.

A real Countach will cost about $120,000 for RHD to $160,000 for LHD, but because of the age of the vehicle the up keep will send you to the wall.

The car has to go over the pits every year because of its age, you have to pay emission tax because of the age and the fuel it uses, the repairs for the vehicle is also a killer here, a service for a Countach will cost about $15,000.

If it is a unlicensed Countach then there is no way in the world you will get it licensed because of the age of the vehicle. There are about 5 for sale that are unlicensed and they have been for sale now for over 18 months because they are unlicensed, who ever buys the cars will never get them licensed.

This one here

http://www.carsensor.net/usedcar/det...l?ROUTEID=hiho

has been imported from the UK, it still has UK plates but because of the age and it is not licensed in Japan it has been for sale for about 12 months now.

I am looking at buying it and shipping it back to the UK to use for making the moulds.




A plain meat pie 180grams will cost you about $5.50AU, There are only 3 Meat Pie Shops in Japan, 1 in Osaka, 1 in Yokahama and my shop. The Shop in Osaka sells Plain mince pies 120grams for about $3.00AU and he claims they are Aussie Style, I placed a order when I first landed here 6 years ago and the pies tasted like some crap a kid in a sand pit made. The other shop in Yokahama sell British type pies, I have not tried them. A Aussie Pub in Roppongi(Tokyo) has a Plain 150gram meat pie for about $7.00AU but they are made in house for the pub only.


My Profession is in Close Personal Protection, been doing it for abut 14 years, I retired in 2007 because the wife wanted me out of the industry, so having nothing to do I started making and selling pies from home, it worked but I am board with it as I am now stuck in the house 24/7.

[Rob. Smith]

Make em outa kangaroo meat...the japs will go apesh1t ! ha ha ha

[Tatsushige]

Originally Posted by Rob. Smith

Make em outa kangaroo meat...the japs will go apesh1t ! ha ha ha

You can buy Roo meat here in Japan it is 3 times the price of Beef. It taste the same as Whale but whale meat is cheaper and Yes I make a pie with Whale meat. Taste bloody fantastic. Sells for $9.00

[Rebel1]

Any of you guys using VOIP?

I've been bothered by the cost of our home phone bill for a while. Over $150.00 a month for a phone service I hardly use was getting a bit much given the wife is the only one who uses the thing.

Been using VOIP for a little over a month and costs are down to $40.00 would you believe. Should get cheaper this next month.

Who else is using voice over internet for phone calls?.

[Cameron Parsons]

Been using VOIP for more than 5 years now Les... It's the only way to go..

Just about paid for a new GT40 with the savings, funny how it seems to have been spent on the kids though

[Rebel1]

Originally Posted by Cameron Parsons

Been using VOIP for more than 5 years now Les... It's the only way to go..

Bugga, why didn't ya tell me sooner. I was even thinking of changing the first wife for a new one just to reduce the phone bill.

[Rebel1]

Well, looks like we are the only two to take advantage of technology to make cheaper phone calls Cameron.

The least I pay to Telstra the happier I am.

[Cameron Parsons]

You have no idea how much I support that sentiment

[sambo]

Originally Posted by Rebel1

The least I pay to Telstra the happier I am.

Les, unless you have a satellite phone, like the rest of us you probably rely on Telstra to maintain the copper lines from the exchange to your doorstep. Without that there's no ADSL, 56k, voice, etc. They can improve in many areas (eg, customer service, billing) but we definitely can't live without them!

[Rebel1]

You are correct sambo, until the NBN becomes a reality then goodbye Telstra. OK, maybe not goodbye Telstra if they exchange some of their current fibre for equity in the NBN.

But clearly, their service is lousy and way too expensive.

OK...so now I have the very basic of service from Telstra just to retain the copper for my ADSL. All my outgoing voice telecommunications now go VOIP.

My VOIP plan costs me $9.95 a month for which I get 100 free untimed phone calls anywhere in Oz. Ten cents per untimed call after the 100 free ones. Mobiles cost me 18cents a minute timed. I get call waiting and voice mail and mail notification to my email. I can take my laptop with me anywhere in the world and ring home for a local call fee, or free if I have remaining free calls.

Ignoring my ADSL cost which I've had for years and was on top of the Telstra account anyways, this last month of VOIP usage has cost a little less than $42.00. Every month previous the Telstra account has been around $150.00 to $170.00.

I had heard all sorts of reports of garbled speech, echoing etc., but I have experienced none of that. Certainly I had some early problems but a change of codec changed that real quick.

I still have a Telstra service and the router defaults to PSTN if there are any problems.

I love saving money on a service I don't use. I'm seriously thinking of doing the same with the business side of things.

[sambo]

Les, pray to high heavens Telstra contract out the whole NBN project and that it is managed by an experienced team from a private company whose KPIs are tied to the outcome. Otherwise it will be a shambles.

And really, with all that is going on in the world do we really need faster downloads? This whole NBN debate has been a red herring. It ranks about 15th on the list of essential services that are lacking in this country, I don't care what they say about opening up business to eCommerce etc etc. It's a massive waste of money and resources. Better to spend the money fitting rainwater tanks and plumbing gray water in metropolitan homes, rather than building coal burning desal plants and laying pipelines that draw water from the Murray Darling.

-- End Rant

[Aussie Mike]

The company I work for develops and deploys a lot of this technology around the world.

Triple play is the way it'll all go eventually. Normal telephone networks will be replaced with VOIP networks. Your pay TV, your broadband internet and telephone will all come down one high speed digital link to your home via either fiber or VDSL2 on copper.

NBN is a long way off now that they have decided on a fiber to the home strategy. Trenching cable is expensive and since the NBN will be a seperate network to Telstra it means they have to build it from scratch.

I'm thinking what they'll end up with is a mixed solution. Part fiber to the home and part fiber to the node with VDSL2 from the node to the home on copper.

VDSL2 is not ratified yet in Australia with the comms authorities. You can get some phenominal data rates out.

Interesting times ahead.