I worked a bit with the fellows from Bridgend on their part of the project and remember there skepticism that Ford's modular engine production methods would be of bennefit. It come to mind a meeting where their plant manager was emphatic that they were tasked to open their minds and throw away the notion "this is the way we've always done it" if Jaguar was to survive. A more than successful undertaking by Jaguar.

Just as with body design, powertrain revisions run in cycles of X number of years (having to do with all of the issues touched on in the article) however that cycles is usually much less frequent. It is a cost saving issue with R&D and production systems since powertrains (not just engines) can accomodate a much wider variety vehicle types.

 

 

+1 Just fascinating. Thank you