Fast 164L, apologies, and driveline losses

["David R Johnson" <johnsnd@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave M wrote:

> I'm sure most of these guys would kick my rear at the drag strip.  Of course
> it doesn't take much to go a 1/4 mile in a straight line (beat the tree,
> fat tires, and gobs of torque & HP).

Actually, there is no guarantee they would beat you.  Muscle cars, especially
older ones, are heavy, which eats up a lot of the power.  Even my 94 Camaro
(please note correct spelling!) weighs in at 3700 or so.  I would also contend
that getting good times in the 1/4 is quite an art, both in setting up the car
and in the driving technique.  A good driver in a 164 might do well against the
average challenger at open track night.  However, most Alfa fans choose to
develop other types of driving skills.  Don't underestimate the Z28 there
either, mildly modified examples similar to mine have been proven to pull 0.92
G or more.  Of course, it does not have the famous Alfa handling finesse, but
its not too shabby for a piece of Detroit iron.

> See, I and a couple of other Alfa fans were there in the middle of these
> "others" car guys.  Buy the way, this particular group of guys were from
> south, south Georgia (if you know what I mean).  99% of them had never
> seen or heard of an Alfa Romeo.  That was the fun of it!  To see their
> expression when this little white 4 door achieved that speed.

I can certainly see the humour in the situation, and perhaps I perceived an
attitude that wasn't intended in your post.  If so, I apologize.  I can also
see that these muscle car owners were not well educated about sports cars
outside their own interests, and assumed if they hadn't heard of it it must
suck (however, IMHO this has little to do with their place of origin, you can
find this kind of attitude anywhere).  I was just trying to point out a
potential reason for their limited top speeds which I had not seen mentioned
elsewhere.

Also, to Tom who highlighted my use of the term "car guy", I meant this in a
non gender-specific way.  I have no prejudice against female car enthusiasts.
 Perhaps I should have said "car persons" (ugh, I hate PC terminology!).

There, now my apology is out of the way, lets get back to the more interesting
topics!  For example, the accepted transmission loss for a stick shift Camaro
is around 17%, significantly lower than the 25% I'm seeing here.  Is this to do
with the 164 being a transverse FWD design, or could we just be underestimating
the efficiency?

Dave J. (who was not trying to start a flame war, honest!)
1982 GTV6 (a svelte 2800 pounds, minus all the rust)

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