What Constitutes Vintage Class A

guardrail53 wrote:
"Not necessarily true. I have a 1990 Bluebird with a 8v92 two cycle Detroit, 475 hp, 1450 torque. Coach is 48,000#, pulls it pretty darn good."

Yes, you are right, but you left two things out? If I remember right , to get those to go smoking up a hard pull, in a semi anyway pulling 80,000 lbs., you had to add a external elect. fuel pump on a switch and turn it on about halfway up the hill, to keep fuel to the motor and keep it pulling like you want! Now, with half the weight, that might not be the case, but you also left out the fuel mi. you get? If I remember right, back then, 3 to 5 mpg was considered good! Again, in the trucking world! What kind of fuel mi. do you get? I did not mean to step on any toes, but since you brought it up, the Cummins and Cats back then would out pull a Detroit 2 to 1! JMHO! Rail! P.S. Glad you are happy with your B.B.! They are one of the best made out there, for sure!!

Never heard of that fuel pump you are talking about. I had a 1980 Freightliner with a Silver 8V92 at maximum, which was, I believe, 435hp. Several times I ran with a couple guys, one had a CAT, and one a Cummins. Newer trucks, but I do not know exactly what engines they had. We were running western ID, MT, and up into Canada, with weights up to 80,000#. We all stuck pretty well together on all the grades, and all got between 5 and 6 mpg running that way.

So, I did NOT see much difference in 1980.

I get between 6 and 7 mpg on the Bluebird. It is not as good as a newer diesel engine, BUT, I do not have $500k invested either!

Love the Bluebird. I could not even think about a newer one. This one was listed right at $500k when new in 1990. Have about 10% of that in it now. Real tile floors, real, solid, oak cabinets, etc! It is 25 years old, many things have changed on newer models. But, did I say we love it? LOL