>Richard "Marathon Man" Jackson writes:
>>Right! Off goes my cylinder head to have 2 inches skimmed of it, should give
>>me LOADS of power!!!!!!! :-)
>Ah....but you'll need to use "20 Star" petrol...quite scarce even in
>the UK, and you'll likely sustain a performance penalty given it's
>weight...it's solid lead. :-)
Hmmmm, may have to fit slightly larger jets, me thinks!!!!!! :-)
>>> For reasons unknown to me, the 1976 Federal Spec Spitfire came through
>>> with compression *increased* to 9.0 to 1...up from the 7.5 to 1 used
>>> the three years before and in all later years.
>>
>>> Comparing that car's performance to the dual S.U. UK version should
>>> give you your answer.
>>What was the official performance of this year Spit, Just curious????
>>Cheerio
>>Rich
>Ha! I was hoping *you'd* know. Here in the U.S., auto magazines
>weren't exactly fighting with themselves over the chance to test the
>latest Spitfire. If there's a published report on this model year
>that anyone knows of I'll try to track it down.
Cheers,
>Meanwhile, we can probably get some idea by looking at the specs.
>Your 1500's with dual S.Us and 9.0 to 1 compression are rated at
>71BHP.
>Our 1500's <ex '76> with single strombergs and 7.5 to 1 compression
>are rated at 57 BHP. <sniff>
Oh, so YOU got the Diesel version eh!!!! :-)
57Bhp, that's less than my 73 MkIV 1300, either 61, 63 or 67Bhp, depending on
which roadtest you read. NOW THAT IS GUTLESS!!!!!!! :-)
>If we take our 57BHP models and add 4.5 % increased power for the 9.0
>to 1 '76 model we get about 60BHP...seems reasonable. Maybe a '76
>owner on the list can confirm or deny this.
Hmmmmmmmm, them tyres are starting to smoke at the mere thought of all that
POWER :-)
>Performance wise, we also need to look at the weight difference.
>You've no doubt noticed that the front and rear bumpers on our cars
>look a bit different than yours. :-) There's a lotta re-enforced
>steel behind these babys and it doesn't look real lightweight.
I thought they were helicopter landing pads or something!!! :-)
>Between that and the weight from the added smog equipotent and larger
>radiator I could believe it's over 125 lbs difference.
Well, my gut adds the extra 125lb to UK Spits!!!! ;-)
>BTW....to the best of my knowledge, all squaretail Spits had guard
>beams welded inside the doors for safety. Was this also true of your
>cars?
Nope, we had to die a slow painful lingering death in the event of a side
impact!!! :-)
We never had the additional outriggers under the boot floor either, although
wasn't this only on the later US cars also?
>Cheers!
>Tom O'Malley <singing in the rain without his rubbers>
No doing any running either I hope!!! :-)
Cheerio
Rich
Northampton
England 'That god foresaken place that built these damned things, and
birthplace of Lucifer lucas, Prince of Darkness'.
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