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 proce...