<VV> Carb mystery

[Smitty]

Smitty says.     As one who has been playing with the Corvair and HV carbs for around 50 years, I am at a bit of a loss in understanding Mr Millers problem with them.  I can understand his regional pride in defending SU carbs even though I do not remember anyone attacking them.  Personally I would rather use a carb with the ability to compensate for use on various similar engines than to go through millions of metering valve rods and jets to tailor a carb for one specific use.  I am not going to go out and disassemble an HV just to verify my memory, but it seems to me there is only one jet in each carb.  The main jet.  Yes there are transition slots and a cluster from which fuel can be drawn as needed, but in a clean, properly set up carb they work remarkably well.  No multitude of jets.

Hugo says
> A main jet that is big enough to allow sufficient fuel for 
> full-throttle operation is going to be too big to atomise the fuel at 
> idle. So we have half a dozen different jets which all do different 
> things. And they all have to transition smoothly.
> The beauty of the SU is that it completely eliminates both of these 
> problems at a stroke by making both the jet and the venturi variable in 
> size, so the mixture is stable throughout the range. Such a simple 
> solution to a complex problem.
> 
> The SU is also the nearest thing to a programmable carburettor. You 
> don't need a lap-top either. They make millions of different needles 
> with all possible variations of taper, so you can tweak the mixture 
> strength.