6000 in third at the end of the straight. Hmmm. You are aware there is a
fourth gear aren't you?
Seriously, you're on the right track in not touching anything until you
get some serious seat time. Triumphs take a fair amount of rowing on the
shift lever to get around any track with decent times. Nice torgue-y
engine and all that, but it's still happier on the pipe. Usually that
means 4000-6000
Your engine prep determines your rev range, but a lot of well contested
triumphs never see 6000 RPM. If you have stock rods your engine is not
long for this world at anything over 6200. If you have Carillos and a
billet or well prepped stock crank then you can go much higher. I think
Hardy reported that he routinely hit 8000. With a three bearing tractor
motor designed sixty years ago that would scare the pants off me, but
you'd sure get some use out of close ratio gears.
I'm not familiar with Grattan, but unless its a half mile long, lapping
within 5 seconds of the previous owner means you're doing a lot right.
Triumphs are not the easiest car to get around a track fast. Without
development, my times in my cheater TR3 dropped almost twenty seconds over
the span of the first year I drove it at PIR (Portland International
Raceway).
Have fun, get very used to the car and it's strong and weak points, have a
plan, and proceed slowly, changing only one thing at a time. This advice
from a guy who has never obeyed any of the above dictums except for the
"have fun" part.
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Young
To: fot@autox.team.net
Cc: John Phillips; Jeff Wilt
Sent: 2/17/2002 6:36 AM
Subject: Neophyte Bonding with TR3A
I've started bonding with the '59 TR3A I've taken over from Jeff Wilt
and Bob Kramer. Yesterday, my son, Tom, and I took it out to Hallet for
high speed touring as a prelude to the CVAR driving school next
weekend. We had a blast. We traded off driving and were both turning
laps about 4 or 5 sec slower than Jeff ran last fall. I guess that is
to be expected, since we are both new to racing and to this car. Other
than the need for improved driving skill, it seems to me that the cam
and gear ratio is not good at Hallet. We hit 6000 rpm in 3rd at the
very end of the straights. With 304 degrees duration, the cam produces
poor power below 4000. On several of the corners, it was difficult to
get through them at more than 3800-3900 rpm in 3rd. It seems that
shorter duration cam and a rear axle ratio higher than 4.1 would be
better on this course. I'm just thinking for now, since we need a lot
more driving experience, but I can tell it is going to be a lot of fun
driving and working on this car. Thanks Jeff and Bob.
Larry Young (Forever Young Racing Team)
|