Just had to add my 2 cents to this dicussion. As an owner of a Spitfire, a
Lotus Turbo Esprit, and a 5.0 Liter Mustang, I've lived with the character
of the cars and offer the following observations:
At 12:39 PM 10/13/97 -0500, Jim Ruwalt wrote:
> The engine is the car's heart and soul. If you put a
>different engine in, you've totally altered the whole car.
I second that! My Mustang is a torquer, the Lotus is a revver. (The
Spitfire - well, lets just refer you readers back to last weeks "Spit
Horsepower/Emissions" thread...)
The engines in the two cars determine how they are driven: the 'Stang can
light up its tires at will, and it is fun to steer it with the throttle.
It is very tossable and easy to drive at 9/10ths (all right, I'm not that
good, make it 7/10ths). The Lotus will scare the whee out of a passenger
it is so fast...it LIKES to rev high and it handles as if it exudes some
magic glue out of its tires that stick it to the road. Definitely a car
that demands a racetrack to safely explore its limits.
Now I got the Mustang before the Lotus...but my backround was with small,
four cylinder sports cars until then. So as much as I like what the Mustang
can do, I found the gearing, the steering, the ride of the Lotus at once
familiar and comfortable...the SOUL of each car was very different, even
though the ultimate performance/speed was similar.
THAT is why some people object to putting smooth, large displacement,
powerful engines in their LBCs: because it changes the nature of the car.
May make it better, but it's certainly different.
>If you want
>more power out of your engine, try some performance modifications, like
>increasing the compression ratio, modifiying the cam, or redoing the fuel
>system. There's just something mystifying about small, high-performance
>European engines that big American V-8's just can't match.
>Jim Ruwaldt
Jim obviously is most comfortable with the high strung revving nature of
small-engined sports cars. The folks who grew up around large V-8s (and I
know there are several on this List) may disagree. I encourage those
folks to do the big-engine swaps, as this will make them enjoy their LBCs
more.
Atwell (Buff) Haines
'79 Spitfire FM 96062
Succasunna, NJ USA
CarBuff@scooter.net
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