[TR] 50 Worst cars of all time?

[John Macartney]

Here we go. Sweeping statements that aren't factual. Blame the journalists who
got it wrong - as usual

>They know (knew?) that the engines were trouble when
the cars were new.  

Myth. There was nothing inherently wrong with the design
and the prototype cars which all covered substantial mileages under Gordon
Birtwhistle's testing and proving were entirely trouble-free. No cooling
issues, no head warpage, no blown head gaskets, no radiator issues. Gearboxes,
yes! 

>Bad castings with inadequate cooling.  

Not a bad casting engineering
wise but an absolute s*d to fully extract the casting core, so odd bits
remained inside and blocked water passages. 

>Production bean-counters
ordering cheap aluminum. 

Myth. *Production* had no input on supplier
sourcing. A new Purchasing Manager seconded from somewhere in the depths of
BMC (fired soon afterwards for his 'judgements') was the root cause for:
1.
Specifying a cheaper (and mechanically inferior) water pump -
immediately deemed unsuitable by Engineering
2. Specifying a cheaper radiator
with less capacity  - immediately deemed unsuitable by Engineering
3.
Specifying an aluminium alloy spec that wasn't actually cheaper but
inappropriate to purpose  - immediately deemed unsuitable by Engineering

So
why didn't they make the changes earlier? Contract cancellation costs with
suppliers concerned. Another reason for the BMC man getting kicked out. Its a
long story.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the Stag engine or its
design for the time. Certainly, the porting on all eight valve heads for Stag,
TR7 and 1850 Dolomite could have been a lot better than it was and that's one
of the reasons why SAAB did a fairly major revamp of the head when it started
using the Slant 4. The breathing on the 1850 above 4500rpm was appalling.
Jonmac