On Gary Knutson, Engineer/Engine man for Can Am Chaparral & McLaren:pamotorman wrote: ↑Fri Jul 13, 2018 7:46 pm it broadened the torque curve just like these on the GTP corvette engines
On Staggered Intakes
"At least outwardly in that time frame, the most significant advancement on the big Chevy engines was the iconic "staggered" intakes, towering trumpets of two heights. They have been attributed to Gary, but he wants to clarify this: " I implemented it, but that idea came from a GM engineer named Bill Howell. I won't take credit for that."
Briefly alternating intakes remedied a cast in quirk of the "semi-hemi" pushrod heads. where every second intake port was a little longer then its next door neighbor. Breathing thru conventional equal-lenght trumpets, theses engines generated two distinct peaks separated by a pronounced dip. Visualize an Asian camel with two humps.
Now imagine trying to hold a smooth power slide out of a corner with somebody else's foot working your accelerator.
"It was sort of like having a turbocharger with lag" as Gary puts it. the guys were always complaining how hard it was to drive. Howell talked us into trying these staggered stacks. We tried a lot of combinations. The best was just a smooth torque curve from start to finish.""
From Vintage Motorsport by Pete Lyons May 2018, page 62