Scathing Spica Speak and More on Mobile Molestation

[Ron Horowitz <RonHorowitz@domain.elided>]

Howdy, Folks!

Feeling ornery tonight. Here's my .02:

Biba:
>Question: What are the owners of German made vehicles (BMW / Porsche /
Mercedes?) doing which use similar type FI pumps? They don't wear out?
Ever?<

Last I heard, the rebuild cost on the FI pump for the straight-six Mercedes
engines was running around $1,500. For the same money, you could buy dozens
of good, used Spica pumps! (Hell, if you have an Alfetta, you could buy
dozens of good used Alfettas....) So I gotta ask, what the hell kind of
pansies _are_ you guys? Buy a dozen pumps, throw 'em in a vat of Cosmoline,
and will 'em to your grandchildren. You'd think you guys were Fiat owners
or something. (I own many Fiats, BTW, so flame away.)


Paul Mitchell:
>
Many collectors feel that that such ill-conceived modifications of a rare
car
are an act of hubris and selfishness. <

Amen, brother Paul, amen. As always, right on target. Look up
www.riceboy.com and add thirty or forty years.

> discerning
>buyers with an eye towards originality and sensitive to conserving these
>relatively rare machines for future owners and admirers abjure modified
cars.
>Particularly those modified for such easy expediency.

>  The fact is that the market
>will always pay a premium for an original unmolested car opposed to
someone's
>idea of how the factory should have done it or their idea of an Italian
>hotrod. You can say that an original car is more of a known quantity.<

OK, maybe it's just my experience, but when I see a Spica car with Webers
fitted, I have to think the owner was some kind of nimrod. I know! I have a
friend who's just one of those kinds of nimrods! He always hacks up
everything he buys. Invariably, once he's done, the cars are little more
than scrap. One of his favorite tricks, naturally, is to hang a set of big,
fat, stinking Weber carburettors and K&N's on everything he buys. He
doesn't jet the things, you understand, he just buys used ones and hangs
them on his cars. Too rich, too lean, backfiring, smoking, flat spots,
leaking idle circuit, doesn't matter. As long as it looks cool, makes a lot
of noise, and he can brag about it, that's good enough. OK, maybe that
doesn't describe every Weber converted Spica car out there, but anybody who
wants to off their Spica for a set Webers has to be misinformed, and that's
never a good sign.

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