On 1/11/2013 1:31 PM, Ashford Little wrote:
> I heard that the whole emissions argument was "the story" but that the real
> reason was cost. The PI system costs more and they didn't think us Yanks
> would pay for the added cost as PI wasn't common at the time. I think Mike
> Cook might have said this. Then again, I might be wrong.
>
IIRC, the plan was to introduce PI as a means of meeting the 1968 US
emissions standards, but the development costs mounted (partly because
Lucas specified individual runner throttling and some other new
proprietary parts, which really drove up unit pricing and time to
delivery). There was also some preliminary rally testing done that
indicated that the lack of barometric mixture control made performance
problematic in a lot of US locations. When it was found at a late stage
of development that Stromberg could meet emissions at a lower cost than
PI, that pretty much sealed the deal for the larger US market.
As for emissions standards, they may be comparable to the US standards
now (or even tighter), but that simply wasn't the case in 1968. Triumph
at the time was concerned about meeting US standards, which were quite
new to both them and the American manufacturers. The British and
European standards were almost non-existent then, which is why the the
PI engines were first equipped with a camshaft with considerably more
overlap than the US engine and could make a rated 150 hp. Nor did fuel
quality have much to do with it (there's nothing intrinsically better
about European fuel blending). At the time of introduction, pump gas of
~ 100 octane was available (remember Sunoco 260?). It was only when
tetraethyl lead began to be phased out in the `80s that octane ratings
dropped (Europe was well behind the US in that change, which might
contribute to the belief that European fuel was superior).
Cheers.
--
Michael Porter
Roswell, NM
Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking distance....
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