Gurney-Weslake Ford V8!
In the 60s, racer Dan Gurney approached Weslake with the idea of building a V8 engine with alloy heads based on the Ford Fairlane 289cid block. He had made sketches of his thoughts on this and took them to show Harry Weslake at Rye in England.
Drawings for the new Cylinder Heads and other special parts were drawn up by Harry and his staff at Rye. Here they designed the now world renowned Gurney Weslake Cylinder head and racing engine components. The heads had the inlet ports inclined at nine degrees as opposed to the standard twenty and were round in shape. The combustion chambers were of the Weslake pattered heart shaped.
The first Heads were made for testing purposes, cast by Alcoa and tested by John Miller at Dan Gurneys All American Racing in the USA. These were the Mark I type.
Modifications were made following the initial testing and then further heads were made in England of the Mark II type at the Weslake works at Rye. Further testing took place in the USA a feature of this being racing at Riverside in 1965.
In 1966 the Mark III version of the Gurney Weslake head had been developed with alterations to make assembly and maintenance easer to carry out. Further development work brought about the Mark IV version of the Head lighter in weight with narrower rocker covers and an inclined carburettor mounting towards the centre of the engine. These heads were developed for use with the Ford 305 cid engine and enabled Dan to win at Riverside in 1967. More famously these engines were used to power the Ford GT40 to win at Le Mans Twice, first in 1968 and again in 1969.