Are You Flying a "Beater?"

"Nomen Nescio" ] wrote in message
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From: "Paul Sengupta"

Don't know why this is often quoted on here. Here in Europe we
have lots of cars with small engines and (in the old days) 4 speed
boxes that in order to maintain motorway cruising speeds had to
be driven at high RPM and full throttle. I drove my old Ford
Fiesta at full throttle for hours at a time up and down motorways
in 4th gear for nigh on 10 years.

Paul

It's 'cause full throttle and full power are two different things. I'm
willing to bet
that the Fiesta rarely saw full throttle and redline rpm, which more or
less
represents max design power. Few cars are geared that way (full throttle,
redline, level roads, STP). Throw in a few inclines and the output will
change for
uphill - downhill.
Put that Fiesta engine on a dyno and run it at max output. Dollars to
donuts
it won't be running after 1/2 hour.

Well, with a 4 speed gearbox, it wasn't too far off red line.
Especially when going downhill!

As for RPM vs power, I seem to remember seeing a graph which
put max power at maybe 5000 rpm. Red line was 5800. Foot to
the floor cruise in 4th was probably about 5000 rpm on the flat.
Book top speed was 88mph.

Paul