Interesting report on rving way back when.
http://www.andybaird.com/travels/1937/index.html

In that same year, Ford built some motor homes (they were called "housecars" back then) on a truck chassis. Interestingly enough, they used the minuscule 136 inch V8 60 engine.

A number of states still use the term housecar for a self-propelled RV. This includes campers and van conversions.

Roy will remember that engine reappeared in the Simca of the 50's.

If memory serves me right, I believe the Airstream was in production. Looked the same for the next 70 years.

For El Segundo Bill - Indeed I remember the Simca sports car, though only vaguely. Too bad I gave my historical collection of early sports car mags to my son a few years ago, I could look up a picture. Whether that engine came out of Dearborn, or was produced in a European plant I don't know, but it was essentially the same engine.

The V8-60 was a popular swap for MGs as well in the '50s. It turned the TD into a real bomb, though the 3-speed box was a handicap. A friend who later went on to fame wrenching on Triumphs, cut his professional teeth on a V8-60 conversion, & the first engine I ever wrenched on was a V8-60 my high school auto shop class rebuilt for a local midget racer in 1943 or 1944. The V8-60 was the poor man's Offy for the midget buffs.

quote:

Originally posted by olroy:
For El Segundo Bill - Indeed I remember the Simca sports car...........

Yeah, I thought you would. As both a connoisseur of French automobiles and a gearhead.

The V8-60 was used in a class of boat racing called Crackerbox, too. As a lad, I raced an outboard kneeler hydroplane, which was built by my dad and me one winter, using lightened-up Glen L plans. We built it exceptionally light, as I was a skinny kid. The result was that the combination of the boat's light weight, my light weight, and my belief in my own immortality made the combination very very fast.

I wanted to move up to a V8-60 powered crackerbox, but my dad convinced me that there would be less weight advantage in that design, and he had another boat to build that winter, anyway.

So, there I was, a disadvantaged youth.

I had it all figured out, though. All I had to do was find a set of Ardun heads for the thing, build a really light boat, use a little Francisco model fuel, etc. I even had a cheap car with a good 60 hp engine picked out. It even had some speed goodies on it.