G-NEMIE Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 :respekt: :respekt: Welcome Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trig Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKIVDreamer Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 Wow! and Welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terribleturner Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 Welcome Bob, it feels like we have like a Toyota celebrity on board now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markymark Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 & Nice read thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntD Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 Hi and welcome aboard...interesting stuff:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Welcome Bob, it feels like we have like a Toyota celebrity on board now it does! Welcome Bob, you'll be loved here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burna Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 I can picture it now... JAE, a slow burning camp fire, a group of members huddled around in a circle, all listening to wonderful tales from the exciting days of when the Supra was born. Welcome home Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spidermonkey Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Nice to meet you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ice_kul Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Hi everyone, I'm new here so please be gentle!! My name is Bob Cunningham. I used to work for Toyota as a durability test driver and as part of my job I got to work on the Supra from 1991 to 1993 just prior to it’s release. Absolutely loved it and owned one for 8 years - brilliantly engineered with only a few achilles heels which I won't go into as everyone is no doubt aware of them given the expertise on display on this great site. God knows how I didn't find this place sooner - it's certainly a goldmine of information!! Anyways, I Left Toyota in 1995 and now work at an aluminium fabricators as a general manager (yes, much more boring but I'm getting old!). Technically I've driven in excess of a million miles in a Supra if you count the accelerated durability testing ha ha I learned a good deal about that side of things through my ownership and also learned a great deal of engine stuff through talking to engineers when I got the chance. One of my friends, Gary, recently bought one and he’s looking to go single turbo in the near future. However, Gary is so non-techie (mechanically and computer wise!) that I was looking for some advice and so signed up the this forum to help Gary out. Modifications were never really my strong point as everything was, obviously, focussed around stock setups. So here I am to meet you guys and hopefully learn about modding these wonderful cars and also to refresh my memory on maintenance and troubleshooting. Maybe I can even help out being ex-Toyota? Who knows! Bob. Welcome to the gang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juanchan Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Welcome to the forum! Sounds like you had a dream job back in the early 90's Looking forward to more gems of info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvershark44 Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 I can picture it now... JAE, a slow burning camp fire, a group of members huddled around in a circle, all listening to wonderful tales from the exciting days of when the Supra was born. Welcome home Bob lol Yes very interesting bob, welcome, tell us more!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraStar 3000 Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 I can picture it now... JAE, a slow burning camp fire, a group of members huddled around in a circle, all listening to wonderful tales from the exciting days of when the Supra was born. Welcome home Bob ... and Tom with his megaphone telling all the girls and boys to gather around the fire for Jackanory time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbonut Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Hey! awesome! Instant guru status for this chap please mr Moderator I'm sure you'll enjoy it here Lx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baz Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 hello and welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRZ Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Welcome to the club Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian C Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Heh I don't normally venture in here much, I meet most of the new people in tech eventually But when TDR posted in the mods section about you, Bob, I felt I must venture forth! Hello my dear chap and welcome to the club I feel threatened now lol You mention a few achillies heels, can we swap notes? I'll start with - intercoolers fall apart after 10+ years (how did you do an accelerated test on the durability of those, out of interest) Obviously you did a good job though as there aren't many design flaws I can think of! I have visions of you going round a test track to the tune of Benny Hill -Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toy Motor Posted March 15, 2007 Author Share Posted March 15, 2007 Heh I don't normally venture in here much, I meet most of the new people in tech eventually But when TDR posted in the mods section about you, Bob, I felt I must venture forth! Hello my dear chap and welcome to the club I feel threatened now lol You mention a few achillies heels, can we swap notes? I'll start with - intercoolers fall apart after 10+ years (how did you do an accelerated test on the durability of those, out of interest) Obviously you did a good job though as there aren't many design flaws I can think of! I have visions of you going round a test track to the tune of Benny Hill -Ian Thanks for the welcome Ian - I'm honoured! I've been reading some of your excellent tech posts and tech articles. That's quite a car you've built yourself there! In fact, it's very much along the lines of what we'd like to achieve with Gary's car On the Intercoolers - the original units used in the test mules were actually somewhat thicker and had metal end tanks. When we decided to de-tune the car shortly before production and the corporate bean counters got a whiff of it (always hated those guys - they always managed to turn a pure diamond into a slightly yellow diamond!!), a new and lower priced supplier was sourced to supply the thinner, plastic end tank'd units that the production cars got. We couldn't really justify the previous unit's cost vs. intake charge temperature when running the engines at 320ps tune We knew the longevity wouldn't be the same but still the production units proved adequate and certainly weren't marginal by any means. There were no final production failures on that front that I'm aware of - perhaps it's more of an age thing given the metal material used on the core. Other achilles heels I'm aware of are probably best discussed in a new tech thread? There's the stuff like the heater matrix, front crank seal, the rear subframe mount weakness where it attaches to the floorpan, the early oil pressure senders, the domestic model brake caliper castings, the LSD's and driveshafts as a result of the rear subframe mount weakness, boot rubbers hardening over time causing that annoying noise etc etc. Some of these things we experienced in durability testing, some of it I experienced throughout my ownership. As I've said though, probably best not getting into that in here! Some of the stuff would probably just scare people so don't wanna get too into it and have people worrying as a result... lets just say the MKIV Supra is one of THE most durable and well engineered cars to come out of Japan, and that's saying something! Bob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobSheffield Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 the rear subframe mount weakness where it attaches to the floorpan.....the LSD's and driveshafts as a result of the rear subframe mount weakness Could be interesting for the 'wobbly back end' problems folk are experiencing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian C Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 Speaking of which, if Bob doesn't mind, I'll start a thread in tech about that as it's been on my mind - I've no idea what that problem is so I'm interested to hear about it -Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeordieSteve Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 *doffs hat* Welcome, I'm sure your going to make this place a whole lot more interesting than it already is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz Walker Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 Missed this before, welcome to the site Bob, your expertise will be much sought after Gaz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorin Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 I missed this thread before too. Welcome Bob, pleasure to have you aboard, I hope you'll stick around and I'm sure you'll have plenty of good advice for us all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lust2luv Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 interesting stuff Bob. You'll be treated like a god around these parts with knowlege like that God might be going a little far; a king perhaps; maybe you can rule our forum Toymotor?! anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted March 26, 2007 Share Posted March 26, 2007 Hi Bob Got any pics of the early version of the mk4? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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