Rolls-Royce–Bentley L-series V8 engine as the "six and a quarter" litre engine. When new, the Rolls-Royce/Bentley V8 was rumoured to be an American engine design licence-built, but it was developed in-house by Rolls-Royce and Bentley engineers. This can be seen in its design characteristics, with features like an aluminium alloy cylinder block with wet liners, gear-driven camshaft, (initially) outboard spark plugs and porting inspired by the Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine. The bore spacing of 4.75" was unlike any American V8 engine and the firing order was 1-5-4-8-6-3-7-2 something uncommon in any period American OHV V8. The deep skirted crankcase design is also rare with
Rolls-Royce RB162 change from vertical to horizontal installation. With the RB162 fitted the Trident 3B had a 15% increase in thrust over the earlier variants for an engine weight penalty of only 5%. A design study for a turbofan version of the RB162 was designated RB175. Another projected derivative, the RB181 was to be a scaled-down version of the RB162 producing approximately 2,000 lbs of thrust. Seven of these lift engines were to power the unbuilt Lockheed/Short Brothers CL-704 VTOL variant of the F-104 Starfighter. Rolls-Royce RB162 The Rolls-Royce RB162 was a simply constructed and lightweight British turbojet engine produced by Rolls-Royce