>DMH was responsible for much of the design and engineering
work that
>went into the original Dolomite, which was to my eye the
prettiest of
>the prewar Triumphs, and which was quite a performer (as
well as very
>sturdy -- driving back from, I believe it was a Mille
Miglia, DMH and
>his navigator were stuck on a level crossing in an
impenetrable fog in
>Denmark, when the Dolomite was hit by a train; both men
were injured,
>but not critically).
You're a bit too far north-east, Scott. Of course, DMH might
well have been in Denmark but if coming home after the
event, he was certainly taking the long way round. My
understanding was the accident occurred in France and he was
attempting to race a train before they both went over the
same level crossing. Seemingly the train won at the point of
intersect.
>I've had a question about the Dolomite's engine for some
time. It used
>a supercharged inline engine with dual overhead cams, in
which the cam
>drive was located in the *center* of the camshafts, and
also had
>beautiful finned castings on the inlet manifold -- in fact,
it's almost
>exactly like the contemporary Alfa Romeo 8C engines which,
in varying
>displacements (topping out with the 8C2900 that dominated
Le Mans in the
>early Thirties the way the Bentleys did in the mid-20s and
Jags in the
>mid-50s), were pretty much *the* roadgoing supercar engines
in the last
>years before WWII.
Won't disagree from the one I've seen. There are only two
left now - one in the UK and the other in Texas.
I've always wondered whether the Dolomite engine was
>licensed, or simply cribbed, from the Alfa design;
It certainly has many visual similarities - and the sound
from both is magical.
DMH was perhaps not as Machiavellian as
>Enzo Ferrari -- I sometimes think that Niccolo Macchiavalli
was not as
>Machiavellian as Enzo Ferrari -- so he never developed the
resources for
>building his own engines, and relied on existing sources.
Or was it not something a little more mundane and to do with
the 'sordid matter of coin' - or the lack of it? It's my
guess that DMH would probably have been very interested in
developing his own engine, had he had sufficient financial
resources to hand. The fact is that immediately following
the war, there wasn't too much liquid cash floating around
anywhere to design an engine from scratch - especially for a
man, the likes of DMH. Even the UK manufacturers themselves
went into immediate post war production using engines from
before the conflict - just to get production going again.
There were exceptions - but I don't think too many.
>The 1953 deal with Len Lord of BMC, resulting in the Austin
A90's engine
>and transmission being adapted for use in the Healey
Hundred, is well
>known, and probably needs no retelling here. The only other
connection
>that probably is appropriate, if only to finish out the
failed-V8 deal
>thread, is that DMH and his good friend Carroll Shelby --
about the time
>Shelby and Roy Salvadori were famous in England as the
drivers of the
>Aston Martin that won Le Mans -- put a Ford V8 into a Big
Healey chassis
>and tried to rouse some interest in the device. BMC
quashed that (as
>they also quashed the Coventry-Climax powered Super
Sprite), insisting
>that BMC cars would have BMC engines, no exceptions. AC
Cars had no
>such restrictions, proving that it takes more than the
right idea to
>succeed -- it takes the right listeners and the right
timing as well.
But AC was an entirely different and much smaller
organisation than BMC. Going off the main thread, one of the
objectives with the Sprite was to make a volume sports car
using as many parts as possible from current internal
resources - and the Spitfire fits into that mould as well.
It is well known that BMC secretly cherished the possibility
of using a 1220 Climax or something similar in the Sprite -
but the likely on-cost to make it and the ensuing retail
price would have been substantially higher and partly
defeated the original objective of a budget priced car.
BMC's motives were also commercial in other directions too.
By retaining the 'A' series unit which was known to be
capable of further development, they had a natural interest
in securing incremental profits by selling various bolt-on
goodies through the BMC Special Tuning dealers they had in
different parts of the world.
Back to the main theme. Using another Joe Soap engine from
another manufacturer was totally against BMC policy at the
time. Anyone who has studied Leonard Lord's general
character make-up would soon realise that here was a man who
rarely deviated from his own opinion - no matter how
convincing the alternative evidence might have been to the
contrary. For Lord to have sanctioned the use of an American
engine is anathema. He would have insisted that BMC could
have developed its own improved power units and I'm pretty
sure would have made everyone's life somewhat hellish in the
process to present the goods. He has the reputation of
being, shall we say "rather blunt" in his summaries of
problems and people. One particularly favourite saying was,
"if the door won't open by turning the handle, kick the ****
open with your foot!" It has been recorded more than once
that he wasn't on the front row when the manners were being
handed out. Often seen in public with a cigarette sticking
out of the corner of his mouth, he had the intriguing
capability of blowing air down the fag to remove the ash -
and without taking the fag out of his mouth. It stayed there
at all times, almost regardless of who he was talking to and
two people to my knowledge attest to the fact that his
saliva control wasn't too outstanding as he talked.
Undoubtedly Lord was a brilliant production engineer but a
little lacking in certain other desirable qualities.
Jonmac
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