Large OHV vs. Small OHC Engines--Another View

[Bob K <alfabob@domain.elided>]

I'm a man of a few words. Having read with great interest the recent
discussion on the US use of large, relatively slow OHV engines vs. the
rest of the world's preference for smaller, relatively high-revving OHC
engines, I have one thought that nobody else seems to have expressed
yet.

High torque at relatively low revs is ideally suited to automatic
transmissions. Sybaritic America loves automatic trannies. Smaller,
high-revving engines aren't nearly as much fun with automatics, but
somehow Americans have become convinced that shifting is work. And
smaller engines can generally be counted on to get better fuel mileage,
too. Even with our recently escalating gasoline prices, we still have
cheap fuel. A nation of sybarites with cheap fuel will logically prefer
what the majority of American manufacturers make, large, slow engines
with automatic trannies. QED.

Sorry for the waste of bandwidth if somebody else said this already.

Bob K
Reston, VA
'61 Giulietta Spider
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided