Mobile Amateur Radio Station

Amateur Radio DC4FP/m(obile) with 145 MHz 9-element Yagi antenna. The Location is 500 m above NN in JN48JR near the Black Forest in South Germany.

Hochfrequenz-Ausbreitungsbedingungen für Amateurfunk

MSC Herrenberg - Rallye 2010

MSC Herrenberg's rallye was great fun this year. We had to use our tripmaster and chronometers and should have been an expert in German  literature. Cruising through the Tübingen area we passed the famous "Wurmlinger chapel". One special stage was to quote the first two lines of Ludwig Uhland's poem:

Die Wurmlinger Kapelle

Droben stehet die Kapelle,
schauet still ins Tal hinab,
drunten singt bei Wieß´und Quelle,
froh und hell der Hirtenknab.

Traurig tönt das Glöcklein nieder,
schauerlich der Leichenchor;
stille sind die frohen Lieder,
und der Knabe lauscht empor.

Droben bringt man sie zu Grabe,
die sich freuten in dem Tal.
Hirtenknabe, Hirtenknabe,
dir auch singt man dort einmal.

 No. 88 - ready for start

Adjustable Upper Lateral Links

The upper lateral steel link has a thread welded in and two nuts. This allows me to adjust the wheel camber to -1 deg. On the left side of the upper ball bushing you can see the polyurethane (PU) bushing from Superflex inside the fork of the longitudinal link (castor arm). Powerflex part no. is PFF1-301. Similar PU bushings can be found at SuperPro.

Wheel Alignment Data Sheet

Front Axle Kinematic Settings

Camber with serial upper links (non adjustable): 0° 20’ (tolerance +/- 0° 30’)

Camber with adjustable upper links (preferred): -1° 00’ (tolerance +/- 0° 10’)

Camber difference right/left wheel max.: 0° 40’

Toe (total axle) steering wheel straigt ahead: 3,0 mm (tolerance +/- 0,5 mm)

Toe angle @ 15“ wheels: 0° 13’

Toe angle @ 14“ wheels: 0° 14’

Toe difference angle @ 20° steering angle: n.c.

Caster adjustable at longitudinal link: 1° 30’ (tolerance +/- 0° 30’ )

Preferred sporty caster value: 2° 45'

Caster difference right/left wheel max.: 0° 20’

Kingpin inclination: 8° 35’ (tolerance +/- 0° 30’) not adjustable

Preferred sporty kingpin inclination: 9° 35'

Rear Axle Kinematic Settings (rigid axle)

Camber (non adjustable): 0°

Camber difference right/left wheel max.: 0°

Toe angle (non adjustable): 0°

Caster: n.c.

Testing conditions:

Put 45 kg weight on each driver and copilot seat. And another 25 kg in both foot rooms. No passengers inside, fuel tank full.

Oil Temperature Sensor

I experimented with an oil temperature sensor instead of the oil dipstick but the device was broken over the time and I had oil leakage problems. Now I replaced it by a temperature sensor in an additional flange between oil filter and engine block. I used a kit by Raid Automotive Concepts. It has a 3/4 unf thread for conventional W718/2 Alfa/FIAT oil filter cartridges and a conventional oil filter mounting pedestal. The anodized aluminum extra flange is able to accept a small sensor with 1/8 inch 27 NPT conical thread.

Sensor specs of the new oil filter sensor: 1,8 kOhm @ 20°C - 150 Ohm @ 100°C

Tiefenbronn Classic Rallye 2009

This year's Tiefenbronn Classic an Sunday, 21st of June had a lenght of about 130 km between the nothern part of the Black Forest and the river Enz wine region. Almost 200 cars and 20 historic bikes participated. Among them were former Mille Miglia competitors Herbert Linge and Paul Ernst Strähle with their historic beetle and Porsche 356 "V2". Among the ancient heroes we also met Eberhard Mahle, Günter Steckkönig and Paul Hensler - all familiar with historic Porsche cars.

Here is the GT junior in the Bad Liebenzell Park. In the youngtimer class from 1972 our grid number was 121.

Radiator Thermoswitch

I replaced the adjustable Kenlowe thermoswitch by a fixed thermostatic switch. Radiator on @ 88°C - off @ 83°C. The switch comes from a Volvo 360 and it's metric screw is M14 x 1.5. The copper T-shaped fitting comes with a tube diameter of 32 mm (2000cc engine needs min. 35 mm). It's mounted in the lower radiator hose between the radiator and the water pump. Customized T-fittings are available at Schweizer-Motorsport.

Trunk Lid Repair

After a little welding job the trunk lid was painted red again (Ferrari rosso l300).

Photo Competition @ MotorKlassik

*** Sorry, the Alfa was not the best photo of the show! ***

Win a Leica C-Lux compact camera and vote for one of my photos at the MotorKlassik photo competition (see MotorKlassik magazine no. 3/2009) and on the net here:

MotorKlassik online

This is my photo of the GT junior taken in autumn 2008. It was the fist test drive with the new 6 x 14 MOMOs.

This one I took at the Neuenbürg Classic Day in September 2008. Nice gauges! Water resistant?
Please guess - what muscle car is it?

Oldtimer Meetings and Competitions 2009

We will participate in these 2009 events:


21.06. 2.Tiefenbronn Classic Oldtimer-Freunde-Tiefenbronn
27.-28.06. 10. Bosch Boxberg Klassik


and next year:

Mai 2010: GÄU Veteranen-Rallye MSC Herrenberg

MOMO Vega Wheels 6 x 14"

The Vegas finally are powder coated, tyres 185/70 R 14 (with tubes) are mounted. The steering needs less effort when driving in a bend or parking compared to the former 195/60 R 15 Bridgestone. However steering characteristics offer a very good increase in handwheel force over lateral g's.

Neuenbürg Castle Sept. 15th, 2008

These are the Alfa participants of the 2008 Neuenbürg Event in the old castle yard.

Speedometer Optical Tuning

An additional 12V 4W instrument light bulb with it's BA9S socket is mounted on the back of the speedometer housing. On my car instrument ligths are very weak.

I recently had to open the speedometer because of a failure. By the way I cleaned the mechanics from dust and grease and put the SNO logo and the gear switch pic on the dial. Both are decals printed with an inkjet printer. The gear logo is scanned from the Giulia manual. The checkered flag showes the city limit area.
The speedo accuracy can bei easily adjusted on Jaeger instruments by a screw on the back side. Odometer rolls (km) can also be tuned independently.

Mini Catalytic Converter

Why not supporting environmental protection with our historic cars? Here is an easy and cost effective way to integrate a catalytic converter into the exhaust system. I use the Tenneco Walker Mini Converter. I has a diameter of 55.5 mm and was planned to use in the Audi Coupe 2.3l 5-Cyl. (Walker type no. 52590-03W). Other diamerters (42.5 mm, 45.5 mm, 50.5 mm) are also available.

The converter is intergrated in the exhaust pipe just behind the 2 in 1 tube of my CSC sports exhaust system with stainless steel pipe clamps. Sealing compound is recommended. It should be mounted as near as possible to engine's exhaust ports.

There is no special engine control system. I run stock Weber 40 DCOE carbs. Ok, this is not very effective in terms of emission reduction but better than nothing. I can't measure any significant engine power reduction due to the streamlined sheet metal catalyst technology.