Friends,
I've sat here over the last few weeks - happily reading of and
responding to 'matters Triumph' as the mood takes me. Over the last
few days, there has been a deal of comment on the matter of
supercharging. Equally, there have been some observations from people
which, in themselves and with the greatest respect to their authors,
suggest by terminologies used that this subject may not be as fully
understood as it might be.
This puts me in an awkward position and while I am in no position to
comment in detail, I'd like to say this. My own understanding of
compression ratios is that with a ratio that is too high,
'detonation' can set in that will ruin an engine. This is
particularly relevant to a racing engine, because it is operating at
maximum all the time. Simply, supercharging in common with increasing
compression ratios, increases the overall 'charge pressure' bringing
a particular engine nearer, if not into a given detonation envelope.
Moral? Great care must be exercised on the supercharger pressure
used.
At this point, I'm more than anxious to ensure a conflict of interest
(my own) is not seen to be in the ascendant but I would like to say
this. All you need to know about supercharging, compression ratios
and combustion chamber design (which has direct relations on engine
detonation tolerance) will be found in Triumph Over Triumph magazine.
Many of you will know that Paul Richardson, TOT's owner and editor,
is an extremely long and valued friend of mine and I also contribute
periodically to his mag. All that to one side, Paul once wrote a
highly informative dissertation on this subject which he later
serialised into 3 parts in TOT and at a reduced length. It covered
aspects of why racing fuels are used, the subtleties of detonation,
supercharging and combustion chamber design (with diagrams). I have a
copy of that original full length article and it is certainly worth
mentioning that someone of international automotive design skill also
later wrote of it, quote "this is a most comprehensive, detailed and
accurate article. In fact it is the best I have come across of many
similar writings" unquote.
Who said that?
None other than the late Walter Hassan, designer of Coventry Climax
Formula One racing engines and Chief Engineer of Jaguar. I think it's
also worth commenting that Walter Hassan was a man of few words, and
particularly, he was highly renowned for his innate reluctance to
accord praise or favourable comment, even where it was deservedly
due. Many people both at Jaguar and coventry Climax will attest to
that. In simple terms, I would say that for Mr. Hassan to have
WRITTEN such an observation on Paul's literary genius on this
particular subject is probably not too far removed from the
equivalent of a Nobel Prize - and I'm not joking.
Those of you who know Paul, will know he is a garrulous and fun
loving individual. What you may not know is that he is an extremely
modest man in many ways. For many years after he and I had come to
the parting of our mutual ways at Standard Triumph, he spent many
years as a racing mechanic working on RACING PORSCHES including the
240mph 917K. You won't need me to tell you that firms like Porsche
don't let anyone near their engines unless they are more than
confident the individual has a thorough and comprehensive knowledge
of what he is dealing with. I saw Paul today and asked him if he had
any objection to me sending this post; in fact, I'd already prepared
it prior to his arrival at my home. He was more than happy for me to
release this information to you all and I know he would never have
done it himself. This is the type of person he is.
For all of you presently in the dilemma of the whats, whys and ifs of
compression ratios, turbo or supercharging and their many related
aspects - it is my view and recommendation that you invest what is a
very nominal sum of money with Paul to acquaint yourselves with what
he has wriiten. If you do this, you can be sure of three things:
1. You'll get your knowledge from the horse's mouth and you'll
certainly get far more knowledge than you'd bargained for
2. The knowledge you WILL gain will be at a far lower cost of buying
that similar knowledge from someone else, and
3. You'll probably save a wad of money in costly engine rebuilds,
engine purchase and trial and error investment.
I cannot state strongly enough that I have absolutely NO financial
interest in Paul's publication whatsoever and I've only written this
post to the list because I am concerned there appears to be a deal of
misinformation flying around that will be to no-one's advantage on
either the shorter or longer term.
Gentlemen, take advantage of information that is so close at hand it
is almost unbelievable.
I'm now going back into 'lurk' mode.
John Macartney
John Mac
"There's no such thing as an excessive profit"
OR
"The answer's NO, now what's the question?"
THE MOTTOES OF ALL BANKS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
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