22/01/08
Servers ain't servers.
Hosting a site like this can be a challenge at times. It's not the constant maintenance or content updating thats the problem, its the hosting service providers! Since the sites inception, we've had 3 major shifts. The first was from `Featureprice` who went broke overnight and there was a mad scramble to shift providers. Most recently we've moved from Ipower who provided a reasonable service for the past 6 years. Lately they've dropped the ball and the speed and customer service were both going down the gurgler. Now we're with Bluehost. On the surface, they seem to be quite good. The speed is blisteringly quick, and there is reasonable customer service. Lets hope we get many uncomplicated years from them!
04/01/08
Wow! How lazy have I been! I've gone a full year without updating the main page of the site.... I should be ashamed. Well to make up for things I do have something new to talk about... My new car! I just picked up the keys to my Alfa 159 ti 2.2l Selespeed. It was pretty simple.. Walked into the dealer pointed at the car and said `that one please`.
I think I freaked the guy out a little, he offered keys for a test drive but i just waved my hand and said no thanks...
In ALFA we trust.
Picked up the car on Friday and was immediately impressed... I just don't understand some of the reviews on the 159... Mind you - most of these `commentators` would love nothing better than to rub themselves up and down a BMW all day long...
I'll tell you exactly what i think of the 159 over the 156 i just traded.
Handling:- The 156 rolled on 17" alloys with 35 series rubber. My 159 rolls on 19" alloys with 35 series rubber and rides FAR smoother than the 156 and doesn't track under heavy braking. Speaking of the brakes, the massive 300+mm discs up front with angry red Brembo calipers are _sensational_
Interior:- Hand stitched sports momo steering wheel is an upgrade to the 156 item, nice thumb rests at the 10 and 2 o'clock position to encourage proper wheel holding and multifunction buttons that control the stereo and phone and very intuitive. The electric bucket seats with driver memory and heating are sublime and certainly provide more hug than the standard 159 or 156. The analogue clock has been tossed and replaced with a oil temperature gauge. Blue tooth sync's nicely with my phone and voice activation worked well. The stereo is a big upgrade. The auto-sensing for the light and rain work surprisingly well, and a real nice touch is the rear view mirror that can dim in case you have a tailgater with his high-beams on. The air-con in the 159 is a evolution above the 156 - this was probably my biggest gripe with the 156, on hot days it simply couldn't cool the cabin.
Exterior:- The car is undeniably much larger than the 156, this is a double edged sword as you appreciate the extra boot space and the real passenger enjoys a fraction more leg room at the expense of a rather large weight penalty - something i think ALFA will address in the future. The weight also slows the 159 down - 8.8sec to 100km/hr certainly isn't inspiring but the engine certainly makes up for it with its note at high revs.
The 159 is aimed squarely at those that have previously owned Italian cars and those that appreciate style and prefer to be off center and not typical sheep. The build quality of the 159 rivals that of anything German - it seems ALFA has refined the 15x series to offer German like quality with its Italian sporting heritage intact.
I think the next step forward for ALFA is to take about 300kg off the car. That would certainly improve the 0-100 dash - and if they can remove that much weight without sacrificing anything then that will be my next upgrade :)
D
15/01/07
Fiat is set to launch its second model into Australia later in 2007. The new Fiat Bravo.
Styling is very similar to the award winning Alfa 147 with a quasi Bambino (500) front grill and stylised front headlights. No word yet on final delivery prices or exact engine configurations - but one would expect from FIAT to use its wide range of small capacity engines to offer some `flavour`.
It has also been interesting to see FIAT Australia align itself closely with the small but very loyal fan base that revolves around FIAT Car clubs with FIAT Australia throwing its weight behind the Bathurst Race meeting later this year. This is great to see. More info on the new Fiat Bravo can be found at the FIAT AUSTRALIA website. EOM.
29/11/06
It's been a while since I've updated the home page of this site - but a lot of things have happened in my life - I've celebrated the birth of my first child and FIAT has relaunched back in Australia. I'm unsure the `second` coming of FIAT will ever be as successful as the first. Its a much different market place than back in the late 60's - the japanese have learnt a lot from copying the europeans and building as good if not BETTER quality cars than the euros... Time will tell what the future of current FIAT cars is - We certainly need a new IT car as the old school fiats are dying rapidly.......
5/3/06
Click here to get yourself a Email address and server space! Note: you have to be an active member of the forum. Ta
13/3/05
Hi Guys,
The forum is back up and working now. Sorry for the delays. Enjoy
cheers
Dave
7/11/05
The third installment of the supercharged 128, i think there is a little more footage in this one with much better resolution. MOVIE HERE
26/09/05
Interested in a Genuine Abarth 131 ?? One of 400 produced? Carefully converted from left hand drive to right ( all left hand drive parts included ) CLICK HERE for more information.
09/05/05
Have returned from Perth with some interesting images of some 8v turbo components. I've created a chat space within the forum to discuss the most efficient way of turbo charging a 8v engine. Have a look and join in HERE
01/05/05
Jim wildman has installed a 7" lilliput touch screen into his Spider. For pictures and discussion on go HERE
19/04/05
The second installment of the supercharged 128!!!(5mb. Right click on image and 'save as')
I've been told that the car has recently had a front mount intercooler installed, and the owner is in search of more power so may be upgrading to a turbo system!!
Talk about this car here!
16/04/05
Have migrated turbo124.com to an updated server. Much larger and faster - we'll be able to handle more data and traffic. Forum database is currently 43mb! so it has to be restored from 'server side' as its too big to upload from my computer. Hence we may lose some postings done after the 15th of april. Everything else has gone smooth!
13/04/05
Video footage of a supercharged 128! (5mb. Right click on image and 'save as')
This is the same car presented in the forum recently under THIS thread!!!
nice work fellas!
12/04/05
The old chat server was crashing everynight, so i've replaced it. It can now be access from THIS link or from within the forum itself at the top right hand corner. It is very nice, and very stable using a real IRC server. chat soon!
10/04/05
Big props to J.P. from infctd.net for the coding of the site. If your in the market for a website give him a shout.
Content is now up and operational. I have started to link technical info pages into the forum along with some of the projects like Chris's strat and Jim's Spider build - helps make a seemless transition from the webpage to the forum to discuss topics.
Am looking for more content as usual, Still waiting for Fraud to come through with the injection article :) 2 little bugs are apparent, the submenus appear until the website is fully loaded, this is a quirk in the javascript - the second is that the contact page returns an error when you have submitted a form, the email still gets sent to me so dont worry - i'll have that fixed soon! cheers Dave
9/04/05
Welcome to the new TURBO124.com website. Things are a little hectic whilst I get the content back up to where it should be but I like the feel of this site so far. Its a nice modular design using a SQL database, so things are nicely organised!!
It'll take a little while to get all of the content up and running, if you notice any bugs please use the contact link and shoot me a quick email telling me where you found the error and what the bug did...
cheers Dave
20/02/05 Woah talk about lack of updates.... Have trialled a new chat page - see what you guys reckon. It doesn't like firefox - it only likes Microsoft Internet Explorer.. but looks a lot better than the previous chat we had running. CHAT HERE!
<08/04/04 Haven't noticed an update in here for a while? All the action is happening in the forum - over 168 users have registered so far - and lots of active discussion is going on about fiats in general. This part of the site will probably remain static for some time - so make sure you check out the forum before you leave. Also, whilst perusing the site i've noticed that i have hundreds of unlinked images - CLICK HERE to access the lost photo archive