As a high school senior in the 50s my after school job was as a
general dogs body at the local BMC dealership in Palo Alto. I
cleaned floors at days end, parted out old britcars and chased parts.
My parts chasing car was an MG TD with a Studabaker flathead six under
the hood(sort of). Actually the hood had an uggly looking hole with
one scrony looking single choke down draught carb poking out. As the
Stude was a fairly small six by Amerc'n standards most of the rest
shoe horned out of sight.
Though the Stude was probably rated at 20 hp more then the stock
engine, I don't recall the performance as dramatic. Thinking back I
suspect MG the rearend ratios were all wrong for the low reving Stude
resulting in a good stump puller. Even then it struck me as an odd
choice of engine swaps. A much more common choice in those days for
swapping into T-series MGs was the Ford V8-sixty. This was a 2/3 scale
modle of the original Ford V8-eightyfive. This tiny V8 was originally
offered as an option in US made Fords of 1937. It soon became the the
most common engine for cirle-track midget racing and still was
throughout the 40s and 50s. In the mid 50s Simca of France bought
the rights and used it in a Rover sized car. I had a V8-sixty
engines appart once. I don't remember the displacement but I'd guess
it was ~2.5 liters. Because it lacked the large heads and rocker covers
of an overhead valve engine it made a startlingly small package.
With finned aluminum heads and accorn nut and two or three carbs it
was a pretty little engine too. (sigh)
FLATHEADS FOREVER
8^)
dick
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