Longest engine evolutions

[Bryan]

Been reading about the Buick 215 V8 and how it evolved in so many directions over four decades. Not just the well known evolution into the Rover 3500 and it's Leyland P76 and Range Rover derivatives, but also into the Repco Brabham F1 and Repco Leyland F5000, Traco Oldsmobile, and TVR and Morgan. And within Buick, it evolved into the iron block 300 V8, and with two cylinders lopped off, became the 3.2l V6, sold to Jeep, bought back by GM, eventually forming the basis for the Formula Holden 3.8 V6.

Apart from the Ford and Chevy V8s, are there any other engines with such a diverse or convoluted development history, that have been used in motorsport?

Perhaps the Ford Kent, being the basis of the Lotus Twincam and Cosworth FVA and BDA?

The BMC B-series engine might be a contender - evolving from a 39bhp 1.2l pushrod in the 1954 A40, into the 1.7 and 2.0 OHC O-series in 1978, then into the 16v M-series in 1987, and finally into the 200bhp turbo 16v 2litre T-series in the 220 Tomcat. Another BMC engine that had a long history was the E-series from the Maxi, which made it's first competition appearance in the 1970 World Cup marathon, competed at Bathurst, evolved into the South African Land Rover R-series, and after tweeking and adding twin Webers, became the 1600 S-series in the MG Maestro.

No doubt there are a few others out there.

[Carlo]

Think the good old General Motors 6 cylinder engine that started life about 1929 - 30 would have done the most, it was the basis for Chev, Olds, Buick, Pontiac, GMC, Bedford and Landcruiser just to name a few. Must have been produced in one version or another in one country or another for the best part of 50 years

[RacerT]

The Alfa twin cam, all Aluminium, hemi heads etc was produced in almost identical form from 1954 to the present, from 1300 through to 2000cc. The variations that are still in use to day have twin spark heads, that was first tried in the 1960's, belt drive instead of chain, and 16 valve heads.

[Greg Mackie]

I had a boat, back in the '70s, with an OMC stern drive....it had that Buick engine.

[Oldfart]

Were not some of the OMC a Volvo?

[Spgeti]

Voltswagen Beetle Type 1....1938 to 2003......65 years and over 21 million produced.

[Carlo]

Chev V8 has been going since 1954

[Habu]

Jaguar 3.4 /3.8 had its design origins back in the late 1930's didnt it? Still the same basic block / head design used up until the demise of the XJ6?

[ERC]

Who could forget the venerable BMC "A" Series engine? Apart from going to OHV, didn't really change much at all.

[928]

I thought the A series was OHV to define it from the side valve lumps that preceded it

[RacerT]

I don't think any one can beat the Stanley Steamer 1902 till present as the Estima!

[Bryan]

Who could forget the venerable BMC "A" Series engine? Apart from going to OHV, didn't really change much at all.

It had a few makeovers before BMW put it out to pasture in 2000, but still looked essentially the same.

The postwar Austin engineers can take great pride, although no doubt they never envisioned their 28bhp 803cc baby would spawn a 16bhp diesel tractor engine or a 94bhp turbo hot hatch, let alone what the racers did with alloy crossflow heads and stretching beyond 1400cc.

There's a delicious irony in the latest tweak of fitting 16v BMW motorcyle heads.

[Greg Mackie]

Were not some of the OMC a Volvo?

That was Penta

[Greg Mackie]

Were not some of the OMC a Volvo?

That was Penta

[Bryan]

I thought the A series was OHV to define it from the side valve lumps that preceded it

If these blogs are correct, the B-series was a scaled-up development of the 1200cc OHV developed for the post-war A40 (from the 1932 side-valve Austin 10 engine), and the A-series was a scaled-down version of it.

Austin 10 side-valve
A-series history
B-series history

[928]

memory is returning slowly the side valve was the "M" series from morris came out in the late 20's. I do think you are correct on the origin of the A and B series Bryan

[Kevin Hirst]

Been reading about the Buick 215 V8 and how it evolved in so many directions over four decades. Not just the well known evolution into the Rover 3500 and it's Leyland P76 and Range Rover derivatives, but also into the Repco Brabham F1 and Repco Leyland F5000, Traco Oldsmobile, and TVR and Morgan. And within Buick, it evolved into the iron block 300 V8, and with two cylinders lopped off, became the 3.2l V6, sold to Jeep, bought back by GM, eventually forming the basis for the Formula Holden 3.8 V6.

Apart from the Ford and Chevy V8s, are there any other engines with such a diverse or convoluted development history, that have been used in motorsport?

Perhaps the Ford Kent, being the basis of the Lotus Twincam and Cosworth FVA and BDA?

The BMC B-series engine might be a contender - evolving from a 39bhp 1.2l pushrod in the 1954 A40, into the 1.7 and 2.0 OHC O-series in 1978, then into the 16v M-series in 1987, and finally into the 200bhp turbo 16v 2litre T-series in the 220 Tomcat. Another BMC engine that had a long history was the E-series from the Maxi, which made it's first competition appearance in the 1970 World Cup marathon, competed at Bathurst, evolved into the South African Land Rover R-series, and after tweeking and adding twin Webers, became the 1600 S-series in the MG Maestro.

No doubt there are a few others out there.

not to mention the B series diesel, sweet runner but not long lasting,

[Bryan]

not to mention the B series diesel, sweet runner but not long lasting,

The B-series diesel was loved by London taxi drivers and British mariners, iirc a joint-venture with Perkins (as was the later "Prima" O-series diesel).

A mad Scandinavian friend drove a diesel Morris Marina from Malta to Norway - possibly the world's longest and slowest pub crawl.

[Kevin Hirst]

The B-series diesel was loved by London taxi drivers and British mariners, iirc a joint-venture with Perkins (as was the later "Prima" O-series diesel).

A mad Scandinavian friend drove a diesel Morris Marina from Malta to Norway - possibly the world's longest and slowest pub crawl.

Just lucky he didn,t have a vanguard diesel

[Rod Grimwood]

If any one can do something with an engine, it would be you Hirsty. Oh how many stories.