I believe the Triumph TR-2 was powered by a converted farm tractor engine. Of course none of this was so strange, as UK was just emerging from WWII when most industrial production was devoted to military production or to goods for maintaining necessary infrastructure - like farm production and fire fighting. Just as in the US, civilian passenger vehicles had had very low priority during the war, so it was natural that when the war ended, military/industrial goods would be converted to supply consumer products.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX
>
> In a message dated 3/20/04 4:06:48 PM, fred_rednor@yahoo.com writes:
>
> >Amazingly, these
> >motors were originally designed to power the pumps of fire
> >trucks!
> >
> >Perhaps this isn't so off topic in the sense that whatever
> >attracted me to Euro style auto racing also attracted me to
> >bicycling.
>
> Well, not quite. by the time they were powering Cooper and Lotus to
> championships they were purpose built and not derived from the fire pump
motor BUT the
> 1100cc SOHC motors that powered Lotus, Cooper and a whole lot of sports
cars
> in the 50s were derived from the fire pump motor. It was designed by Wally
> Hassan, a very capable gent who also had a hand in th Jag XK engine.
> Phil Brown
> Returning to topic in San Rafael, Calif.