PHOTOGRAPHY MAX EDLESTON/JACK HARRISON
Think American muscle car and you think V8. For the Italian supercar itʼs the V12, or for the Japanese ʻtunerʼ generation the 2-litre turbo. Certain types of car become synonymous with particular engine conf igurations – they just fit the job so well. For Britain, and in particular sports cars, itʼs the straight-six.
As with all of those examples, itʼs amixture of both engineering fact and more human concerns that have made six cylinders in aline the default choice. The uniquely British element of the story is the tax horsepower system, in effect until 1947, which penalised bore size (as in cylinder diameter) and encouraged long-stroke engines that produced healthy torque, but which didnʼt particularly like to rev. The eraʼs poor-quality fuel encouraged that even further. If you want an undersquare engine to have a halfdecent ability to rev, you need to make it as smooth and as well-balanced as possible – which made an in-line ʻsixʼ ideal for the job.