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I think this car might benefit from a C&R radiator. How's that for old school? I didn't take notes on this car, but I'm sure it was just after the turn on the century since its a crank start engine. But imagine the young apprentice whose task of having to braze each one of those little wavy washers to the cooling tubes.
Look here: dual beehive valve springs in 1903 with “roller rockers” too! This engine was designed and built by the Premier Motor Company in Indianapolis, Indiana for the first Vanderbilt Cup Race. It was an air cooled 923.43 ci or 15.13L inline 4 engine that made a whopping 100bhp at 1000rpm. Each cylinder had a 7.0″ bore and a 6.0″ stroke. The amazing thing to me is that none of the valve train appears to be lubricated and that rocker shaft appears to lack any stiffness since it is only held in place by sheet metal brackets with lightening holes drilled in them. I'm also guessing that Premier must have had a hell of a time keeping the bevel gear and shaft from stripping all the time with the amount of torque this engine must have made.
The fun doesn't stop there. Check out this trick “intake manifold”. I guess this would be called a 4-2-1 intake manifold. 4-2-1 works for headers so why not intake in reverse? That carburetor looks mighty small for a 15.13L engine, but that might be for its own good. I don't really see anything that resembles an oil pan so I'm guessing lubrication wasn't very good. I wonder if a mechanic just walked up to it and gave the engine a couple of squeezes of oil where there would be bearings in an engine today. It must have been to be an engineer or machinist back then since everything was an experiment.
This beautiful 1954 Mercedes W196 F1 car was revolutionary for its time. This particular car was driven by Stirling Moss and powered by a 2.5L straight 8 that was eventually developed to make 340bhp at 10,000rpm. Mercedes was the first to use desmodromic valve actuation and fuel injection. That's 136bhp per liter and 10,000rpm in 1954. Who needs VTEC?
How's this for simple? An 11,000rpm tach, a water temperature gauge, and an oil pressure gauge is all the instrumentation you needed back then. It's a Benz so it even had plaid seat cushions for comfort and style.
