6 European cars with American pushrod V-8 power

[Bryan]

About two years ago, the Hagerty Drivers Club editorial team picked three sporty, European-designed cars powered by American V-8s and headed to the foothills for a day of canyon driving. The trio included an AC 428, which is a handsome, powerful convertible fitted with, appropriately, a 428-cubic-inch Ford V-8. The trio also included a Jensen Interceptor and an Iso Grifo, two of my all-time-favorite European/American hybrids.

I’m an unapologetic fan of pushrod V-8s, big-block and small-block alike, and the idea of beautiful bodywork wrapped around an easy-to-tune, easy-to-upgrade pushrod V-8 is a match made in heaven.

Read the full article on Hagerty.com:

https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/6-european-cars-with-american-pushrod-v-8-power/

[tberg]

The 351 Cleveland

[Clarklwd]

Does the Sunbeam Tiger qualify?  

[smorris]

absolutely

[Maestro1]

I Knew about the Ghia, I've always wanted one, way out of reach for me. There was one in the Blackhawk Collection in a town East of San Francisco where I discovered the car and other fascinations. But nothing like the Ghia.

[Brandan]

I forgot about the Bitter CD! I wanted to include that among my favorites.

[Nixon]

Nearly everything Detomaso, beautiful and powered by Ford.   Mangusta, Pantera, Deauville, Longchamp

[2746]

how about the Opel Diplomat?

First with the 283 Chevrolet, later with a fuel injected 327.

[Will]

It would be a huge list to include everything, but these are interesting.  I had the pleasure of watching a red Ghia 450/SS in my rear view mirror on one of our Jaguar N. Georgia mountain cruises a few years ago.  They are so beautiful. 

I love the last paragraph on the Simca.  I'll bet that was a challenge to get it to flow that well.  Well done!

[antijam]

The french Monica - Mopar 340 V8

[Michellehrand]

Jensen Interceptor. Very swank.

[ernie21]

You forgot the Jensen Interceptor and it's Chrysler (If I remember correctly - 440) engine.

[whooziss]

Griffith......... Small block Ford power weighing something like 1400 lb., soaking wet!

[12DaimleR12]

What?  No Bristols?

[Pete8880]

The Sunbeam Tiger was left out. I drove one in 1967. I believe it was powered by a Ford 260 V8.

[MarkO]

You left out the cars made by Intermeccanica! 

The list is long, but the Italia  is by far the most popular.

[SJBPEP]

AC Cobra , TVR Griffith, Sunbeam Tiger , Pantera and Jensen Intercepter too name a few more cool cars. 

[jcaudette]

The Gordon-Keeble had a Chevy 327 under the bonnet.  Classy car and 100 built.

[Rider79]

Boy, that Bizzarini was a beauty!

[JAttilaH]

Where's the Pantera? How could you have an article about American engines in European cars without mentioning the Pantera? 

[DUTCHMAN]

Should have included the Jenson Interseptors with the Chrysler V8s

[BWeston]

I worked in a sports car restoration shop while I was going to Michigan State University - 1970s - we worked on some interesting cars - two in this category were Iso Rivolta - looked like a more stylish BMW 5-series with a Chevy 327 V8; and Intermeccanica Italia - used Ford 302 V8...both beautiful Italian styled & bodied cars with American V8 grunt - back then we called this combo a "hybrid" - mid to late 1960s...

[SAG]

AC 428 wasn't a 'European built car.

"not sure why its listed"?

[Xaganhillman]

The 383 Mopar is NOT a big Block.

[tonyfer]

the article on the Simca is partly wrong ford never owned part of simca , Simca was originally set up by an Italian immigrant in France as an importer of fiat cars eventually manufacturing fiat models in France , when Ford decided to stop making cars in France Simca bought the operations (they also bought Talbot Lago , Unic trucks and more) and it's new project the Ford vedette and the flathead v8 rebading it as the Simca Vedette this car was also built in Brazil as the Simca Chambord , the Simca Esplanada was designed in Brazil with underpinnings based on the Chambord in 66 Chrysler bought Simca and restyled the car , Chrysler ended up ruining (as they did everything else , Chrysler as since been through more hands than a hooker at some Nevada brothel) Simca the second best selling mark in France  , when Peugeot took over in late 70's changed the name to Talbot but  the models were ugly as hell marking the end

[Mitch]

I don't understand how you omitted Allard!! Sidney Allard was one of the first to put an American V8 into a European chassis. They one an enormous number of races driven by some of the best racers in the world.

[CoreyS]

Jensen Interceptor, Iso Grifo, and DeTomaso Pantera also were powered by American engines.

[Sierra2pac]

Don’t forget the TVR with a small block ford V8, fiberglass body & tube framework. 

[TVRV8guy]

And let's not forget the British TVR series - they had a long run at the beginning with the venerable Rover V8, which was essentially a Buick/Pontiac/Olds 215cu in. engine.

I have a 1996 TVR Chimaera 400 (Rover 4.0 liter) which is the same engine as in my previous TR8's with differences being bore, compression ratio and fuel injection.

As other have mentioned in the posts below, the engines went on to power TR8's, MGB-Cs and a whole series of Land Rovers. Great engines!

[leftent]

Seeing as how everyone is going, "What about the....."
What about the MG SV, SVS, SVR and the MG ZT-260 and MG ZTT 260?
The ZT's had the Ford Mustang 2-cam small block, the SV and SVR had the 4-cam Mustang small block and the SVS bolted a Roush blower on top. 🙂