OT: an ignition problem.

[thirty-six]

Where do think they got it from, OUTER BLEEDIN SPACE.

1000 miles of Joe Bloggs, line foreman going to and from work.

That's not what I heard about BL, the vehicles were serviced to specification, not to a performance gain.

Ford though were certainly practising advanced running-in techniques on the road (saw with my own eyes in my early days of distance cycling) and probably the majority of dodges you suspect as Fords were always faster on paper despite less advanced engines. In practise along came the Vauxhall Nova and Belmont which certainly had its day. Again it seems that Vauxhall did not enhance their claims, on the road their vehicles performed well. The only regular Ford engine I've seen of note was fitted to a 1.8 Mondeo possibly 6 years ago. No other regular Ford has come close to the performance with the little Maestro engine or later with the 16V 1.4 K-series as implemented in the first Rover 214si bubbles.

[thirty-six]

It was evidential in my road trials, there seemed little to choose between 35, 36 or 37psi but 34psi was certainly slower and 38psi was tending to slip and would occasionaly result in slower times. There was also a roundabout were I was losing much grip in the wet so it wasn't feasable ever to pass 37psi. Ultimately 36psi was chosen to help reduce the transmission of road noise and to provide more feedback at the steering wheel for when giving it some in the bends. This was the best pressure to feel the lightening-off when tyres are near their limit and gives a more controlled break-away. Once one is driving at this level it makes a mockery of the manufacturers specifications for tyre pressure.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Is that were all your information comes from?

You said otherwise.

And making sure it was a decently running one.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That'll be why the Maestro unit was so popular for other cars and in competition while the Ford ones not? Wally.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Tyre pressures are chosen to give the best compromise between grip under all weather conditions, comfort and wear. If you wish to optimise for just one of these you'd use specialised tyres as well as pressures.

[Huge]

I can only assume you're deriving some kind of perverse pleasure from continuing to talk to this eejit.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

There is the occasional interesting bit.

[thirty-six]

Ford Motorsport , geddit? There was no equivalent support from BL. You bought Ford and you could empty your wallet each month at the dealership counter for some more improvements, cause Ford left plenty of room.

[thirty-six]

It appears to me that the choice for such low front tyre pressures chosen by the manufacturer is to promote understeer, something considered a safety advantage in front wheel drive. It caters for the inexperienced driver in having a more stable handling. As I am well aware and skilled in how to handle front wheel slip under acceleration, cornering and braking I prefer my tyres to work and actually track somewhere near where I point the wheels.

[grimly4]

I'm bloody sure there was. Chrysler also had a motorsport department.

[thirty-six]

Not outside of the 6R4

[The Other Mike]

[The Other Mike]

The only thing he should have been looking at is the padded walls of a secure unit.

[The Other Mike]

No it didn't, not in the slightest.

They would have been non resistive plugs as standard as BL had used resistive leads for many decades.

875kg

Stunning, maybe you should have tried firing at 50 deg ATDC to see even further 'improvements'

Even that ignition timing retardation?

That'll be why they got better torque figures and a flatter torque curve with single port injection on the Mini then, and why it's impossible to get 90bhp on a 1000cc Mini 7 engine without dumping the

1.5" SU, but you can do it with a single port of a 40DCOE Weber, but don't let facts get in the way of your Maestro 1.3 A series fantasy.

85bhp, are you claiming 85bhp from your 'roadgoing, standard spec' 1275cc A series?

You don't even know the in gear acceleration times either

Yes you would.

[The Other Mike]

If you wanted to race or rally in a recognised category, you went direct to the factory competition department (in later years at Cowley) and the parts arrived on your doorstep next day. If you bent the vehicle and needed 'standard' parts then the savings by buying those direct were astronomical - they cost less 'retail' than a dealer would pay. Of course if you were a nobody, say someone tweaking a Maestro 1.3 to apparently accelerate faster than a rat with a JATO pod attached to it, then they would have simply ignored you and pissed themselves laughing...20 odd years on I can see why they would do that.

[The Other Mike]

So am I, and I've probably still got invoices from them stuffed in a box file. I even have their address, telephone and fax number in an old diary from 1998 that I have above my desk

Rover Group Motor Sport Parts PO Box 72 Oxford OX4 2HB

Excellent service (next day delivery if faxed through before noon) and prices on parts that left the main dealers and 'alternative suppliers' envious of what competitors in recognised championships could buy parts for - no bulk buying, but you could always buy enough for each registered vehicle and 100% spares without a problem.

[grimly4]

Oi! Don't diss the mighty SU!

[thirty-six]

Er, I did the tests side by side. Using a 40 weight oil in the piston damper there was a delayed opening time. I was needing a four second opening to take advantages of the adjustments I made. The oil I used may have been 15 weight, I think the SU spec is 20.

Original plugs were resistive as were dealer replacements.

Or somewhere between the two, I never did hang it from my spring balance. If I wanted it to lose weight I'd have replaced the side glass for plastic, although it was light enough.

I did retard the ignition further than the ideal performance point, but only by 2 deg IIRC.

The 4deg retardation on the specified timing was essential, a final test of knocking it to adv by 2 deg confirmed this.

The Maestro which was possibly producing that power was using a HIF44, a bit bigger.

Yes, that also is a bit bigger and doesn't suffer with some knob using heavy engine oil in an SU damper.

I don't give a toss for the published figures. That engine accelerated hard up to 85mph and would cruise at that speed, sounding sweet, without a hiccup

[thirty-six]

... because in later years with more tyre wear I checked the speedo against timings made with motorway 1/2 km markers. To make a road speed of 120km/h (a marker every 15 seconds), I needed an indicated

126or127km/h

[thirty-six]

No thanks, I don't want any skin treatment.