triumphs were meant
to be driven at the Red-Line. Is this just one person's opinion or are
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. A bunch of you run strongly well
past published redline (with highly modified engines) and the uninformed
observing that couldn't help but be impressed. There are also those of us who
fear passing 4000. I've seen TR cranks bust or valve springs pop at 1,000
rpm, too.
There are so many variables to this that any kind of blanket statement is
kind of silly. Along with 'meant' comes 'should', 'can', and 'why'. Any 35-45
year old car has old parts that have gone through who knows how many duty
cycles, well past whatever Triumph tested to. I just assume anyone who plays
with old cars carries this at the front of their knowledge file. If all the
parts in an engine were new, and the tach were accurate, red line might be a
safer bet. But why stress old parts that hard? (That especially goes for
suspension.)
As for me, Scrappy has won a lot of money in vintage rallying and we seldom
run it to 5k, preferring to use the torque peak as the shift point. Before
this last rebuild when we added the harmonic damper and balanced the lot, 4k
was sufficient and safe. When you start a 4,000 mile, 2 week race you don't
do it by revving to red line and dumping the clutch!
Scrappy revs very freely now, and pulls hard right to 5k and beyond, but I am
still afraid to take it past that, or run it up there too often. What's the
point, if the hp and torque peaks (for my engine) are below redline? The
point to any racing is matching weight, hp, gearing, and reliability to
achieve the best results possible for the use intended. It's always been a
balancing act, and with old cars the element of fatigue and stress is a major
factor.
In my mind any 3 main bearing engine comes with a built in rev limiter...
Steve Hedke
Team Scrappy
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