04-04-2018, 12:17 PM
At the end of the day the gearing with a 3 speed gearbox is going to be a compromise and much depends on the terrain you are driving on.
I am in North Yorkshire so have some good hills to tackle. My 31 SWB saloon with 4.9 axle would not tackle the steepest hills two up on a standard engine. As such a 5.25 axle would be a vast improvement.
With its mildly tuned engine, probably about 24bhp, it goes very nicely on a 4.9 ratio and will cruise at around 50mph on the level all day. I tried the Andes ratio 3 speed box with the higher 2nd gear for a while. On level roads it was very good but on long steady climbs there was too much of a gap between first and second. I have reverted to the standard ratios.
For many years the Coast to Coast run which I organised used a super hill about five miles from the start in Scarborough which led onto the Yorkshire Wolds. It was a long, straight and wide minor road with very little traffic and was much steeper than it looked from the bottom. It was a wonderful sight to see around 30 Austin 7's of all types tackle the hill. They sorted themselves out into four lanes abreast according to gear ratio, weight and power. Some of the overtaking would take place over about half a mile, good job there was no oncoming traffic!
All good fun.....
I am in North Yorkshire so have some good hills to tackle. My 31 SWB saloon with 4.9 axle would not tackle the steepest hills two up on a standard engine. As such a 5.25 axle would be a vast improvement.
With its mildly tuned engine, probably about 24bhp, it goes very nicely on a 4.9 ratio and will cruise at around 50mph on the level all day. I tried the Andes ratio 3 speed box with the higher 2nd gear for a while. On level roads it was very good but on long steady climbs there was too much of a gap between first and second. I have reverted to the standard ratios.
For many years the Coast to Coast run which I organised used a super hill about five miles from the start in Scarborough which led onto the Yorkshire Wolds. It was a long, straight and wide minor road with very little traffic and was much steeper than it looked from the bottom. It was a wonderful sight to see around 30 Austin 7's of all types tackle the hill. They sorted themselves out into four lanes abreast according to gear ratio, weight and power. Some of the overtaking would take place over about half a mile, good job there was no oncoming traffic!
All good fun.....