There was a place on Long Island, or maybe Connecticut, in the early sixties through maybe late seventies, early eighties that would put Alfa engines into flatfender Jeeps and Land Rovers because with the short gears in them they could run at thruway speeds at 5-6000 rpm all day. The wealthy people in the hamptons, or wherever, were his customer base. Later on he started putting Mazda rotaries in these same vehicles. They were not torque monsters but the locals just wanted a beach car they could drive down the highway and not get run over with. I think Arthur Miller had one of their Rovers. Miller had Jaguars and when he was married to MM she would tear the clutches up, they'd fix them. Miller got mad but she was the one that paid the repair bills-and bought the car in the first place-and paid the other bills too. (Miller was, for all the bafflegab abut his moral vision, kind of a mack.) The guy (who ran the shop) was interviewed for one of Peterson's magazines-the Mazda LR made one of those old engine swap books they put out-and the guy that did the interview told me that what the guy said, but they didn't print, was he figured a P. of A. like that was worth a few clutches and flywheels every so often. Anyway, in England they say you're no petrolhead until you have had an Alfa. The cool AR engine is the little inline six. All gear cam drive, sounds like an Offy, only quieter. Very tough to find over here, I'm told they aren't terrifically tough to find in Italy. There are also cool Alfa DOHC truck engines and an aircooled aero engine that if you can find the cooling blower setup for has been put in cars too. It's a six or seven liter engine, smaller than a Ranger. No one flies them because all the aircraft that used them have timed out and been junked.
What Detroit produced engine made more real power than the supercharged 312 Fords in 1957? Yes I know they were advertised at 300hp but in reality were kicking out upwards of 340hp. Those are pretty space efficient engines. I'd be proud to have one in my hot rod.
If you guys want some serious information on engine performance try looking here. http://www.epi-eng.com/piston_engine_technology/bmep_performance_yardstick.htm
The bigger Alfa twin-cams are long-stroke engines. In stock form they are remarkably torquey and flexible. One can use second gear like an automatic transmission around town.
If I needed a small , lightweight and powerful pre 60 engine for one of my cars, I´d build a 301 Chevy with 12.1 cr and a solid Duntov cam....wait! I have built one yet... but it´s sitting in my living room cause I don´t have the matching car yet
Really? I'm a diesel fan, but a 4-71 is HEAVY! I briefly considerd putting one in a 1-ton Power Wagon, becuase both we local and cheap. There was just no way to squeeze that much cast iron in the project. For the period in which they were designed, they offered a lot of power for their size relative to other diesel motors, but only becuase they were 2-cycle and reved twice as high as 4-cycle loafers. Isn't a ****le supposed to generate a lot of horsepower from a small, lightweight package? Heavy or not, I'd take the diesel over a ****le any day.
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