Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
My statement still stands, with that thick wing and weight you aren't going to get anywhere near 360mph
The Spitfire MkII was slower than the MkI. Its very easy to get hung up on top speed, it is easy to make a machine that's only saving grace is its top speed, the Mk II was optimised for overall performance and despite being slower in tests on speed its increased performance was noted by the LW, even though they were identical in appearance.
Also by a change in propeller I think to give better climb and therefore turn performance.It should but it was sometimes noted that the extra power of the Merlin XII was "used up" by things like the external bullet proof windscreen, the IFF aerials, the rear view mirror and a few other little details. Of course a MK I Spit with the Merlin III and all of the extra bits and bobs that showed up by the fall of 1940 wasn't meeting the Fall of 1939 performance figures either
Top speed ain't everything.
It is rare for top speed to mean much at all. I only ran with the tallest gearing on two circuits. Silverstone was just a flat out blast, there were only three corners where you slowed down, Brands hatch was a tight circuit but every corner exit was down hill. Usain Bolt was the fastest man in the world over 100m, but if you watched him play football (soccer) which he did for a while he looked like one of the slowest most of the time. He was actually the fastest man over the last 70 meters of the 100 meter course, on a sports field most of the time it matters only who is quickest from 0 to 20 meters.
Monaco vs Spa-Franchorchamps
In terms of speed, yes. But in terms of what humans perceive as speed it is different. Monaco is slower than Spa, but Monaco had some scarily quick corners where there is no room for a mistake and if you crash you hit something hard immediately. Silverstone felt slow even though I averaged 100MPH on a bike that only did 120MPH, the track is so wide and run off areas so huge that you had no perception of going fast at all. Other circuits where hairpin bends were around drums filled with concrete and "run off areas" were high tension wire fences felt much faster. On Brands Hatch "indy circuit" every major corner where you have to brake you cannot see the apex of the corner but you can (or could at the time) see a steel Armco barrier. I suppose the difference between doing your first solo landing on an airfield surrounded by grass compared to one surrounded by jagged rocks and houses.
Within the UK, the bore and stroke of the Griffon was known in the mid thirties, it could have been built Low cooling drag by wing mounted leading edge intake cooling was part of the Mosquito and Whirlwind so was not science fiction in late 1930s early 1940-41. Aero profiles were also known, well de Havilland and North American Aviation seemed to know them, Mitchell did too, its a question of how the many ins and outs were interpreted as far as I can see. Always Hawkers had to be dragged kicking and screaming to see what others saw years before.
