[Fot] titanium rods

[Scott Janzen]

Bill's description of the MV parts reminded me of the discussion I had 
yesterday with someone who works on my cars occasionally but mostly works on 
Alfas. The gist of it was that with British cars the whole is far greater 
than the sum of the parts, whereas with most Italian designs, that is 
usually true but the individual parts are often also beautiful examples of 
industrial design and craftsmanship in their own right.   That is not 
something you would say about most of the castings or forgings on a British 
car.  Of course, this characteristic of Italian cars is imbedded in the 
whole culture and has been for 1000s of years.  Think of those marvelous, 
perfectly executed aqueducts that are still standing with a perfect pitch of 
inches over a mile.

Not to diminish my charming British cars at all, as there are no Italian 
cars in my garage these days, but two Triumphs!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Babcock" <billb at bnj.com>
To: "Terry Stetler" <tlizzard at msn.com>
Cc: <fot at autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 3:35 AM
Subject: Re: [Fot] titanium rods


> My MV Agusta Senna has titanium rods, piston pins and crank pin.
> Beautiful parts. The motor revs to 13,500 RPM and makes 142 HP from
> 750 cc. I wouldn't mind that kind of performance in my TR3, Peyote
> would be darned sprightly with 400+ horsepower, though I suspect the
> four radially displaced titanium valves and the fuel injection
> contribute more to the performance than the rods. What a motor
> though. I can pick it up by myself. The whole bike weighs 413 pounds-- 
> about the same as a TR3 motor. The valve springs and retainers are
> absolutely gorgeous. Most of the bits inside look like jewelry.
>
> An interesting side note, an engineer told me that the titanium
> alloys used in motorsports don't lend themselves to crack checking
> because most cracks propagate beneath the surface and don't propagate
> slowly like steel can. It's either good, or it's gone.
>
> Bill Babcock
> billb at bnj.com
> bnj  Website for Babcock & Jenkins, a direct and interactive agency
>
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>
> On Apr 20, 2007, at 6:40 PM, Terry Stetler wrote:
>
>> Yer killin me here....
>>
>> hehe.
>>
>> Actually, titanium rods would be quite a performance/reliability
>> enhancer for
>> the TR2/3/4 cars, if prohibitively expensive.
>>
>> Imagine lowering the weight of your connecting rods by 33%.
>>
>> Terry Stetler
>>   ----- Original Message -----
>>   From: BillDentin at aol.com<mailto:BillDentin at aol.com>
>>   To: 58tr3a at videotron.ca<mailto:58tr3a at videotron.ca> ;
>> henry at henryfrye.com<mailto:henry at henryfrye.com> ;
>> fot at autox.team.net<mailto:fot at autox.team.net>
>>   Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 9:35 PM
>>   Subject: Re: [Fot] titanium rods
>>
>>
>>   In a message dated 4/20/2007 5:22:09 PM Central Daylight Time,
>>   58tr3a at videotron.ca<mailto:58tr3a at videotron.ca> writes:
>>
>>   Henry - Did it get rid of the limp ?
>>
>>   NAW!  He's still limp.
>>
>>   Bill (Damdinger)
>>
>>
>>
>>
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