Daniel1312@aol.com wrote:
> Most car magazines are basically lazy. Do you think they actually took 2
> standard cars, had the power checked as being correct for the spec and then
> road tested them? I think they just looked up the figures in a book and
> re-produced them.
Well, your points are well made, but you still seem to
be saying "oh, forget magazine numbers".
The Brooklands Gold portfolio has DOZENS of tests, from
all sorts of magazines, compiled over decades, many in
excruciating detail with pages of graphs, test data,
and so on.
Very importantly, the measurements of all the tests are
slightly different, indicating that this wasn't one test
copied among a dozen magazines, but many independent
tests.
The results are indeed variable as you say, for example
"Autocar" squeezed an 11.9 second 0-60 out of a 1500 in
a test versus the spit 1500. (which notched a 11.8. Anecdotally,
the magazine preferred the spit but a lot of the reasoning
was interior trim and having an overdrive. I have an
overdrive in my 1500, I guess I need a spit dash! ;> )
Eventually, you have to observe that there are dozens and
dozens of road tests, all saying basically the same thing
by different people in different decades. Both in numbers
and in words, the reporters say the 1500 is faster.
You simply have to admit that the chances of ALL of the
magazine reviews being wrong are basically zero.
Here's a quote from the Autocar review: "There
is no doubt it (Midget 1500) is substantially quicker
than the late-series 1275 car... a genuine 100mph car
and this represents a great advance on the 1275..."
(that quote was lifted exactly, even with the ...
parts missing, from a review in brooklands that
was quoting autocar, so any editorializing is theirs
not mine)
> I think you need to get away from engine size and performance. Performance
> is about the engine power output V the vehicle weight and vehicle
> aerodynamics.
Absolutely, but if you note I've always quoted performance
versus the clock, not horsepower or torque. The original discussion
was about stop-light racing, in a straight line, irrelevent
of size or displacement or country of origin, just get the
car from here to there.
The 1500 cars were indeed heavier, so I would be mistaken if I
pointed out a small horsepower increase and made my
statements from that. But I have always referred to times
against the clock, which take everything into account, weight, gearing,
as well as the whole shape of the power curve, the
colour of the carpets, you name it.
If you people spent as much time working on your
cars as you do trying to defend this futile case, you
might actually have faster cars! (perhaps yours excepted
Daniel, sounds like your car already has some nice
work done to it)
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
The stoplight in front of my house is currently: AMBER
|