Thing is my car drives the same as you say above ,and I drive my car hard around the mountains & the odd hill climb but then sat in traffic it just ticks over nice, in all types of weather to..
I have a Lambda in the exhaust and a gauge to see Fuel/air ratio to . I just watch the oil pressure gauge as I don't have an ECU with safety features,
I find most peoples experience of DCOE's or DHLA's are from poorly set up cars and the myth you need to tune them every 5 minutes.
It is harder these days to find a rolling road to tune them properly though , most of them now only understand ECU's and haven't got a clue when they see carburettors. Luckily in Wales there are still plenty of old rally cars that need tuners that understand carburettors so there is a few guys around.
Be good to hear if anyone has run carbs them gone to ITB's and see there power gains and torque curves etc ?
just trying to be devils advocate here. I will probably end up with ITB's anyways, just because I like to fiddle round and should get some more out of my engine , how much extra we will see but is all that extra money worth maybe 20-30BHP ?
Sure, I think a set of well setup carbs can work really well too. Thankfully we have quite a few very good rally people here as well, but it's a dying art for sure. I love DCOE carbs, they have a great charm and character, and are really good, no doubt about that.
But also playing the devils advocate here, I think your big argument here is difficult to prove. Yes your car is running great, but you haven't had a ITB setup on your machine to compare with. But that's the case with my car as well! I haven't run my engine on carbs.... so my point is also not the best, although I haven't had one single misfire or hickup yet. I know this is also anecdotal, but even when I've run my car on track at 30degs outside and I park it, I notice nothing going out street driving after a 5 minute break with very high temperatures under the hood. I think the carbs would struggle here, but I might be wrong. I have an intake air temperature sensor so my ECU can compensate for that.
To be honest, I really think a 20-30bhp gain with ITBs is a big stretch. I don't think there is going to be any big difference at all between a 50mm DCOE style carb setup or a 50mm Jenvey. Not at peak power, a well setup DCOE should be able to flow the same really. So I don't really think a big DCOE isn't for a stroker, that's more to do with the right setup and tuning of the carb.
I think the difference is going to be the torque curve in general under the peak power numbers, it's going to be better (hence coming back to drivability). And even if we might argue here a little, I really think the benefits with ITBs, ECU and a fully controllable ignition is highly beneficial and it will produce a more driveable car in more conditions.
But the fact is, which I think is very important to stress that I'm not going to say that ITBs are the way to go. It's all about your needs, preferences and budget. I can motivate my choice by saying that for my application and use, I would make the same choice again. But I would love to build a nice DCOE engine as well. There is no right or wrong here, any ITB setup is great, be it a DCOE or Jenveys.