Ha HA! The 4.5 litre crown ventured out of the surgery under its own power yesterday!!!! After a few slow laps of the block and inspections of the underside to check that it wasn’t leaking any vital fluids were carried out (gaddamn that landcruiser engine is SMOOOOTH) it was time for a few launches-All I can say is that CUBES ARE THE GO-it feels nasty. It has the same sort of bite off the line as a V8 (with no tuning off idle whatsoever as yet). Just a quick stab of the gas to about 1/4 throttle from a standstill and it lurches and turns the tyres-while the nose of the car lifts 3-6 inches on the suspension. A few times I thought it had stalled-but it’s just so quiet. It ran amazingly well, even though I only loaded the maps from my friends turbo 250 cortina and then adjusted the idle by ear. I haven’t even adjusted the ignition maps yet, and considering the design of the engine, it should be able run a heap more timing than the 250 can. Even with the relatively soft timing and stonking rich maps it’ll turn the rears at will in first gear (welded diff and all…) with just a stab of the throttle-and I’ve only revved it to 3000 so far. Rego in 1-2 weeks-then the turbo goes on.