The message from snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH) contains these words:
4 cylinder, 90 hp I would have thought. That sort of designation was not uncommon in times past although the VX 4/90 was a bit of an anachronism in the early 60s. Sales types do of course take liberties from time to time - Fiat 500 anyone? - but the 90 may well have been as accurate as Healey's 100 in 100/4 and 100/6 guise in the previous decade.Zodiac Executive MkIV Valuation please!
Apr 29, 2009
51 Replies
The original FB based VX4/90 had an output of 71bhp so it can't have been the power. Its 1508cc engine is by my approx calculation 92 cu in so that could be the source or was it the top speed?
Malcolm.
Think it was 90 bhp. Seems strange to think that allowed a 'performance' image. But when I was a lad an 0-60 of 10 seconds was fast. Read a recent test of a very ordinary supermini where they said that was unacceptably slow...
The message from "Malcolm" contains these words:
Through the mists of time I seem to detect a faint memory of something false about the 4/90. In 1961 it would certainly have been interpreted by those not in on the secret as 90 hp which was a more than good output for a 1500cc engine of the time. The 'secret' however was not likely to be cubic inches which would have meant nothing to the target buyer and still means precious little to the British motorist.
Seems to me that 4/90 was an advertising fraud. Meant to give the impression of high power but actually detailing the less than impressive
90 mph top speed. 0-60 in 16.4 seconds seems painfully slow now as well. (Come to think of it that might have been Donald Healey's motivation for the 90 bhp 100/4 as well).The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:
ISTR that Donald Healey is on record in the days before he tied up with MBC of saying a sports car needed 100 bhp per ton (or was it 0-60 in 10 secs which was roughly synonymous in those days). I don't think any of the Spridgets ever made the grade and only the 100S and the last of standard Big Healeys managed it.
Ah - was wrong about the 90 bhp then. But 71 seems pretty low - didn't much earlier engines like the B Series in an MGA make that?
There was one in CCC many years ago with an Aston Martin V8 in it instead.
:o)
90cu in = 1.475L as Dave points out somewhat short of 1508cc = 92cu in. Not sure about cars but British bikes had metric sized engines from way back. I'm sure use of "cc" was something that dates back to use of imported engines in the 1890's. So it's unlikely a British dev team would have been using cu in.
formatting link
92cu in, 71.5bhp, 71.29 bhp/ton.
formatting link
97.3cu in, 85.5bhp, 84.65 bhp/ton.
formatting link
120cu in, 112bhp, 101mph. I'm thinking same as Dave, the 90 could have been a reference to the claimed top speed. It was a common thing with motorcycles such as Brough, Ariel, Triumph (T70/80/90/100/110/120) and Jag had used their claim to 100mph top speed in naming the 100SS. Though I think 71.3bhp would have have come up short at around 85mph.
FB is the first car I can remember my dad having. Salmon Pink with a green sun visor, dunno if it was a 4/90, I was like 3.
British engines were hamstrung in the early years by the engine taxation formula, which was based on cylinder bore. So the manufacturers got round that by making long stroke engines which were good for torque but poor for BHP. The effect of this lingered for decades, because manufacturers didn't want to spend money on new engines.
The B Series was introduced after the horsepower tax was abandoned. Dunno the roots of that Vauxhall engine.
Vastly oversquare engines are no longer in fashion.
In article , Andrew Robert Breen writes
Several cars were built with the FF system for police use, ISTR.
I think there were only four built, of which one remains. Dunno why I remember that....
Geoff MacK
A bit of googling (not just pickaweedia) suggests 25, which rather surprised me too. The police seem to have liked them very much, but as conversions rather than production-line items they cost more than the (then-imminent) Range Rover, so the whole project died.
The four may heve been Ford production prototypes, the 25 (or 21?, or whatever) FF Developments conversions from production cars (bit like the Senator and Monza FFs of the 80s - and I wonder how many of /them/ are stil around?), but that''s me guessing.
Alan
I have grown to like the Mkii, but I've always prefered the Mkiii for some reason and hope to own one, with mock leopard skin seat covers for propers 70's retro feel.
The B-series wasn't designed from scratch, though - it was based on a pre-war design. Likewise, a lot of manufacturers did the same. The consequences of the RAC tax lingered on for a long time.
Which one, though? Pre-war Austins are mainly side valve. The basic design is *similar* to the wartime 'high speed' engine - but then so are so many from other makers.
A long stroke engine was also more suitable for the packaging of car designs at the time.
Sorry, I misread the wiki entry - it's based on an OHV version of a pre-war side-valve design.
formatting link
Even when they designed a brand new engine (the E-series) they were still hamstrung by having to squeeze a 6 cylinder version in a transverse location - so the long-stroke (narrow bore) tradition carried on.
Sometimes it was the other way round. Like the Allegro, for example.
-- Halmyre
Based on? That suggests there are at least some common parts. It might well have used similar bore centers to utilise existing machinery, though.
Also claiming the capacity was from 1.2 - 2.4 litres because a prototype 6 cylinder was made is very misleading.
Other thing I don't think is accurate is the original A40 having a different sized block externally. It was an easy swap to fit a later
1500cc engine. There was also a racing class based on the A40 engine, and some managed to fit MGB three bearing internals to an A40 block.Yes - didn't Volvo do the same thing?
Volvo made a very small end-on gearbox instead.
Join the Discussion
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Didn't find your answer?
Ask the community — no account required