==> Mark, I see that you mention that your race car has what
==> started out as a Cortina Motor. I am very interested in
==> such subjects since my race car IS a Cortina.
==> The Kent engine to me is the pre-crossflow headed OHV engine as
==> fitted to Mk1 Cortinas etc,
==> The OHC engine(Pinto) started around Cortina 3/4. The 2.0 versionof that
==> engine is a good tuning bet here but the 1.6OHC cannot be tuned to
==> produce as much power as the X-flow headed OHV which I take it you
==> have in your 1600 GT.
==> The car by the way is a '68, 1600 GT. Also, do you
==> know if the 'uprated' Kent 1600 ever made it into
==> Cortinas, or did they just go to the OHC motor at the time.
Ahhhh, another of my favourite topics, Cortinas and Kent engines !!!
Many, many years ago when I lived in the UK, I used to have a Cortina 1600E,
which I cherished for 4 years. The 1600E, was the executive model of
the Ford range, which inluded the Zepher 3000E, Capri 3000E, Corsair 2000E.
It was basically the same as the 1600GT, but with a sumptuous interior,
including wood dash/door caps, thickly padded seats, extra sound deadening
material, and bit of extra chrome on the body work. It was mechanically
exactly the same as the 1600GT, using the uprated 96-98 hp Kent
engine and radius arms included in the rear suspension.
Its performance was slightly worse than the GT, because of the extra
weight, but was superior to the other models in the Cortina range.
The Kent engine was offered in the Cortina in various sizes and stages of
tune. The smallest was 1300cc (110cc in the Escort), 1600cc in both
74 (?) and 96 hp configuration. These engines incorporate a x-flow head
and came produce up to 200hp. There are many firms in the UK who work
on the Kent engine and they can be found by picking up any British
motoring journal and looking for their advert in the back pages.
The bottom half of the engine forms the basis of the Lotus 1600cc engines
and can withstand a lot of abuse. My engine lasted for well over the
110,000 miles mark, (which is very good for European cars which have to
undergo a lot of stop/start traffic)
This engine has been in numerous cars including the Escort, Fiesta, Morgan,
TVR, Caterham, Dutton, Jago Jeeps (are they still around ?), Ginetta, etc,
Ahh the memories !!!!!!!!!!!
Gerry
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