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Keeping up with Traffic

kodanja

Obi Wan
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Keeping up with todays faster cars on the highway these days, you kinda feel like you have to race everyone. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/driving.gif

My questions is what is a safe highway rpm to maintain without pushing your car to hard?

I ask because my speedo has yet to work properly (I'm have been too lazy to repair it yet) /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/hammer.gif

My guess would be between 3000 & 3500 rmp's

any feedback would be appriciated.

btw it has the type 9 5sp. conversion installed
(1st = 3.36, 2nd = 1.81, 3rd = 1.26, 4th = 1.0, and 5th = .825)

bbbb.jpg
 

AweMan

Jedi Knight
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The only thing I have with a 5 speed is my Nissan Pickup. At 3000 R.P.M.. In 5th Gear in it, is 70 M.P.H.. 3000 R.P.M. in my Tr, 4th gear {as I remember} was around 60 M.P.h.
In any case 3000 R.P.M. seems to be a comfortable highway cruising R.P.M. for most engines.
Kerry
 

Brosky

Great Pumpkin
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Just maintain it up about 4800-5000 and you'll be fine......not..
 
OP
kodanja

kodanja

Obi Wan
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Thanx Paul, then you can help me put in a new tranny and motor!
 

AweMan

Jedi Knight
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Hahahahaha ................. I think I was up around 5,500 when I blew the #2 rod bearing out of my Tr-3 {long story why it blew at that R.P.M.} Had to do with a piston being fitted too tightly to the liner. And MABY an extended run at 5,500 R.P.M. {as in raceing someone}.
Kerry
 

NickMorgan

Jedi Knight
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I guess fourth will give you about 60mph at 3000rpm. I should think there would be no problem at all with maintaining 3500rpm for cruising and pushing up to 4000 and even 4500 for shorter bursts to get past those moderns. After all they were designed to cruise at 70 on British motorways.
 

achtungeveryone

Jedi Hopeful
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I use to curse the designers of my '78 subaru brat for not providing a 5th gear. I think the driver has more fatigue at high rpm than the engine. I would like to read in the owners manual of my tr6 : "it's quite fine to run your triumph at 4500 rpm all day should you wish...so long as your nerves can stand it"
 

Geo Hahn

Yoda
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NickMorgan said:
...I should think there would be no problem at all with maintaining 3500rpm for cruising...

That's been my experience. The 4-cylinders at least don't seem to mind hour after hour of 3500. Our local speed limit is 75 so most traffic is somewhere north of 80 mph. I can keep up but those big rigs look a bit scary from the perspective of the 3's cut-down door (though all I can see is their hubcaps).
 

Lou Metelko

Jedi Trainee
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The type A Laycock overdrive in the 54 TR2 yields a solid 80MPH at 3150RPM. Fells like it can do that all day. I can run with the big dogs but a fully loaded 18 wheeler can whoa down much faster than I! (All 2s have drums F & R).

Lou Metelko
Auburn, Indiana
 

gsalt57tr3

Jedi Warrior
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I'm running 2600 rpm at 65 mph.

Thats with the toyota five speed.

3000 rpm gets me 75 mph. The engine is fine at that speed, but I worry about the rest of the car. 65 is fine
 

Harry_Ward

Jedi Knight
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gsalt57tr3 said:
I'm running 2600 rpm at 65 mph.

Thats with the toyota five speed.

3000 rpm gets me 75 mph. The engine is fine at that speed, but I worry about the rest of the car. 65 is fine

That's more what I was thinking too. Fifth gear at 2500 to 2800 rpm to keep it in the legal range of 65 mph on 95 or the Merrit pkwy. Then again, you know everyone will be passing you like your standing still at this speed.

Better opt for 3200 to 3500 /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 

Andrew Mace

Moderator
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A stock Herald 1200 sees around 16 mph per 1000 rpm in top gear. So, at or near 65 mph, that's a bit over 4000 rpm ... which my Herald was happy to do, hour after hour, to and from Minnesota. That round trip was a total of around 2500 miles, most of which were on the Interstate at 60-65 mph. Didn't bother me or the car one bit.

Overdrive might have been nice for better fuel economy, but I got 33-35 mpg overall on that trip without it....
 

Brosky

Great Pumpkin
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Andy, the mileage is all in the aerodynamics of the Herald. I've never gotten anywhere near that in the TR6, even with O/D.

Then again, I probably drive too hard and too fast just to listen to the engine and you probably drive sensibly.
 

Brosky

Great Pumpkin
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Alan, I still think that the aerodynamics play a big role in this. Low drag coefficient and all that stuff that racers use.

I've tried to buy two Heralds in the past and have been beaten both times on the bids. I really liked driving one of those a few years back. It was a great little convertible to run around in.

If I try to buy a second British car again, I may wake up missing an important body part, so I'm laying low on that idea for a long while.
 
G

Guest

Guest
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I'm not seeing a Herald as being any more aerodynamic that a TR6. Neither of them exactly struck me as being designed in a wind tunnel.

I agree that a Herald is a fun drive. I'm not sure about taking one on the highway round here though. I'll do it with the -6, because it can get out of it's own way, but I'm not man enough to try with a Herald...
 

TheAssociate

Jedi Hopeful
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The high RPM does really get to me on the highway. Interesting - looking through the Haynes manual for the Spitfire it seems the North American Spitfire generally came with the 3.89:1 ratio rear end, and the European spec shows 2.89:1!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why would they do this?


Adam.


____________________________________________________________
1973 Triumph Spitfire.
 

Andrew Mace

Moderator
Staff member
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Spitfires through the end of the Mk3 model had 4.11:1 diffs. Beginning with the MkIV, they had a 3.89:1 diff (except for the 1972 US-spec MkIV, where the low compression version of the engine required a return to the 4.11:1). US-spec 1500s again had the 3.89:1 diff, while UK-spec, twin-carb 1500s had a 3.63:1.

To my knowledge, there was never any such thing as a 2.89:1 diff in any Triumph. On the other hand, for some markets one could actually obtain a 5.143:1 diff for the Herald, and the 948-engined Standard Atlas Van and pickup had a 6.66:1 diff!

As for the Herald itself, we're talking 40 hp pushing a 1700 lb. rounded brick. I happen to love the style, but I don't think of it as especially aerodynamic (although maybe the rear fins help?). The Spitfire likely is a bit better in that respect.

And I don't know that one has to "be a man" to drive a Herald at those speeds and/or in that sort of Interstate highway traffic. It might just be that I've been doing it off and on for almost 38 years now, or that I do have 38 years of driving in general (most of which has been done in cars that would not set land speed records), or that I do have a pretty substantial background both in varying forms of low-key motorsport activity as well as 12 college credits in driver education. If I'd become a teacher here in NY, I could have taught driver education in a public school. I didn't go that route, but I did spend some time teaching for a private driving school as a part-time job.
 
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