Joe: Your suggestions re. making lower HP engines (120 hp) would
indeed save lots of money as lower outputs are obtainable with far
less costly work and/or special parts.
However...I think we need to clear up this term hoursepower a bit.
The SAE (Society of automotive engineers) set rules for testing
engine outputs.
1971 and prior models were run without stock exhaust systems, no fans
or belts of ANY kind, not even a water pump belt, no carburetors
(fuel flowed in from a main blending system controlled to make it
real rich at times), anything else which might drag off a pony or two
was removed, timing was set to whatever gave the max power.
Then the engine was revved up and a flash reading obtained. Then the
HP reading was altered (higher) for various reasons (now forgotten)
and the end result was filed away by the SALES DEPT>
If on Monday, Ford announced 250hp for their 305 V8 then the next day
Chevy annouced 255 hp for theirs!
Next time Chevy might have to go first and game was reversed.
The industry laughed all the way to the bank while Joe buyer bragged
about his HP.
Then came the 1972 model year and the engines HP had to be done with
everything running "as installed on the car".
With absolutly NO CHANGES from the 71 models, the power of the 255
went to 178, the 300 hp went to 201, 100 hp went to 78 etc. etc. etc.
Once big block vette engine went from around 425hp down to 222hp
with nothing at all changed except the test process !
Now this applied to imports as well. Rootes were not here in 1972 so
we never saw a true HP from them but I tell you all...... the 1725cc
stock engine in a Series V made approx. 71 hp, not the 92.5 they
advert.
(I have to shut down now and will cont. on another message later).
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Sep 05 2000 - 09:56:17 CDT