I have a 1974 world of automobiles encyclopedia that has a breakdown of all the combustion chamber shapes and their efficiencies. A hemi is pretty damn close to 1.00, but a typical flathead is somewhere down around .72. Discoidal chambers, pent roofs, etc. etc. (OHV varieties) mostly get north of .92. Lots of wasted…

Oddly enough, this is really similar to an issue I experienced with my ‘66 Land Rover trying to drive it 200 miles or so. The water pump impeller (plastic) separated from the steel inner sleeve, so I was cooling, then not cooling, then cooling, then...

Most flatheads are that way (“L-head”), since one of the older ways (a “T” head”) requires two cams:

Layered fiber, phenolic resin. See also trade names like “Micarta”. Tech that was already thirty years old at this point, bizarrely enough.

Fiber timing gears were in use as far back as the Model T, surprisingly. It’s basically either pressed fiber (like felt) or woven fiber like ordinary cloth which is impregnated with phenolic resin. It’s kind of like fiberglass.

All flatheads are non-interference. A side effect of having the valves nowhere near where they’re supposed to be is that they can’t be anywhere the piston will be. Ever.

The Far Side has made it impossible for me to think of the movie too seriously, of course.

...they were beautiful, these Junkers in the Mist.

Yep - see also basically every jag rear suspension from ‘61 to ‘90.

Blame Toyota for thinking that they had to be super-specific about the joint. It’s kind of like how owning an antique Land Rover you get familiar with secret holy words like Railko Bushing, which nobody who doesn’t own one has ever heard of.

Birfield is a trade name for Rzeppa ball-type CVs like he’s talking about.

“birfield” = Birfield Group = Birmingham + Sheffield = Hardy Spicer + Laycock Engineering, at least according to what I just looked up. The biggest makers of Rzeppa type CVs, from whom NTN licensed a design for the Yots.

In contrast, my ‘66 Land Rover Series II features U-joints in a protected housing - they didn’t switch to CVs until 1983 very late in the SIII, if I’m not mistaken.

Yep. It’s an attractive option pretty much only for somebody who has something with really PITA shafts to find that use a common-ish joint size. Of which there are a number out there.

Both rear drive and front drive vehicles with independent suspension use CV-style axles.

C(opacabana).

Zoidberg is an AI? This explains so much.

My sense is, if you’re going to make a rounded shape, at least you can do it with a clear design vision and in a way that makes it stand out from other cars. If you’re penning a modern hatch that does worse than the Porsche 924 in either looks, use of space, or aero - 40 years later - you’re doing it wrong. (.36, .31…

I try to pound this into people every time they say “well all cars look the same these days because argonambics”. NO. STOP. They look the same because some dickbag of a stylist with no imagination drew a blob, tried to sex it up some, and then gave it to an aerodynamicist to *fix*. GIGO. Modern Nissans, some of the…

IF I DIDN’T ASK SOMEBODY MIGHT NOT HAVE GOTTEN IT