Vortex wrote:
"dave sanderson" wrote in message
oups.com...

Ron Lowe wrote:
A few years ago an American friend of ours introduced us to the concept
of
"Piston Count". This is quite the most ridiculous parameter our staff
have
EVER adopted for the purpose of trumping one another.


Our company is based in Houston, TX.
I visit there regularly, and have friends who have moved over there
permenantly.

This is truly the land of Gas Guzzling pickups.

It's not piston count that they compa it's displacement.
Often, people boast about how they've broken the 10Litre barrier without
too
much effort.

2 Pickup Trucks at close to 5 L each, and throw in a lawnmower, and thre
you
are!


Hmm,
4 minis, 16 pistons, 4.6l.
2 diesel runabouts, 8 pistons, 2.4l
landy 4 pistons, 2.5l
3 lawnmowers, 3 pistons, not sure of the displacement....

so Im at 31, and around 10+ l + and model engines I have lying
around....
Do get a prize

Dave

Good count.

I had 4 minis, but in series not parallel. Thinking about it I had 5:

1959 Mini 850 Cost me £100 in 1978. Sold for £125
Floor starter and no seatbelts
1968 Mini 850 Mk2 I had that for 3 years.
1968 Mini 1000 Remote gearchange LUXURY!!!!!!. Still
sliding Windows
1976 Mini 1000 Wind down windows but zero rustproofing
1971 Mini Cooper S Mark3 Before blue LEDS were invented.

david

or current mini count includes bog std 1000 mini mayfair D reg, genuine
28K miles,
1275GT with +60 Race engine, 19 point roll cage, bucket seats etc, my
road rally car (insurance nightmare....), another 1000, and a clubby in
need of cutting up and throwing away (but the engine is still good....)
it seems one mini is never enough...
Dave

Steve Walker wrote:
dave sanderson wrote:

3 lawnmowers, 3 pistons, not sure of the displacement....

Mere *single* cylinder lawnmowers?
Once you've tried a V6 there's no going back.... )

Ill get onto it at once, Ive a couple of 4 cylinder engines not
activley involved in motorcars, maybe a frankenstein 90 degree Vee
eight, with about a 5 foot cutting width?

Dave

"Vortex" wrote in message
.. .
Hi,

A comment by Medway Handyman on another thread has got me thinking about
technical jargon.

In our company we are mostly engineers/tecchies of one sort or another.
And you know how it is.....tecchies have this constant game of trumps
going all the time.

Who has the best mobile? Fastest internet connection? Most powerful PC?
best Home Cinema? Most diagonal screen inches? The list goes on for
ever.

A few years ago an American friend of ours introduced us to the concept of
"Piston Count". This is quite the most ridiculous parameter our staff have
EVER adopted for the purpose of trumping one another. Let me explain the
rules:

You need to sum up all of the pistons in your household. Qualifying
pistons must exist in functional internal combustion engines. Vehicles,
power tools and garden machines are all valid.

So my piston count is 16 which breaks down as:
Volvo (5), Toyota (4), Chainsaw, Mower, Ancient Flymo, Chainsaw,
Brushcutter, Hedge Cutter, Shredder (7).

The highest we had in our company ever as 42 (the guy had a TVR and a
Triumph Stag amongst other cars)

What's your piston count then?

+++++++

By the way functional model engines are permissible, as are boat engines.
After much debate we also allowed company car pistons to be included. The
matter of a Mazda RX7 was however never satisfatorily resolved.


Well......

Jaguar XJ-S V12 = 12
Volvo 850 & V40 = 9
VW Polo = 4
Mower, strimmer, 2 generators, another engine waiting for a project, total =
5
Compressor = 2
And at least 10 glow plug model engines, = 10

Total 42. Still a long way behind Mr. Cheerful.
Now if I include the volvo 940 engine in the garage awaiting sale and the
Jag V12, Fiesta and Polo engines I've recently stripped for parts I'd be
ahead!

Alan.

"nightjar .uk.com" nightjar@insert my surname here wrote in message
...

"Ron Lowe" ronATlowe-famlyDOTmeDOTukSPURIOUS wrote in message
...
A few years ago an American friend of ours introduced us to the concept
of "Piston Count". This is quite the most ridiculous parameter our staff
have EVER adopted for the purpose of trumping one another.


Our company is based in Houston, TX.
I visit there regularly, and have friends who have moved over there
permenantly.

This is truly the land of Gas Guzzling pickups.

It's not piston count that they compa it's displacement.
Often, people boast about how they've broken the 10Litre barrier without
too much effort.

2 Pickup Trucks at close to 5 L each, and throw in a lawnmower, and thre
you are!

Have the Americans started to metricate? I always thought they used cubic
inches for engine capacity.

Colin Bignell

They use both nowadays.

The local rednecks tend to use the cubic inches, the UK expats tend to use
Litres
But there is a fair crossover.

Talking of the local rednecks, I went to a 'tractor pull' at the Astrodome a
few years ago.
They have these triple-engined monstrosities roaring at full throttle with
flames belching from the exhausts *indoors*. The noise is nothing short of
incredible.
Every so often, one of the engines simply explodes in a massive bang, and
that's them out.

Lord alone knows what kind of transmission they use to combine the 3 engines
at the kinds of torque they were generating.

--
Ron

22
--
Mark Roberts