GM did it first, but the 924/944/944Turbos/944S and 928 all had a similar arrangement for the driveshaft and transaxle, also the 4 cyl Porsches were in essence half of the 928's V-8.
Same with the 4 cyl used in SAABs and Triumphs in the 70's, half of the Triumph Stag V-8.
The TR7 engine came first & was a terrible lump. They joined 2 at the crank & came up with something twice as bad. Why BL didn't use the Rover 3.5 V8 (GM 215) that they had is a real mystery to me. ut:
Yes I remember those. I guess you aren't old enough to remember them. Quite an odd setup from GM.
I also recall that International Harvester used a similar half a V8 4 banger in some of their Scout's. Although no trans axle & rubber band driveshaft.
BL didn't use the V8 because Rover was using them and Triumph couldn't get their hands on them until it was too late. There are factory photos that show the V8 in some of the first wedges built.
There was a TR7 V8 with the Rover 3.5. A few were sold here as TR8's. A rare beast for sure. There was a lot of infighting between the various British Leyland groups. It was a very bad time for the British motor industry.
It's so strange to me that it was able to function with the half bank removed, as far as balance goes. I'm not a genius by any stretch of the imagination, but the fact that it "ran" in its half-vee configuration instead of the inline-4 or boxer/opposed 4 configurations is just crazy to me. While not something I would generally be too stoked on, the fact that it is a half-4 with rope drive would cause me to want to restore it to its original state just because.
The Pontiac rope drive system was introduced in 1961 on the Tempest. Even though the Tempest shared the Y-body platform of the Buick Special and Oldsmobile F85, this setup was used only on the Pontiac variant. In what (essentially) ended up being a short term experiment, the Tempest used a rear mounted transaxle in place of the rear differential.
Fullsize Pontiacs of 1957-1958 were used to test ‘rope drive’. The codename was ‘XB-60′. John Delorean was the creator of the system.
Up front, a ‘new’ engine was in place. This was a 3.2 liter 4 cylinder, created out of splitting a 389 V8 in half. It was a powerplant with inherent vibration. To counter this effect, the motor mounts were of an extra soft variety. There were drag versions of these cars with V8s as well.
There were two transmission choices with these cars, a three-speed manual and a two-speed auto. The “Tempestorque” automatic transaxles had an early feature similar to today’s lock up torque converters. In high gear, torque was split between the converter and gears on a 60/40 ratio. This helped fuel economy through less slippage.
The two halves of the drivetrain/powertrain combination were joined with the ‘rope drive’. This was a one piece, flexible shaft of 87.25″ (2216mm) in length on automatic cars, 82.3″ (2090mm) on manuals. The diameter was 0.65″ (16.5mm) on automatics, 0.75″ (19.0mm) on manuals. It was made out of SAE 8660 triple alloy steel. Before it made it onto the car, the shaft was magnafluxed, shot-peened, and protectant-coated. On the vehicle, it was installed through a hollow channel called a torque tube. There was an as-installed arch of 3 inches at the center of the shaft. It was held with two support bearings near the center. Because of the constant in-place curve, there was no need for universal joints.
The shaft can be compared to a big speedometer cable. The idea behind it was to act as a torsion bar to help alleviate the Inline-4’s vibration issues.
The rear suspension was fully independent with swing-arms. This setup was similar to a Chevy Corvair’s.
There were advantages of this overall package. The front/back weight ratio was close to 50/50— Unheard of in most cars, even today. More interior room, due to the lack of the trans hump. Smoother ride, from the fully independent suspension.
Some disadvantages were: The trunk room suffered due to the trans being directly adjacent. Excessive noise in neutral was common. This was due to the shaft turning at all times when the engine is running.
‘Rope Drive’ was only around until the 1963 model year. This goes hand in hand with the introduction of the new 1964 A-bodies…"
Minidave beat me to it regarding the Stag V8 being 2 Triumph Dolomite engines. Actually the Dolomite engine was aahead of the times with a sweet 16V head.
Rover also chopped off 2 cylinders of the V8 to make the V6 for the MG Metro 6R4 rally car.
I've seen the Porsche 4s and they look like 4s. This has a V8 block without a head and pistons on one side. It looks like something some one would put together in their garage.
Yes, you're correct - the Pontiac and IH 4 cyls did look like someone took a hacksaw to the block and lopped off four cylinders....
However the Porsche 944 4 cyl was half of the V-8 introduced in '78 in the 928, as far as design goes - bore spacings, crank journal diameters, cylinder head design etc...but being a 4 cyl they also had inherent vibrations, in this case cured by using a balance shaft ala Mitsubishi, and liquid filled motor mounts.
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