1/18/12

Some idiot just said something or other was open, “twenty four, seven, three sixty five.” So I said, “Just a little over seven years then?” I really hate it when people use that progression. Yes, there are twenty four hours in a day. Yes there are seven days in a week. But three hundred sixty five weeks, which is the next logical progression in that statement, is seven years and one week. While that would be a pretty good lifespan for a Gumment Motors vehicle, advertisements for which being another place I have seen this retarded ass progression used, it does not denote a continuation in perpetuity. What they should say is, “twenty four, seven, fifty two” to mean all day, every day. Ok, Juan could use my argument against me on this and say that we’re now only talking about one year. I suppose he might have a point. But, by leaving it with a completed progression, the assumption could be made that the next year will continue the cycle. Besides, unless Juan was to include decades or centuries, there really isn’t a convenient block of years to continue the progression. I suppose, “twenty four, seven, fifty two, ten, ten” would cover one hundred years, but then we’re just getting outrageous. My point is, people are fucking stupid and I hate them. Ok, so what can we talk about now? I've been thinking again about Rhonda's engine. While I think a Z-20 would be really bad ass, and probably the way we’ll go since there is one sitting there collecting dust, a warmed-over A-12 with a five-speed would be pretty cool too. For one thing, stock for stock, the Datsun engine makes five more horsepower than the Triumph lump. The Datsun donk will be lighter due to (tee hee, I said "doo doo!") the aluminum cylinder head. The Datsun uses five main bearings instead of three. And we have a shit ton of the damned things! I think I have a single DCOE manifold for a round-port A-series which, along with a header, otter bump us up to more than fifteen or twenty ponies more than the Triumph motor. Then there’s the fact that a well-built A-12 will rev to the moon compared to the Triumph. I don’t think it would be as quick as the Z-20 though. In fact, I'm sure of it. Of course John will want to point out that an A-12 in a Spit’ will be a tad slower than The Seven removing the superfluousity of that vehicle. Yes, I did just make up a word. I do that from time to time. Anyhoo, there’s that going on in my head. I went on line and had a look for some cam specs earlier and found that any “late” cam can be used in any A-series engine, early or late, but an “early” cam can only be used in an early engine. This means that any cam for an A-14 or A-15 will work in the A-12. The problem is, while there are several different grinds of stock cams, none are really all that different from the A-12’s original. I don’t know. I'll probably just plan on using the Z-20 and have a bad ass torque monster. What I need to concern myself with is taming that swing-arm rear suspension. See, the problem is that in droop the rear tires want to go into massive toe-out. So under braking the ass end wants to jump out front. I wonder if we can get a live axle under the thing. Hmm. No, I'll probably just limit the droop travel of the arms so they can't go into toe-out. Yes, that will mean the thing will “hike a leg” like a dog pissing on a tree, but I'd rather that than swap ends in the middle of a turn. I'll have to zook up the spider gears in the differential I suppose. Meh, no worries. I probably would have done that anyway. Besides, with the torque of a Z-20 I'm afeared the thing would just do peg-leg burnouts any time you tried to take off. Wait, no the problem with Gil was it didn’t have enough torque and had to be revved up to get off the line. That was why it always smoked the right rear on takeoff. With the Z-20 you could probably just lift your foot off the clutch pedal without giving it any gas and she’d take off. Psh, as light as these things are, dumping the clutch probably wouldn’t stall it. Ok, yeah it probably would. Anyhoo, the point is… now I forget. Oh right, I don’t think the Z-20 will need a locked differential for takeoff but it will need one to put power down in a corner with the amount of droop limitation I think it will require. I don’t know, we’ll see. Feh, I guess I'm done talking to y'all for the day. Go away.