Unfortunately whatever horsepower you put into a TR6 is going to get sucked
up by the relatively heavy bodywork and miles of shafts, gears and universal
joints between the flywheel and the wheels.
Ryan was describing a go-cart as being a great driver. You should go to
Europe and sit in any one of the Peugot or VW small 1.3/1.5 litre cars that
people drive over there. Several years ago, I was back in France in the
pre-alps heading to a village called Thones. It's about an hour or so south
of Lyons by Annecy. A colleague was trying to beat the clock to a restaurant
meeting so he was really pushing it around these tight corners going up and
down really mountainous terrain. (here we would call it real mountains, but
it wasn't the true alps so they don't) (Food or women, they only way to get
a french guy to really lose his dignity and run)
Anyway, I've been on some pretty rough roads on some very strange machinery,
but I have never come so close to being pitched right out of the window.
Those small cars with low-profile wheels and tight suspension bear no
resemblance at all to the sub-compact cars we build or even import in NA.
That car would practically throw you out the front window, then the right,
then the rear. There was no, repeat no sway or pitch, and the ride was very
smooth for a car of such low weight. Utterly unbelievable. Memory says it
was a 1.3 litre peugot. He said it had been tuned up recently, but was
absolutely stock, go to the dealer and choose your model type of car for
that part. Montreal is the NA capitol for small cars, but they aren't as
good as the units in Europe.
Partly it's a question of money. Those European machines are about double
the cost of the same size machines here in NA. By the time someone here
wants to spend that money he wants a bigger car. THere they get taxed on
engine size and the fuel is about 4 times the price of US and double Candian
rates. There a cruncher for you, Canada is an oil exporter and we pay double
the US rate (110% tax at the pump)
I have never driven the TR6 in really mountainous terrain, so I don't know
how she would handle, but I can tell you that the power/mass ratio of the
new little cars has got to be practically double the TR. You may get the TR
to a better ratio, but then the suspension will be all wrong and you're
going to spin her round like a top on the corners (Ever driven a TR6 on
snow? You'll know what I mean then) My feeling is that you have to like what
you have got. Make it the best that it can be, but don't try to turn it into
what it isn't.
(donning his fireproof underpants)
Cheers,
Mark Hooper
72 TR6
-----Original Message-----
From: Ryan Miles
To: 6pack@autox.team.net
Sent: 21/06/02 11:20 PM
Subject: 220 Horse TR6
List,
Everyone should take a minute to realize that we (the US) got the
shaft. You SHOULD be able to take a TR6 engine, modifly it to make 150
(crankshaft) horsepower, and go run it at 5,800 RPM (later model 6's)
all day long. In theory the factory tested this. It's not magic. These
engines are pretty tough. The guy with Nitrus has turned a 10 second ET,
and he swears that the bottom end of the engine is stock. The key there
is that he had a built racing engine at home and he really didn't care
if it came apart.
By the way, anyone that wants to spend about $3,000 to go really fast
should look into a 100cc ar 125cc go kart. I drove one today for the
first time, and it is the fastest thing I have ever driven in my life!!
the accerlertion isn't blinding(I only drove a 100), but the turning and
braking is! I believe that a go kart has the fastest lap time at Mid
Ohio...that what I remember, but I could be wrong.
Ryan Miles
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