Thread: A log of my updates on my '32 Brookville highboy

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That picture and the piles of rubber in the foreground looks like a romp in 1st gear. As light as my ride is, it isn't light enough to take a lot of throttle in 1st gear. Your 2nd gear traction is where I have interest. As I've said, if I go into 2nd at 40 mph the engine drops from 4400 rpm to 3000, which I have found if the road surface is flat with a good gripping surface, the 427 doesn't produce enough at 3000 to break loose. This way I can have my foot in it for the duration of 2nd, and as I approach 60 mph traction is maxed out, but if it breaks it isn't bad, probably because of the T's light weight, speed, and I only have 1500 rpm left before a needed shift. It has come together rather well, unlike the 383 that produced so much torque at low rpm, it was much slower because where you need big torque towards the end of the power band for acceleration, it was coming on so early and smoking the tires. The 355 was much more gutless in the low rpms than the 427, but unlike the 383, had a good zing in the high end. The 427 has a better zing and improved power in the low rpm band over the 355.

So Nick, waiting for your next post and what your able to get away with in 2nd gear.

Originally Posted by deckofficer

That picture and the piles of rubber in the foreground looks like a romp in 1st gear....Your 2nd gear traction is where I have interest....So Nick, waiting for your next post and what your able to get away with in 2nd gear.

Bob,
I was sort of cheating in that photo above. That's the end result of a 2nd gear burnout after applying the line lock for a couple seconds and spinning the rears in 2nd gear. Some may ask "why the line lock?" and I wouldn't have even thought of it except my fabricator/tuning buddy who did work on the roadster had a new line lock laying there so he said he'd install it just for the hell of it.

But I'll be posting more on test drives and try to get a camera mounted for a vid. Yesterday I was just cruising around in PA and NJ and I'm very happy with how the engine responds and feels, and sounds. But I want to look into suspension setup since in some turning transitions it feels a bit too twitchy for my taste so I want to check alignment. I also want to do some hard loops to get a feel for under/oversteer since I think it now induces oversteer in some situations that is too sudden but I need to check this out further; not sure about need for a panhard bar front and/or back or not; over washboard rapid bumps the steering felt like it could use some dampening so I ordered a steering stabilizer from So-Cal Speed Shop.