[VintageLambo] Re: 400GT on a chassis dyno...

Fred, I happen to have a dyno curve output from the Espada 400 GT circa 1970. Apparently, the original purchaser of my car was a bit anal and retentive, and demanded the figures with the car. Someone else may have the same sheet I have labeled "Curve Di Potenza, Coppia E Consumo. SPECIFICO" Showing the HP, torque and fuel consumption for the 3929 engine. Of course ithas a nice french curve line with no data points still on it (damn draftsmen). However, given the intake runners, carb throat per cylinder, compression ratio, cam profile, and tuned exhaust. I would say that 89HP per liter on premium leaded fuel from the late 60s is doable. The change to a 4 valve head provides about 35% more volume area for gas flow, but now were running up against the limits on intake velocity and peaky torque curves achieved at outragious RPM. I suspect some of the "numbers" we get regarding HP are inflated, and then there is the arbitrary nature of the measurment. Is it "gross" or "net"? Is it SAE or DIN? Has the number been massaged to take friction inefficiency into account? Was the strain meter calibrated and read correctly? Blah, blah... I know the HP stated for my pre-war Cord is either; 155, 175, or 190. As I"ve seen each of these numbers used in reference to the model I have. Also, isn"t it interesting that the figures are nicely rounded to the nearest 5 or 10 HP? I would trust something like "346 HP at 7422RPM" indicating that a continuious load vs strain were performed. This type of test was very difficult in the 60s. Bizzarini built some of the best engines in the world in the mid-60s. I still have a lot of faith in his engineering and design. Maybe papa Lambo had a happy, loose dyno in those days... Doc --- In VintageLambo@yahoogroups.com, "lamboguy " wrote: > Hi Bill, > > You"re right, it"s non-stock and wasn"t running right.But, it"s > close to stock, and was close to running right (I"d guess the valve > float is pretty typical for our stock motors). > > Point being -- which I didn"t spell out -- is that even with all > the "dialing in" the motor still only hit about 250hp, which is just > a bit more than the 220ish that REV"s dynoed at.And certainly well > short (sadly) of the 320ish the factory was claiming. > > Anyway, I"m with you, I"d like to see the real dyno curves of all our > various stock motors.Makes that original 380ish that Bizzarrini > came up with even that more impressive! > > Best, > > Fred