Old Car Specs Boggle My Mind

"I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker" (qaaaaa) 07/08/2018 at 13:08 • Filed to: None

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I went off on a tangent earlier and read the wikipedia page on Mercer cars. The 35 Raceabout is incredibly strange mechanically compared to what we have nowadays.

It had a 293 ci (4.8 l) four banger that made 55 horsepower.... at 1650 RPM.  

Holy mother of torque.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker 07/08/2018 at 13:26

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That’s 175lb-ft at 1650rpm if my math isn't horribly flawed.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 07/08/2018 at 13:43

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55*5252 /1650 = 175. That’s more than my golf makes.

DipodomysDeserti > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker 07/08/2018 at 13:45

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Detroit Diesel Series 50. 8.5L fourbanger which makes up to 1150 hp at 1,200 RPM.

Kiltedpadre > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker 07/08/2018 at 13:47

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My personal latest obsession has been American LaF rance Speedsters like this one.

https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/HF14/Hershey/lots/r257-1916-american-lafrance-speedster/182071

Most of the one’s out there were basically hotrods built using fire trucks that were taken out of service. There were very few that were actually built by American LaFrance intending to sell them as cars to be driven by big city fire chiefs. Apparently, they weren’t very popular among fire departments, but many of them became the personal vehicles of executives from the American LaFrance company.

The example above has an 855ci 6 cylinder (just a hair over 14 liters) and made 100hp and topped out at about 2000rpm. I’ve seen photos of others with a measly 450ci 4 cylinder and a few later ones that used V-12s of around 200hp; though I haven’t seen anything that tells the displacement of those motors.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > DipodomysDeserti 07/08/2018 at 13:49

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DD makes some bonkers stuff. A 27.9l V24? 2 stroke? Only breathes through a supercharger? Yeah, sure.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > DipodomysDeserti 07/08/2018 at 14:02

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Damn, that's almost 1HP per RPM.

DipodomysDeserti > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 07/08/2018 at 14:19

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I screwed up. That was supposed to be lb.-ft. , not hp.

DipodomysDeserti > DipodomysDeserti 07/08/2018 at 14:19

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1,150 lb.-ft.*

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker 07/08/2018 at 14:23

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If you like torque, check out the Stanley Steamer... 2 cyl, 10-30HP, but up to 800 lb-ft of torque. A 2 cyl steamer puts out the torque of a V8.

https://www.enginelabs.com/news/historic-engines-stanley-steamer/

And when it comes to efficiency of a steamer, you not only care about fuel, but also your miles-per-water-gallon:

http://www.stanleymotorcarriage.com/GeneralTechnical/GeneralTechnical.htm

AfromanGTO > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 07/08/2018 at 18:12

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Is that a record?? Has any vehicle or engine had 1 hp per 1 rpm????