Matt Silveira says, in regard to the Rover V8
>As said, the original, "Rover" V-8 was an aluminium small block Buick.
>These engines were "o.k." but not great - why do you think GM sold the
>thing to the Brits?
Sorry Matt, someone's told you a fib. What really happened was GM
(disguised as Buick) were investigating ways to reduce the weight of the
engine. At the time, foundry technology was incapable of producing a
light-weight cast-iron block. This happened circa 1960.
So they whipped up this spiffy alum block 215 V8. The plan was to expand
the line eventually up to the midsize cars. Well, technology marches on,
and methods for reliably casting thin-walled, sandcast iron blocks were
developed.
Now a cast iron block without liners (particularly when thin-walled) is way
cheaper than an alum block with liners, so the bean counters said "Go with
the cast iron." Into the picture comes Rover (remember, this is before BMC
or BLC), who have fairly good relations with GM, looking for a new
powerplant. Ah ha, say the bean counters, let's sell this motor and tooling
to the Limeys (there's that word agin 8-)) and recoup some of our R&D. And
that, my friends, is how Rover ended up with one of the greatest little
motors of the 60's and 70's (and it's still going strong, albeit very long
in the tooth now)
yers
Vern
PS. Did you now that at this time (1960ish) Rover was the world leader in
gas turbine technology in automobiles? The first P6 (2000 TC et al) was
powered by one, which is one of the reasons for the wierd front suspension.
They held this lead until BMC (or was it BLC by this time?) bought them,
decided gas turbines would be better suited to truck transport and gave the
turbine program to Leyland Trucks, who promptly f***** it up! Sad, sad day.
8-(
_____________________________________________________________________
Vern Klukas I'm a little teapot
vernk@carver.dataflux.bc.ca or Short and...
ug141@freenet.victoria.bc.ca or
inkspot@carver.dataflux.bc.ca
|