ENGINE ROOM

LEYLAND’S lightweight and tuneable all-alloy V8 started production life back in 1961, not with BMC, but with General Motors. But the 3.5-litre turned out to be expensive to produce and was shelved after only two years. Rover’s managing director later chanced upon the design and entered into a licensing agreement with GM to produce the engine. The mill was fitted to the Rover P5B and P6B, creating the quintessential British sports sedan, shaking off the company’s stodgy image in the process.

For its application in the P76, Leyland Australia was able to simplify and costcut the engine, replacing cast-alloy rocker covers with basic pressed steel items and the twin SUS with a single Bendixstromberg carburettor. The result was an engine quite different to the Rover and Buick parent, with only the camshaft casting being common to each.

The six-banger was added late in the program to appease buyers who may be have been put off by the notion of a V8 despite the apparent tech and power benefits. A small team of engineers developed the 2.6-litre six off the 2.2litre E-series six fitted to the Tasman/ Kimberley twins. Having many parts in common with the E-series four-cylinder made it cheap and easy to manufacture, but it was a compromised design that required a fair bit of re-jigging to fit in a rear-wheel-drive car.

Interestingly, each of the Big Three were invited to supply six-cylinder motors for Leyland, but none fit in the relatively short engine bay, which was designed for specifically for a V8.