Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Engine swaps

[Doug & Terri (dnt]

Engine swaps nil?Â

 

Picture this â 1980 at a big autocross site on a Navy base in Long Beach Calif. Even enough room for a drag strip. Here I was treated to my first visual lie. âVisual Lieâ? Ayep â I saw a red 911 Porsche and heard a Corvette. Rump rump rump. Turns out a 911 engine and all its stuff is just about as heavy as a Chevy small block. Only advantage is escaping the $15 to $20,000 911 engine rebuild. Â

 

That may have been the only Visual Lie as far as Porscheâs go that I have seen BUT that said, the ultimate Visual Lie was a VW Bug body dropped on a mid-60âs Indy race car chassis. Saw a VW bug with a cover over the passenger seats, with pretty meaty tires. Otherwise, pretty stock looking. Down to the two exhausts pipe where a Bugâs pipe peek out of the rear body under the bumper. Saw that with Ferrari Willi at Riverside Int Raceway at a USRRC final race in, oh, about 1967-8. Car recently surfaced in Hot VWâs. At the time we saw it turns out it belonged to Paul Newman. I think.

 

Onward

 

DOUG

 

From: Rick [mailto:rolindsay [at] yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2013 5:34 AM
To: DOUG
Cc: The FerrariList
Subject: [Ferrari] Engine swaps

 

Hello Friends,

 

I'm just back from Pennsylvania where I attended the Radnor Hunt Concours with Phil Tegtmeyer. Not a single engine swap on the show field. Lots of classics though.

 

Pretty hard to believe how cavalier we talk about swapping engines in a Rolls or Bentley. After all, the engine is the heart of that (or any) car! Perhaps we should ask a Spitfire pilot if they'd prefer a Chevy lump over that Merlin? Or maybe a 427 in place of that high maintenance V12 in the Daytona? 

 

With all that said, I must confess. In my even-more-stupid youth, I once put a Chevy engine in a Jaguar Mk II. It did run kinda-okay but sounded like an Impala. Sold the bastardized Jag for $1500. The buyer had a 3.8 liter XJ engine ready to retrofit.

 

Engine swaps are bad. If all you want is 'go', buy a Corvette and keep your classic unmolested. 

 

2 cents please.

 

-rick

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