The Excellents ran the SOHC L series, the LZ has a unique twin cam head on an L series block. They were built for motorsport and were run in 1200s (1400cc) 120ys,(1600cc) Stanzas (various CCs)and Formula Pacifics (1600cc). They are rare in any capacity...

89mm
You are partly right. The Rover engine is a '63 Buick engine. It was also available as an option in Pontiac Tempests, but the Oldsmobile version of it had 4 extra head bolts & used a diferent, more conventional, wedge combustion chamber design instead of the traditional nail valve design that Buick had used since the first cast iron engines.

For reasons that GM have regretted ever since, they did sell the whole thing to Rover & Rover have never looked back. The P76 is derived from the 300 cibic inch version of this engine i'm told.
I have a friend in Queensland who is flying a P76 engine in his 76% scale Bf 109 F fighter. [Beyeriche Flugzugwerken, owned by Willie Meschershmit] It took him just on i0 years to build it & another 10 years to clear the beaurocratic B S to get it in the air.

The Rover V8, it's a good engine because the Brits did not design it.
Chris

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1200RC
V8's redundant??
I will agree that i do not know of an available, or affordable V8 that would be a good swap into our much loved little Datsuns. When you want blinding grunt, the kind of torque that will drag the Queen Mary ashore, or the kind of acceleration that leads to detached retinas, there isn't a production automotive 4 or 6 culinder engine in existance that will hold a candle to the performance that the Chrysler hemi & it's "race only" derivatives can provide. This is an engine thet was originally designed in 1949 & '50.

I love my little Datsuns, & have had my '68 sedan for 23 years, it delivers more fun per cylinder than just about anything i can afford, but when i want to get serious, i will turn the key & listen to my Hemi throb.
Chris

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one of my friends has an lz18 in his s11 gazelle, it sounds pretty crook tho, but as hes about to do an rb20 swap he would likely flog it off for fairly cheap, I.E. doesnt know its rare.... PM me and I might be able to con him into selling it.

As a Lexus Tech for the last 13 years
I considered putting the 4 cam v8 in my
1200 for a long time. I've been collecting
pieces forever it seems. 250 horsepower
and the most reliable engine I have ever
seen.. then I decided to keep it mostly
Nissan. Saving the Lexus motor for a 29
Model A or a 32 coupe where it will be
better suited.. In going on 14 years I have
only seen 2 lexus V8s fail one spun bearings
after not seeing an oil change in 30k miles
the other one lost a wrist pin and wasted
a cylinder.. they were both 90 Ls400s
drove a 98 gs400 8 miles with no coolant
it shut down in front of a gas station..put
water in it drove it home.. the car did end
up with a blown head gasket..fixed it, now
120k miles later it still purrs at 300hp
I also considered the 3.0l straight 6 in my
but found it too heavy and too long...
ok rambling,,it is 4am and I am still at work
arrgggh been here since 4pm and gotta be
back at noon

Wubbits the sleepy Lexus Tech
soon to hopefully have a CA18det powered
1200
got the car,got the rack,got the engine
don't got the time

hay..
for all day street purposes all i got a say is ca18det... 13b turbo..
propely built with less than 5000$ mods 2 either of these motors
and your gaurenteed 2 have stains in your paints after a race..

i say this as a street car.. but if u want crazy times on the drag strip i would highly recomend a crysler motor mmmmmm dream 440 big block in my datsun ute! goooddam....
cheers

89mmQuote:
and McCormack beat them all (including Cosworth V8's, Repco Holdens, SBCs) in 77 winning the Australian Drivers Championship in his 4.9L P76 V8 powered F5000. An engine that had far less development time than any other F5000 engine.

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well 1200RC, wish you were up here. I'd take you up on that challenge with my 4.4L P76 V8 240K (with Holley and extractors) against your twin turbo 4. We'll see how redundant it actually is

Feral Errol and 1200 Rallycar have hit the nail on the head.
The first thing is that the the most important parameter is the INSTALLED weght and HP. Thats why turbo- and supercharged engines have the advantage. They are so good that they were banned by F1 and by those relics from the Stone Age, the Touring cars in Oz.
Secondly, it is correct to say that the weight saving is not as big as it appears, more so now that most engines have alloy heads.
Lastly, my recollection of Frank Matich's forays over to the Can-Am series were disastrous. There is no doubt that he was a top pedaller, but the SR sports was hopelessly outclassed by the McLarens and the US cars.
Remind me please Feral---Did he actually finish anywhere during his trip(s?) over there?

Yes I think a fair point has been made here. The Rover V8's / P76 etc never saw the funds or developments that chevs and fords did - perhaps something to do with the phenomenal amount of Yanks that were working on cast iron lumps.

I reckon with the dollars and time that have been poured into bolt ons and mods and testing of chev motors etc - given the same development - I think even a pile of bricks or a bail of hay may go just as fast.

It's easy to knock something because it wasn't as consumer available like VHS versus BETA - but there's no doubting that there have been some very successful cars based around rover v8 motors.

I'm running with a p76 because I want to get something at least close to the british heritage of the spitfire it's going into. Furthermore there are people that have put chev or ford v8's in their spitfires and they handle like #### - absolute ####e... The rover converted ones have nice neutral handling.

Anyway - this isn't the place to get all noble or argumentative about the motors.

L18_B110 obviously knows how well a rover v8 can go.

I owned a range rover for a while and it was sweet as so I feel I have some kind of right to be impressed and comment...

I've seen a rotary conversion for a spitfire and that would be mad as - but I've got experience with the rover gear so that's what I'm running.


Each to their own.

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Well hang on, u and dodgeman forgot one important thing i said

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please describe to me the conditions this race will take place (i.e. is this race going to include braking or cornering or are we only testing one small factor of a car)??? i mean the v8 may have acceleration but has it got a single other feature?????????

and even at the drags im still not convinced that v8 i the way to go, obviously depends on budget and many other factors aswell