Bryan Savage <basavage@earthlink.net> wrote:.. the only race peak HP
You said it all there, Bryan. It took me many years - - -well into my
thirties, way back in the "olden days" as my kids say, for me to learn that
lesson. I remember racing a 500cc BSA single at Sebring at the time. At the
urging of one of my fellow racers, I had bought a new RD-350 Yamaha to replace
it. Alas, I had to have one last ride one the old Bizzer before I turned it
in.
Some of my memories from that day. The BSA had about 25 HP. The RD 350,
though smaller, had about 48HP. No question as to which should be quicker.
The BSA was like a friendly old farm tractor. Put it in gear, chug away, and
start racing. I think the track on that bike was something like fourteen turns
and eleven gear changes. I took it for it's last ride, put it on the truck,
and fired up the awsome Yamaha in it's brilliant yellow and black paint.
Fourteen turns and fifty one gear changes later, I was way off the BSA's time.
I parked the Yamaha, pulled the old BSA back off the truck, and went back to
racing.
Yeah, that Yamaha had 48 HP aqlright, at something like 7600 RPM. It was only
seven HP up to seven thousand RPM, then jumped to 35 HP from 7000 to 7200, and
then to 48 HP by 7600 - - - something real close to that. If it accidentally
slipped below 7000 at any point, you lost everything except the base seven HP
and it took a quarter mile to get back up "on the pipe" again. That's when I
learned that no matter what the dyno says, or what published HP is - - what
really matters is how that HP and tourque come together out on the race track.
DIck J
In East Texas
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