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From: hkr4627@acf4.UUCP (Hedley K. J. Rainnie)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: big block vs 4-bangers
Message-ID: <330015@acf4.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 3-Mar-85 18:24:00 EST
Article-I.D.: acf4.330015
Posted: Sun Mar  3 18:24:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 6-Mar-85 04:02:19 EST
References: <281@oblio.UUCP>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 36


I think that people tend to forget that a car's accelleration should be
considered in two dimensions, i.e., made up of two orthogonal vectors,
one in the direction of travel, one perpendicular.  Thus, straightline
forward acceleration, lateral acceleration and braking are all equally
important to a "good handling car"  (Interestingly, I've never heard of
a school of automotive enthusiasts who covet braking performance over all
others.)

I agree with Jeff that a '63+ Corvette with a big block does well as
a good handling car with these parameters.

Also, when we extoll the virtues of American cars, the inevitable response
is, "well, what about the Lamborghini so and so, or the Porsche 917..."
That's a pretty childish response.  After all, Jeff OWNS an L-88 Corvette,
I OWN a 427 Vette (only an L-72 unfortunately).  Can these detractors
claim to own their Porsches, Ferraris, etc?  Chances are that they own a
VW Dasher and drool like high-schoolers over issues of Car & Driver.

I think an interesting thing about guys who own american hi-po cars is that
they like to work on their cars.  Hi performance driving is fun, but what's
even more fun is driving after doing work on your car and seeing how well it
turned out.  Since my Vette is my only car, I haven't been able to take out
of service to do anything radical, but I did install triple carburetion,
Hooker sidemount headers, FE7 stabilizers, F-41 springs front and rear,
and Konis.  I used to have to change the sidemounts with a hooker/thrush
underbody system and back again every year to pass NJ auto inspections.
I must have had a bad starter in and out of the car about ten times.
By the way, doing work on your only car can be  very amusing.  It
can be a lot of fun breaking loose balljoints at 3:00 in the morning knowing
you'll have to work all night because you need the car in the day.  I
have a 3HP compressor, and on a few occaisions my neighbor has threatened
to call the police if I didn't shut the damn thing off.  Oh well, such is
the price of automotive devotion.

(signed) "R"