Those "knocker engines are very cool. I seem to remember reading about one that had 3 banks of 3 cylinders each arranged in a triangular fashion... not necessarily all that bad a design if it uses gears instead of a timing chain.. Kind of wish the MB had gears... maybe I'm totally wrong and a chain is good, but it seems to me that gears would last longer and be lower-maintenance. Also, on the topic of cool old diesels, the Guiberson radial aircraft diesels seem quite interesting... I have been dreaming lately of having a VW TDI motor w/ a gearbox in a small 4-seat plane... you can inexpensively jack those things up to 150hp @ 3-4gph probably... FADEC-type engine/prop management?? WOW. talk about fuel economy... experimental of course, not worth all the FAA paperwork.. "when I win the lottery"

back on topic: that suby looks sweet! Its really exciting to see car companies leaning towards diesels in the sport car market... I hope they really pay attention to the tranny though.. I think the VW TDI tranny leaves much to be desired (closer ratios and about 4 more gears, esp. btw 3rd-4th and 4th-5th, maybe one more on top of 5th too)... might it go in a plane I wonder?

You are talking about a Napier Deltic diesel engine.

do you have any idea why they chose to use that configuration?

i know.. its ineresting to watch it move and such...

I bet it sounds pretty cool too..

HERE is an animation with actual sound from a Deltic powered locomotive.