We were talking rally-spec cams while looking at Kent Cams’ catalogue and the following questions arose. What is the difference between a rally cam and a rally cam from the Motorsport range? Could you use a short circuit oval race cam in a rally engine? Lots of people use rally cams on the road, so could you use an oval cam on the road? How much difference can there really be? After all, laws of physics dictate you can only have so many variations on a theme.
So a plan was hatched, and with the help of Burton Power we gathered upof Kent Cams and Burton Power’s own grinds and I was going to run them all on the same Pinto engine, carbs and exhaust so we could directly compare power curves and outputs. I put together a 2-litre engine with forged pistons, steel rods and a modified cylinder head. Compression ratio was kept to a sensible 11.3:1 to try and suit all the cams we were going to test. Induction was to be a pair of 38 mm-choked 45DCOEs and a budget-friendly Sportex 4-2-1 exhaust manifold was chosen. Budget or not I knew that the exhaust manifold would do a good job and would be similar to what a lot of people run. Ignition was via a Bestek billet distributor. Nothing in the engine was particularly special and would be representative of something a home mechanic might put together.
