The long and the short of it

They were plentiful, and they plenty strong. I remember one NSW Torana XU-1 sports sedan driver in the early ’80s who used second-hand standard short motors for his race engine. He would go to the local wreckers and buy himself a cheap, secondhand 202 short motor (engine block complete with crankshaft, conrods and pistons). He would install his own race-spec camshaft in the used 202, then bolt on his race-ported cylinder head, complete with racing exhaust headers and triple Weber carbies. Amazingly, he not only achieved good power but also reliability – and if the thing did fail, it hardly mattered as long as the expensive bits (the head, carbies and cam) weren’t damaged. This car was a solid mid eld runner in what was then a thriving state sports sedan scene.