Terry Thompson wrote:
> Actually I tend to refer to this as a
> gospel a lot but, the figures don't lie:
...well, perhaps they don't lie, but there is
at least some confusion wrapped around them...
> One of the alterations that they did was to swap the
> Spitfire 1500 intake manifold with a Spitfire MkIV
> manifold and the result was an increase in 8 peak
> horsepower. Evidently the runners were narrowed in the
> 1500 to increase gas velocity for emission control.
I can't help but think that if the term "emission"
is involved, we aren't comparing UK-spec dual 1.5 inch
SUs from different years.
Neither set of those carbs had emissions goals, so
you can be sure that the runners were not narrowed
for emissions. The "emissions" cars didn't use those
carbs at all, they used ZSs.
Again, I really think this 8hp number should be
thrown away. We have many reputable reviews on file
that compare the Midget and Spitfire and find them,
if not identical, at least indiscernable.
When one review comes from a bizarre source and
has 8hp missing, I think it's far more likely it
was just bad research for that one article.
(or to put it another way, if the spitfire really
does get 8 more hp out of the same engine, it has
a lot of explaining to do for not being any faster!)
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
"Citizens of Blaine, do not be alarmed!"
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