>From another list where we are discussing an issue I raised, and one that the
members of this group might find interesting.
I have just become the owner of an older Lamborghini, and so have been
researching all the technical fun stuff about that marque.
One of the interesting things I came up with was how the engine was designed.
Bizzarini was commissioned to build a completely new 4 cam V-12 to outdo
Ferrari. He produced a prototype, and told old Ferruchio that the 3.5 litre
engine put out over 350 bhp at 9500 rpm, but that with larger Webers, he was
confident of 400 bhp at 11,000 rpm - pretty good showing in the early 60s.
At that point, Ferruchio sprung the news on Bizzarini that he really just
wanted a street engine, and told him to detune it for a power peak of 7000
rpm (after which Bizzarini quit to go design race engines elsewhere).
Here's the trivia part - it got us thinking about racing engines in general.
The typical history of a race engine is that it is developed from an existing
street engine, by making it reliable and making it more efficient.
We got to wondering how many other backwards examples there were, of a design
that was built specifically with racing in mind finding it's way into a
street car.
Other than the Lambo, I came up with the Alfa Montreal, which had a larger
detuned version of the Alfa T-33 V-8 race engine, and the 4 cam Porsches,
which were built at first only as race engines in the 550s and such, before
finding their way into the Carreras later on.
Question then - does anyone else know of a case where the pure race engine
ended up going into a street car.
One caveat - such engines as my MGA Twincam were clearly developed from a
stock block and don't qualify, and the Lotus engine used in the Jensen Healey
and various Loti started out on a base of a 2 litre Vauxhall, so wouldn't fit
either.
We weren't as confident about the Jag V-12 as we couldn't recall if the
single 4 cam version (looks like 2 six cylinder heads on one engine) was
based on the production 6 and whether they started with a clean slate when
they did the 2 cam version that made it into production.
There must be a few other examples out there - any suggestions?
Bill Spohn
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