John Eyre
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Downton was carrying out Dyno tests on an engine designed by Sir Alec Isigoniss, it was code named 9x. Daniel Richmond and Sir Alec were great friends. As I understand it Sir Alec had designed a replacement for the Mini, but Leyland would not give him any test facilities, so Daniel offered his. I was thrown in at the deep end, when I was asked to go in the Test Shop (Back shop) to put this engine together, and put it on the dyno. There were no instructions or manuals, and I had never seen an engine like it before, nor had I ever driven a dyno. I had to learn fast. There were 2 all alloy overhead cam 9x "engines a 998 4cyl and a 1300 6cyl. They were very low units. The gearbox was still in the sump, but it was only half the depth of a standard Mini, there was no idler gear so the engine sat lower on the gearbox. When the unit was fitted in a Mini, the cam cover barely came above the bonnet closing panel. The fan was fitted on the end of the camshaft. They had two novel features, There was a centrifugal oil filter on the nose of the crankshaft, the oil then went from one end of the crank to the other, up the back of the block and cyl head, to the back bearing of the camshaft, then through to the front, by the time it got there on the 6cyl the oil pressure was very low. The other feature was the alternator, this was incorporated in the clutch and flywheel housing. You could watch the amps go up and down, as you pushed the clutch up and down. One or two things went into production from the 9x project. The rod gear change and the inner pot joint, were first seen on 9x. The 9x car I believe eventually became the Metro. The engine never got any further. There were I think 4 Minis with 9x 4cyl engines in, and one with the 6cyl (this I did not see) and there was a 1300 with a 6cyl. This came to DOWNTON a number of times, it sounded like a baby Ferrari and went like the preverbal off a shovel. I wonder if any of them survive, I believe the 9x car dose, but I do not know if it has a 9x engine in it. There was also a 9x carburettor, this was a very strange device, the jet moved up and down the needle. It was to be mounted on the bulkhead, with a flex pipe to the inlet manifold. I only ran a 9x engine on it once just before I left.
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