Re: 2.0 V6??

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

Will Owen, happy with his 2.5 (and smaller) Alfas (as am I) writes "Baby
sixes, whether V or inline, are particular favorites of mine, dating from the
first time I read about the MG K3 Magnette of the '30s, which had a
supercharged 1.5 liter SOHC six, and was one hellraisin' little buggy. Pretty,
too...of course, the classic Alfa 1750 was a six as well."

As it was, but that is no reason to ignore the 6C 1500, Jano's first street
engine for Alfa, of which the 1750 was merely a bored-out (by three mm) and
stroked (by six mm) version. For shame, Will. The Alfa 6C 1500, originally
also SOHC, gained a second cam in 1928 in both blown and unblown versions, so
was every bit as blown an engine as the EmGeee, and arguably a more prolific,
effective, and interesting hellraiser at an appreciably earlier date. Have to
give the Magnette its due credit though; one was entered in the Mille Miglia
once, and while I don't have my records here I believe it probably did finish
ahead of most of the Fiats.

Offhand I can't think of any other nice blown small sixes in the late
twenties; most of the memorable mid-twenties efforts had been in two-liter
eights built for the 1922-1925 formula, notably a blown Fiat, Jano's blown
Alfa P2 and the naturally aspirated SOHC Bugattis (more of a dual-threat road
car, mopping up the Targa Florio) but there was also an interesting V12 Delage
for the formula. In 1926 the GP formula went to 1.5 liters, Alfa and many
others dropped out, and Delage built a blown 1.5 eight which wrote a record as
glorious in its time as the P2 and the 159 (or the late thirties Mercedes) did
in their time-slots. The jewel-box quality of that engine is mind-boggling;
the two cam-covers are each retained by thirty-two dainty studs and nuts, and
another 128 tiny nuts tie-down thirty-two small rectangular sideplates on the
two camtowers. Extreme details, but you can't argue with multiple
podium-filling finishes. One of these engines is in the engines-and-chassis
balcony of the Biscaretti in Turin, and it alone would be worth the trip. (As
are scores of things there - )

Also in the Biscaretti is a very interesting (but unfortunately not fulfilled)
Itala built in 1926 for the same 1.5 GP formula and for a 1.1 liter road
sports car version. It is a front-drive machine, with independent suspension
all around; the blown V-12 engine has a 46 mm bore and 55 mm stroke, and
valves that weighed less than three-quarters of an ounce. It is a memorable
example (unfortunately not the only one in Italian engineering history) of
thinking outside the box in too many ways at once (like the wood chassis, and
the completely novel use of the blower) and never ran in a race.

Looking down the list for other under-two-liter blown engines there are a slew
of postwar 1.5s, the Cisitalia flat twelve and the BRM V16, Ferrari's 156 V6,
BRM again with a V8, the Honda V12, but given Will's French bias I would be
remiss not to mention what is probably the all-time champ in the
vibrating-pistons department, the twin-turbo Renault EF4 of 1984, with a bore
of 86 mm and a stroke of 42.8 mm, almost exactly reversing the bore/stroke
ratio of the 1913 Peugeot (78 mm bore, 156 mm stroke) that started the whole
twin-cam thing. The Peugeot, a three-liter four, produced 92 hp at 2900 rpm
with a piston speed of 2099 ft/min; the Renault, seventy-one years later, was
700 hp at 11,000 rpm with a 4379 ft/min piston speed.

Anyhow, Happy Bastile Day, Will.

John H.
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