Moreover, projects of this kind have been known for a very long time. For example, a 1954 Vanwall engine for a Formula 1 car is essentially four single-cylinder engines from a Norton Manx race bike, which engineer Leo Kuzmicki combined on a single crankshaft.
We in the editorial office of “Motor” remembered well, picked up the files of old motorsport magazines – and found almost a dozen such projects: from piece home-made engines assembled in the garage to successful commercial projects replicated in dozens of copies.
Sixteen year project
The most deserved in our selection was the project of the Englishman Russell Savory: he started back in the first half of the nineties. In the 1970s, the engineer prepared engines for Kawasaki race bikes, in the 1980s he built turbo engines for Formula 1 with Brian Hart, and in the late 1980s he led the Honda and Yamaha factory teams in the British Superbike Championship.