Hooniverse Asks- What's The Most Audacious Car With Another Brand's Motor?

By Robert Emslie Jun 3, 2013

1978 Dodge Omni-00

You know, sometimes the old adage, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, is the best motto to maintain. In the case of the automotive industry, that admission of competitive unbalance can play into a car maker’s favor, imbuing one marque with the brand equity of another, more venerated, one. That has resulted in Lotus-Cortinas, Cosworth Vegas, and a myriad of Italian stallions with American horses housed in their corrals.

Sometimes, it’s another company improving a maker’s existing mill- hence the aforementioned twin-cam Vega, Ford’s Yamaha-headed SHO V6, and the similar work Lotus did to the Blue Oval’s Kent four. On other occasions it has been the case that a smaller maker simply didn’t have the resources to make an appropriate engine, and was fortunate enough to find a savior in a competitor willing to sell a few of their own.

An example of this are the Dodge L-cars which at various times had Simca and VW power before Chrysler got their own 2.2-litre sorted out. Other instances are of course the Bristol-powered AC models, GM-motivated Jeeps, and of course the granddaddy of all engine donations, the Ford-powered AC Cobra.

From Omnis to Omnipotent Cobras, these cars all have one thing in common, they had someone else’s heart beating under their hood. Which one of those maker mashups do you think was the most jaw-dropping in its unexpected partnership?

Image source: Old CarBrochures

118 thoughts on “Hooniverse Asks- What's The Most Audacious Car With Another Brand's Motor?”
    1. This may be the last big manufacturer to use essentially a competitor's powerplant.
      Land Rover uses the ecoboost and Lotus is in bed with Toyota but they really don't have any cross shoppers.
      Prove me wrong internets.

        1. Infiniti doesn't sell cars in Europe. They say they try to, but to this day I've yet to see proof with my own eyes. Looking up the statistics they sold a whopping 12 new cars in my country, the Netherlands, in calender year 2012, which was less than brands like Fisker, Tesla and dead Saab. Two more than Cadillac, I'll give them that. It's a country of 17 million people I must add.

          1. EDIT:
            Infiniti sells offers (unsuccessfully) cars in Europe with Mercedes diesel engines.

        2. These are Renault diesels (V6 3 liter 240hp and loads of torque)
          Still, no one wants these cars here, but that's not worse than Lexus when they arrived on that same market years ago.

    2. That was what I was coming to post. Odd pairing, but, a reliable, high reving 250 V6 in a little Vue surely was entertaining.

    3. Wasn't that in exchange for a 1.7L Isuzu diesel for Honda to use in the Euro market in the Civic (and some others, maybe)?
      I'd say Saturn got the better half of that deal, though IIRC, the J35 Honda gave them was built more cheaply.

  1. Remember how Saturn was supposed to be an import fighter? It probably didn't suggest a bright and sunny future when they started shoving Honda motors in the Vue.

    1. That's what I get for typing at stoplights. I'll throw out the Shelby Series 1 as well, for using the Olds Aurora V8 over the full-fledged Northstar.

  2. Recently? Dodge Avenger with VW 2.0 TDI. There's your mid-size class-leading MPG's right there, but not available in the US.

    1. I remember this, but not why they did it. Was this before the FIAT merger? Because fiat has excellent diesels already, widely used by Saab and Opel… And Alfa, of course.

      1. I can think of three different diesel suppliers they've used over the years: Venturi, Mercedes and VW. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there's some old Cherokees running around with Renault engines. The diesel Avenger was definitely before the FIAT era. I think this was towards the end of the Daimler era or maybe during that few years that Cerberus was calling the shots. At least it's a common engine so you're not going to run out of support in a few years.
        "Widely used by Saab"… erm… I don't know if that's a selling point anymore 😉

    2. The Journey was also available with the 2.0 TDi engine and DSG box, a guy at work has one. And the Grand Cherokee and 300C had a 3.0 Mercedes diesel, but that's not nearly as weird as the VW engines.

    1. That is because Citroen owned Maserati back then. There are also Maseratis with Citroen hydraulics in them.

      1. The 2nd gen Quattroporte shared the engine and many mechananical parts (including the hydraulics) with the SM.

    2. And what an engine bay! Look how much space there'd be in front of the engine if the hydraulics weren't there. Odd to think that so much of Citroen architecture is defined by its suspension system.

    3. It's a front mid-engine configuration, you can see the transaxle sticking out in front of the engine. The accessories seem to be hanging from some kind of rack all the way at the front. See that huge prop shaft that drives the hydraulic pump? I do believe that gets powered off the crank via chain at the back of the water pump which is located between the engine and the firewall.

    4. I heard that some owners later dropped Maser Biturbo engines into SMs….. as if the original 3.0 liter Maser engine is too simple to maintain.
      But then again, the value of a Maser Biturbo engine may exceed the value of an engineless Maser Biturbo.

    1. The "Water In Fuel" light on the gauge panel of my '85 LSC confused me at first until I learned about the BMW diesel Lincolns.

    1. It was actually a Nissan Diesel…
      According to Wikipedia: International did not manufacture a diesel engine small enough to be used in the Scout, and so starting in 1976 used the Nissan SD33 diesel engine as a diesel option. This engine was replaced by the Nissan SD33T turbodiesel engine in 1980.

    2. Yes it was a Nissan diesel but the strange thing is that it was purchased from Chrysler for the first few years and was called the CN-33 For Chrysler-Nissan 3.3. At the time Chrysler was the sole US distributor for Nissan industrial engines. Near the end IH purchased the engines directly from Nissan. If it is painted yellow it is a CN-33, blue and it is a SD33.

    1. That was a strange time for MGRover.
      I've heard differing stories- One which the Rover 75 was developed without interference from BMW and the FWD had to be extensively reworked to make RWD happen. The other is the 75 was developed with BMW 5 Series structures underneath and the RWD wasn't difficult to achieve.
      Too bad it all went kaput. Imagine a MG ZT-T V8 with a 660hp GT500 engine.

      1. I heard that the 75 was developed by BMW to become the 6-series, and that it was subsequently altered to be a Rover. My uncle had a 75 6-cylindre. It was a nice car, but the interiour design was really too much of everything – trying very hard to be British. And he had it for ten years because it was impossible to sell it for a decent price.

    2. TopGear did a drive of one back in Season 4 (just watched it on Netflix last week).

    3. I like to think I know how this car was built. Someone with a forklift picked half-baked 75's off of the assembly line and took them to a shed in the back of the Longbridge lot, where people with sledgehammers cued the music.

    1. And lets not forget the same engine in the 240 as well. And that , at least here in the US, an engine that Audi themselves never used.

      1. I love the sound a D24 volvo makes, especially when idling. Manly, somehow.
        But it was probably a lot more competitive in the 240 than in the 940 towards the end of the 90's, turbo/intercooler or not.

    2. That's what I came here for. I'd have made a crack about reliability, too, if not for the pre-B280 PRV.

        1. I'm aware that it's a T-platform car, which originated with the Opel Kadett C, but it's an Isuzu Gemini, plain and simple. So it's an Isuzu car with an Isuzu engine, but rebadged for the US market.

          1. But it definitely takes the crown for the weirdest rebadging effort. Imagine Fiat now trying to sell a car with the handsome name of Chrysler Alfa Romeo Ferrari. It just doesn't make sense. Which should have been GM's slogan for decades.

    1. Thats a Simca Vedette Ford Matra became Simca and these used the V860 also available with the 4cyl Rush engine as the Ariane

  3. Off the top of my head: Ford Taunus V-4's in SAAB 95's and 96'ss, Navistar diesels in Ford pickups, and my favorite one, BMW providing engines to Volkswagen for use in Bentleys. Packard V8's in 1955-56 Hudson Hornets and Nash Ambassadors.

    1. Came here to mention one German engine in another's English luxury car, but forgot the specifics.

  4. Tritec engines in first-gen MINI's and in non-US market Neons and PT Cruisers. Prince engines in MINI's and lots of Peugeots and Citroens. This is a little tangential, but the whole JDM in the 80's and 90's was full of badge engineering, with Honda-built Izusus and Suzuki-built Subarus and Toyota-built Daihatsus.

  5. The Argentine IKA Torino 380W: a Renault-marketed, Pininfarina-facelifted Rambler American with a souped-up version of the 3.8-liter Kaiser-Jeep Tornado SOHC six, making 176 hp with three Weber 45 DCOEs.
    What would have been the runner up was the abortive Austin-Healey 4000, with Rolls-Royce's aluminum F-head FB60 engine.

  6. Oh, I almost forgot: the Mazda Roadpacer AP, which was essentially a big Holden (GM's Australian brand) with Mazda's emissions-controlled 13B rotary engine and three-speed JATCO automatic. I think it was an (unsuccessful) attempt to do a Toyota Century-style conservative luxury barge that would take advantage of a contemporary tax credit for low-emissions vehicles. Not many were built and I don't think they were officially exported.

      1. I saw one of those pickups today… I had assumed that the "rotary power" signage was custom. It appears not to be the case.

        1. I had the exact same reaction when I saw one at a Japanese car show a couple of years ago. I saw the fender flares and big ROTARY POWER stickers and figured it was somebody's project. Afterward I was kicking myself for not getting pictures of it.

      2. Part of the reason for Mazda's all-in embrace of rotary engines was that they originally thought the rotary was going to be the only way to meet U.S. 1975 emissions standards — the rotary with a thermal reactor had acceptably low HC emissions and could meet the original NOx standards, which was a tall order for carbureted reciprocating engines. As it happened, the feds pushed back the NOx standards and the REPU, which was intended entirely for the U.S., ended up being too expensive and way too thirsty for compact truck buyers.
        The Parkway bus was only for Japan, but was also probably driven by emissions concerns. Big Japanese cities were having serious air pollution problems and threatening to impose their own local emissions standards, so I assume Toyo Kogyo figured there would be a market for a low-emissions bus. Again, its downfall was probably fuel consumption.

        1. There is now. A company in Houston, TX purchased the remaining stock of parts from the factory, as well as reproducing many of the parts themselves – they have enough pieces to make new Deloreans to spec, and one of the options is electric drivetrain.

          1. Wow…how cool is that!? One excited CEO, and he has a good reason to be. A silent DeLorean seems like a perfect fit, even though I am not that much into electrics yet. 95000$ would actually be competitive – easy to register, I hope!?

    1. In fairness, they did consider a number of other engines, including the NSU-Citroën Comotor rotary (!) and Ford-Werke's "Cologne" V6. The reason DMC went with the PRV engine was that Renault already had a transverse FWD version for the R30, and DeLorean could just use pretty much the complete R30 drivetrain, including transmissions. At that time, I think the Cologne engine was only used in longitudinal RWD applications (the V4 version had of course been used in the FWD Taunus and Saab 96, but still longitudinally mounted), so DeLorean would have had to deal with adapting the mounts and ancillaries as well as coming up with a suitable transaxle.
      It's also worth noting that the DMC-12 ended up being a lot heavier than originally planned. It was supposed to weigh only about 2,200 lb, which would have made it a lot quicker with any of those engines.

  7. The Lamborghini LM001 (not the LM002) was only a prototype, but it got a AMC 360 V-8 in the rear.
    <img src="http://www.all-car-brands.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/lamborghini_lm_001-1.jpg&quot; width="500/">
    The LM001 was derived from the Cheetah project which had a Chrysler 360 V-8.
    <img src="http://www.lambocars.com/images/off_road/cheetah2.jpg"width=500&gt;
    Which looks an awful lot like the 1980s GI JOE VAMP.
    <img src="http://www.yojoe.com/images/resize/w/MAX/vehicles/82/vamp/vamp_left_iso.jpg"width=500&gt;

    1. Excellent observation about the GI Joe Vamp, one of my favorite toys when I was a kid. Oddly the SWB version in the toy has better lines than the actual Cheetah. Heck, I'd consider buying one right now if they were on the market as a wrangler competitor.

    1. I've actually seen one of those showing up in the company parking lot the last few months. (In a much more attractive red).

  8. I'm trying to think of how many Asian manufacturers GM has slapped a badge on for the US market. So far I've got Toyota, Suzuki, Daewoo, and Isuzu.

  9. Volvo PRV engine has wound up in a lot of strange places. Also Ford engines in their English Marques after they were sold off to the Germans and Indians. BMW has managed to sell plenty of engines to other manufacturers. And I'm still having trouble coming to grips with Toyota engines in all manner of Loti. Then again, Lotus will sell their chassis to anyone.

    1. I can't recall ever seeing one of those Peterbilts. Do you have any idea when they were made, how many there were, or what region they tended to be sold in? Google's not helping very much.

      1. Basically mid-80s to mid-90s in the US market. I used to see them pretty often in Houston, TX. Never saw the VW or MAN version. Wiki says they're still being made under the VW name in Brazil.

        1. Cool, thanks. During that era I lived in Wisconsin, and all the COE medium-duty trucks there were Ford C-series, Ford/Iveco Cargo, Isuzu NxR, Fuso FE, and maybe a few old IH Loadstar CO-series. I'll keep my eyes open for those Petes. The one you linked is clearly in California (where I currently live), but I'll be moving to Houston next year.

  10. '33 Ford Coupe. Or are you going to try and tell me those didn't come with Chevrolet V8s and either a Turbo-hydromatic or a Muncie 4-speed from the factory?

  11. For unexpectedness, I like the South African Landrover Defender 90 with the BMW M52 engine. These were the fastest factory Defenders ever built, outrunning even the 4.0 V8 powered 50th anniversary models.

  12. In Europe GM:s Opel was selling the Omega B (also known as Cadillac Catera for the US market) Diesel with a BMW 6-cylinder diesel engine, familiar from 5-series diesel BMW's. The smaller front wheel drive diesel models from Opel received an Isuzu diesel engine in the 90's and nowdays they use Fiat diesel engines in some models. Fiat is also using Opel gasoline engines in some of their models in exchange…

  13. detomaso and the ford 351w
    Pontiac firebird with 403 olds engine…..
    anything that flies and has pratt and whitney engines is an absolute mismatch

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