What happend to David Vizard????

[Workshop]

He came and he went....Come to think of it, what happened to Pumaracing as well?

[Pumaracing]

I sold my house and ended up in various B&Bs without internet access for ages while I buy another house. Dunno what happened to him.

[Workshop]

Well It's nice to see your still around. Living out of a suitcase can be a real PIA.

[Evoluzione]

He came here to push his book and seminars, job done, gone.

There does seem to be some very strange stuff going on regarding actually getting hold of the book though, it was on UK Amazon months ago with a release date and has now gone. Apparently Canadian Amazon have withdrawn it too after promising it.
In the US they don't seem to have too much trouble so I ordered it on US Ebay 3 weeks ago, nothing has arrived, the tracking number supplied doesn't work and the vendor hasn't answered my question over what is happening either.

The other weird thing is that there are already two different cover versions available.

Always lots of mystery and controversy with Mr Vizard it seems.

[Workshop]

Yes, I think the release time of that book keeps getting pushed back.
I know there are sellers taking pre orders and I'm sure there are sellers on Ebay selling the book but not telling you it's a pre order. Shifty buggers!
I have a few of his publications but the last edition of How to build HP was a bit of a letdown to me and was not that much different from the first one he did decades ago. Most of the new material was already posted online at different hot rodding magazine sites.
I did build the flowbench in that book but getting it to be stable is not all that easy and it's not as cheap as you may think when you need to start controlling your mains voltage to make it stable. That and the fact it's usable range is only to about 250CFM before regular vacuum cleaner motors start to go into spazams.
As far as the new book goes, I'm going to wait till it hits the motoring book stores, have a look through it and if it's got some good info in it I will buy it. If it's just stuff that has been gone over before then I'll leave it on the shelf.

[SWR Performance]

Haven't seen him much on Facebook either... wonder if he's fine or if the extensive hours catched up with him..?

[mtrehy]

I received the book from the states, via ebay a month or so back so it definitely exists...

[Workshop]

And your opinion of the book?

[mtrehy]

It's worth buying but not as good as I was hoping and more dumbed down than it needed to be.

I have a few Vizard books and I'm a fan of his style of writing and what he covers. His mini books were like a bible for me when I was starting out.

The porting book has lots of good stuff but relies heavily on the sbc stuff for examples etc. A fair amount of the content is shared with the How to Build Horsepower book (which is a great book), but I guess there is enough new stuff to justify the purchase. I would have liked to have had less about building flowbenches etc and more detailed studies of modern engines and greater technical and mathematical depth. There's loads of 2 valve american stuff and hardly any modern 4 valve info. There is little or no discussion about port moulding, measuring ports, port mapping, engine simulation software etc etc.

Personally I would say that Harold Bettes Engine Airflow Handbook is a better buy.

[Workshop]

Ok, is the flowbench he talks about, the same floating depression one that is in How to build Horse Power?
Harold Bettes Engine Airflow was also recommended to me by a friend.

[mtrehy]

yes. the internet is full of information about building flowbenches and don't really need DV's help with that anyway - waste of a chapter in my opinion.

[Workshop]

Ok, I just talked to someone I know who has this book as well and he said it was not worth getting as it's pretty much stuff he's published before.
When David Vizard was on here I did ask him if the Flow bench in the porting book was the same one as in the latest "how to build HP book" Now I can see why he didn't give me an answer to that question. I'm starting to get the feeling that he was more interested in just getting me to buy the book.
Maybe the glory days are behind him now when it comes to publishing NEW automotive material.
The whole LSA thing was shown here not to be accurate as well.

Edited by Workshop on Monday 21st May 23:17

[Huff]

I think the miserable opinions above ill-serve someone who has achieved, and made available information arising from, far far more than most.

What's your own 100% hit rate like? Mine ain't all that either.

[Workshop]

Grow up, we are talking about now, not 15 or 20 years ago.

[Evoluzione]

The book must already be a rare item as it is being sold on Amazon for £273.66.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Port-Flow-Cylinder-Heads-D...

I eventually got my copy and haven't had time to do it justice yet, but it looks quite good, shame it's printed in China.
I think that the further up you climb on the knowledge ladder the harder it is to find those new and interesting nuggets of info you strive for which can be frustrating for some.
On the other hand I like to be reminded of things which I may have forgot and I also found the first part of the book which told a bit about DV, his wife, kids etc which I never knew interesting, but strange how there was no mention of who wrote it.
I was hoping for more on Polyquad and found it quite naughtily referred me back to the internet which I had found annoying that 'free to all' internet articles were included in the book.
The story of him and his Avenger is old news and his mentioning of how he's won loads of races and produced so many winning engines wasn't backed up with one single example which would have made it more believable.

I really wish there was a European version of DV who would do work on engines much more relevant to us.

Anyhow, I've rambled enough, it looks like a good read to me so I must go for a little poo and be further educated by the enigmatic Mr Vizard.....

[redvictor]

Why don't you go out and R+D your own stuff, then tell us all about it?

Internet engine builders,they make me laugh...

[Evoluzione]

People who make stupid assumptions on internet forums make me laugh.

[Workshop]

redvictor said:

Why don't you go out and R+D your own stuff, then tell us all about it?

Internet engine builders,they make me laugh...

So a "book reading" builder is different to someone who get's tech from the internet?
I think the only one who is getting laughed at here is you. Some of the best tech you can find is on the net..
Internet idiots, they make me laugh......

[stevieturbo]

Evoluzione said:

I really wish there was a European version of DV who would do work on engines much more relevant to us.

the thing is, there probably are plenty out there doing the work, doing the research, getting the results.

But they just have no interest in publishing it. Actually doing the R&D for your own benefit is one thing. It's another mammoth task to actually put that into print in a readable format for others to learn from.

Lets face it, if you were flat out testing things, engines etc etc would you want to start writing a book about it ?

Even consider all those in OEM R&D, and you can bet there is some real work going on there in many areas. None of them can be bothered to print books either. F1 or people in other big race teams will be doing huge R&D...how many of them go on to reveal any info ?

Workshop said:

Some of the best tech you can find is on the net..

And some of the worst tech is on the internet too. Be careful you dont get confused when searching.

There is far more BS on the internet than there is useful material. And if the internet is so fantastic with such huge resources, why were you even interested in DV's new book ? You can find everything you need online for free ?

I havent bought too many car related books in a long time, certainly not engine related anyway. Most do seem relatively old, I guess you can only cover the basics so often. And even some of them arent that great anyway. The rest needs to be real world testing on each specific application. A little easier many years ago, but now with so many engine varieties out there and so many different applications that is harder.
It's not like everyone is tuning a n/a Pinto, A-series or SBC these days.

I dont think he was here to promote his book, more the UK Seminar he was holding. Would be nice to have heard from any who attended it though to see what they thought.

But the best way to learn is by doing. The people building and tuning the quickest cars can be referred to as those who know what they're doing
The slower ones can be refered to as the idiots in that respect.

You can buy books, read the internet all you like. Still doesnt mean you have the first notion about putting it into practise.

[Workshop]

I was interested to see how much information was re hashed/ printed.
There is just as much BS in books as well. Have a browse through book reviews and you will see. Books that claim to tell all but when you look through them, they are very generic.
Information is information, no matter where you get it. It's just a case of sifting through the BS and the false claims.