EL2 XR8

Got an email last week from the Pres of the Tickford Owners Club of WA that I thought was quite interesting.
When David Flint was over for a club meeting he was talking about the BA XR8 on the way to being dropped off at the airport. He said the FoMoCo's world wide policy on cars is they have a 25mm clearence minimum on the engine to any part of the engine bay. The XR8 has a piont where it is only 5mm and thus it had to get special permission to go ahead. Just goes to show how keen FoMoCo Aust was to get this car out to the public I guess.

blackout

Indeed it was.. and I think we can all see why!

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mavss

That's a worry though.
I'm sure there is a reason for the 25mm minimum clearance rule - probably safety related.
MavSS

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MavSS

Donut King

didn't ford also need to get special permission to make the T3 lower than internal ford guidelines allowed?

IPhido

There would be many reasons to have minium 25mm clearance, for service ease, for airflow, for engine movement etc. You have to set guidelines somewhere.

However in the XR8 I don't think there is a major problem. Its a very well engineered car and if there was a problem ford would not allow it. It will however be tight.

xacoupe

thereis a legal requirement to have no less than 10MM.
I also have had a peek in a XR8 engine bay and there looks like a bucketload of room in there to me ( well, far more than 10mm everywhere I could see anyway)

AlbertM

Isn't the small clearence only in the installation?

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V-Car

I think thats true.
Very minimal clearance between the widest part of the engine, and the chassis rails when being loaded up from beneath on the line.

carazy

yeah it's so people don't have the chance of loosing a finger when putting the car together.
However I think that this faze of production (putting the motor in) is fully automated untill the engine is actully in place. That's probably how they got away with it.

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Breathe! It's only the internet....

RAPTOR

Yep, that's what I reckon too.

The old 1" (25mm) standard was set beack when cars were largely hand assembled and manufacturing tolerances were, ahh, generous.

As that part of the assembly is all automated today and the body and sub assemblies are all manufactued by robots on jigs I don't see 5mm as a problem.

It seems that this is one instance where common sense has ruled.

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