BiTurbo Love

Is it just me, or does it seem weird that for an "exotic" car from the 80's the factory chose steel wheels for it?

Um, where was that 'affordable exotics' thread?

Raze wrote:

iceracer wrote: I have a friend who built a Bi-Turbo into a track car. The body, engine and transmission are original, every thing else is custom built. It is quite fast.

Pics? I bet it's not running the stock ecu

x2 I would love to see it.

petegossett wrote: Is it just me, or does it seem weird that for an "exotic" car from the 80's the factory chose steel wheels for it?

Except that they're not steel...

In reply to Burrito:

Ok, that makes more sense. Though you'd think they'd go just a bit further to make them not look like steelies...oh wait, this is BiTurbo. Nevermind...

What exactly made these horrible? I'm too young to remember magnum PI. Lol.

Also, didn't joe Walsh once sing "my Maserati does one eighty five"

Trackmouse wrote: Also, didn't joe Walsh once sing "my Maserati does one eighty five"

the full statement is "my Maserati does one eighty five mile per hour quarter mile pass before breaking".

Its just that doesn't rhyme with "now I don't drive".

Trackmouse wrote: What exactly made these horrible?

Off the top of my head, they had screens between the block and head to prevent manufacturing debris from getting to the head.

They would plug with debris, starve the heads for oil, and the cams would sieze. This I believe is the main reason why they all seem to have 10-30k miles on them, as that is how long it would take to kill the heads.

I dimly recall the C&D road test. Engine is blowthrough carbureted. The chosen carburetor had all manner of mixture issues when cornering, and IIRC they noted that the only way they could tell that the engine was in boost was by the machinegun-like detonation. Apparently this isn't as much of a problem, or maybe bearing debris/chattering main cap swarf is the cause of metal debris that eventually kills the heads...

Trackmouse wrote: What exactly made these horrible? I'm too young to remember magnum PI. Lol. Also, didn't joe Walsh once sing "my Maserati does one eighty five"

Actually, I this prompted me to look this up, interesting read. Joe Walsh had a 5000GT.

http://www.danjedlicka.com/classic_cars/maserati_5000GT.html

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/retrospective-maserati-biturbo/

Maserati was an exotic brand and this was an attempt by new Corp owners to go mainstream. They got most of the looks right but failed mechanically.
First production engine with two turbos.
3 valves per cylinder and no intercooler all fed by a single barrel carb!

Is this the highest mileage bi turbo in the us, still running? Also vert

https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/5286562712.html

T.J. wrote: In reply to Harvey: The parents gave a high school child a biturbo? Either they didn't like him very much or they were adherents of 'tough love' parenting.

Pretty sure it was a new one at the time and they paid for everything. There were people with money at my high school.

Weren't the later ones injected? Would it be possible that a megasquirt conversion could put one of these on the road at least semi-reliably?

mblommel wrote: Weren't the later ones injected? Would it be possible that a megasquirt conversion could put one of these on the road at least semi-reliably?

Yes they were.

Biggest issues were parts availability and electronics.

In reply to accordionfolder: It looks exactly like the maroon one pictured above.

It has a hood scoop for the intercooler, A splitter and a rear wing.

sorry, I don't have pictures. He has kept it stock appearing as much as possible.

mblommel wrote: Weren't the later ones injected? Would it be possible that a megasquirt conversion could put one of these on the road at least semi-reliably?

At least for fuel/spark. Then there's the rest of the car's weak points like brakes, differential, engine oiling, transmission input shaft, electric component life... The path to reliability is a body swap on to a different car

Sure does look like coil overs could be easy to do.

Edit before the language police get me, I mean adjustable coil overs.

Lots of long nose diffs out there to swap in as well.