so the the guy in NZ with his 190hp a15 is full of it ..... my 135hp a15 is also crap and the shell sport car with 135hp is not right, WHERE DID i SAY THIS? His A15 is putting out more Hp than Murray Cootes L series 2.4L 1200 coupe that he rallied.

short-coupe, you're jumping to conclusions. It's probably quite true that most of the A-series engines driven by members on this site are well bellow 100hp at the flywheel. On a tight budget that doesn't include dyno testing,approx over 80hp at the flywheel from an A-12 is doing very well, for street use especially. Small valves carbs & low compression = lower Hp numbers. You are wrong about race prepaired A-series Hp numbers however. My limited experience with race Datsun A-Series is from the US. I've Crewed at' the Runoffs' a couple of times and met a few of the top US. amateur road racers running A-Series engines. A top A-12 engine is in the 160-180hp range, A-14's higher, & A15's often close to 200hp, At the flywheel. The people building these engines have often been doing so for over 30 years. That's years of tweaking & improving on a good thing. I must say I'm not a 1/4 mile fan, (kind of like watching paint dry). Nothing like a pack of small displacement road racers going at it on a beautifull track like Mid Ohio. (sadly no longer the home of the runnoffs) Who really knows what the horsepower was of the winning car in any given race. The winning car may be down on power but have a better setup, & driver. You may look down on 'Circuit guys' as you put it, it takes a lot more time & effort to build a circuit/roadrace car. In 1/4 mile' hp' almost always make the car faster. In roadracing the whole package is needed to be consistantly quick. The EX Shell Sport Datsun posted, looks like a well built car, older setup, but nicely done, & honestly represented.

yerr i thinking this just before, comparing a race engine to a streeter, i wasn't putting down anyone's car or motor. but 190+bhp = over 245hp at flywheel.

yerr right guys, what about 15.1 compression, running on methanol stop the bullsh!t, A15 is not a F1 motor, anyone can play with dyno's settings to show more

What are you trying to say here?
no hard feelings ment shortcoupe ,
but i am cluey when it comes to this stuff and im no youngster on a tight budget so i do spend big bucks on my race cars.

as for L series i had a wiz bank 2.32 with 48mm webbers made 168hp@wheels spent $15000 and i think thats almost the best you can get out of those engines ......
there is a big difference between 135hp and 168hp @wheels the other thing to remember in a 1200 coupe the wieght diffence between an l series and an a series engine .

cheers

Re My real deal comment, it relates to the car having a good history and real HP. If I didn't have 2 racecars under construction as well as a rod I would have grabbed this car cause it really is a sweet car. As for the wheels they are on my ute but my oldest son has claimed it and is finishing off for his daily driver. I must make a point here to about the Shellsport cars not all of them has engine setbacks they became more popular as the series went on but many front running cars did'nt have them. Growing up in that era of course meant that we all copied our hero cars and cut the firewalls. Bryan Roycrofts coupe has always been one of the fastest 1200s and was a Shellsport car and it is still front engined althought he strut towers have been massaged heavily to adjust the steering geometry.

all the quick coupes i have seen race at lakeside, all had l series, i have never seen one with a A series, i remember 3 at one event, 1 had a L18, another had L20 and the other had a L28, all had recessed fire walls, i have never seen a quick A series coupe race before. these where in sports sedans, not club cars, i remember for a while the quickest 1600c and under car was a L16 powered P510, that made 170 flywheel hp

just something ive noticed is the same thing i got caught out on, bhp= flywheel i think youll find

Quote:Yes, bhp is "brake horsepower" -- as measured on a brake (dyno). See: wiki - Performance.

Remember all cars (vintage and new) are measured at the flywheel. But we use Net horsepower now instead of gross/bhp.

okie dokie, my old dyno readings where in BHP, on a rolling dyno , not a engine dyno, that's the confusion i had.

BHP = BRAKE HORSE POWER

BHP@WHEELS is measured on a chassis dyno allowing the engine power to go through the cars components

BHP is automatically assumed at the flywheel or using an engine dyno

cheers