Making parts sounds easy. You make parts, you sell parts, you keep buying bigger trucks to take the money to the bank.
But as I was recently reminded, it’s not always so simple. Case in point: Does the world need a carbon-fiber driveshaft for an Alfa Romeo Spider?
This predicament started with a call from Joe Cabibbo, owner of Alfa …
I'm always amazed at the passion that some of these manufacturers brings to a pretty niche markets.
The most impactful modifications to my GT6 (Convertible!) Resto-Mod had to be:
1 - Electronic Ignition. Not just the distributor, but also a Capacitive Discharge/Multi-Spark box. These truly made the engine much more stable and driveable, despite a street cam and higher compression.
2 - Hi-Torque starter motor. Spins the engine effortlessly despite the higher compression.
3 - 5 Speed transmission. Lower first gear; higher fifth gear. Quicker off the line and more relaxed on the highway. Hard to argue against that if your car didn't originally come with five (or more) gears.
CrustyRedXpress (Forum Supporter) said:I'm always amazed at the passion that some of these manufacturers brings to a pretty niche markets.
But thankfully they do, right? I look at all of the little trick bits that I have touched over the years. Someone had to have the vision and ability to put it into production.
And some "fixes" aren't. My son's '74 Alfa roadster was the famous '4abuck' car. If you haven't heard, the thing had early SPICA injection and stopped running. It had been abandoned by a woman's son in her driveway for years, then he disappeared. She just wanted it gone but was afraid if she gave it away it would be an issue on her CA taxes. So the Bill of Sale was for $1.00.
My son spent three days on the SPICA and got the thing running well enough to drive it 75 miles to Laguna Seca, where it became the 'Pace Car' for a motorcycle race! But he replaced the troublesome SPICA for higher performance Webers. He used a cheap fuel pressure regulator to drop the EFI fuel flow from 50 psi to about 5 for the carbs.
Bad suggestion: with 90% of the fuel pressure blocked, the pump overheated on trips of over 10 miles so the engine often quit. He had to wait for the pump to cool off before the engine would restart. Adding a carburetor fuel pump fixed that annoying little problem. He eventually restored the car but the SPICA remained in a box.
The peak for aftermarket performance parts for most of my cars seems to be about 15 years ago or so. The last item I remember were tubular A-arms with a trick lower removable shock mount. I don't think I've seen much of anything new, except for some modern alloy wheel reproductions.
I just installed some new headlight buckets for my 240Z from dapper lighting. They are elongated in the rear to allow for more modern LED lights. 3d printed so they fit well on all the S30's. Also got some tool covers for my series one Z from Resurrected Classics. Perfect fit and really nice match to the old originals.
I would peseronally like to see more effort put into reproducing quality reproduction parts rather than extracting the last ounce of performance out of a proverbial lost cause. My classic car is a slow pig by modern standards and would get roasted off the line by any current minivan. I do not delude myself it is a performance wonder 50 years on. I ask myself the question why the factory motor mounts lasted 30 years, but now I have to change them every two or three years (vulcanization is apparently not a technology that has not been afforded to our Chinese,Taiwanese and Thai friends that are commisioned to manufacter the basic parts to keep our classics on the road from our favorite suppliers).
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