OT: Driving electric cars in winter

[Huge]

I suspect those situations are mostly covered by UAVs, or should be.

[The Natural Philosopher]

WEll the Tucano is probably pretty similar performance wise.

a squadron of tucanos = one eurofighter

[The Natural Philosopher]

I got my spitfire up to about 115mph with an 'uprated' engine

[Tim Streater]

Interesting. You'd also think that a carrier-based version would be useful.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Don't think a largish saloon like an SD1 would do too well with a 1500cc (max) engine. ;-)

It's the same basic engine. Just twin carbs and possibly some minor alterations. Although the last Spitfires were enlarged to 1500 cc.

[hgww]

In fact that is what drones are about.

[hgww]

Pity about the cost of the carrier and the full carrier battle group that is needed to ensure that it will last very long when you use it.

The short story is that its only the US that can afford that route anymore.

Britain just doesn?t have anything much that a carrier would be any use for anymore and can't afford to run full carrier battlegroups.

[Davey]

The main difference internally was a better camshaft, and white metal bearings for it, instead of just running in the block material. My car also had a Spitfire overdrive gearbox, and a special short drive shaft made to fit.

Happy memories.

[Fredxxx]

As far as I can tell the main different was 1147cc vs 1296cc.

Do you have any evidence of the difference in bearings? The last time I stripped them down they both had conventional steel backed shells.

[Davey]

For the 13/60 Herald and as far as I know, the Spitfire engine I bought and rebuilt, the engine capacity was 1296 for both.

The rebuild was a long time ago, but that was what I believe was the case. I have no way of confirming it now, all evidence is now gone. If I am proved wrong, then so be it.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The engine dated back to long before the Herald etc. In much the same way as the Mini one did.

[Vir Campestris]

Top speed and acceleration.

Andy

[Vir Campestris]

OK, so I've shown that an engine with power or torque that low down is not only possible, but in some circumstances desirable, even though you said it was pointless or impossible.

I've given you evidence that the power of an engine, not its torque, controls car performance. I haven't looked it up this time, but that evidence show that torque doesn't matter. (see BMW's published figures)

You're obviously incapable of doing the simple arithmetic that demonstrates that given suitable gearing peak power, not peak torque, maximises the force at the wheels.

And yet you continue to insist in the face of this evidence that torque does matter, and that power is a side effect.

This is obviously a belief that you will hold in the face of all reasoned argument and evidence, and I will not waste my time any further.

Andy

p.s. no, I don't remember what hire car I last had. It had wheels, it didn't break down, and I wasn't paying for it. And I had work to think about.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I assumed you were discussing car engines. Not trucks, ships, planes or trains.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

And you are totally wrong. The maximum acceleration occurs at peak torque, not peak BHP.

[Mike Barnes]

FWIW I think he's totally right. My guess is that your arithmetic is fine, but you're not fully appreciating the effect of "suitable gearing" being different for the two cases.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Exactly. "Suitable gearing" will translate peak power at the flywheel to peak torque at the road-wheel.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Makes no difference. A gearbox multiplies torque by its ratio (less friction etc losses).

So the same sort of change to the torque at maximum BHP as at maximum torque. As I keep on saying, torque and BHP ain't independant things. And just about every engine ever built has the peak torque at lower revs than maximum BHP.

At the end of the day, torque can be regarded as the twisting force on the driving wheels. The larger that force, the greater the rate speed increases.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Stick to politics, turnip. You obviously understand this discussion even less.

[Clive George]

Do you agree that with an appropriate CVT, the maximum acceleration will be at peak BHP for the engine?