Daniel,
here is Seattle, if I was to commute by car, I would sit still for about 50%
of the time, do stop and go for another 30% and go annoyingly slow for the
remaining 20%.
An idle at 1500rpm that still isn't all that smooth is no fun under those
circumstances.
When I started building my motor (over 2 years ago), the Sprite was my only
car and I wanted it to be everything to me, including a hot sportscar. In
the meantime, I have found a great example of my other favorite car (I have
owned three of each), a '74 X1/9 which, at least to me, lends itself better
to fulfilling the role of the hopped up sportscar. Now I want the Sprite to
be the car for around town, for nice cruises along the coast, for car club
drives (that are usually way too slow). That is not saying that I would put
the suspension back to stock or that I don't want the overbored motor
anymore, but if I have two cars, why not make them different in purpose and
each one less of a compromise?
Also, we have gone over this before, the "hotter" the performance part, the
more care must be taken in setting it up, the more important it is that the
rest of the engine matches the part installed. Many are not prepared to get
into matching the length of the ram pipe to the duration of the cam
<dramatization>, etc. and just want a reasonable improvement with little
work required and few accompanying disadvantages. Personally, I like to
keep my engine compartment completely stock looking (for various reasons)
and don't have the money for an APT head, LCB and Maniflow exhaust, high
lift roller rockers, etc.
I think enthusiasts over here who are as serious about their engines as you
are, are using as hot a cam as the rest of the world. :-)
Ulix
on 11/15/00 12:31 PM, Daniel1312@aol.com at Daniel1312@aol.com wrote:
> Hi list,
>
> Perhaps it has a lot to do with how Americans drive, but I can't understand
> why all of you guys (and gals) have this thing about mild cams (mild beer??).
> My car has a 286S Kent cam in it and I drive the car to the shops. I
> switched to the 286 from a Piper 270 because the 270 was tooo mild. Although
> a bit on the radical side there are road going A-series engines with 296 Kent
> cams in them. Given that out and out race cams are pretty much in the 300s
> why opt for these mild 266 type profiles.
>
> The cam choice also seems at odds with your carburettor choice. There seems
> to be little hesitation to switch a road going car to a Weber Sidedraught
> whereas in the UK owners are more likely to stay with SUs even with 276 or
> 286 type profiles.
>
> Daniel1312
>
--
Ulix __/__,__ ___/__|\__
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http://www.mirafiori.com/~ulix/ '67 Sprite '74 X1/9
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