Easier/quicker gear changes

[Ruairidh Dunford]

That sounds good Dave.

Ian’s has the original carb and setup except for a late Ruby head, as does mine.

Jenny still travels with him and they usually have luggage, maybe these things make the difference? It’s all horses for courses.

[Chris Garner]

Some of you will know of W.H.Charnock, writer of motoring books and verse.

The following, written in 1951, is taken from one of his books entitled " Down in the Sumps ."

C. W. & P.

I had a little axle; it gave me four point five,
The wind sang sweetly past my ears, my motor was alive;
I thought " This is terrific - I've only one desire -
" I'll go a little quicker if I gear a little higher."

I have a little axle; it gives me four to one,
My life is spent on second, my motor gets no fun,
And traffic is a torment and climbing hills a pain;
I wish I had my four point five to drive me once again.

[A Goodfellow]

Good evening everyone. I don’t normally post but I have found this thread quite interesting.

I totally agree with Ruairidh commits and his reasons on why he has changed his cars set ups. As a long-time friend, I have known Ruairidh to use his cars for long distance both when he was at university and now with his family. He sets up his cars to enable to him to tackle his long distance driving without stressing the car and making it reliable.

I use my cars in a slightly different way, and I am not saying that this will suit another but it does what I want them to do and each of my cars are set up very differently.
I tend to do long distance over a very short timescale. Covering 1400miles in 33hrs took a lot of planning and designing the cars setup that will with stand this. 2/3rds of the trip was mainly flat driving but the other 1/3rd was up alpine passes. The basic set up was 5.67 crown wheel and pinion with a close ratio 3 speed box, this was driven using a Ruby cylinder head, large valves, followers, a trials cam the rest is sort of pretty standardish and a SU down draught carburettor.
The important is knowing and understanding how all those different parts effect each other. My object wasn’t to go as fast as I could make the car go (or i would of left it as it was) but it was to accelerate hard and fast in low gears but maintain a maximum of 75mph for hours after hours.
Maybe what I am trying to say is "what do you want to use your car for?" Then understand each component and how to use them to achieve your goal.

If it’s touring with a full car and trailer with your family or if it’s track racing or maybe it’s just to be able to use your car to keep up with modern traffic. Remember one thing the brakes.

That poem is fantastic Chris and it sums it up nicely in my mind.

Andrew G

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Some of you will know of W.H.Charnock, writer of motoring books and verse.

The following, written in 1951, is taken from one of his books entitled " Down in the Sumps ."

                      C. W. & P.

I had a little axle; it gave me four point five,
The wind sang sweetly past my ears, my motor was alive;
I thought  " This is terrific - I've only one desire -
" I'll go a little quicker if I gear a little higher."

I have a little axle; it gives me four to one,
My life is spent on second, my motor gets no fun,
And traffic is a torment and climbing hills a pain;
I wish I had my four point five to drive me once again.

That rather captures my own experiences Chris.

Andrew has a similar tale to tell before his Monte Carlo run!

[Reckless Rat]

I wonder how much extra power you need to squeeze out of an RP saloon to get it to go at 75mph? I can get mine to run up to 55mph (on the speedo) on the flat on a good day but anything faster than that I think I'd bottle it - it sounds like it's in imminent risk of self destruction which usually makes me back off. Engine is standard apart from 37 head and 1 1/8th SU. Wind resistance must be a huge limiting factor, as it's as aerodynamic as a house brick.

[Malcolm Parker]

At the end of the day the gearing with a 3 speed gearbox is going to be a compromise and much depends on the terrain you are driving on.
I am in North Yorkshire so have some good hills to tackle.   My 31 SWB saloon with 4.9 axle would not tackle the steepest hills two up on a standard engine.  As such a 5.25 axle would be a vast improvement.
With its mildly tuned engine, probably about 24bhp, it goes very nicely on a 4.9 ratio and will cruise at around 50mph on the level all day.   I tried the Andes ratio 3 speed box with the higher 2nd gear for a while.  On level roads it was very good but on long steady climbs there was too much of a gap between first and second.   I have reverted to the standard ratios. 
For many years the Coast to Coast run which I organised used a super hill about five miles from the start in Scarborough which led onto the Yorkshire Wolds.  It was a long, straight and wide minor road with very little traffic and was much steeper than it looked from the bottom.   It was a wonderful sight to see around 30 Austin 7's of all types tackle the hill.  They sorted themselves out into four lanes abreast according to gear ratio, weight and power.  Some of the overtaking would take place over about half a mile, good job there was no oncoming traffic!
All good fun.....

[Reckless Rat]

Staxton hill. Been there, done that (several times) The RP with 4 speed crash box romps up there in 3rd.

[Steve Jones]

I think the last time we both did it, Bruce, you won in the end. Was a close thing though!!

Steve

[Reckless Rat]

You're right Steve. Straight hills 3rd gear, no probs. Even better now with the SU & 37 head. It's the hairpins that catch the no sync box out - if you have to take second you're stuck as you need so much time to get back up into 3rd. Like tackling the climb up Mont Ventoux from the Carpentras side. We were running great in 3rd out of Bédouin and then came to the first hairpin at St Estève which was really tight and steep. We were stuck in 2nd from there on until we got to the Chalet Reynard, then it was 3rd again all the way to the top. That is one hell of a pull - I have no idea how the cyclists do it. Tommy Simpson didn't of course.

Climbing big hills in the Austin I love, it's the coming back down you have to watch out!

[Dave Mann]

With three RN saloons two with 5.25 rear axles and one with a Regent 5.375 in Sue's car and it is very noticeable that it is Sue's car which is faster, particularly if we hit a slight incline. The only time I can get away from her is on the hills in one of the others fitted with a four speed box with Andrew Bird close ratio gears for saloons. They all have standard engines with 22FZB carburettors.