Sunday, December 28, 2008 - 08:25 pm, by: Bill English(Brycevr)
Hi there all, I have been following the forums for a few weeks and thought I'd Introduce myself. I'm a terminal car junkie and have several collectibles. Including a '82 Porsche 911SC, a 1956 Hudson Super Wasp (the 4 door version of "Doc Hudson")a Clubman with a 2 litre escort motor and a '78 Cortina with a 4.1 6cyl. Several Bikes and a FVee classic. I was building the Corty for hillclimbs as with little effort I could get the weight down to under 900kg. I had an EL Fairmont for general use but my brother borrowed it and I have just left it with him so I need a daily driver that will tow a light trailer, small yacht, Motorbike. My first option was a 24V Mercedes 300CE. I first saw a Soarer in 1995 and thought it was one of the most beautiful looking cars I had ever seen. One popped up on the radar about July and I thought I'll look into it. So after 6 months of research and gazing I am going to buy a "30" and a TT as soon as I find the right examples and then use the TT as a development mule and put a TT motor into the Corty. Hardcore 300kw into 900kg has to be a screamer. A 4.0 litre V8 with the best reputation in modern motoring has to work for the next few years as a day to day ride. The support and enthusiasm of these forums has taken away nearly all my trepidation about the difficulties of maintaining such a rare car.
Thank you all You will hear more as I develop these projects but the TT motor makes my heart race. (and hopefully my track toy)
Thanks to all on these forums as I have been given a plethora of information and a feeling of trust. I'm going to love owning a Soarer.
Bill
Peter Nitschke Junk Filterer South Australia UZZ30 UZZ31
Sunday, December 28, 2008 - 11:06 pm, by: Bill English(Brycevr)
Thanks Pete, I'm just a car junkie. I used to race bikes and found I didn't have that "no fear of death" that gives you 2 secs a lap. Then I went to FVee and had a totally rear of the grid amazing experience. As dollars have allowed have played with all sorts of kit. I've probably owned 100 cars. This post is very significant as I have chosen a Jap car over a 'Benz as a daily for the first time in over 20 yrs. "a 10yo Benz will eat a new Commaford" and "I have a Benz" sounds better I think. I think that from what I've seen the Lexota build quality is at least as good as my previous 'Benz's I'm a 45yo retired bachelor so 1 seat for me and the rears for the dogs is perfect. As I said the front runner was the 300CE 'Benz but the SC400 looks soooo sexy and has as good if not better build quality. The development of the race car came in a drunken conversation with a fellow petrol head and just made sense. The plan was for a BAII engine and a getrag that's sitting in the garage from another progect. I have a full tilt motec rig already so all I really need is some engine mounts and a tail shaft. The TT and manual box is a drop in. Supra bits are as cheap as chips as well.
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 12:27 am, by: Bill English(Brycevr)
As the esteemed Colin Chapman said... "That washer isn't doing 70 free laps on MY car", get rid of it. Weight is everything.
Colin changed the thinking of motor vehicle design every time he got out of bed. His cars always sat on the line between undriveable and unbeatable. The TT combo should let me get to 860kg. Interesting thought...with 300kw
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 06:46 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
You've made the right choice! '60's, 70's and 80's Benzes are sweet, but '90's Benz's are a nightmare of poor build quality and weird engineering as far as I can tell. My sisters '95 300 has cost them a fortune in the last 4 years, and quite frankly is just nasty to drive with a horrible sticky accelerator, zero feeling the brakes, totally dead handling and a rolly polly ride, same story with her Father-in-laws similarly aged Benz (though he won't buy anything else), while my '96 Soarer with higher K's has cost me almost nothing over the same time period.
No idea what newer Mercs are like, but I've heard they have sorted a lot of their problems in more recent years, particularly since parting company with Crisler.
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 09:51 am, by: Bill English(Brycevr)
That seems the consensus. After '95 they got ahead of themselves with the technology. I've had a 300CE 12V and it was a stunning car for a daily driver. No sports car, but very reliable and comfortable. That's why I was going for a 24V, a little more poke same simple engineering. Then a LS400 Lexus crossed my path and pointed me toward the Soarer. I am very impressed so far, my only concern is the number of backward hat wearing juveniles that seen to gravitate to the import type cars. They give them a bad rep.
Monday, December 29, 2008 - 03:06 pm, by: Bill English(Brycevr)
James Harris wrote on Monday, December 29, 2008 - 11:32 am:
Welcome to the club mate, im sure you will find plenty of info here and perhaps some good ideas also !
It was the forums that tipped the balance. Both here and ALSC seemed to have so much good, well thought out info and so many sensible and practical enthusiasts. This makes maintaining a rare car so much easier. I now know most of the quirky bits that would otherwise have been a nightmare
Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 06:03 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Bill English wrote on Monday, December 29, 2008 - 12:27 am:
Colin changed the thinking of motor vehicle design every time he got out of bed. His cars always sat on the line between undriveable and unbeatable. The TT combo should let me get to 860kg. Interesting thought...with 300kw
I used to have a Triumph Dolomite Sprint with a "meager" 170kw at 940kg, and that thing was pretty damn hard to live with, but boy was it fun. Hard to imagine 300kw in an even lighter body!
Mike Beck Goo Roo New Zealand Soarer Limited UZZ31 V8
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - 07:25 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Matthew Sharpe wrote on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 06:03 am:
That would have been fairly quick Matt.
Low 14's on the 1/4 (would have done better with more grip), and pretty quick around Puki for a floating axle rear.
Mike Beck wrote on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 05:47 pm:
Expensive car to own I would imagine?
Yeah, I spent a small fortune on it, mostly because being a (at the time) 24 year old British Leyland car it basically always had something that needed replacing. After the number 4 piston collapsed I had the engine professionally rebuilt to close to '75 Class 1 Rally specs, other than the carbs which were 2.5 SU's (I wanted a set of Webbers but ran out of money). The transmission was the big issue then as I'd had a proper rally spec close ratio gear set in it, but my sister broke it as the overdrive inhibitor wasn't working, so I'd had to replace the internals with a set from a 2.5PI (as you couldn't get the proper sets any more), which was really not a good match to the very peaky power band it was putting out with the high lift cam it had. It really needed a better exhaust manifold setup too, though the rest of the system was sweet. Not long after that I became dissolusioned with the insane amount of money I'd spent on it and sold it, and shortly after that the guy who bought it wrote it off at Puki during a race. Not his fault though he was pushed off by some over-eager asshole.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - 01:02 pm, by: Bill English(Brycevr)
I drove one many years ago. Really quick, great handling on the tight stuff but the build quality was pathetic. Rattles, loose bits falling off, dodgy trim. We didn't see very many of the sprints here. Most were imported for series production racing.
Saturday, January 03, 2009 - 07:11 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Yup, that sums it up nicely Bill, like most BL cars from that error they were designed well and built terribly. I had one of perhaps a dozen left in NZ in 1998, no idea what that number has shrunk to now. I haven't seen one in the flesh now for four or five years.
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Bill, it sounds like we are going to enjoy having you along too. 
Missed that. 
