The BritishV8 Pub

Actually, it was April, 1993..but I'll spot that one to you.

The vin number was 000251 (which was historic of MZG models having the first off of the line starting with 251...which incidentally was also the telephone exchage in for the assembly plant in Agingdon)....

BTW....printed material remains REALLY significant in my book.

:)

You're up, Curtis!

Rick wrote:

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BTW....printed material remains REALLY significant in my book.

You need to embrace progress, as Cecil Kimber's daughter Jean so eloquently blogged:

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I was taught that life without growth become death-in-life.

She continued her warning to M.G. "purists" thusly:

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If the M.G. enthusiasts that abound around here and abroad ignore the future, their passionate interest will become an obsession with the dead, and the real M.G., the evolving M.G., will be no more.

(Okay, she actually wrote that in the preface to "M.G. by McComb", 2nd edition, but if I hunt around the internet for awhile I'll probably find a digitized copy.)

I'll post a new trivia question shortly... something forward-looking and lively that can't be found in any printed reference.

X

It's actually a good book, Curtis. I bought it many, many years ago.

MG V8 Twenty-One Years On... From Introduction to RV8 by David Knowles

[www.aptfast.com]

There's a fine line between statistics and trivia. At the risk of crossing it...

One measure of an internet message board's health is how many new threads are being started.

For the month of January 2009, I've carefully counted exactly how many threads have been started on the following four popular forums pertaining to modified classic British sports cars:

(A.) The MG BBS's "MGB Engine Conversions" Section

(B.) The MG Experience's "MGB V6/V8" Forum

(C.) The Six Pack Forum's "Upgrades" Section (for modified Triumph TR6's)

(D.) The British V8 Forum (for all modified, classic British sports cars)

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Here are the results in random order:

(1.) 10 newly-started message threads

(2.) 59 newly-started message threads

(3.) 78 newly-started message threads

(4.) 3 newly-started message threads

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The trivia question:

Correctly match the forums (by letter) with the thread-count statistics (by number).



Note: to keep this trivia question manageable, I left out The TEAE Modified-Tiger and Modified-Alpine Forums (combined) which had 3 new threads in January, and The Moss Motors Forum which has 14 sub-forums that are labeled "Performance", but those 14 forums had only 5 new threads (total) in January. That's all the message boards I know offhand with designated forums specifically for modified British cars.

Obviously A and 4 go together.
Probably C goes with 1.
And since Curtis is bragging then it's just remotely possible D goes with 3 and B goes with 2, though those last 2 could be reversed. You do realize of course that statistics show that 96.8% of all statistics are incorrect....

Jim

Jim is absolutely correct!

I think these particular statistics are pretty accurate, but the question is what to infer from them. The breakdown of new threads per sub-forum was: Pub-12, Journals-6, MG-16, Triumph-3, Healey-3, Other-4, Racing-3, Drivetrain-11, Handling-2, Bodywork-1, Classifieds-17. Moving the "pub" section to the top seems to have helped a lot. I think there's tremendous room for further growth in all eleven forum areas, but BritishV8 is certainly picking up steam.

Great goin', Curtis!

OK, today's question is going to be a combination trivia question and tech tip, and one or two of you who have been paying attention will know the answer right away. It has to do with the venerable BOPR engine. When stroking this engine to achieve higher displacements (no funnybusiness here, I'm talking about increasing the stroke.... uh this just keeps getting deeper, that is, using a different crank.... jeez I hope the womenfolk miss this.... OK say you want to use a 300 or 340 crank in a 215 block or a P76 block to create a bigger engine. We all know camshaft clearance is a concern. What is it about the cam that means a super high lift grind will clear as easily as the stock mild one?

I'll grant you it's an easy question, but it's not a good day for trivia here so let's just go with it and someone else can take over.

Jim

Okay. The base circle of the cam.

A cam ground using a a smaller diameter core with have increased clearance with the rods.

There are tradeoffs when using a small base circle cam. The lift will be limited and/or the lifter wear may be accelerated in extreme examples. Greater rocker arm ratios & roller lifters can help if a large cam is needed.

Close enough Carl.

In the case of the SBB and BOPR engines, the cam is already considered (by cam grinders) to be a reduced base circle cam, but high ratio rockers help to offset the disadvantages. In these particular engines the limiting factor is the diameter that the nose of the cam lobe represents if you were to take that point and make a complete circle concentric with the cam's rotational axis. This generally speaking will also be the diameter of the cam bearing journals, and this point cannot be extended outward any more without risking interference with the rods and/or making it impossible to install the cam due to interference with the cam bearings.

To get more lift, the cam grinder cuts into the base circle still further, reducing the base circle by the amount of additional lift required. This means of course, that any significant increase in lift is going to require different pushrods, whether the cam is described as having a reduced base circle or not. The high ratio rockers help here too, as a moderate lift increase of say .050" is only going to increase the pushrod length by .031" which the lifters *may* be able to take up.

So if you've ever installed a slightly hotter cam and then wondered why your lifters tapped occasionally, here's your answer.

Jim

Busy weekend, so I'll defer to someone new.

Webster says...

"de·fer"
Pronunciation: \di-ˈfər\
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): de·ferred; de·fer·ring
Etymology: Middle English deferren, differren, from Middle French differer, from Latin differre to postpone, be different — more at differ

Definition:
1 : put off, delay
2 : to postpone induction of (a person) into military service

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If someone else wants to step up and ask a trivia question, that's cool...

But I tend to think it's Carl's responsibility not to leave us "put off", "delayed", or "postponed" any further!

Yeah Carl, surely there's something you know that we don't ;-) It ain't like we're in a hurry or anything.

Jim

Yes there is, but I can't discuss it on a public forum. :)

Which British car company is named after the co-founder's first name & which models sported V8 engines?

I hope you mean TVR, otherwise I have no idea...

Their V8s - Griffith (assuming you are counting it as a TVR), Tuscan, 400/450, V8S, Griffith (modern), Chimerae, Cerbera
I think I missed a couple, and I wasn't counting all the 2500s with 302s in them.

You're turn Alan!

Here's one that should provoke a little debate - or a lot of Google.
What's the highest output (bhp, not torque) naturally aspirated v8 engine ever fitted to a production vehicle?
Limited production and homologation is fine, one offs and race cars aren't.

Wow - two and a half days and not a single guess.
Perhaps I should make it more relevant to this crowd.

Here goes:
What's the most powerful naturally aspirated engine ever fitted to an MGB?