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The automobile as we know it (internal combustion, wheels, gears, etc.) has been around for a long time. 1672 is widely regarded as the beginning of the automobile, when Ferdinand Verbiest attached some wheels to a steam generator and created a vehicle that, by golly, moved itself.

Most people point to Karl Benz as the father of the modern automobile, so that would pretty much mean it came into life with the granting of a patent in 1886. In the ensuing 123 years, a lot of ideas and concepts that were deemed state-of-the-art, then normal, have long since come and gone. Some cars used to use leather as the friction surface on the clutch, because it was one of the grippiest, longest-lasting materials available at the time. This means that the automobile has gone through a huge amount of evolution and reinvention as the years have gone. It's a pretty big market, with the average now at about 1 car per 11 people on earth, so the incentive to have an up-to-date product is pretty strong. Looking back at trends in the past show some interesting ideas that have sprouted and faded. This is the first in a series of articles focusing on obsolete, outdated, or just plain unusual technology.

Inspiration for this article goes to, who brought up the question 'has anyone ever made a V4?' Answer: Yes, they have. The V4 When you talk to most car-ignorant people about cars, and ask them what kind of engine their Camry (or whatever) has, they're liable to spout out something like 'I think it's got a V4?' Most of them don't know exactly how uncommon a V4 really is, at least in automobile use. My research dug up three manufacturers of V4 engines for automobiles, and they're all interesting. Lancia was the first to debut a V4 in a production car, with the Lambda in 1922. It was an aluminum-block engine (very rare for the time) with pushrod actuation of the valvetrain.

Displacement varied between 2.1 and 2.6L, with power outputs ranging from 49bhp to 69bhp, which were impressive outputs for the displacement at the time. It was updated over the years and adapted to many different Lancias, including the Artena, Augusta, Aprilia, Ardea, and Appia. (What's with Lancia and these A-names?) Power and sized ranged from a tiny 903cc and 28.8bhp up to the 55bhp 2.0L Artena. Httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiPAR6T0NHw The final application of the Lancia V4 was used in the gorgeous Fulvia, starting in 1963.

The V4 was drastically redesigned for the Fulvia, with the block angle dropping from 20° in pre-war Lancias to about 12.5°. This allowed the use of a shared cylinder head (think Volkswagen VR6, then wonder where they got the idea) with two banks of cylinders. Even cooler, it was a dual overhead cam V engine with only two camshafts - one operating the exhaust valves, one the intake. The Fulvia's V4 was available in a dizzying array of states of tune and displacement, ranging from a 1.1L 58bhp version - with low 7.8:1 compression ratio - up to the screaming 1.6L HF-tuned Series II motor, which cranked out 132bhp@6600rpm with an 11.3:1 compression ratio. The larger 1.6L V4 had it's block angle dropped down to 11.2° for better balancing. Here are two good underhood shots of a series 1 Fulvia showing just how strange looking this engine really was.

I guess changing the spark plugs on this engine wouldn't be all that difficult, would it? Country music 2000. Sadly, the Lancia V4 died with the Fulvia in 1976, replaced with a more conventional (and much cheaper to produce) inline-four cylinder engine. The influence of Fiat, which purchased Lancia in 1969, can be seen in the mass-market dumbing down of Lancia with the death of the V4. But Lancia wasn't the only company with the idea that a V4 might be a good thing.

Ford dabbled with the V4 as well, and the story of the Euro Ford V4 is an interesting one too. Ford of Europe actually had two different versions of the V4, one designed and produced by Ford of Germany (called the Taunus V4, it later evolved into the 6-cylinder Cologne series of motors) and one by Ford of England, the Essex V4 - which was named after the plant it was made in, respectively. Httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xXAOlC_Aw0 Both V4's featured a counter-rotating balance shaft to neutralize harmonic vibrations inherent in a four-cylinder, an exacerbated by the V formation.