Duncan Pittaway made history 11/29/2014 by firing up one of the largest-engined 4 cylinder cars ever built.  Two of the cars were constructed by Fiat for a Land Speed Record attempt in 1911, and 11/29/14 was the first time anyone had heard or seen this Italian monster running in over 100 years!  It took 12 years for Pittaway to get this antique going again.

  Each one of its four cylinders displaces 427 cubic inches—the size of the V8 Ford Cobra “big block” or the V8 Chevy ZL-1 from 1966.  Today, Roush Chevrolet offers a 427ci “crate engine” to bolt into a modern hot rod that makes 560 hp at 6000 rpm.  That’s 427 cubes from a streetable, high-buck “small block” Chevy V8, ancestor of which displaced 265 cubes when it was introduced in 1955.  The 1708 cubic inch Fiat, by contrast, made 290 hp at just 1100 rpm in 1911.  The unremarkable Roush crate engine today makes 1.3 horses per cubic inch; the Fiat made .17 horse per cubic inch.

  The huge Fiat engine has no starter motor.  One cylinder has to be hand-aspirated with fuel mixture and then detonated with the piston on its downward stroke by a small battery-operated trembler coil which produces a shower of high voltage sparks.  If the engine doesn’t start, you repeat the process.  This may explain why nobody started it for 100 years.

  Give a look—and a listen.  Among other things, note that the car has no exhaust pipes.  Hot exhaust gas just shoots out the side of the engine block.

 

https://www.youtube.com/v/BfYbH7926gk&autoplay=1&rel=0

 

Awesome!! Thank you for the post and the link.  It was amazing to think of that many cubes, with so few horses, but that was tech back then.


|UPDATED|1/29/2015 2:39:27 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

It is awesome to watch. I can't help but to think this was a very heavy car. I wonder how the chain drive held up at wide open throttle?

Too Cool!  Thanks for the post!

Nice headers with "0" restricitons............very interesting.........Thanks Larry

|UPDATED|1/29/2015 6:08:56 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|