ROVER V8S
Title : The origin of the famous aluminium V8Author : Excerpt from a past newsletters of the TR8 Car Club of America
Issue #3 - January 1984
Wouldn't_you_really_rather_have_a_Buick?
The success of the American Motors Rambler and the imported
Volkswagen Beetle during the mid 1950's created a new "compact car"
class. As the need for small, light-weight engines to power this new
and growing class became apparent, preliminary design studies for a
production aluminum V8 began in 1956 at the GM Engineering Staff. They
proposed a 215 cubic inch, 90 degree V8, with aluminum block and heads,
and no cylinder linings! The project was handed over to Buick in the
spring of 1958, both because of their enthusiasm and because of their
experience in manufacturing aluminum parts for numerous other engines.
Serious production design began in December 1958 with a group led
by Joe Turley, with Cliff Studaker and Ed Holtzkemper. Some of the
(now familiar) features of their partial re-design included a 3.5 inch
bore and a 2.8 inch strike, a single central camshaft, hydraulic
lifters, cast iron cylinder liners, the same firing order as the small
block Chevy, a five bearing cast iron crankshaft, heads and pistons
designed to promote a swirl patterned combustion chamber, and nearly
centered spark plug placement.
This new engine weighed in at a mere 324 lbs, and put out 155
gross hp and 220 ft/lb torque in the two barrel, 8.8 : 1 compression
ratio form, and 185 hp and 230 ft/lb torque in the four barrel, 10.25 :
1 compression ratio form! This made a 2.1 lbs/hp ratio at a time when
the next best was 3.5 lbs/hp!
The engine was used as standard equipment in the 1961 Buick
Special compact, of which 87,444 were built, and propelled the car to a
blistering 0-60 time of 15 seconds (thanks to the two-speed automatic
transmission). It then became optional equipment in both 1962 and 1963
behind a standard iron-block V6 (although the little V8 was standard
again on a deluxe two-door coupe version called the Special Skylark for
1963). A total of 154,467 Specials were made in 1962 and 149,538 were
made in 1963
Although Buick expected the aluminum block to be only slightly
more expensive to manufacture than an iron block, the actual costs
turned out to be much higher and, thanks to the ever-present bean
counters, production of the engine was halted after the 1963 model
year. The manufacturing rights were subsequently sold to the Rover
Motor Co. of Solihull, Birmingham, England in 1967, where the 215 was
to go on to bigger and better things!
The engine was not totally ignored in the US, however, because
Mickey Thompson, of later Ford engine building fame, used it in four
cars built for the 1962 Indianapolis 500. That version was bored to
255 cubic inches, fuel injected, and made 330 hp at 6500 rpm! Dan
Gurney, of later Toyota commercial fame, qualified it at 148 mph, but a
broken transmission ended their victory hopes. As a side note, that
engine got about 4 mpg, compared to 2.5 mpg for other Indy engines.
Imagine what an advantage like that would do today! Carroll Shelby had
originally wanted the 215 for use in his AC Cobras, but for whatever
reasons, he wound up using the 260 and 289 Ford V8 engines.. Too
bad...
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