Many years ago (longer than I care to remember), I was given the opportunity to drive an Aston Martin, both DB 5's.
Sitting in the driver's seat, starting the car and blipping the throttle, I was enthralled at the beautiful sounding exhaust of the straight six twin ohc engine, and the fact that the tacho needle immediately jumped to at least 4000 rpm. The engine just seemed to be so finely balanced, and the response was immediate.
At the time, I owned a 3.8 litre Jaguar 'S' Type, and sort of using a similar 'blip', about 3000 rpm seemed to be the equivalent response. This was despite the fact that some people contented that the Jaguar twin cam was every bit as good as the Aston Martin unit.
So, let's jump the time frame by at least thirty years and look at the 6.3, 6.9 as well as the 5.7 litre Chevy unit in the Statesman.
6.3 - will take you to about 4000 rpm - very similar to the Aston Martin unit.
6.9 - fairly close in Gleaming Beauty, but probably closer to the 3500 mark.
Chevy 5.7 - about no more than, say 2000 rpm.
Does this tell us anything at all ?
Incidentally, as a matter of interest - Statesman fuel consumption according to mileage recorded by on-board computer:
Steady trip on F3 - sitting on 100 km/hr, Air Con operating - 27.2 mpg
Very short round trips - about 16 kilometers - 17.5 mpg
Total consumption since purchase (I think !) - 22.4 mpg.
Regards Styria
Sitting in the driver's seat, starting the car and blipping the throttle, I was enthralled at the beautiful sounding exhaust of the straight six twin ohc engine, and the fact that the tacho needle immediately jumped to at least 4000 rpm. The engine just seemed to be so finely balanced, and the response was immediate.
At the time, I owned a 3.8 litre Jaguar 'S' Type, and sort of using a similar 'blip', about 3000 rpm seemed to be the equivalent response. This was despite the fact that some people contented that the Jaguar twin cam was every bit as good as the Aston Martin unit.
So, let's jump the time frame by at least thirty years and look at the 6.3, 6.9 as well as the 5.7 litre Chevy unit in the Statesman.
6.3 - will take you to about 4000 rpm - very similar to the Aston Martin unit.
6.9 - fairly close in Gleaming Beauty, but probably closer to the 3500 mark.
Chevy 5.7 - about no more than, say 2000 rpm.
Does this tell us anything at all ?
Incidentally, as a matter of interest - Statesman fuel consumption according to mileage recorded by on-board computer:
Steady trip on F3 - sitting on 100 km/hr, Air Con operating - 27.2 mpg
Very short round trips - about 16 kilometers - 17.5 mpg
Total consumption since purchase (I think !) - 22.4 mpg.
Regards Styria