The standing mile, THAT video, and engine specs
Discussion
An excited customer in for mapping was just showing me a facebook thread this morning whilst he dropped his car off - asking if his cerb could really do that famous clarkson drag race run - and it prompted me to start thinking ..
The clarkson vid shows the Cerb doing the standing mile in just over the half minute .. and people start saying yes but TVR did a race engine / it was a 4.5, 4.7 4.everything / it had the wrong induction for a 4.2 etc etc etc
Thing is though, a quick google shows that both longbow and byker28i have had their cerbs down the standing mile in around 31 seconds, so IF TVR provided that Clarkson drag race cerb with a special engine they didn't try very hard if relatively standard cerbs in the hands of mere mortals can match the time .. so it was a standard-ish spec engine output irrespective of what intake it had?
Two other points I was thinking about .. people say that drag race cerb was dynoed at bang on factory figures, but it was the autocar test car that was dynoed not the drag race car (the autocar test was was 99 percent sure running the 4.2 induction - can anyone confirm?) ..
Also it says colin blower did the driving .. well he did the circuit driving I'm pretty sure (and credited on the vhs box? I would have to dig it out to check) but I was told that the actual drag race runs were driven by John Ravenscroft .. does anyone actually KNOW for sure who drove what ?
Was anyone on PH actually there that day and can remember what went on ? Or heard info direct from the horse's mouth (eg from Colin Blower direct - sadly we can't ask him himself now , or John Ravenscroft .. ?)
Would love to put this to bed, or is it better to have it argued over for decades to come and never know for sure ???
The clarkson vid shows the Cerb doing the standing mile in just over the half minute .. and people start saying yes but TVR did a race engine / it was a 4.5, 4.7 4.everything / it had the wrong induction for a 4.2 etc etc etc
Thing is though, a quick google shows that both longbow and byker28i have had their cerbs down the standing mile in around 31 seconds, so IF TVR provided that Clarkson drag race cerb with a special engine they didn't try very hard if relatively standard cerbs in the hands of mere mortals can match the time .. so it was a standard-ish spec engine output irrespective of what intake it had?
Two other points I was thinking about .. people say that drag race cerb was dynoed at bang on factory figures, but it was the autocar test car that was dynoed not the drag race car (the autocar test was was 99 percent sure running the 4.2 induction - can anyone confirm?) ..
Also it says colin blower did the driving .. well he did the circuit driving I'm pretty sure (and credited on the vhs box? I would have to dig it out to check) but I was told that the actual drag race runs were driven by John Ravenscroft .. does anyone actually KNOW for sure who drove what ?
Was anyone on PH actually there that day and can remember what went on ? Or heard info direct from the horse's mouth (eg from Colin Blower direct - sadly we can't ask him himself now , or John Ravenscroft .. ?)
Would love to put this to bed, or is it better to have it argued over for decades to come and never know for sure ???
tejr said:
Fwiw, my old clatter cam 4.2 was far revvier than my 4.5. I wonder if the more aggressive cams can be fitted to a 4.5?
The 4.5 always falls short because of its intake design but that less revvy nature is mostly just down to the mapping .. very good on the 4.2, but done by Stevie Wonder's less talented second cousin on the 4.5The clatter cams, and indeed tuscan racer cams, seem to add very little/nothing to the hp in my experience. Best std tuscan race car I ever saw made just 380hp
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