4 replies to this topic

[Magoo]

Old-timers to this forum back in the Atlas F1 days will remember Marion Anderson, who rendered his name marion5derson here. This was now 20 years ago. He somehow developed an absolute passion for the Oakland V8 with its unusual single-plane crankshaft and synchronizer linkage to counter the "secondary horizontal shaking force," as he carefully called it. . 

 

At some point he started an email correspondence and he shared with me at length all the ingenious ways he had worked out to understand the engine's workings. He was a lovely man with a generous spirit. A few years later he passed away. 

 

Sooner or later it was time to do a story on this crazy engine, and as I was preparing the piece I found all the materials he sent me. The story  is linked below. Thank you, Marion.

 

 

GM's Strangest V8: The 1930-32 Oakland/Pontiac Eight

 

 

Edited by Magoo, 08 February 2024 - 11:35.

[gruntguru]

Wow.

[Greg Locock]

The synchronizer lives on as Freudenburg active hydromounts, basically a loduspeaker inside the hydromount.

 

https://www.vibracou...o-motor-mounts/

[Magoo]

There are no real firsts in this business, only someone who eventually gets it right. It's the second mouse that gets the cheese. 

[Greg Locock]

Well, to be honest even in the 1980s I knew of 3 programs that basically were stalled for the lack of decent engine mounts, XJS which for much of its development ran with the gearbox held up by a prop, the Austin Maestro which ran with 2 engine mount architectures through a couple of prototype phases, and a Ford NA FWD which nobody could figure out. At one point my manager suggested that 5 engine mounts might be a good solution for a V6 RWD. I didn't laugh.