It might've be a little scary to drive. Back in the mid 70s I drove two shifts in a Dodge taxi, former police cruiser with a 440. Good Lord, that car was scary fast. I just did the math, that's 7.2 L.
This made me think of an engine I read about in the 60s, a Formula1 3L H16 Developed by BRM, British Racing Rotors. I just now did a search and learned way more about it than I knew back then:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRM_P83
Quote:
BRM decided to hedge their bets by developing their existing 16 valve 1.5 litre V8 into a 32 valve 3 litre H16 (effectively two flat 8s one on top of the other and geared together) while also developing a new 48 valve 3 litre V12 in partnership with Harry Weslake and opt for whichever turned out to be the better powerplant.
. . . . . . .
Various crankshaft vibration problems dogged the engine from the start, and to compound matters quick-fix balancing weights attached to the crankshafts developed the unfortunate habit of detaching themselves and flying off within the engines causing several catastrophic engine failures. Each side of the engine had to have its own water radiator, fuel metering unit, distributor and water pump, with a common oil radiator. The sheer complexity of the engine led to a truly terrible record of unreliability; engine, transmission and related problems caused 27 of the powerplant's 30 retirements from 40 entries. Jackie Stewart said of the engine "it was unnecessarily large, used more fuel, carried more oil and needed more water - all of which added weight and diminished the vehicle's agility."
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