Car manufacturers are all very competitive, and GM, like others, were
not above having a close look at others engineering. The light alloy
Vee 8 they had ready to into their cars was a close copy of a much
earlier Vee 8, one from the German company of BMW; not identical, but
as close as William Morris's copy was of the Dagenham Ford Eight HP
side valve back in 1935, that William used in his Morris Eight! GM had
quite a lead on the other American car builders, but only for a short
time. The 1960 Buick Skylark Compact, Buick Special, Pontiac Tempest
and Oldsmobile F85 Cutlass had the 215 cu.in Vee 8 engine. By late
1964 the total production was over 750,000 of these family sedans, but
by now Ford of America had stolen the limelight. This forced GM to use
a cast iron engine in their products. Ford had successfully developed
the 'Thin Wall Casting' technique with the much cheaper metal, cast
iron. Cast iron does not need cylinder liners, or valve seats,
(pre-leadfree petrol of course,) and is half the cost of aluminium.
The now expensive GM all-aluminium alloy Vee 8 was abandoned, and the
only use it had was as a lightweight engine for power boats. There
were so many GM cars about with this engine, the second-hand market
kept the power boat builders going for years.