Back in print at last, this is a book
which traces the development of the thoroughbred racing engine from the
beginnings of the art to our own time. It is an engineer's delight but
is carefully written for the layman to understand and enjoy. Strong emphasis
upon the human roles of the personalities involved renders the text vibrantly
alive.
In this one substantial volume are gathered detailed accounts of how many
of the great marques and the important lesser ones worked with this most
efficient and exciting form of power plant up to 1940. Post-war
development of the breed is summarised in a richly illustrative final
chapter.
Never before has such a definitive collection of photographs and drawings
of twin-cam engines been available in a single volume. Original and highly
detailed tables of technical data, along with bibliography and index,
help to make this book indispensable to every lover of the high-performance
automotive engine. This reprint of the book brings it back into circulation
in response to popular demand.
Front cover illustration:-
The centre piece of the jacket is a cross- section drawing of one of the
most phenomenal twin-cam engines of all time - the 1500cc V-16 BRM.
Having two camshafts per cylinder bank, it can also be described as a
quad-cam.
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Back cover illustrations:-
Three drawings of two truly fascinating twin-cam engines - each highly
advanced for their time. The upper two drawings are cross-sections of
the pre-World War One
Charlatan-Peugeot V-8. The drawing on the left shows the timing gears
of the engine and is remarkable in that it could very easily be an engine
from the end of the Twentieth Century, rather than the beginning. The
drawing alongside it is a section further along the engine, showing
the crankshaft, connecting rods and valve gear. The lower drawing is
of yet another quad-cam - the magnificent 1500cc Alfa Romeo Tipo 512
two-stage supercharged Grand Prix engine designed by Wifredo Ricart
and built in 1940. The original design was to use three superchargers
- a centrifugal first stage, feeding into two Roots type superchargers,
one for each bank of cylinders. On the bench, the engine produced an
amazing 330 brake horsepower, but it was felt that the three-supercharger
installation could present reliability problems, so it was abandoned
in favour two Roots blowers, one larger than the other, the two installed
in train, so that a single Roots supercharger
now acted as the second stage, feeding both banks of cylinders. Even
in this form, the engine topped 300bhp, but another World War interrupted
Alfa Romeo's plans to race the 512, so the car was never pitted against
the company's racing adversaries.
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