<VV> Re: Dual Points-advantages?

[Chris & Bill Strickland]

Boy!  it is simply amazing how much info people have forgotten over the 
years -- as we move further into the age of electronics

the classic dual point distributor was a rather successful attempt to 
increase coil saturation at high rpm on multi-cylinder engines.  the 
second set of points (when the lobe number matches the cylinder number) 
can be adjusted to close much sooner than is possible with single points 
-- cutting the dwell by maybe 40% without the excessive point arcing you 
would find trying to do this in a single point set up.  less "dwell" 
yields more time with the points closed, which means greater coil 
saturation, which means greater spark energy -- important stuff for an 
eight cylinder engine at 8,000+ rpm in the 1960's.

yes, it is an obsolete technology, but so are carburetors.  big deal.  
more important would be the lack of that fuel economy device, the vacuum 
advance, on most of these units.

one other thing many of these units make available is a port to drive a 
mechanical tach -- very retro, sorta like those carbs previously 
mentioned ...   :)

Bill Strickland