Arcane and useless (was Agriculture)

[ScharfR@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-04-03 02:15:06 EST, murinw@cs.uwp.edu (William Murin)
writes:

<< If I remember correctly, Austin Healey dropped a tractor motor into the 
 3000; Triumph countered with a truck motor in their car. >>

Did you ever wonder why the original Healey 100-4 had only a three-speed
manual transmission? Wierder yet, first gear was in the dog-leg position,
down and over to the left - just like in my old 911, except there was no
fourth or fifth gear.  Was Donald prescient?  Did these guys get it "right"
while Porsche was still in diapers?

No.

Take apart the transmission and you might be surprised to find _four_ forward
gear sets!  Yup, they used a cheap and dirty transmission from some truck or
milk float and the "real" first gear was simply too much of a creeper to be
useful in a sports car(?).  So they blocked off the gate and used second gear
as the launch ratio.  The dogleg first gear was actually second gear as far
as the box was concerned, but the real first gear was taken out of play by
restricting gear lever movement.  Sort of a stealth four speed.  Seems that
the actual first gear was a bit too agricultural for street use.  No problem
with the gearbox handling the torque though.

And in continuing this useless thread, why don't we start in on the fire
pumper engine that made good?