Slow speed

300bhp/ton said:

With 3.54 gears I clocked it at 89mph on the gps on a private road. Could have done with better brakes though.

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Rover agreed with that too. The Series that were factory fitted with 2.6 petrol had massive 3 inch wide drums on the front wheels. Mine had servo assistance, not sure if they all did or not. With that set up, and radial tyres, the braking was impressive.

cornish rattler said:

Not saying i do or did but would be capable or doing 80 it was my dad with his 1964 2a with a perkins 4203 fitted back in the 80's where we just tried it and it went to 80, my 2a fitted with a tweaked 200 tdi will do 95 but i don't cruise at that speed i just did it to try it.

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I can believe the 2a with a tweaked tdi, my standard 200 will just about getting to 87mph on a private road sounds like it’s going to explode into bits though lol!

Turboman said:

Rover agreed with that too. The Series that were factory fitted with 2.6 petrol had massive 3 inch wide drums on the front wheels. Mine had servo assistance, not sure if they all did or not. With that set up, and radial tyres, the braking was impressive.

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Surely 3" wide drums only increase the fade resistance not the actual braking power, that's a product of diameter and pressure.

300bhp/ton said:

Land Rover themselves put V8's in... guess they must be wrong too

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Was that not after the American division did it first...Golden Rod was the project name it was an 88 inch...

flat said:

I can believe the 2a with a tweaked tdi, my standard 200 will just about getting to 87mph on a private road sounds like it’s going to explode into bits though lol!

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Yeah the only thing with the setup I've got is that 1st is like 2nd and so on and i can't go into 4th under 45 so I spend a lot of time on long country roads in 3rd which isn't good so after swapping out my 3.54 diff for my old 4.71 diff to pull the gearing down to try and get my 1st gear back but it was still to high so I've just bought a std tranny box and in the next few weeks I will be swapping them over after stripping the std tranny box out to check it over before we fit it, 3.54 diff already refitted

Citizen Kane said:

Surely 3" wide drums only increase the fade resistance not the actual braking power, that's a product of diameter and pressure.

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They have a different master cylinder, slave cylinders, and the top of the range 12 seater Station Wagons had an in line Clayton Dewandre servo.
Six cylinder 12 seater really was a nice drive, by Series Land Rover standards anyway. The 2.6 didn't produce much more power than the four cylinder, but it had more torque, and was smoother and quieter.

Regarding the original post,next time you are going down a nice steep hill,knock it out of gear,it will certainly go faster than you are getting at the moment,stopping will be problematic though,standard land rover brakes from the 1950's are not at all suitable for mixing with todays traffic,there are a few various upgrades for the brakes available,
The safety aspect of being able to stop when needed for yourself and other road users should be addressed before souping it up,
It would not be unexpected for the d.o.t or whoever to remove our historic age exemptions if owners just go for speed alone, the power upgrades have to go hand in hand with stopping,
Atb and stay safe
Ryn

rynner said:

Regarding the original post,next time you are going down a nice steep hill,knock it out of gear,it will certainly go faster than you are getting at the moment,stopping will be problematic though,standard land rover brakes from the 1950's are not at all suitable for mixing with todays traffic,there are a few various upgrades for the brakes available,
The safety aspect of being able to stop when needed for yourself and other road users should be addressed before souping it up,
Atb and stay safe
Ryn

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Debatable if fitting a 4/203 could be described as "souping it up".
More like making a thick stodgy stew.

Turboman said:

Debatable if fitting a 4/203 could be described as "souping it up".
More like making a thick stodgy stew.

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Yeah back in the day there wasn't much out there worth fitting diesel wise think the only other option back in the 80' was the BMC 2.2 engine which was pants compared to the perkins 4203 performance wise.

cornish rattler said:

Yeah back in the day there wasn't much out there worth fitting diesel wise think the only other option back in the 80' was the BMC 2.2 engine which was pants compared to the perkins 4203 performance wise.

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4/203 are a very good engine, low bearing loads, good torque curve,economical and easy to work on.
Still lots about in all kinds of applications. But they aren't high revving.