V-8 Crankshaft Design History

[ardunbill@webtv.net]

Hi Folks, one of my non-List friends, a famous SoCal nitro Vincent
motorcycle dragster racer in the '50s, wanted me to put this out to the
historians on this List.

As you know, before the '49 Cad, the design standard for V-8 cranks was
three main bearings (and certain folk prefer them to this day).  The
three mains were perfectly satisfactory from every standpoint that I
know of, so, why did the standard change to five for almost all
subsequent V-8s, when it had to cost more?  Cheers ArdunBill