Touch of Class [1978] [REVIEW POSTED]

[Tycondero]

They can tricky, but this one tames it well, but it's only a lightweight stat anyway.

Indeed. Doesn't matter so much in this competition.

[Manche]

also..... 6.7 I6? remove the turbo and suddenly its 1930. 1.1+ liters per cylinder.... damn

[nialloftara]

yup advanced aluminum construction on a old fashioned massive pushrod.

[strop]

Lol holy crap that's one heck of a torque curve niall.

[nialloftara]

Yes, the NA variant only made 300 which I felt was not enough.

[Manche]

Good thing you haven't spoken a bout peak torque as it that was something.. I get reaaaaaally mad when big engine and truck types brag about their torque.. when that stops mattering the moment you add some gears to the engine. torque curve however.....

[nialloftara]

That's true, but with only 3 gears you need plenty of torque to get decent mileage and performance from a 15-1600kg car. At least how I build cars.

[Zabhawkin]

good thoight you havent spoken a bout peak torque as it that was something.. I get reaaaaaally mad when big engine and truck types brag about their torque.. when that stops mattering the moment you add some gears to the engine. torque curve however.....

One of the things I look at when looking at work level trucks is what kind of torque it makes in the 1000-3000 rpm, and what its gears are (to get things moving without smoking the torque converter/clutch). Then where its power peak is as well as whether or not the govoner will let you reach that rpm. (Yes I have seen some that advertize for example 200hp @ 6500rpm, then governed at 5500rpm.)

Also most trucks have nearly the same gear ratios.

[Manche]

for that reason I shied away from the auto transmission.... 3 gears and a inherent power drain was a no no for me, it also put me 0.7s below the mandatory acceleration requirement.... and I think for the type of vehicle 5 liters of de-stroked Alu block is enough, is not like Uruguay has oil fields or can use their currency to be THE currency to buy it.

also, In Uruguay and south America pretty much each and every single car is manual,

[nialloftara]

Ahh, because to me luxury means a auto transmission I designed the engine around that idea so my drivability loss from the turbo was balanced by the comfort and drivability of the automatic.

[Razyx]

Quite interesting models atm.., here it's my pending entry.

Luxor IL

[Manche]

Suddenly purple is popular....

[victorgarcia]

yes, agree with manche, here in south america broad acception of automatics are a recent thing, only catch up when they started to have almost the same economy and change times as manuals, basically when they started to have 5 or more gears and better actuators, in the early 2ooos, really hurts the sense of waste of resources they cause, but now with boxes like ZF8HP and VW's DSG available nowadays, even petrolheads are inclined to spec one instead of a manual.

[TrackpadUser]

Automatics haven't been super popular outside of the US until recently mainly due to fuel costs.

Excluding the additional loses compared to manuals, those 3 speed gearboxes also need a lot of low end torque to be decently drivable, and to get lots of low end torque you need a larger engine, which usually results in worse fuel economy.

But all those things are becoming less of an issue now-a-days, which is why manuals are getting harder and harder to find in NA, and why automatics are becoming more popular in the rest of the world.

As for DSG and other similar systems, while they do have an automatic function, they aren't what I would consider automatic transmissions in the usual sense of the term. They are closer to a robotized manual transmission than they are to the usual "slush-box".

[NormanVauxhall]

Razyx, you have used my personalized grilles. You have to be sure that Vic have them or he will encounter a .lua error while testing the car.