The award for best engine ever goes to........
Discussion
The rover V8 a magnificent design and one that has proved its worth over a period of nearly 40 years in applications from sports cars commercial 4x4 and military.My award for second place go,s to cadilac,s Northstar V8 a near indestructable V8 that is is going to be the rover V8 of the future.....
The Oscar goes to:
Jaguar XK engine
Introduced in 1948 in the XK120 and used to power the most thrilling cars for quite some time.
Legendary wins in C- and D-types at Le Mans with nearly standard engines are history.
McNab knows, he is your man for that.
That engine was built far into the late eighties and was also used in fast tanks, power-boats, lorries etc...
Possibly the only 6-cylinder that sounds better than any with 8.
Sorry just my view
Jaguar XK engine
Introduced in 1948 in the XK120 and used to power the most thrilling cars for quite some time.
Legendary wins in C- and D-types at Le Mans with nearly standard engines are history.
McNab knows, he is your man for that.
That engine was built far into the late eighties and was also used in fast tanks, power-boats, lorries etc...
Possibly the only 6-cylinder that sounds better than any with 8.
Sorry just my view
I have to agree in part with Bluethunder. Assuming we are talking about engines being retrofitted into different vehicles then yes, Rover V8 has first place in my opinion but will be replaced by the all aluminium pushrod 5.7 Chevy LS1. Maybe the excellent Northstar will be third but going against it are the quad cams and smaller capacity.
About the Honda VTEC, 18 months ago I had to chance to drive a one off Mugen Honda prototype S2000 that I was told had a tuned version of the standard S2000's 2.0ltr VTEC putting out over 300bhp.
Now I don't know if those figures are for real but I raced a Ferrari 360 down the M40 and the mugen was quicker so the engine in that car really was something special!! The heavy use of carbon fibre to lighten the car also had something to do with it of course but that's another story...
Now I don't know if those figures are for real but I raced a Ferrari 360 down the M40 and the mugen was quicker so the engine in that car really was something special!! The heavy use of carbon fibre to lighten the car also had something to do with it of course but that's another story...
The 3.0V6 in my 164 was wonderful:
Creamy smooth, torquey with great top end power. Very good MPG when cruising. Gorgeous noise (ANSA back box helped!). Reliable too. What more could you ask?
I presume your not impressed.
Edited to say: Oh, and it looked fantastic too...
>> Edited by trackdemon on Friday 14th February 12:49
Creamy smooth, torquey with great top end power. Very good MPG when cruising. Gorgeous noise (ANSA back box helped!). Reliable too. What more could you ask?
I presume your not impressed.
Edited to say: Oh, and it looked fantastic too...
>> Edited by trackdemon on Friday 14th February 12:49
Story about that Mugen Honda goes like this,
I used to work for a marketing agency in central London that won the account for doing most of Honda's direct marketing. As I worked in that agencies artwork studio and did most of the graphics ideas that got them the account, they owed me a few 'favours'.
Anyway, Honda UK thought it was a good idea to lend our agency all their best cars so they "empowered" us to do good stuff for them. Load of bollocks that if you ask me but being 25 and let loose in an NSX, Accord Type R, Civic Type R, S2000's etc and getting free track days in them was a pretty good thing!!
After we'd had the NSX on loan they replaced it with a 'Mugen S2000'. It was the same as a normal S2000 in appearance apart from black, bare carbon fibre body panels with a huge vented bonnet, Mugen decals and massive twin exhausts. I was told that it was the only one in Europe at the time and to be careful with it (yeah right) when given the keys on a friday afternoon.
So off down the M40 me and a colleague went and having driven a standard S2000 it was clearly much more powerful. The throttle response was just awesome and I lost count of the time I hit the rev limiter as the engine scremed up to 9000rpm. You could also tell instantly that it was considerably lighter than standard as it just felt like a big go kart and until my impending purchase of a griff, was the most fun I'd had in a car by a mile.
On the way back to London I came up behind a couple of city looking types in a Ferrari 360 and Maserati 3200. Overtook them both and pushed the honda as much as I could and was pulling away from the Ferrari who I knew was having a go as I could hear that screaming V8.
When I got back I asked the director who'd given me the keys if he knew how powerful it was and he said he'd been told "around 300bhp" out of the 2 litre, non turbo engine. Now that is something special!!
I don't know if they actually sold any but I did see a small picture of one in Evo with rumours of them being available to buy for over £70,000.
All in all was a great day at work, great fun and definitely not taking the piss!!!
I used to work for a marketing agency in central London that won the account for doing most of Honda's direct marketing. As I worked in that agencies artwork studio and did most of the graphics ideas that got them the account, they owed me a few 'favours'.
Anyway, Honda UK thought it was a good idea to lend our agency all their best cars so they "empowered" us to do good stuff for them. Load of bollocks that if you ask me but being 25 and let loose in an NSX, Accord Type R, Civic Type R, S2000's etc and getting free track days in them was a pretty good thing!!
After we'd had the NSX on loan they replaced it with a 'Mugen S2000'. It was the same as a normal S2000 in appearance apart from black, bare carbon fibre body panels with a huge vented bonnet, Mugen decals and massive twin exhausts. I was told that it was the only one in Europe at the time and to be careful with it (yeah right) when given the keys on a friday afternoon.
So off down the M40 me and a colleague went and having driven a standard S2000 it was clearly much more powerful. The throttle response was just awesome and I lost count of the time I hit the rev limiter as the engine scremed up to 9000rpm. You could also tell instantly that it was considerably lighter than standard as it just felt like a big go kart and until my impending purchase of a griff, was the most fun I'd had in a car by a mile.
On the way back to London I came up behind a couple of city looking types in a Ferrari 360 and Maserati 3200. Overtook them both and pushed the honda as much as I could and was pulling away from the Ferrari who I knew was having a go as I could hear that screaming V8.
When I got back I asked the director who'd given me the keys if he knew how powerful it was and he said he'd been told "around 300bhp" out of the 2 litre, non turbo engine. Now that is something special!!
I don't know if they actually sold any but I did see a small picture of one in Evo with rumours of them being available to buy for over £70,000.
All in all was a great day at work, great fun and definitely not taking the piss!!!
Griffithy said: The Oscar goes to:
Jaguar XK engine
Introduced in 1948 in the XK120 and used to power the most thrilling cars for quite some time.
Legendary wins in C- and D-types at Le Mans with nearly standard engines are history.
McNab knows, he is your man for that.
That engine was built far into the late eighties and was also used in fast tanks, power-boats, lorries etc...
Possibly the only 6-cylinder that sounds better than any with 8.
Sorry just my view
well here's mine. NO 6 pot sounds better than a tuned eight and no 8 sounds better than a tuned twelve.
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