Automotive

georgeszaslavsky
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I appreciated your reply, I wish too that I was born earlier that I was so that I could appreciate cheap gasoline and run countless quarter miles on Woodward Avenue during the week end

1) Yes on that we agree. For me what makes something unreliable is the fact that you have to baby it and overtake care of it and because it isn't made to be used in normal or harsh conditions or that it is prone to malfunction after a few months of use.
2) I know that all 986 and 987 Boxsters use the M96, a water-cooled, horizontally opposed ("flat"), six-cylinder engine. It was Porsche's first water-cooled non-front engine. In the Boxster, it is placed mid-engine, while in the 911, rear-engine. The flat, mid-engine layout provides a low center of gravity, near-perfect weight distribution, and neutral handling. The engines had a number of failures, resulting in cracked or slipped cylinder liners, which were resolved by a minor redesign and better control of the casting process in late 1999. A failure for these early engines was a spate of porous engine blocks, as the manufacturer had difficulty in the casting process. In addition to causing problems with coolant and oil systems mingling fluids, it also resulted in Porsche's decision to repair faulty engines by boring out the cast sleeves on the cylinders where defects were noted in production and inserting new sleeves rather than scrapping the engine block. Normally, the cylinder walls are cast at the same time as the rest of the engine, this being the reason for adopting the casting technology.
3) Sure the weber carburettors were very popular among italian supercar manufacturers like Ferrari and Lambo, but also with Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, BMW, Chrysler, Fiat, Ford, Lancia, Lotus, Maserati, Morgan, Porsche, Renault, Triumph and Volkswagen. Except in canam racing most of the engines especially the zl 1 engine powering the mac laren m8 and the chaparral were using a hillborn injection, in transam and in nascar racing Holley, Rochester and Carter brands of carburettors dominated the scene.In Lemans and Group 5 racing back then especially with the 917, Porsche featured a new 4.5-litre air-cooled engine designed by Mezger, which was a combination of 2 of Porsche's 2.25L flat-6 engines used in previous racing cars. The 'Type 912' engine featured a 180° flat-12 cylinder layout, twin overhead camshafts driven from centrally mounted gears and twin spark plugs fed from two distributors.The large horizontally mounted cooling fan was also driven from centrally mounted gears. The longitudinally mounted gearbox was designed to take a set of four or five gears.More insane than that was the 917/30 which was used for Can Am. The 917/30 was the most powerful sports car racer ever built and raced. The 5.374-litre 12 cylinder (90.0 x 70.4 mm) twin-turbocharged engine could produce 1,580 bhp (1,180 kW) in qualifying tune with twin turbochargers run up to full boost, 39 psi (2.7 bar), though it usually raced with around 1,100 bhp (820 kW) at 7,800 rpm to preserve the engine. Weighing 1,800 lb (820 kg), giving it a power to weight of 1967.36 bhp/tonne in qualifying tuneand 1369.68 bhp/tonne in race tune. The 917/30 dominated the Can-Am series during the 1973 season. The 917 was also the only championship winning car in Can Am not to be powered by the Chevrolet ZL1 Aluminium engine.This variant, the final official reiteration of the 917, is perhaps the most powerful sports racing car to have ever existed. With all new bodywork and the twin turbocharged engine being bored out to 5.4 liters giving it 1100–1580 horsepower,depending on boost. These cars were so unbeatable that it was known for killing the Can-Am series's popularity in the United States. Six still exist, (one is a new build from parts)
4)The step brother of my uncle who lives in Lausanne owned for a brief period an Espada series II from 1970 till 1975, he told me the reason why he disliked the car this much and why he ended up selling it. Too many complications when fine tuning the carbs every 6 months, the power steering wasn't very responsive according to him and the girling brakes lacked real stopping power when braking at over 70mph (he nearly killed himself on a wet road during a trip in 1973 but luckily he had good driving skills (he used the parking brake to stop the car in emergency)but also God was with him that day). About Maserati, a close friend of my father used to own one, a 1969 Quattroporte series II 4700 but he ruined himself financially with the car 's maintenance and ended in a painful divorce after having owned it for a while.
I have never had the chance to own a Lambo or a Maserati nor to drive one.In all honesty, I am not that fortunate to buy one nor pay the maintenance for one. I live according to my financial means. And same policy as it is for buying watches, I never overestimate my purchasing power because there are much important priorities than cars or watches in life.
Have a good evening

Best regards

Georges

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