Phil Babcock wrote:
> I was looking through some old Vintage Motosports tonight and the
> July/August 1993 has a 6 page article about Lotus 19's. Great article on
> a bunch of the chassis, and how they weren't designed for V8's but
> everybody in US was ordering rolling chassis to stuff 215 BOP, 289, 325,
> and all sorts of V8 into the car. Well written article.
Yeah, isn't it interesting how few 19's have the original engine installed?
There was a beutiful red 19 at the '95 Montery historics that had been
restored to what looked like as close to original condition as I've ever
seen one in. It had the original Climax two valve engine. I think it was
owned by the Arciero Bros, but my memory of it is fading now.
The 215 BOP powered cars kinda fell by the wayside, as the Ford small block
cars were introduced... same fate that befell several other BOP powered
cars such as the Genies. I guess the 215 V8, even with the Oldsmobile
heads, didn't have the breathing capacity (at least not in that state of
development) to compete with a well turned out 289. And this was the pre-
Boss small block era. Not to mention, pre- small block Chevy era. :-)
Those 5 litre Chevys in the vintage F5000 cars (like the one Tod Gerstenberger
has) are making *WAY* more hp than they ever did in their time period, because
they are taking advantage of 30 years of continuous SBC development. 600 hp,
no problem =:-O
325? What be that? A Chevy?
Regards,
Erik
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