OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Victa Walk-Behind Rotary Mowers Corvette 2 to Vortex - Catching Efficiency

Just flipping back to the Vortex, I started the one I have here yesterday and I was surprised how much quieter it is that a standard Powertorque. The heat shield on top of the barrel area, the plastic cowl and the fluted disc certainly must work

Hello NormK, I remember all the hype on the last incarnation, the white Mustang GTS (refer to my avatar) and remember being disappointed when I saw someone start their new one back in 1987 and it sounded exactly the same and just as noisy any other Victa 160cc two stroke. I expected it to be a great deal quieter and perhaps have a unique note. At least I didn't suffer envy after having my curiosity sated.
The three I have owned sound just a noisy to my ears.
The quietness came from not having to rev them as high as other Victa models for the same cutting and grass catching performance. They are probably the most pure design Victa ever came up with though..

I did notice in the Patent the prototype had an electric motor.

Well duh! You don't need a vortex cutting disc for an electric model to have an edge on noise levels.

G'day Mowerfreak, Max and all.

It seems clear that Victa sponsored CSIRO research here.
But Victa were never the patentees; just licence holders.

I suspect CSIRO used a quiet electric job to better control testing
variables. Certainly, scientists would not have been gassed to death ...

Cheers
---------------------
Jack

Gidday Jack ,MF and all,

I'm sure the scientists would use an exhaust gas extractor when testing petrol engines.

Engine noise was just one problem , it's easy just to install a quieter muffler so the electric motor is not going to
help with objectionable noise levels generated by the motion of the cutting blades themselves.

This weekend one of my neighbours was mowing his lawn he was 50 meters away from me,he was using a newish mower
and I could barely hear the noise from the petrol engine but I could not believe how loud the blade noise was from 50
meters away.

The loud exhaust on a lot of mowers will drown out the blade noise.

If all else fails I read the manual

Cheers
Max.

At the end of the day all that research amounted to nothing, all smoke and mirrors, Victa went back to using the oval disc and all this puffery about the vortex effect on lifting the cutting etc all proven to be insignificant when today most mowers have ended up just using a blade bar. I guess if Mr Victa wanted to throw money at the CSIRO of course they would have to come up with something and just take the money

G'day Max and Norm

I would like to take the opportunity to comment, but this topic has gone
beyond the initial topic.

Max and Norm, I will attempt to move posts to Tech Talk.
These last posts are off-topic to this topic, but extremely
valuable for the points you have raised.

They certainly deserve a topic of their own.

Cheers
Jack