Richard writes:
> Oh, so YOU got the Diesel version eh!!!! :-)
>
> 57Bhp, that's less than my 73 MkIV 1300, either 61, 63 or 67Bhp, depending on
> which roadtest you read. NOW THAT IS GUTLESS!!!!!!! :-)
Now wait just a cotton pick en' second! I'll have you know that my
'74 is *significantly* quicker than my garden tractor. Okay...to be
fair, the compression on my garden tractor has fallen off over the
last decade or so, but even on it's best day it would be NO CONTEST.
...I think.
Bobby Sykes writes:
>It gets worse :-(
>According to Robson's book; 57HP was the spec for 73 & 74 US Spits.
>In '75 the air pump & EGR valve was added. No HP figure is mentioned,
>but we can assume it went down. For '76 the CR reportedly went up
>to 9:0 to 1 but, Robson writes; "Power outputs no longer officially
>quoted." for this and subsequent years. This is interesting (to me
>at least). If there was an increase in HP for '76, BL didn't make
>it known.
>My Bentley manual (for 75-77 model years) lists a whopping *53HP*,
>presumably for all three years. There is little other published data
>on later year Spit HP. I wonder why? ;-)
Ah Ha! See that Jackson? Fifty *three* HP. And you had the nerve to
call MY car gutless! :-) <Sorry Bobby....hate to throw you to the
wolves like this, but after that crack about my accordion...>
>This latest emissions thread has spun in some interesting directions.
>The concensus seems that _most_ of the emissions devices were not
>detrimental to the power output of the car. Removing them only gave
>the illusion of better performance.
Okay....lemme take a stab at this Bobby. Here's my best *guess* at
where the missing 18 HP went in the UK versus federal Spit 1500.
Trying to put them in order of impact...not entirely possible as one
affects the other.
Carburation
Exhaust manifold
Compression
EGR/AIR
Double valve springs <revs?>
Items that have no H.P.impact:
PVC
Evaporative control
Heated air intake
Auto choke
TVS on radiator hose
I'm interested to hear other folks opinions on this. I know that the
federal heads changed a bit over the 1500 production run...not sure
about the UK heads tho'. Not sure about cams either.
>I think another reason they are (were) removed is that they tend to
>fail gradually, causing poor running and other performance problems.
>This goes unnoticed at first. When it gets bad enough to be a real
>problem, the "fix" is removing the EGR etc. This produces an apparant
>increase in HP. This is exactly what the local LBC expert garage did
>to my car in the early '80s when I took it to them because it wasn't
>running right. No-one inspected cars for emissions related stuff in
>NC back then.
>Bob Sykes & '78 (diesel) Spitfires
>(One of which passed the annual "sniff" this morning)
Glad you passed okay...you *did* replace that missing EGR, right? :-)
Regards...Tom O'Malley
'74 Spitdiesel, '77 Shrewmower
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