Interesting Evolution of European Engines
Orig. Posting Date | User Name | Edit Date |
Oct 18, 2017 05:32PM | Rosebud | Edited: Oct 18, 2017 07:43PM |
Sep 4, 2017 11:44AM | Dan Moffet | |
Sep 4, 2017 11:02AM | specialist | |
Sep 4, 2017 09:18AM | Inno special | |
Jul 21, 2017 02:41PM | minimans | |
Jul 21, 2017 09:06AM | bluedragon | |
Jul 20, 2017 04:03AM | h_lankford | |
Jul 20, 2017 03:50AM | Dan Moffet | |
Jul 19, 2017 08:10PM | Rosebud |
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I was watching “Jay Leno’s Garage” the other day when someone asked him why he thought, historically speaking, different nations had developed engines with such diverse power characteristics...
"MossMotoring" just published this excellent article that explains in detail the evolution of engine design with regard to early tax laws. [link]
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----really? Maybe its the other way around, British engines likes to rev but developed an un-healthy poor amount of torque.... look at our british minis, they're high revving engines, they go 70mph at an rpm of 9,000 and throttle pedal kissing the floor
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----really? Maybe its the other way around, British engines likes to rev but developed an un-healthy poor amount of torque.... look at our british minis, they're high revving engines, they go 70mph at an rpm of 9,000 and throttle pedal kissing the floor
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Owned several Fiats while there. Some were bigger size sedans, but my favorite was the 86 Panda with the FIRE engine. Mine was 2-wheel drive but lifted 4-wheel drives were used on Mt Etna.
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Mini's are like buses they come along in a bunch
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High fuel costs (usually due to higher taxation) favor smaller engines and vehicles in most non-USA countries.
The British bore restriction rule is a standout example of technically ignorant legislation. Why arbitrarily limit the bore instead of overall displacement? This restriction IMHO crippled the English motor industry from the 50's on. As speeds and performance demands increased, high revs would have been desirable, but the bore rule forced the British engine makers to stick with long-stroke engines and put them at a considerable disadvantage, especially for sporty cars.
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No way your grandfather's Oldsmobile with big Detroit iron could go there, so they had small cars and small engines.
Non-tax related costs surely must come into the equation.
A big flathead V-8 presumably was cheaper and simpler to produce than a double overhead cam fuel injected exotic engine.
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For those not familiar with the term, 'oversquare' describes an engine where the bore diameter is larger than the stroke.
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I was watching “Jay Leno’s Garage” the other day when someone asked him why he thought, historically speaking, different nations had developed engines with such diverse power characteristics. He said he can understand how styling was influenced by national aesthetics, but why are power curves so different among nations? Jay said that America’s wide open roads account for our love for large displacement V8s of course, but some of the differences in European engines were the result of unintended consequences of different tax laws.
Jay said that in Italy for example, autos were taxed based on their overall displacement. The Italians figured out they could produce, say a 2 liter engine with a large bore and therefore large valves that would deliver a given horsepower at higher RPMs while being down a bit on torque. The British tax was based on bore, which resulted in small bore engines with a long stroke. This resulted in engines that didn’t like to rev but developed a healthy amount of torque. Interesting, no?