6/9/2011

I cannot believe how quickly this year is going by. It’s already almost halfway through June? Wow. If things keep up like this, John is going to have a tough time with his “End of the World” deadline for getting his 1200 back on the road. I guess if I could keep him from working on my shit while we’re at the shop we/he could get more work done on his car. That’s going to be tough to do I'm afeared. Well, we’ll see I guess. I think the plan for Saturday is to continue trying to get Barbecue Bob back up and maybe mess with Lil' Wiggly at the same time. If it weren’t so damned hot I could work on Lil' Wiggly outside while they are inside with Barbecue Bob. I suppose I could erect the canopy over Lil' Wiggly and try to get the interior finished up. Hmm, I guess I'll plan on doing that. Hopefully, with the canopy and a breeze, I won't die out there. Oh well, some thing's going to kill me someday. May as well be something I “enjoy.” I wonder if I otter drive Fifi Saturday. It has been over a week since that truck has moved. Yeah, I guess I ort to do that. I wonder if it has any gasoline. I guess I'll find out Saturday, won't I? Won’t I? Hairlip! Hairlip! Oh wait, that’s not how that joke goes. Never mind. Did I mention the depressing math I did the other day? If so, deal with it again. If not... I was thinking about how I'm always saying The Seven “may have one hundred horsepower.” Well, it might if it would rev past 5,500 RPM. The way it is “tuned” right now though, it stumbles at around that speed and won't go much past there, if at all. Since horsepower equals torque at 5,500 RPM (or 5,252 depending on who you ask), and I'm sure that little bastard does not make 100 foot pounds of torque, that 100 horsepower guess is not very likely at all. In fact, if Juan assumes that the work I've done to the engine bumps the stock 83 foot pounds to 90, then I'm still only making 82 horsepower at 5,000 and 90 at 5,500 RPM (or 5,252 depending on who you ask). OK, I just did a little more math and made a graph of the stock horsepower and torque. They cross at 75 (foot pounds and/or horsepower). Moving the torque line up to a peak of 90 foot pounds at the same 3,600 RPM as stock, and the corresponding 6,000 RPM torque number up to 80 foot pounds to follow the stock torque “curve,” we get 83 horsepower and/or foot pounds at 5,500 RPM (or 5,252 depending on who you ask). I guess it is a good thing the car only weighs 1,145 pounds! I guess old Colin Anthony Bruce Chapman knew what he was up to with all that “adding lightness” stuff. Were we, The Seven and I, to go on diets, performance would improve too. I'm not sure just how much more weight I could shave out of The Seven though. Any performance gains will have to be through proper tuning and weight loss on my part. Holy crap! It is almost 1600 h already! I guess I'll start shutting shit down so I can get out of here. I may have something to say tomorrow, but don't hold your breath.