Cougar R8

REDDYZ · 10-02-2011, 11:29 PM

I found an interesting mod. Couldn't believe. Check the article below... quite interesting

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/24/m...ncing-audi-r8/

Perfect replica. Couldn't do anything inside though except the R8 badge on the steering wheel.

Dshibi · 11-02-2011, 02:53 PM

Not bad hey? The Cougar's can live on as other cars! I believe there is also a replica Ferrari 430 kit out there for the Cougar as well :|

I'd assume the kit would still cost less than buying the real article? :P

Dan

Dshibi · 11-02-2011, 05:40 PM

Ok, this is getting crazy - now you can have a Cougatti!?
http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2011/02...2-mercury.html

Dan

REDDYZ · 11-02-2011, 07:30 PM

This is really crazy.. good effort though. There are heaps of body kits in states and are cheap. Only problem is shipping. Very expensive shipping to Australia becoz of size and weight.. There is lot of potential for different mods for the Cougar design. Quite impressive for a 12 year (may be 13) old design.

REDDYZ · 13-02-2011, 04:04 PM

Dan, whats involved in calibrating speedo when you replaced your wheels with 19"s? Just electronic calibration or replacing speed sensors, etc...

Dshibi · 13-02-2011, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by REDDYZ

Dan, whats involved in calibrating speedo when you replaced your wheels with 19"s? Just electronic calibration or replacing speed sensors, etc...

To be honest, I have no idea. I didn't do it. The variance is a few km's (on the 'wrong' side) but I just take that into account. Never been done for speeding since having the wheels on.

From memory, against a GPS unit, when doing 100, the GPS reads 103, and at 110 it was about 115.

It might've ended up being way more trouble and worry than it would've been worth to have recalibrated the speedo, the tyre size (225/35/19) isn't that different to the standard sizes (215/50/16 and 215/45/17 I believe). Mark, pcperfection also had 19's on his and I don't think he made any calibration changes either.

Dan

REDDYZ · 14-02-2011, 04:00 PM

Dan, you guys are really very lucky. You are just getting away with tolerance margin. You are actually doing over 6kms at 100km/hr. (while tolerance is 10km in 100 zone and 3 km in 60 zone) Australian cars are calibrated in excess of 3kms than standard speed means say for example in Falcon if speedo shows 60km/hr you are doing 57km/hr. Most of the Japanese and Australian cars are like that. This gives overall tolerance of 6km in 60 zone. However, Cougars dont have that tolerance from factory. If your speedo shows 60 then you are doing 60 and you still have 3kms tolerance at the cameras. Rolling on 19"s you are wiping off the 3kms camera tolerance and probably thats how you are getting away. Other words you have zero tolerance. Also, its only the rim size of your kat which is quite big not the tyre profile, being a very low profile than the standard tyre, i think it didn't make much difference in overall wheel size. I was actually thinking to upgrade to 19" and trying to find out whats involved in calibrating speedo. Perhaps I will get the calibration done incase I upgrade to 19"s

Also, Today I got the air con fixed in my kitty AT LAST.

Luckily sourced air-con hose from a wrecker and replaced it and now its all good. Leak in air-con system has been bothering since long time and at last fixed it. I now has a spare compressor in good condition.

NickosBF2XRT · 14-02-2011, 04:35 PM

I think the r8 Replica looks better then the actual R8!

REDDYZ · 16-02-2011, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abraxas

To be honest, I have no idea. I didn't do it. The variance is a few km's (on th.........

Dan

Dan, quick question? with B&M short shifter, do you still have to pull up the lever to shift into reverse?

Yogi

Dshibi · 16-02-2011, 08:44 PM

Hey Yogi,

Yep, you still do. There's a 'not-so-sophisticated' raised area at the base of the gear lever that the collar (when pulled up) allows for Reverse to be selected

The short shifter is a good addition - puts the gear lever where it should be for a sporty car

Dan

REDDYZ · 16-02-2011, 09:15 PM

True, original shifter has a bit long travel. It deserves a short shifter. I bought Ralco RZ shifter which suits Cougar, Contour, Mondeo, etc, etc, but to my bad luck it really doesn't suit Cougar.

The 'not-so-sophisticated'

raised area wont allow the shifter to move right, means I cant engage 5th or reverse. I bought this long back but couldnt spare time to fit this. With not much choice, I chopped off the so called raised area and now I dont have to lift up for reverse.

The shifts are not just short but very crisp. Seriously short shifts, I feel like the gear is not engaged, will take sometime to get used to it.

REDDYZ · 16-02-2011, 09:24 PM

Dan, I noticed that the 2nd, 4th, Reverse shifts are much shorter than 1st, 3rd and 5th. Is it same with your shifter?

Dshibi · 16-02-2011, 11:09 PM

I've gotta say that mine's always had a 'dodgey' feeling with 1st ever since I've had it - even before the short shifter. I thought the short shifter might actually help. But I would often put into 1st and not have the gear fully engaged - which causes that oh-so-lovely grinding sound when you attempt to pull away. Now, everytime I pull away I have to make sure the gear lever is securely in 1st. Out of habit.

I would agree though, the 2nd, 4th and R shifts feel closer/shorter than the travel required for the upper three. The beauty of the short shifter is that it barely allows enough clearance for my double din head unit to open without hitting the knob while in any of those gears (not that I do that often :P)

Dan

REDDYZ · 16-02-2011, 11:36 PM

I will have to say YES to all. I think 1st gear is like that on these gear boxes. It goes in sort of 2 rough clicks, have to push it sort of hard when compared to other gears. Since it is 1st gear no complaints. Every time I pull out of upper three gears am touching the double din which is touch screen. Thats why the original shifter is in an angle. It will take some time to get use to this new shifter.

I changed the shifter leather sleeve as well. I will post a pic tomorrow. I pulled out the whole center console to change the hand brake boot and found that the bracket for the boot is moulded into the center console and I didn't had a stapler (big one) so, l didn't touch it. The quality of the original boot is #$%^. I dont think its leather, probably Rexine.

I replaced links, restored headlights, changed shifter and only thing left is to replace UIM, LIM and injectors. Dont have throttle cable for the SVT UIM. Once I source it, I will do the last but not the least mod. Hopefully ;)

Yogi

REDDYZ · 17-02-2011, 02:42 PM

Here is another successful mod that makes feel happy

Dshibi · 17-02-2011, 07:52 PM

Looking good Yogi - coming along nicely!

My original shift boot has a small hole in it but I've kept it there. It's insignificant. I know there's place online where you can buy proper leather replacements but I never bothered with it...

The Double Din's great - mine originally came with a tape deck and stacker so I had to make a change. As said above, with the short shifter it allows only just enough room for the deck to slide open for CD's/DVD's in the front. Add a 10 disc stacker in the boot and the music selection can last a month or two!

Dan

REDDYZ · 17-02-2011, 08:23 PM

Thanks Dan, Leather boot gave the shifter quite a good look. I bought it from UK ebay. Quality of leather is very good. There is a choice of colours as well. I think I spent around $25 or $29 incl shipping. Its worth a change, you will like it.

I bought my double din from US coz I was particular about soundstream. I always wanted soundstream Amp & Sub and in this process, I started with this double din, sound quality was so good that I stopped bothering about amp and subwoofer. I dont know how famous Soundstream in Australia but they are quite famous in US and other countries as well. Recently they opened Oz online store www.soundstream.com.au.

My Double Din has bluetooth and it pairs automatically with my iphone. I use it as handsfree and it plays songs from my iphone too. So never bothered about 10 stacker. Probably I will hook up an Amp & Sub woofer from Soundstream.

There are few things I want to do before that like SVT UIM. I thought of replacing the existing block with 3L one but I saw few guys hooking up superchargers at the front of the engine where coolant reservoir is. But my plan is to shift battery to the boot and then hook up a small supercharger to the waterpump pulley. Its long term project though. I am renting at the moment, once I have my own house my kitty will become a wild cat.

As you advised before I will keep exterior original. Otherwise I had big plans for the body kit. I was very impressed with your exterior mods and was planning for body kit. But everyone advised to keep my Eibach original. So convinced myself to settle with a good paint job outside.

Yogi

Dshibi · 17-02-2011, 09:41 PM

Thanks for the tip Yogi, sounds like you've got some great long term goals and it'll be good to follow the progress!

I think Soundstream are 'known' in Australia but not that popular yet - but I have heard they are quite good.

Haha - my double din is about 5 years old now so bluetooth integration and all that never existed! Heck, it was great enough that the head unit and stacker could read mp3 discs at the time! hahaha.

I'd agree that since you have an Eibach it's probably best to keep it original - otherwise you could go nuts with bodykit parts. The figure is still in my head though about how much was spent in getting my bodykit on the car - sure it looks great, but dayem - don't think I'll be doing that again! hahaha.

Cheers,

Dan

REDDYZ · 17-02-2011, 10:15 PM

what you spent is really worth. It all counts as your cat stands out of the herd. You can get a Touch screen double din for under $300 now with dvd, digital tv, bluetooth, gps with Australian maps, etc etc.. They are not expensive anymore. Spending on cars never stops. Either you buy a super sports car that doesn't need any cosmetic or mechanical modification or buy a second hand average sports car and keep spending on it as long as you own it

Yogi

REDDYZ · 18-02-2011, 05:20 PM

I was restoring headlights early this week and was checking out the restoration kit company website and came across Philips DRL (day time running lights).

http://www.invisionsales.com/lighting/philips/drl

http://www.invisionsales.com/lightin...rl/drl-compare

These look more practical, customisable and easy to install. More than anything they suit Cougars. I am thinking to fit these on the front bumper. Is there anyone else thinking of DRLs? and any ideas what is the best place to fix these on our kitties?

XR5-Boy · 21-02-2011, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by REDDYZ

I was restoring headlights early this week and was checking out the restoration kit company website and came across Philips DRL (day time running lights).

http://www.invisionsales.com/lighting/philips/drl

http://www.invisionsales.com/lightin...rl/drl-compare

These look more practical, customisable and easy to install. More than anything they suit Cougars. I am thinking to fit these on the front bumper. Is there anyone else thinking of DRLs? and any ideas what is the best place to fix these on our kitties?

I always say it's your car, so do what pleases you.

However, if you want me to be brutally honest about DRLs...

I hate them.

These lights only suit cars that were designed to integrate with the overall 'look' of the car. HSV clearly got that wrong as well!

Aftermarket ones always seem to attract unwanted attention from the constabulary also.

REDDYZ · 23-02-2011, 12:05 AM

yeah... what you said is true, I always have an itch to do something or other with the car.

Anyway NO DRLs for my kitty.

REDDYZ · 27-02-2011, 05:18 AM

Always wanted to ask, is it the common with Cougars that the engine bay is hotter than other front wheel drives? After driving for a while the whole engine bay gets really hot. You just cant touch the intake manifold or rocker covers. Doesn't mean that cooling system is running hot. The air going into engine thru inlet manifold is obviously running hot too and the difference can be felt very clearly. Just wondering is it just my kitty like that or its normal. The foam mould under that bonnet is sort of loose and when bonnet is closed it sort of touches the intake manifold and this might be a reason for the excess heat in the engine bay. Any opinions?

Dshibi · 27-02-2011, 07:33 AM

Can't say I've noticed it being excessively hot or hotter than other engines myself. Certainly gets warm, and yes, the foam cover on mine's a bit loose and tatty looking as well. You can see 'burn' marks near where the manifold is. I think the US Cougars never had that foam on theirs.

Dan

XR5-Boy · 27-02-2011, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by REDDYZ

Always wanted to ask, is it the common with Cougars that the engine bay is hotter than other front wheel drives? After driving for a while the whole engine bay gets really hot. You just cant touch the intake manifold or rocker covers. Doesn't mean that cooling system is running hot. The air going into engine thru inlet manifold is obviously running hot too and the difference can be felt very clearly. Just wondering is it just my kitty like that or its normal. The foam mould under that bonnet is sort of loose and when bonnet is closed it sort of touches the intake manifold and this might be a reason for the excess heat in the engine bay. Any opinions?

Happens with my XR5 too mate. My cougar engine bay was hot. It's because they've crammed so much engine into such a small space. Just monitor your engine/oil temps and make sure it isn't cooking itself!

REDDYZ · 28-02-2011, 09:17 AM

I think the foam is to prevent the bonnet from getting hot and protect people from burning hands and bums when they touch or sit on the bonnet

. The foam on my cat has burn marks too.

Mine gets hot but not so hot that it cooks the oil. Oil temps are normal. I still use fully synthetic 5W-30 and this oil holds. Depending on how I drive it remains in gold until 3000kms after change. Most of the time I push it in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Only complain about the excess heat is the acceleration. Its not as good as when its cold, because of hot air.

thearrow · 28-02-2011, 01:37 PM

Mine is the same looks ratty as anything now, Dan is right the USA Cougars did not have the "insulation blanket" over the engine, as I see it there can only be two reasons for this. Firstly it is used to reduce engine noise and secondly because the car has been "europeonised" may be as some sore of insulation, but in the end who knows???

It's funny but in the few weeks when it is cold in Sydney I get crap fuel economy which seems to negate the whole "cold air" theory.

Mine seems to run better in warmer weather.