[DeTomaso] Gearing

[John Taphorn]

Mike is correct.  I rode in the Dennis Yogi's Hawaii 5-0 car was very 
impressed with every aspect of it.  I had no idea that the early cars were 
so good.  It had outstanding acceleration and the suspension operated 
quietly and the car had no rattles.  It was among the nicest riding Panteras 
I had the pleasure to experience. I was very impressed.  The power contrasts 
sharply with the later cars - no comparison.

As most on the Forum are aware, Dennis owns another more aggressive Pantera 
that was up on a lift parked above the 5-0 and an absolutely gorgeous 
Mangusta that he has been cleaning up.  Also, among the nicer Gooses that my 
eyes have been treated to.  All parked in a garage attached to a house on a 
hill with a backyard porch that overlooks Pearl Harbor!  If only I had 
worked a little harder......  :^)

Dennis, also thanks for the sightseeing suggestions - we did find Leonard's 
and the aquarium.  Here, here for the Portuguese donuts.

JT
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <MikeLDrew at aol.com>
To: <adin at frontier.net>
Cc: <detomaso at realbig.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2008 2:13 AM
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Gearing


>
> In a message dated 1/4/08 13 08 0, adin at frontier.net writes:
>
>
>> "A real dog" - a stock (most)Pantera is a "real dog" with performance
>> not near the appearance.
>>
>>>>Actually, John Taphorn and I were just chatting about this on the phone
> the other day.   He was in Hawaii and Dennis Yogi kindly let him drive the
> Hawaii 5-0 pushbutton, which is BONE stock.   JT was shocked at how 
> incredibly fast
> it was.   The early cars with 310 hp really had performance to match their
> appearance--this was partially due to power, and partially to gearing.
>
> Tom Todak's car wouldn't pull the skin off a bowl of cooling butterscotch
> pudding.   It had a low-compression 351C which was old, and tired, and 
> then he
> put too-tall gears in the car (for that particular motor, which as I said
> generated something like 150-180 hp at the rear wheels on a chassis dyno). 
> THAT
> car was a real dog, no doubt about it.
>
> Putting a 550 hp 427 stroker in it fixed the problem entirely. :>)
>
>
>> One might need to select a lower gear for
>> the job, but the cruising (hiway, not burger king) advantages are more
>> realistic. I'll never understand why anyone would think a cleveland
>> should have to run @ 3500rpm in a cross country situation.
>>
>>>>Panteras used for highway cruising (which is to say, virtually all of
> them) really benefit from a taller .655 or .642 fifth gear, which drops 
> 500+ rpm
> at cruise.
>
> Depending on the cam profile and resultant torque curve, lower rpm doesn't
> automatically translate to better fuel ecoomy.   Years ago I read some 
> tests of
> non-Panteras, where they discovered that if a motor didn't have enough
> bottom-end torque, running with too-tall gears (too-low rpm) required a 
> greater
> throttle opening to maintain cruising speed, and DECREASED fuel economy. 
> In that
> article, one car in particular got better freeway mpg running in 4th gear
> rather than 5th.   'Lugging' an engine is never good for economy.   But I 
> agree,
> there's no need to spin it at 3500-4000 rpm on the freeway either!
>
>
>> The
>> Cleveland is, by most standards, just a little gurly-man motor - but
>> still has sufficient "oomph" to have reasonable gearing. By "real
>> dog" Mike must mean it won't do wheelies.
>>
>>>>I could probably have kicked the crap out of Tom's old Pantera setup 
>>>>with
> my 85 hp Scirocco.   Not anymore though!!!!!
>
> Mike
>
>
>
> **************
> Start the year off right.  Easy ways to stay in shape.
>
> http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489
> _______________________________________________
>
> Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
>
> Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
>
> DeTomaso mailing list
> DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
> http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso