Cams

[Stanton]

Glad you chimed in WB some of these VW people still wear blinkers and need to do a bit of research to broaden their motoring knowledge.

[Stanton]

Back in the 90's I used to hillclimb my MK1 and the fastest car in class (and 2 seconds over 40 seconds faster than me) was a 1.6 1982 Passat driven by a woman. Her husband was a mechanical engineer and built the engine. I spoke to him about how fast the Passat was and his benchmark was Holden V8s. If it was slower than the V8 he would give it a tune.

I also spoke to his wife and she told me she could go at least a second faster but didn't want to embarrass her husband by being too fast.

And don't diss the 1.6, they were used in Formula 2 for many a year and produced some big hp numbers.

Cheers

Paul

In the 90s Holden V8s were putting out up to 600 hp and a cheap build with a big carb and Yella Terror heads Jones cam was an easy 450 hp a 1.6 Passat might have reached 160 hp so engineer friend was full of you know what.
As for formula 2 the class was single cam production motors which the Golf was popular in the 1970s,trouble was some reached 190 hp then blew up,they made the numbers but wouldn't go the distance for long.They were big dollar builds with expensive high compression pistons fancy conrods,crankshafts etc and even used specially cast heads by VW Germany on the quiet if you paid them lots.
In Australia carbs were used and 48 mm Webers were the thing.
For the cost of a F2 build one could buy 10 or more Hondas.

[sports racer]

Fully agree with what's said but at the time (mid to late 80's) getting big power out of a Holden V8 required some serious building skills. A standard 308 had 140hp and most modified ones had less than 250 hp but there were always exceptions. My Brother's LX Torana ran a 302 Chev Nascar motor and would rev to 8000 rpm but it cost more than the car to build. My Bolwell Nagari had a 289 with quad 48 IDA's and took a year to pay off. The quickest car I knew of was a Holden van that had $20,000 spent just on the motor. In contrast a VW 1600 motor could be made to rev to 8000 rpm quite cheaply and with some decent head work and cam/carbies/extractors was quick at the time. The Golf's and Passats weighed considerably less too.

Yes, later model Jap engines would produce lots more power but that would come in the years to follow.

I used to have a 1962 Austin Lancer with a MGB 1800 engine running Ford V8 intake valves and Holden V8 exhaust valves. Add a wild cam, webbers and a custom exhaust and that thing would easily outrun a 308 Holden.

Remember, this all happened a long, long time ago, before Japanese motors became the easily tuneable things that we all know and love.

[Stanton]

I do believe the poster is living in the present 2014.
You are joking 1800 MG vs a 308 Holden .
Put both in the same chassis for true comparison (not an Austin )
Mod the 308 similar to the cough cough MG and what ? you could still out run it.
Dreamin !
We should stop hijacking this guys thread with all this chest beating.

[sports racer]

Ah, the confidence of youth and lots of book reading.

Have a look at the old Modern Motor magazines for a real 1/4 mile time for these old Aussie V8's. Back in the 70's they were seriously slow with most doing high 15's/low 16's. Any seriously modded 4 cylinder could match those times and our little Austin's MGB 1800 was putting out close to 150hp in a light car. Good enough to do mid 15's which is crap compared to Jap cars but back in 1978 it was lots of fun.

My brother used to have a MK1 Cortina with 8x13 hotwires running 185x60x13 (that was BIG rubber back then) and he borrowed the Austin one night. He worked at a service station and his mates asked him where his Cortina was. He told them he's borrowed Grandad's old Austin and they jokingly asked if it could lay rubber. Andrew said he didn't know but he's willing to try. At the time the Austin was on 145x78x14s (yes, 78 profile! standard wheels and tyres for rego). While everone was laughing he took it to 6000 rpm and sidestepped the clutch. It smoked up the tyres in 1st, then 2nd and chirped them going into 3rd. When he brought it back to the servo everyone still had their jaws on the ground.

There were lots of times like that. It surprised people because they couldn't believe a car that looked like something Grandad would drive could be so quick. Yes, a modified V8 was faster but no-one expected our 1962 Austin to be quick which is what made it so much fun.

Never found out how fast it would go, best we did was 100 mph in 3rd with a 4 speed gearbox. Once towed a HQ panelvan over Hindmarsh hill in Canberra without skipping a beat, did it easily.

But you're right, no more thread hijacking.

Cheers

Paul