Look what 1cm did for me..

Look what 1cm did for me..

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Discussion

RAW-SEWedge

Original Poster:

970 posts

265 months

Sunday 28th September 2003
quotequote all
...took a saw to the number plate this afternoon and took a centimetre of the bottom of the plate. The difference in the cooling was amazing. Whereas before the car would take a while to cool down after a spell in traffic now it comes down a lot quicker, runs at 90 and doesn’t budge.

Who said size don’t matter.

beano500

20,854 posts

281 months

Sunday 28th September 2003
quotequote all
RAW-SEWedge said:
runs at 90


mph? mpg? or degrees F, or C?

Out of interest though what was it doing before? In conversations with my guru, he claims that, when working correctly, the standard kit is quite adequate. I can only add that I've never had a problem (touch wood) even when I had a short burst of 110 degrees on my Ride Drive "thrash" on the hottest day of 2003. I am genuinely surprised that overheating causes as many problems as it seesm on the Griff (or any TVR)......

Apache

39,731 posts

290 months

Monday 29th September 2003
quotequote all
ditto, if yer overheating something is wrong

RAW-SEWedge

Original Poster:

970 posts

265 months

Monday 29th September 2003
quotequote all
The car never overheats and has had a re-cored radiator recently. It is just noticeably quicker to drop to 90deg C when you get out of traffic. In traffic it runs up to the white line then the fans kick in which slowly brings it down. I’m suspicious of the spec of the otter switch however because I thought the fans should cut in earlier.

TeGriffic

1,586 posts

257 months

Tuesday 30th September 2003
quotequote all
Wouldn't a simply override switch have been a better option than sawing your number plate ?

RAW-SEWedge

Original Poster:

970 posts

265 months

Tuesday 30th September 2003
quotequote all
TeGriffic said:
Wouldn't a simply override switch have been a better option than sawing your number plate ?


Think your missing the point a little. The car does not over heat in traffic so I've no need to override the otter switch. However the plate was casuing a restriction in the air flow to the rad. I was just amazed at how much difference 1cm off the bottom of the plate made, it took 5 minutes to do and cost me nothing

andy43

10,227 posts

260 months

Tuesday 30th September 2003
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...oh, sorry, from the header I thought this was a medical-related thread...

andy43

10,227 posts

260 months

Tuesday 30th September 2003
quotequote all
...but then again, seeing as I'm here, the later griffs have a small ally lip spoiler behind the sloped grille under the rad - I fitted one to my pre-cat (which has restricted airflow compared to a 500 anyway), at a cost of about £13 I think from the main dealers, and it now runs a good 5-10 degC cooler when on the move - just an experiment really, didn't have a cooling prob anyway, everything works fine, so far...
If I had a 500 with the reg plate over part of the air inlet, I'd be tempted to drill/jigsaw out the numbers/letters on the plate to give airflow thru the reg plate if you see what I mean...time for my pills

Matzo

74 posts

253 months

Friday 10th October 2003
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In a fit of boredom the other day I sawed an inch off all round the front plate.... WOW !!!

She feels like shes had 2 squirts of Beconase up each nostril !

zippy500

1,883 posts

275 months

Friday 10th October 2003
quotequote all
Be brave and buy a bike one, even better, 9" x 2" does the trick

MrsFlipFlopGriff

501 posts

252 months

Friday 10th October 2003
quotequote all
RAW-SEWedge said:
...Who said size don’t matter.


'Cause it matters - didn't you know that already?

Does the plate look 'out-of-square' now though?

RAW-SEWedge

Original Poster:

970 posts

265 months

Friday 10th October 2003
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MrsFlipFlopGriff said:

Does the plate look 'out-of-square' now though?


Think it looks OK

MrsFlipFlopGriff

501 posts

252 months

Monday 13th October 2003
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Looks fine and dandy to me...

BogBeast

1,138 posts

269 months

Monday 13th October 2003
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Well, after reading this thread I went and did the same to my number plate. I noticed an immediate improvement.

Encouraged by this I got the tin bender out and made up a spoiler to replace the missing one by the rad intake.

Both together have improved cooling no end, returning the temp back to 80 degrees almost immediately once moving.. well worth doing IMHO

andy43

10,227 posts

260 months

Monday 13th October 2003
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Well, it looks highly illegal to me










Shouldn't there be some numbers on the number plate???