We made the decision to make our own engine. This involved the design of a new cylinder head to go on the FIAT block. It was an 8-port hemi head with a valve angle of 36 degrees per side. The valves were operated by push rods. The intake push rod crossed over from the exhaust side via push rods. We opted to do this because BMW had been somewhat successful with this system.

We tested this engine in 1963 and ran into several problems. The 600D cam system was too small and the weight of the valve train was too heavy and severely limited the RPM of the engine. It did run well other than that.

We reworked the patterns to adapt a cam tray to the head with two overhead camshafts, a single row timing chain and bucket type cam followers. This engine was very successful and remained in production for five years. The last twin cam was delivered in 1969. We still service them for vintage racers.

One of the problems we had with the 600D block was that when it was bored from 62mm to 65mm to raise the displacement to 850cc the cylinder walls were too thin. Some of the blocks had to be discarded.

When FIAT came to the US in 1967 with the 850 series cars, we thought that this would cure the problem because the cylinder bore was 65mm to start. Unfortunately that was not to be. FIAT had changed the bore spacing and it would not match our twin cam cylinder head or piston configurations.

Something had to be changed. At this time there were other types of racing in the US that used 850cc size engines. This included three-quarter midget cars that were run on dirt ovals, and 850cc hydroplane boat racing. In both cases they required what we called single gear service. No gear changes and no clutch could be used. For those applications and Sports Car racing we designed a new push rod type cylinder head using the FIAT 850 style wedge combustion chamber, but with a high angle four port intake. The stock distributor was used. This PBS-8-P head first saw service in 1968.

The cost of this 8-Port push rod engine was lower and it was very easy to maintain. It produced as much horsepower as the Twin Cam over a wider range. This engine was very successful in this country and overseas. It set many records and won many championships in various racing classes. It was popular in 1000cc form and in that size was used mostly in hill climb cars.

In 1974 we produced yet another cylinder head for the 850 block. This time it was a SOHC hemi, cross flow head with rockers and a 55 degree valve angle. It produced more horsepower again but over a small range of high RPM. It was only used in Sports Racer service. these were light weight cars with close ratio transmissions. This engine was only sold by PBS and was used exclusively in the US.