Truck engines for racers

I know this Austin Hall-Scott has a 10-litre 4 cylinder aero-engine but if it sounds like my mate's tractor that runs a turboed Ford Cargo engine, why not go hillclimbing with a truck engine?

A question popped into my mind a couple of times recently about the powerplants in commercial vehicles and whether they might be suitable for engine punk activities - to wit, constructing a special for hill climbing and/or similar performance work.

The Austin coach engine had a swept volume of 3460cc and put out 67.5 bhp at 2,900rpm

This is not such a daft idea as it may sound at first. Many classic car engines began life in trade. The Humber 4-litre "Blue Riband" engine started out in Commer trucks and so did its rival at "The Austin", a similar 6-cylinder motor originally designed for Austin commercials vehicles, or Birmingham Bedfords as they were known. (The story goes that Leonard Lord approved the copying of a Bedford design to speed up the R & D process and as the country was hurtling towards the Second World War nobody minded too much.)

Ford's flathead V8 powered cars, trucks and Bren gun carriers but nowadays lives in much more suitable places like hotrods and Allard sports cars.

Modern turbocharged diesels make good choices for use in kit cars these days (remember that P100 pick-up powered Westfield years ago?) and the V10 engine in the Dodge Viper began as a truck engine.

If you go to the Vintage Sports Car Club hillclimb at Wiscombe Park you see all manner of aero-engined monsters. One of my neighbours has several souped up tractors and these are not so dissimilar in character from a vintage racer - straight pipes, big engines, lots of noise and smoke. The former is geared for speed while the latter is geared for speed.

Are there engines out there that people have passed over out of lack or pedigree, which are crying out to hurtle up a hill or round a circuit in an appropriately contrived bedstead with wheels?

A quick scan through my recently acquired 1966 copy of The Observer's Book of Commercial Vehicles revealed over 80 different types of petrol engine then used to power a truck or a bus.

They ranged from the Alfa Romeo twin-cam engine that lived in the 2º (odd name for a van) to a 6 litre V8 ZIL for a 4x4 truck.

This Diamond T Model P 4360 cement mixer doesn't look very sporting but that could lull competitors into a false sense of security.  (Photo: Olyslager Organisation)

The biggest one was the 400 CID (6.6 litres) 6 cylinder engine that powered Diamond T trucks and most of the really big ones hailed from the states where gas was cheap. Many of these were V8s similar to those used in American cars but cams, carbs and heads would be a lot different.

The Mazda T600 Light Truck had a 577cc air-ccoled twin that may (or may not) have fitted nicely into a Norton Featherbed frame to make a Norda. Or possibly a Mazton. (Jap crap rice burners) (Photo:Wikipedia)

The Cony Guppy. Ring-ding-a-ding!  (Photo: Olyslager Organisation)

The smallest one listed was a 199cc air cooled two stroke single that powered the Cony Guppy from Japan. Two strokes are great in lightweight motorbikes and the supercharged Rootes, Foden and GM varieties are very interesting but this device needs a power transplant instead of giving a donation.

What would you choose for your express (pizza) delivery? A hairy screamer 1300cc twink or an 1100cc diesel twin? (Photo : Wikipedia)

Most out of place engine in a commercial vehicle must surely be that Alfa Romeo double overhead camshaft 1290cc 4 cylinder motor for the 2º van. Anything like that ought to go in into a 1300 Junior. A 1158cc two-cylinder diesel engine was an option.

Second only to the misplacing of the Alfa twin can was the Lancia 1099cc V4 in the Jolly van. That's a lovely name for a commercial vehicle - "I'm just off in the Jolly. I may be some time." These narrow angle V4s were really tiny for their cubic capacity because their bores were staggered and they were as short as a twin. From a packaging point of view this engine layout made a lot of sense but surely these engine sought to be Lancia Appia sports cars?

The Tempo Rapid has a 950 Austin petrol engine (Photo: Olyslager Organisation)

Most intriguing engine, though was that for the Tempo, a front wheel drive truck from West Germany. The lightest version had a 452cc two stroke twin engine but the heavier versions had 948cc and 1489cc four engines.

Sound familiar?

Yup. These are BMC engines.

Let's just think about this for a moment - in 1966 BMC was exporting engines for use in a German commercial vehicle. 

The A and B series engines were probably the best engines BMC ever came up with but I still find this absolutely incredible. Lindsay Porter's The B Series Engine Source Book makes not mention of engines specified for Tempo. You would think it would be something to be proud of, wouldn't you? 

The Tempo Matador Elevator truck used front wheel drive as an ace and a BMC B series motor to power the plot (Photo: Olyslager Organisation)

Of course, the inevitable happened and Hanomag, the people behind Tempo in the late sixties, subsequently adopted diesel engines. And before anybody says anything they were not the diesel versions of the A and B series engines.


I've already got A series and B series engines kicking about here so what petrol commercial vehicle engine would I like for a vintage sort of special? 

It seems I've talked myself into wanting one of these, a 5-litre engine from a 1942 Leyland Merryweather turntable fire escape,

Well, to be a VSCC eligible special it would have to be pre-war so may be one of those Austin or Bedford engines. Of course a Ford V8 would fit the bill very nicely but for the pure vintage feel I think the engine out of a 1930s Leyland fire, er, engine would be just nice. Leyland used the heavy oil engine throughout the thrirties but before that they used petrol motors and these remained struggled on for a while in fire engines where speed was a virtue. 

This is the donor fire engine, beautifully preserved by the Lincolnshire Vintage Vehicle Society. It's actually based on a TD7 double deck chassis and has a 4 speed crash box and servo brakes. The six cylinder engine produces 33 horsepower (is that all?), enough to push the fire escape ensemble up to 55 mph. Fuel consumption is 6 mpg so no wonder they don't move it out of the shed much but if they've got a spare engine what would that do in an old Bentley chassis?

But if I wasn't worried about VSCC eligibility (and I'm not - really), then one of the post-war Bedford 4.9 litre engines could be good, the sort that lurks under the normal control bonnet of a J4 or the cab of a K series. But as there isn't any substitute for cubes, especially if the engine is cast iron, one of those monstrous Diamond T 400 cubic inch 6 cylinder engines might not go amiss. Or what's wrong with the common or garden Chevy V8?


I know this train of thought does not include the stuff of legend (yet) and is probably one of my more obscure avenues of investigation but I'm not the only one to think along these lines viz, the Dodge Viper, Austin Sheerline etc. etc.


And then there was the Sea Unicorn. As well as being a narwhal, the Sea Unicorn was a marinised AEC six cylinder engine that Harry Weslake - one of the original horsepower whisperers - produced. Based on a diesel bottom end, it had a new head with bigger combustion chambers to run on petrol. I can't remember much about it because I read about it years ago in a library book. This was Lucky all my life, Harry's autobiography, and is only obtainable at great expense, if you can find a copy.


So, you see, my idle thoughts on truck engines for racers have occurred to not just me. People who know what they're doing have actually done it.