Wheels and tyres

[Anders Dinsen]

Mind you, on a particular "bad morning-hair day", I *do* feel the roof

Me too... I'm looking forward to the haircut on Tuesday

Also I have driven Anders's car, and in that the foam hasn't collapsed nearly as much as in my own.( He is not as heavy as me I suppose   )

Yes, I actually find my seats quite good and supportive. But I doubt if I have made much difference, as I have only driven the car about 5% of it's total mileage.

maybe even a bit of welding on the steel frame of the seat, to make it fit me a bit better.

I'd personally like to have the back of the drivers seat extended by some 5 cm, this would move the headrest from my neck where it does little good and up to my head. I wonder if anyone has tried that already?

as the 16valve n/a 2.2 prototype produced about as much power as the n9tea in the peugeot.. (though not as much torque.)   

Difficult to say... but since Matra is connected with screaming engines (not roaring), I think they would have preferred faster rev'ing n/a engines. But the turbo would probably have been a simpler and cheaper upgrade than the 16 valve head which must have cost them a fortune to build. I personally enjoy my Holbay which needs 3500 rpm to kick a.... and happily revs to ear-popping 6000+ rpm even on the 34CIC carb Roy has promised to include an article I've written on the magic this cam does in the September issue of the Matra Mag.

BTW, I'm afraid we are seriously OT by now...

So back on topic: I had my Yokohama's on REALLY wet roads this morning, and they were fine. Driving at 50 km/h down our local main street, a car suddently emerged from the right (i.e. driving side here in DK), and I had to slam the brakes in. All four wheels locked up for a moment until I got my ABS foot activated. Nothing happened, the other car stopped and I could pass it carefully, but it was good to notice how nicely the tyres behaved.

So I'm still extremely happy with the Yoko's - they offer excellent grip and very good feel of the road.

- Anders

[lewisman]

Oops!  Sorry. I contributed to the tangential direction from the original post.  The tyres on my murena are a bit of  a mixed bag and as it currently is on a SORN this is not too relevant.  However I have recently changed from Toyo Proxes to Vredestein Sportracs on my Alfa and they are fantastic. The Toyos were good but a bit noisy and wore down quite quickly. The Vredesteins grip just as well in the dry but are quieter, longer lasting and better in the wet.

They would definately be my first choice.

[macaroni]

This thread has gone from wheels and tyres, through Lotus Esprits and now to seating positions!

I find the Murena very comfy and I am 6'2" (yay for imperial!). The biggest improvement I made was fitting a smaller steering wheel to give my knees some freedom.

I can't see how anyone needs more support for cornering. On the left side is the door and the right side, if travelling 1 or 2 up, just fold the central seat down and if travelling 3 up, just use the central passenger! Although I guess ne shouldn't (or even couldn't...) be going very fast with 3 aboard.

[zac]

I can't see how anyone needs more support for cornering.

The seat padding makes a heck of a difference - I really noticed the difference between the well padded seats on my old car and the floppy things on the new one. Must put the middle seat down!  Hasn't really been a problem for the last 18 months as the car's been off the road    The mechanic is back from holiday on Monday so hopefully I will get to drive it again sometime next week  . At least it's now running - only think left to do is reroute water pipes due to deeper air filters (for dellortos).