I do know an individual who has a Triumph with a 1300 engine that produces
about 130 hp. Difference is, his is a race car, and idles at about 2000
rpm. Lot of mods but no way could it be street driveable. I seem to think
that if it could produce more, he would make it. So a street driveable
1500 that passes emissions and produces 130 or whatever HP, is my dream and
a Miatas nightmare. Still waiting for the explanation.
At 06:11 PM 10/20/98 -0500, Glenn Trunnell wrote:
>All,
>
>There's been a lot of talk about about the 130 hp Spitfire lately so I
>thought I'd put my .02 in. I have built several engines over the last 10
>years including Chevy 350s, Ford 289s, MGs, and Isuzu 4 cyl. If you have
>the money it is possible to build HP in small displacement engines but to
>make a 1500 cc engine pass the visual and tailpipe emissions would be
>difficult. The Spitfire built by Triumphtune and shown in one of their
>articles is claimed to deliver 115+ bhp with twin 40 DCOE webers, a header,
>hot cam and completely ported and polished head. I don't live in CA but I
>assume that any visible modification is illegal so that eliminates
>carb/manifold and exhaust enhancements as well as supercharging or turbo.
>The only other ways I know of to make HP are displacement (you can't bore
>or stroke a 1500 to 5000 cc) and nitrous oxide. You could internally
>strenghten an engine enough to make it last using nitrous and the bottle is
>easily concealed. Even then I doubt that you could make double the horse
>power even with a higher compression ratio, polished head etc . and still
>have the engine pass a legitimate test. So I have to call bullshit on this
>claim (no offense intended and I'll gladly eat my words if anyone can
>produce the details of how this was accomplished).
>
>Hope I'm wrong I'd love to have a 130 hp Spitfire.
>
>Glenn
>
>
>
Patrick Bowen
'79 Spitfire
Jacksonville FL
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