Message text written by "R. Ashford Little II"
>Wow Dave, I didn't realize that it was choked down that much. My
father's Plus 8, was supposedly pushing close to 200 hp with FI, and
picked up a few more with the Offy head and 4 barrel.
That must be one small exhaust manifold.
<
I don't know what year your father's Plus 8 is but I'll bet it has higher
compression ratio as well as better flowing in the induction and the
extraction. The TR8 manifolds aren't small, per se, but stubby. They feed
into the catalytic converters which are right close. Short exhaust runners
don't benefit high RPM operation the way that longer runners do and since
the horse power ratings are simply the peak horsepower which comes at a
high RPM (which is very rarely - if ever - seen by a street car) it
issomewhat deceptive. The stock TR8 boasts 173 (or so) Lb-Ft of torque
which makes for a very flexible engine. You don't have to keep the rev's
up to enjoy spritely performance.
A couple of years ago, on our annual Polar Bear Run (February) I was
following an MG and could hear his upshifts and downshifts and I noticed
that we were 180 degrees out of phase. I was downshifting on the down
hills (for the compression braking) and upshifting on the uphills since I
had sufficient torque in the higher gears. But the MG had to downshift to
get up those same hills. I boasted that I was driving an "Anti-MG." The
MG folk were not amused.
But the lower compression ratio is the primary culprit in horsepower
reduction. There are no easy, bolt-on horsepower devices. (well, except
for the exhaust manifold on the TR8's).
Cheers
Dave
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