----- Original Message -----
From: Larry B. Macy <macy@bblmail.psycha.upenn.edu>
To: Bulwinkle <yd3@nvc.net>; MG List <mgs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 3:07 AM
Subject: Re: MGB Winter/Choke Question
> When the Lotus Esprit first came out, what ~20 years ago, I was working in
a
> dealership that sold them (the owner had an original 7). The Esprit had a
> manual choke. The main Lotus mechanic there took the very first example
out
> for a drive after setting all the tuning (we were over a mile in altitude
> and some adjustment had to be made) The damn thing caught on fire. Why you
> might ask?
>
> The extra gas from the choke being on (who knew - the freaking thing was
> AWESOME) over heated the cat (he he he) and the cherry red cat caught the
> fiberglass panels on fire. So if there was enough gas getting to the cat
to
> overheat the thing, what the HELL is going on in the cylinder? Don't gas
> wash oil away??
In a similar vein Tommorow's World (UK TV 'science' prog) showed some years
ago why cats were largely irrelevant in the UK - they take so long to warm
up that the driver has completed their journey (typically 8 miles) before
the cat has had a chance to warm up and start, well, 'cat'ting. The
solution was to fit a spark plug to the cat to ignite the unburnt fuel and
hence get it up to effective temperature in seconds rather than many
minutes. Whether it was ever adopted I have no idea.
PaulH.
> BTW why does Lotus name all of their cars with a word that starts with
"E"??
Why not? But then again, 'Seven' begins with an 'S'.
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