Scott Fisher wrote:
...a slight omission, when I said that
> [Lotus was] the entry level for British sports cars with in-house
> designed, proprietary engines.
I would concede the point to anyone who made a case that many Triumph
engines were in-house, proprietary designs. They were not
*exclusively* sports-car engines, however; as with BMC, the economics
of Triumph required that their four- and six-cylinder engines were
shared with a variety of saloon cars, in varying states of tune and
displacement.
Still, the TR6 (for example) has an engine designed by Triumph, used in
Triumphs, and not inherited from a generic corporate parts bin. It was
not quite a "bespoke" engine in the same sense that the DB4's was, or
even the XK engine in Jaguars (and while the XK went on to be used in
saloons, as was the 1290cc Alfa Romeo Giulietta powerplant of 1953, both
engines were at least first dropped into the engine bay of a
competition-bound car), but neither was it a common-and-garden variety
saloon/lorry/industrial motor which had been given lumpier cams and an
extra carburettor or two and dropped into a light, rigid, open body. Of
course, in my limited experience in driving TR6s, they got one out of
three right -- the TR6 is in fact open. :-)
The 1500 engine used in the final Midgets was a Triumph design, but
originally based on an engine to be used in the Herald saloon. By the
time BMC had proved the market for a small, cheap sports car, Triumph
used as much Herald running gear as they could and created the Spitfire,
first with an 1196cc version of the Herald four, eventually punching it
out to 1293cc (I *think*; something just under 1300cc, anyway) and
finally the 1.5L as rationalised in the Spitfire and Midget.
By the time that happened, though, all bets as far as bespoke engines in
cheap sports cars were off, as British Phlegmsucking Leyland was in
absolute power by that time (cf. the decision to go with the "Bullet" --
the TR7 -- versus the much more sophisticated and, imnsfho, far prettier
MGD which had just reached the prototype stage, using a corporate
BMC-designed O-type 1.8L sohc powerplant). And the ghostly voice of
Cecil Kimber echoes down the decades, warning us of the "soul-deadening
hand of the big business interests."
Oh, Cecil, you ain't seen *nothing* yet...
--Scott "In the future, every restaurant will be Taco Bell" Fisher
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