--- "George P." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > 1. Brakes - Tandem master cylinder operating front > and rear brakes independently. I thought I read > (granted this was a long time ago) that the dual > circuits operated on diagonals - LR/RF on one > circuit, and RR/LF on the other. Supposedly for > more stability under braking if one circuit is lost. > Yes/no?
Diagonal circuits are better in loss of pressure in one circuit, but it's also more expensive to produce since it requires two proportioning valves. "Expensive" doesn't go with "Spitfire," hence both fronts on one and both rears on the other as Joe pointed out. > 2. Chassis data - many measurements have "(2 up > condition)" after them. What does that mean? Interpret "2 up" as "2 aboard." Most obvious would be changes in overall height, rear camber, and acceleration specs. > 3. Gearbox - what does the "overall" ratio tell us? > I figured out that the overall is the gear ratio > multiplied by the final drive ratio, but I still > don't understand what that's telling me... In the good ol' days, all transmissions had a 1:1 top gear, so the final drive ratio was equal to the overall ratio - knowing the final drive was good enough to compare two cars. Once internal overdrives (e.g., most 5-speeds) and external overdrives (e.g., Spitfire) became available, though, the overall ration was NOT 1.0 x the final ratio. You had to know the final drive ratio AND the top gear ratio to calculate revs/mile or cruising revs at various speeds. Rather than do the math for each case, the overall ratio became a more important spec for comparison purposes. For example (made up), a car with a .8 top (5th) gear and a 5:1 rear end would cruise at the same rpm as a car with a 1:1 top gear and a 4:1 rear end because they each have an overall ratio of 4:1. And before someone says "no car has a 5:1 rear end," the '66 Alfa Romeo Giulia TI I owned had a 5.12:1 rear end (with a 5-speed). M D "Doc" Nugent Renton, WA (USA) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam *** http://www.team.net/the-local *** Your messages not reaching the list? Check out http://www.team.net/posting.html *** unsubscribe/change address requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or try *** http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool *** http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo *** Archives at http://www.team.net/archive *** Edit your replies!
