Ah, Ramon, ya caught me up again.
The engineering types out there can understand the dilemma. Everything
matches nicely all the way through the mechanical side of things. The Volvo
engine and tranny are meant to drive through a 3.9 rearend. The Talbot
rearend is 3.9. Marvelous, no?
Well, matching that designed power curve falls apart at the wheels. Volvo's
design is to run through 175/14s. The Talbot has 16 inch wheels and I
further compounded the problem by fitting 6.50s instead of 5.50s to get the
extra wide whitewalls. I figure that's about a 20% variance from design -
put another way, I am in permanent overdrive.
The speedometer reading tends to bear this out. At an indicated 55, I'm
running in the #2 lane and sometimes even the #1. In the Buick and Cadillac,
indicated 65 is #3 lane speed. Whatever happened to the odometer checks that
CalTrans used to put around the freeways? Performance is good on the flat -
just don't have the torque to maintain uphill go.
Stay out of my way on the downhills, though, cuz the brakes aren't all that
modern.
"Ole"
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