Think American muscle car and you think V8. For the Italian supercar it's the V12, or for the Japanese 'tuner' generation the 2-litre turbo.
Certain types of car become synonymous with particular engine configurations they just fit the job so well. For Britain, and in particular sports cars, it's the straight-six.
As with all of those examples, it's a mixture of both engineering fact and more human concerns that have made six cylinders in a line the default choice. The uniquely British element of the story is the tax horsepower system, in effect until 1947, which penalised bore size (as in cylinder diameter) and encouraged long-stroke engines that produced healthy torque, but which didn't particularly like to rev. The era's poor-quality fuel encouraged that even further. If you want an undersquare engine to have a half-decent ability to rev, you need to make it as smooth and as well-balanced as possible which made an in-line 'six' ideal for the job.
The straight-six gives British sports cars a distinctive character: their engines major on torque rather than high-rev horsepower, making them perfect for pushing the car out of innumerable tight country bends rather than high-speed freeway, autobahn or autostrada use. Even after the tax horsepower system was binned, engineers who had grown up under the regime still bore excuse the pun - those sensibilities.
Today, it's hard to imagine one country producing so many similar yet unrelated engines, but in the six cars present here we have a selection of Britain's finest 'sixes', in some of the best cars to wield them.
JAGUAR XK150 & ASTON MARTIN DB5
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Esta historia es de la edición December 2024 de Classic & Sports Car.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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RAY HILLIER
Double-chevron oddity proves a break from the norm for this Crewe specialist
SHORT BACK & GLIDES
Eccentric enthusiast Captain RG McLeod's series of Manx-tailed Bentley Specials reached its zenith with this unique S2 Continental.
People's choice
The diminutive but multi-million-selling Fiat 850 packed a remarkable diversity of form and function into its compact footprint
PLASTIC BREAKS FROM THE NORM
Glassfibre revolutionised niche car-body production, but just occasionally strayed into the mainstream.
A SENSIBLE SUPERCAR
The cleverly conceived four-seater Elite secured Lotus a place at the big players' table, but has it been unfairly maligned since then?
"I had a habit of grabbing second place from the jaws of victory"
From dreams of yachting glory to the Le Mans podium, via a stint at the top of the motorsport tree, Howden Ganley had quite the career
Still going strong
Herbert Engineering staked its reputation on the five-year warranty that came with its cars. A century on, this Two Litre hasn't made a claim
One for the kids
General Motors was aiming squarely at the youth market with the launch of the Pontiac GTO 60 years ago, and its runaway success popularised the muscle-car movement
A NEW BREED OF HERO
Launched at the turn of the millennium, the GT3 badge has already earned a place alongside RS, CS and turbo in Porsche lore.
Brits with SIX appeal
The straight-six engine is synonymous with a decades-long legacy of great British sports cars. Six variations on the sextet theme convene for comparison