Ford Taunus V4 engine – Western Four with and without supercharging

I think, after reading about four-cylinder V-shaped internal combustion engines in Japan and the USSR, the question of how things are going in Europe and America suggests itself. We will be able to answer this question in one article, since Europe and America in the field of V4 can be said to be connected together.

Speaking purely about European engines, the most common engines of this type are produced by Lancia. Moreover, Lancia was the first in history to produce V-shaped fours, and different models were on the assembly lines from 1922 to 1976. Nevertheless, all these engines were absolutely European in design. With extremely narrow camber angles – between ten and twenty degrees – these engines had only one head, under which were both rows of cylinders. These engines had an overhead camshaft that performed the same function for all cylinders in both rows, and besides, the engine was installed in the car at an angle. Due to all these interesting solutions, the Italian engine was not even close to having a canonical appearance. So it’s not particularly surprising that I didn’t find a hot rod with such a power unit.

In America, Ford became the only manufacturer of this type of engine. There were two models: the Taunus, which was built from 1962 to 81, and the Essex, which was produced from 65 to 77. And here there is a small nuance: Ford made both of its engines in Europe. Knowing full well that absolutely no one in America in the 60s needed a V4, the Blue Oval produced the Taunus in Germany, and the Essex in Britain. The only attempt to build an engine in America is a very early prototype of the Mustang.

So how much of the Ford V4 is European and how much is American, let everyone decide for themselves. I’ll move on to the fact that even in Europe it’s quite difficult to find a custom car with one of these engines. The thing is, as I mentioned in a couple of articles, the European culture of personal car personalization has followed the American one entirely in the past. And for the most part, it still should. So in Britain, when building a hot rod, it’s customary to find a V8, and no less. How could it be otherwise, when Brian Setzer even recorded a song called “I Should’ve Had A V8”. Which translates to I should have taken the V8. Because in the song, Brian was given a V6 after all. In short, the reputation of engines with fewer than eight cylinders is on the custom scene… at ground level. Although sometimes it is completely undeserved, and we will come back to this later.

In the meantime, it’s worth saying that I did manage to find several cars with V4. Well, otherwise this article would not have been written. I came across one of the cars completely unexpectedly: I went to YouTube to look at just a sports V4 – and suddenly a hot rod fell out of the recommended ones. Well, why didn’t hundreds of search engine queries like “hot-rod v4” give me a video called “ITALIAN HOTROD V4 FORD”? Even Google didn’t bother to do this, even though YouTube is literally a part of Google! Kafka would have envied this level of absurdity… In general, fortunately, one of the algorithms clicked properly somewhere, and there was a gorgeous video attached below.

I must say, it was only after a long search for the V4 engine that I gained even more love for the American custom culture: this hot rod has a very rare engine in the workplace, with all the necessary systems connected to it – and at the same time it is not hidden from our view by the hood or side panels. Everything is naked, so to speak. Natural beauty. Well, it’s just a mechanic’s dream! In addition, these frames are probably the only way in the world not only to see, but also to hear the V4 in a hot way – and, I must say, it sounds surprisingly good. Unfortunately, almost nothing is known about the car itself, except that it was built in Italy by a certain Nicolo Scanio with the help of designer Manuele Scionti.

An attentive reader has probably noticed that there are only two exhaust pipes above the Italian hot rod. That’s right, and that’s because Ford was very fond of making one exhaust duct for several cylinders. For example, in the flathead V8, the central two cylinders have one exhaust duct, which is why there are only six pipes. The same goes for the flathead V12 – there are only eight pipes in total. Well, there may be two exhaust pipes on one side, for example, for the Cologne V6 model. That’s exactly the same story with the Taunus V4 model. And it’s worth noting that the Essex V4 engine still had a separate exhaust duct for each cylinder, which is clearly visible in the video below.

A little more is known about the second discovered car with a V4 engine. This is a 1971 SAAB 95. The engine is factory-made, which is also an interesting little story to tell. The fact is that somewhere in the process, the Ford guys tried to understand a little better exactly where and how to use the V4, since for American minds the concept of a compact car in the 60s was, apparently, not fully comprehended. So, for these purposes, they bought a batch of 96 Saabs and put a Taunus engine in them. After testing, the Blue Oval sold the cars back to the Swedes – oddly enough, along with the engines. And there the Vikings became interested in cars and began to conduct their own tests. They liked the results so much that they decided to purchase V-shaped fours from the Americans and install them in the 95, 96 and 97 (Sonett) models. As a result, the most popular forum on V4 engines is called saab-v4.co.uk – ford drivers are not particularly interested in the engine.

So, as it was said, our car is a SAAB 95. Externally, the car has hardly changed, except for new discs, a removed front bumper and other small things, but the body has been completely restored. And all the attention that didn’t go to the body went entirely to the 1.5-liter engine, which was completely rebuilt. In particular, the intake and exhaust ducts were ported, the engine was equipped with a lightweight flywheel, electronic ignition and fuel injection system.

Personally, I was interested in the opinion of the people about the Ford V-shaped four. And I would say that it is rather positive. Of course, you can find statements in the spirit of “The V4 was Ford’s biggest mistake,” but there are many more opinions that believe that the Taunus and Essex are simply excellent engines with extremely high reliability and a large number of spare parts. And in the Saab Sport And Rally catalog, you can even find recommendations on how to make the Taunus a more racing and productive engine. Tuning the engine, as they say, is also very simple – and you can even do it without much expense… however, then it will take a lot of time.

In particular, I personally talked to a certain Stefan Wapaa, who has a racing SAAB Sonett 68 with a 1.5 liter V4 under the hood. He said that there are really enough factory parts, but for the most part it is necessary to produce sports parts either independently or to order. Stefan personally ordered pistons, but, in general, “almost everything that makes a motor special is made by hand.”

The list of parts is too long to describe (or at least recall), but if the most basic is a two-chamber carburetor instead of the factory single-chamber, everything is balanced, a lot of things are lightened, the compression ratio is 12.5 to 1 with custom pistons, ported heads with enlarged valves.There’s a lot more to it than that. By the way, I’m just rebuilding it, because after ten years of racing, the previous build still cracked.

Comrade Vaapa estimated his engine at 115-120 horsepower (62 from the factory). The RPM ceiling is 8500, but Stefan never turns the engine to the maximum, simply because then you’ll have to change the valve springs. His personal ceiling is 7800. At the same time, in the Sonett video, Vape successfully showed everything that SAAB promised in the advertising brochure, and even faster. In particular, it accelerated to a hundred in 8 seconds, and the maximum speed was 150 kilometers per hour. And I’m not sure which class Stefan was in, but it was mentioned at least once that he came second. The races of Comrade Waapa can be easily found by searching for the 1968 SAAB Sonett V4 at the VSCCA Mount Equinox Hillclimb.

So, apparently, in Europe there is a very common, reliable and in all respects quite good V-shaped engine. Of course, I understand that its power will not be enough for any fan of hot rods and quarter-mile races, but, nevertheless, I hope to see more custom projects with an unusual Ford engine. After all, you can always build a bike around this engine. In general, this fight for the environment is still going on… It makes absolutely no sense, to be honest, since all the emissions of the V8 engine in his entire life cannot be compared with what Elon Musk’s personal plane does to the ozone layer every time he wants to fly to Italy for pizza. However, perhaps it is precisely because of all this nonsense that we will also see the renaissance of V4. Who knows. You see, ten years later, the Americans will still be buying Memz engines from us.