Truly legendary engines

[mat777]

I was thinking the other day about which engines could truly be described as legendary and why. My shortlist is ;

Rover V8 - revolutionised powerful Rover/Land Rover barges by unshackling them from the dreadful rover/weslake 6 and went on to power just about every performance British car for the next 40 years

Cosworth DFV and Coventry Climax FWMV - 2 engines that in their respective times powered pretty much the entire F1 grid and made spine-tingling noises to boot

Lamborghini's Bizzarini V12 - the engine found in every flagship Lambo from Miura to Murci and like the Rover V8, morphed from a small capacity carburettor fed block to a big-banger EFI monster as it was so easily adaptable to move with the times

Rolls Royce Merlin - The engine that won us a war and propelled some of the most famous aircraft of all time. 'Nuff said.


Do you agree/disagree? Any other suggestions for the list?

[retrorider]

Alfa Romeo Busso V6.

[stackmonkey]

Chevy small block V8 -taken over from the Rover V8 for the default performance engine transplant.

Honda V-tec - for the step change in power, revs, reliability combination.

VAG 1.9 diesel - not a brilliant engine per se, but used in so many vehicles, in so many different power levels, that it's contribution is hard to ignore.

[steviejasp]

Small block Chevy. There are more sbc engines than cars in Britain apparently

[Steffan]

The A Series 5,500,000 made and then rolled onto Nissan and still the basis of the Nissan engine in the Micra

One hell of an engine in its day..

[v8will]

Too many to list but the stand out ones for me are;

GM LSX
Cosworth YB
Lexus 1UZ FE and Toyota 2JZ-GTE
Ford Side oiler

[Fleckers]

ford V6, essex and colgne

Scooby Boxter

Opel redtop 16v lump

[Fort Jefferson]

Honda 125 5 reving to 20k.

[eldar]

ISTR the Rover V8 was actually a Buick design, the USA iron persuaded Buick alloy engines were unamerican, so they flogged it to rover.

[k15tox]

LSx series lumps.

V-tech engines.

M-power n/a engines.

quite a few more IMO tbh but im not going to list them all.

[DonkeyApple]

Good thread.

I would say those engines that went from road cars to F1. Coventry Climax? And that famous BMW unit. The latter I think was used for decades?

Lotus' Ford twin cam should be on the list.

VW's long forgotten 5 cyl punched well above its weight and also powered the original Quattro.

[The_Burg]

Rover K series,way ahead of it's time and a revolutionary design.
(Shame about the head gasket issues).

[Gooly]

Rover V8
GM LSx
Ford-Cosworth BDT-E
Ford-Cosworth YB
Nissan RB26
Toyota 2JZ
Ford-Cosworth BDA
Opel/Vauxhall Redtop
Honda B18
BMW S50 and S54

[Crafty_]

stackmonkey said:

Chevy small block V8 -taken over from the Rover V8 for the default performance engine transplant.

I would say it always was the default choice..

I'd add the ford flathead - may not of been the first V8 but old Henry made the thing affordable. Managed to stick around for 20 years or so too.

Chrysler Hemi

[Willy Nilly]

The engine in a C90. It mobilised east Asia

[drophead]

BMWs M52 engine series. All of them too, even the so called gutless 20i version.

[v8will]

Willy Nilly said:

The engine in a C90. It mobilised east Asia

I was actually just thinking this. Something like 50 million have been made (with various engine sizes)

[davepoth]

BMW M10. Shopping car to F1 Champion.

[uncinquesei]

Ford crossflow, with BMC A series (already mentioned) made DIY tuning accessible. Fiat twin cam - exotic engine in mundane machinery.

[jas xjr]

jaguar v12 and straight six

not my supercharged v8