Re: In regards to V8 engines etc. **Rob

["Rob Levinson" <always_coca-cola@xxxxxxx>]

>From: "Scott R Olson" <scottolson@domain.elided>
>Subject: In regards to V8 engines etc.
>Yeah,  V-8's suck.  j/k  Has any auto manufacturer ever produced an inline
>8?  A flat 8?  I know porsche had a flat 6 and some kick butt swedish car
>companiies use inline 5's.  I think the new Bugatti touring coupe has a
W18.
>Any other interesting engine configurations?  I would think that if anyone
>could build an inline8 it would be BMW.

    Audi, of course, made great use of the inline-5.  The marketing slogan
"the power of a six but the economy of a four" was fairly accurate.  I had
two of those engines, not too shabby.  That advertising slogan led to some
great hilarity for me when Toyota introduced their "no extra power" V6 for
the Camry... I thought "The power of a four with the economy of a six - Oh
what a feeling!"

    Ford used to make a straight-8.  It's ancient technology, I think an
L-head or something, not much power or potential by today's standards.  Ford
also showed a "T-drive" (or something similar) on the show circuit a few
years back.  It was basically a straight-8 mounted transversely with the
coupling for the transaxle coming from the center of the block.  A nifty
idea, it distributes the load on the crank bearings evenly, important on a
l-o-o-o-n-g crank like that.  It had some awesome possibilities - imagine a
Mustang with a 5.0-liter 8-cylinder but the hood short like a Honda Civic.

    Audi showed the W12 in the Avus show car... it was three banks of four
cylinders, another great concept for a supercar or big-buck luxury car.

    Cadillac used to have a V16 back around the thirties.

    A short-lived Italian company named Cizeta-Moroder (funded by the
musical conductor Moroder) that was trying to build a mid-engine V16
supercar that looked like a Lambo Diablo.  Camel cigarettes drew it in
cartoon form in their ads in the early '90s.  It had a nifty one-piece
casting for engine block and transaxle, supposedly to increase structural
rigidity.  What a nightmare clutch job that would be, huh?  Cizeta is
pronounced cheese-et-uh.

    Boxer (or "pancake" engines) have been in use by Subaru for their
4-cylinders for a long time, and they had the nifty flat-six in the really
cool SVX all-wheel-drive wundercar.  Ferrari is known for their flat-8 and
flat-12 "boxers", and their F1 flat-12 was very competitive in terms of low
profile until changes in aerodynamics hurt them, the motor was too wide.  I
think we all know about the Porsche flat-6 and their flat-8.


    Mazda's rotary is unique (except for the NSU Ro80 progenitor, the
pre-Audi company), and there is a 3-rotor version available only in Japan in
the built-to-order Cosmo coupe (sort of a mini-850i).

    BMW's straight-6 is becoming an increasingly rare engine type.  Until
recently, there was also the Jaguar I6 and Mercedes I6... both of those are
gone, leaving the Jeep 4.0 I6 as one of the few companions in that
configuration.  Vic Doolan says that BMW is committed to the I6 for the
forseeable future... I hope so, there's not much that can rival it's
economy, power potential, and smoothness.

- - Rob Levinson
'85 535i Turbo for sale: www.bubbaclub.com/4sale.htm

Help Kori and Alex!  www.bubbaclub.com/kids

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