Flame - Not (Tornado engine?)

[Jim Davies]

On Sun, 2 May 1999, Greg Hermann wrote:

> >
> >Oh, yeah. Continental has an interesting policy on parts prices.
> 
> All true. The Argentinian Kaiser plant in Cordoba came up with some revised
> rods along with the twelve port head. The car you would find such a beast
> in was called a "Torino"--but not at all like a Ford by the same name. It
> was based on the late sixties Rambler American body tub, but had an outer
> skin done by Pinin Farina. It also had IRS, and about 8 inches of wheel
> travel at each corner, and a five speed gear box which was built under
> license from ZF.
> 
> Note the rather low engine speed for the peak power on the Torino version
> of the Tornado engine--this speaks to Jim's comments about the Continental
> block, even with far better rods installed. Scary to think how much power
> they could have made with a stronger block and crank and some more revs and
> 48 mm in place of 45 mm Webers!
> 
Continental also mfrd an inline 6 cylinder, pushrod, 12 port 7 main
industrial engine. The only one I ever saw was in a Trackmobile. Delivered
new with the governor not working. It never popped, and it wasnt for lack
of trying. Could make it sound just like a good, strong SBC going thru
the traps...If they had combined short block and cylinder heads...