I got someone else's car back!!

[DocDirk]

I'm sure it was MY car that I left at the chassis dyno performance tuning shop last week, but when I picked it up it wasn't the same car, I swear it! The color is the same and so is the interior...heck even the license plate had been duplicated but WOW, I know it's not the same car because now it runs oh so much more responsively, more powerfully and is SUCH a greater pleasure to drive, I think that was the best money I've spent in a LONG time

Dirk

[Rick Parker]

What shop did you take it to?

[FWB]

i be by to pick up my car. they were supposed to deliver it


with the performer intake? did you stick with the carb you had?

Fred

[Garage10]

Great to hear some good news for a change. How's the temp now ?
Brent

[DocDirk]

The Performer intake definitely made an improvement in low end response. (I'm still awaiting the printouts as they finished the tuning Friday late and I picked it up Saturday morning - I missed my toy!!!- with only office help present.) They still owe me a dyno run with my old 15 1/2" filter and then a comparison with a new "extreme top" that technically should breath twice as much but is 1 1/2" taller. I now have 1" clearance under my scoop yaaaaay! I had them dyno it before changing over to my new muffler internals and they said that the increase in muffler baffle ID size from 1 7/8" to 2 1/2" ID resulted in a gain of over 50 peak RWHP to over 450. I don't think I'll change my pipes to 3" for more horses just yet.

Of course all I'd done is allow the builder to dyno tune it before delivery and I just bolted it in, so it may have left quite a bit to desire just left that way. It ran rather sluggishly below 3500 RPM and didn't have the low end response I had anticipated from 533 CID.

But the tune...wow! I took it to Performance Dyno Tuning (PDT Motorsports) in Oakdale, California on the strong recommendation of a friend of mine. The workover they did on my carb and tuning gave it a whole new personality! They build race cars, sandrails, custom street rods and haha! they also specialize in finishing car projects that have been given up on, so they've seen and finished a few cobra kits. It took them a week to get the car worked into their schedule and done (the Performer manifold had a fault in it that leaked and they took care of replacing it) but if I'd have known the difference it was going to make I'd have gladly waited a month Still the original Mighty Demon 850 carb, still mechanical secondaries, but omgoodness what a difference! Smoother, stronger, more responsive and virtually lagless.

I still haven't gotten the new higher CFM fan installed, but the car runs 195-200 in traffic now on a hot day instead of the 225 it was running before.

I'm as pleased as punch

Dirk

[thudmaster]

as a side note.......

"[Q] From Rab Spence, UK: I am curious as to the origin of the phrase as pleased as Punch. It has been suggested to me that it must come from the puppet in Punch and Judy, but I am not entirely happy with this explanation, as no one can tell me why it should have originated there. Can you help?

[A] Perhaps some cultural footnotes might be in order. Though Punch and Judy puppet shows are by no means unknown outside the UK, and the term pleased as punch is also common, the tradition of the entertainment of that name is mainly a British one, associated in most people’s minds with childhood memories of sitting on the sand during summer holidays at the seaside, watching the antics of puppet Mr Punch in his candy-striped booth.

Though no two shows are quite alike and the story has evolved a lot in the last four centuries, the traditional plot has Mr Punch kill his infant child, then beat his wife Judy to death. He is thrown in prison but escapes using a golden key. He then kills a policeman, a doctor, a lawyer, the hangman, death and the Devil. He murders everyone with huge pleasure, each time squeakily repeating his catchphrase, “That’s the way to do it!”

It’s the enormous satisfaction of Punch with his awful deeds that led to the idiom as pleased as Punch appearing at the beginning of the nineteenth century for somebody who was delighted. Punch’s pride in outwitting every figure of authority also led to as proud as Punch as an alternative.

Incidentally, the puppet shows started to appear in Britain at the restoration of the monarchy in the 1660s (Samuel Pepys mentions going to see one in October 1662). The puppets were string ones, not the hand ones of modern days, and the entertainment was very much designed for adults rather than children. Its name then was Punchinello, of which Punch is the short form. The show had been imported from the character called polichinello in the commedia dell’arte in Italy, where its original was known in the Neapolitan dialect as Polecenella, perhaps a diminutive of pollecena, a young turkey cock, in reference to its beak, which looked a bit like the puppet’s long red hooked nose."

Couldn't resist Dirk.........

Glad to see the car is running well now. Maybe you can finally make it back up to the norcal club breakfast again.

[DocDirk]

Oh my gosh...... erudite as well as car-crazy!!

Yes, we're nearing take-off, growing our confidence daily...and I keep learning to do things with which I have no prior experience whatsoever Hope to see you and the rest of the NorCalers again sometime soon!!

Thanks Ed,

Regards!

Dirk