Ask Goodwin

Dear Colin, As a known lover of the internal combustion engine in all its forms, what is your favourite car, motorcycle, aeroplane and boat engine? Simon Archer

Dear Simon,

I’ve thought very hard about this and have come up with answers that cover many bases. Those who know me well would expect me to nominate the small-block Chevrolet as the car engine but as much as I worship this motor, even this eight banger doesn’t match Lamborghini’s V12 as fitted to the Diablo SV. I’ve flown a Spitfire and its Merlin reminded me of the Lambo V12. The Merlin could be my aero engine choice but instead I’m going to go for a big radial. A Pratt & Whitney R-2800 or even something smaller like a R-1830 Twin Wasp used in most DC3s flying today. A friend has the latter in his Yak and it’s an amazing engine to hear.

The bike engine is Ducati’s current V4 which is an outrageous powerplant in both power and noise. I love two-stroke engines so my boat engine of choice would be an Evinrude 300XP. How can you beat a 300bhp V8 two-stroke that revs to 10,000rpm?