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Today's tour


TodFitch

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Escape from visiting art museums for a little drive in the Tuscan countryside near Firenze (Florence for us Americans).

 

Not sure if the photo will upload from this phone...

Edit: File upload doesn't seem to work on this browser on this phone. I guess you'll have to wait until we are back home next week to see it. :(

 

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5 hours ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

I see you opted for one of the larger cars while touring about.....

 

Yes, that was a later one, apparently a 1963 model, with an upgraded engine they claimed put out a massive 18 HP.

 

In chatting with the tour leader he expressed some concern about the future of the enterprise as fewer and fewer people know how to drive a stick shift. He said the problem is particularly acute with younger Americans as most have never driven anything but an automatic. The car I drove had a very loose shift gate, no synchros into low, and the engine had a narrow RPM range which made it a bit more difficult to operate than some other stick shifts. So I can see that if you'd never driven a manual transmission before it could be “interesting”.

 

A really fun car to drive on slow back roads. Very light steering. Noisy aircooled engine with a bunch of gear noise from the transmission in lower gears. Makes you feel like you are going fast when you aren’t. Typical non-power drum brakes (which apparently feel non-functional to people accustomed to power disc brakes).

 

And I wouldn't want to be anywhere near high speed (>45 MPH) traffic while in that car.

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45 on them rural roads = zoom zoom

 

I just finished priming the frame on a English vehicle that boast a whopping 48 HP......and with 4.55 rear ratio....you can guess I am looking for a 3.73 rear axle now...have a 4.22 and can lay my hands on the 3.9...but not that anxious to give up on the 3.73..little older Euro-cars all sounded quite busy due to gearing based on small engine/low HP-torque...but the little suckers are fun...

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1 hour ago, tom'sB2B said:

Currently touring Portugal in this rental. 2019 Citroen. They haven't gotten too much bigger over the years.

 

I saw a number of those Citroens in Italy. They are about twice as big as the little Fiat 500 we did the afternoon tour with.

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4 hours ago, TodFitch said:

 

Yes, that was a later one, apparently a 1963 model, with an upgraded engine they claimed put out a massive 18 HP. 

 

Yup, you got the quick one.  Those had a 600 cc engine while the earlier ones had 500 cc.  I think that is whence the "Fiat 500" came.

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4 hours ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

 

 

I just finished priming the frame on a English vehicle that boast a whopping 48 HP......and with 4.55 rear ratio....you can guess I am looking for a 3.73 rear axle now...have a 4.22 and can lay my hands on the 3.9...but not that anxious to give up on the 3.73..little older Euro-cars all sounded quite busy due to gearing based on small engine/low HP-torque...but the little suckers are fun...

 

Morris Minor?  AH Sprite?  Wait.....Those were unitary construction, i.e., no frame.    I give up.

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compared to my riding mower...yeah..its a big block......don't ever underestimate the manner in how these little cars are built...they will surprise you in some areas...AND...it's a two door...PLUS it has torsion bar suspension....what's not to like.....?

 

oh and an added note for lonejacklarry…..the truck and van are modified 4 door cars...they do not have the larger doors as the two door saloons....the van body and the truck cab back have the same bolt pattern....my van also has the smaller glass on the rear cargo doors and look a bit less obvious and fit the body style a lot better...at least in my eyes it does...

Edited by Plymouthy Adams
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Sounds like an interesting project.  I was not aware that the trucks and vans had frames.  Learn something everyday!

 

When you said 48 hp, 4.22, and 4.55, etc., I knew you had something in 50's an early 60's British stuff.  More pictures as it comes together?

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48 minutes ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

compared to my riding mower...yeah..its a big block......don't ever underestimate the manner in how these little cars are built...they will surprise you in some areas...AND...it's a two door...PLUS it has torsion bar suspension....what's not to like.....?

Without knowing the exact project you are working on.

I was just talking 2 days ago to a friend in Sweden, And he is building two different Triumph motorcycles to flip. And he has a spare 3rd  engine that is factory 110 hp.

 

From what I see, these little cars are basically running what I would consider motorcycle engines.

I would not want to drive the finished product, sometimes it is fun to think about. :)

 

Just like a flathead pilothouse, start upgrading horsepower and nothing else works any more ... it is a rabbit  hole.

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these engines do not compare to anything in the line of motorcycle...they are more robust...in a manner they are just smaller cars like the ones we mess with here....today I ordered my residual valves....pulling the internal residual as I am going disc in the front....and they sit lower as in our cars...the master actually sits INSIDE the frame rail on this car...

Edited by Plymouthy Adams
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  • 2 weeks later...
41 minutes ago, Los_Control said:

 

Seems to play okay for me with Firefox. . .

 

What browser are you using? What operating system are you using?

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9 minutes ago, TodFitch said:

 

Seems to play okay for me with Firefox. . .

 

What browser are you using? What operating system are you using? 

I am using a pretty serious linux  os ... Gentoo  and firefox.

Usually things work out of the box, I suspect user error grabbing the url from the correct place when reposting.

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1 hour ago, Los_Control said:

I am using a pretty serious linux  os ... Gentoo  and firefox.

Usually things work out of the box, I suspect user error grabbing the url from the correct place when reposting.

 

Maybe. But when I copy the link from

2 hours ago, Los_Control said:

and paste it into Firefox on my Mac it works.

 

I hope you don't mind helping me debug this as I'd like to make sure this video sharing will work for everyone. . .

 

If you go to https://video.fitchfamily.org/ it should show a PeerTube instance page with the default view being "local videos". The video in question is the newest one and should be top left of the main frame of that page. Does that work for you?

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