T4tomo
Legendary Member
Are you thinking of Leo?
Never heard of a Malcolm Leo, have you gone stark raving mad?

Are you thinking of Leo?

Aye not bad as a development of the 'Beetle' OK it went through a mid stage with the 356 4 pot engine but even then they went up a blind alley with the Magnesium castings where in very cold conditions they would lock solid due to contraction but the 4 valve cylinder head was developed on the VW based engine as were the overhead camshaft heads.As an aside, there's a story about the Porsche flat six engine evolving over time to have twice the power. The original design engineer wryly commented that if he'd realised it had that much potential he wished he'd made it lighter !
As Mr Nut alludes, enlarging the 6 banger to 4.2 pushed the block too far. The casting was too thin in places, lost torsional rigidity, would crack, liners wouldn't then be secure in the bores, it was a mess. That its replacement made a very reliable 40+ extra BHP from a mere 3.6 litres in supercharged form shows whas a mess thd 4.2 XK motor really was.