I guess you could file this under "what were they thinking?"
I was reading a magazine that I picked up in the UK a couple of months ago
with an article by Tony Tocock. Tocock was Aston Martin's service engineer
and race mechanic during the era of the 50's and 60's.
>From page 61 out of the June issue of *Thoroughbred & Classic Cars* Tocock
writes about the quality issues of the DB6 engine. (Lagonda Bentley 6 Cyl).
Very interesting (at least to me). Tocock joined Aston Martin in
1950. *(David
Brown* acquired *Aston Martin* in 1947 and Lagonda the following year).
Quote from the article:
*"The LB6 was a bad engine. When David Brown bought the company it was one
of the first twin overhead camshaft engines in a conventional car. Jaguar
jumped on it pretty soon afterwards and beat us hand over fist simply
because it's engine had a normal cylinder block and a seven bearing crank.
The LB6 had a four bearing crank with aluminum cheese bearings. They were
absolutely diabolical. To think of a DOHC six cylinder on four bearings!
The blocks were weak too. It was a disaster and it was a wonder the
warranty rates didn't break the firm. I can remember at one time having
four customer engines under my bench waiting for attention."
-------------------------------------------
*I guess this might be considered one of the low points in British
engineering.
Kirk *
*
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