Engine and Transmission Tech

Hello friends! I just recently bought Triumph project car that has a buick 215 engine mounted in it. I have become really fascinated with this aluminum v8 engine. I noticed some tech articles and members of this site who have buick 215 knowledge and cars! I was researching this engine about a month ago and found a great multi-page article on this engine. It has the history, and lots of mechanical tech about building these engines...even down to the part numbers for different components. I....Like a dummy did not print this article the moment I found it! And now that I search for it again, it is no longer to be found! Maybe they didn't pay their .com subscription? Not sure how that works...? This article was great and I would really like to have a hard copy...Hoping someone has it saved somewhere. The article looks like it was something probably written in the 80's? Thanks for the help and great website you guys have!

Welcome to the board, Dane!

My best guess is that the article you're thinking of might be "Affordable Aluminum V8's" by Marlan Davis, which appeared in the March 1985 edition of Hot Rod. It was a terrific article, and it influenced many of us mightily. I've never seen it online, and I would be very careful about posting it here myself for fear of copyright / legal problems. My copy looks like it's a photocopy of a photocopy anyhow - barely readable.

Take some time to search through our "archive" section, which you'll find in the left-most pull-down menu at the top of this page. We've published a number of articles about parts interchanges and specifically about stroking the 215 to larger displacement - overlapping most of the content of that classic Hot Rod article. Since 1985, things have changed quite a lot... mainly because newer Rover parts became widely available.

p.s. for history, this article provides a pretty interesting read: [www.britishv8.org]

It's very incomplete on the high performance / racing heritage though. A book could and should be written about the Buick/Olds 215's HUGE influence on international road racing in the sixties. Thompson (and Gurney), Reventlow, Penske, Ward, McLaren, Hall, Brabham, and many other well known racers used the little aluminum V8 - some with great success. Tthe Can-Am series would never have come together if the 215's ready availability hadn't first inspired a generation of innovative V8-powered sports racers.

Curtis, Dane might be referring to the old Phil Baker article: [www.teambuick.com]

Same article in an apparent case of copyright infringement. (Team Buick claims copyright at the bottom, but doesn't say anything about Petersen Publishing giving them authorization for re-publishing.) Phil Baker was interviewed, but the author was Marlan Davis.

Back in the day, the Marlan Davis article was quite helpful, for building the "American" V8. Just like the Brits, we suffered from continent isolation. Before internet, 4 bolt mains and 94 mm bores, we were'nt all that interested in the RV8, at least I wasn't. IMHO, the one single upgrade, that would of helped these engines the most, is roller valvetrains. Flow restricted heads and small base circle cams/lifter diameters, surely held this motor back. Oh, what could have been..... roverman.

Team Buick claims copyright at the bottom, but doesn't say anything about Petersen Publishing giving them authorization for re-publishing


Right there at the very top of the page it credits the magazine, month, year, author and photographer.

HOT ROD MARCH 1985
Affordable Aluminium V-8's
Text & Photography: Marian Davis


Do you still consider this to violate Fair Use?

I'm not qualified to give legal advice... but YES, I do strongly suspect Petersen would consider this a violation.

I imagine a lawyer might point to items 1, 3 and 4 of the famous four point test.

#1 has to do with whether or not Team Buick profits from stealing the article... and clearly they do. They've placed a Discount Tire ad at the top of the page and a Google Adsense ad at the bottom.

#3 has to do with how much of the work was used. Team Buick ripped-off every single word and photo - they didn't just copy excerpts for the purpose of scholarly commentary.

#4 has to do with whether the value of the copyright owner's intellectual property was eroded. The article in question certainly had tangible value to Petersen - for example they might have included it in an ePub collection of classic articles.

(The lawyer would only have to successfully argue one of these three points.)

How Petersen might respond is another matter entirely. Most likely they'd ignore the issue. Why piss off a whole bunch of Buick guys? On the other hand, it's possible they could seek a punitive judgement. Make an example out of Team Buick...

Petersen can certainly afford a much better lawyer than I can, so I wouldn't have published this particular article without their written permission.


Anyone have a different opinion? Educate me.

I think you are right on the money Curtis, and a pretty decent analysis besides. Fair use sort of imples that the author wouldn't have any reason to object anyway and here that's not exactly the case. Looks to me like a pretty clear case of infringement.

Jim

Dane, I'm sorry your not getting the info you need, from that Marlan Davis article. Perhaps if you contacted HR. ? If you outlined your percieved build, we could assist ? Cheers, roverman.

I agree that it would have been much better to get permission, given that the article is reproduced in full. Even linking the HRM back issue page would improve things:
[www.circsource.com]


On the other hand, I see no means whatsoever on the Hot Rod web site to get that magazine ( back issues are only available to April 2008 ) or even view the cover ( HRM keeps an online archive of covers for the 2000s, 2010s and 1940s-50s ). Searching on the article title returns nothing of interest from the online archives. I've got a call in right now to the guy who handles specific article reprints to get pricing but so far I'm just getting voicemail.

Hot Rod Editorial Reprint Division
Wyndell Hamilton
ph - 281-419-5725 ext 152

I'll check back in with what I find out. I may even bump the web master over there to post the contact info.

Heh. I just noticed that he typo'ed Marlan's name.



Ahoy, Mr. Sorenson!

Is this actually the article you were thinking of? Or did you have something else in mind?

Holy Carp.

Just got my return phone call. Wendell claims that HRM *has no hard copy of any magazines prior to 2007*. You CAN'T get this article from HRM even if you WANT too. That was Wendell's direct answer to my question about ANY articles older than 2007.

I asked about pricing on archive reprints for the 2007 and newer articles. His answer was that a magazine style reprint of the pages in question would involve a minimum order of 250-500 copies and price would vary for specific page count and copies printed. Obviously, we're going to be talking about a price of > $1 per copy by the time you get done with handling and shipping fees, so I'm sure the minimum order for something like this would be over $500.

An INDIVIDUAL reprint IS possible for the 2007 - newer articles ... as a commemorative poster or some such. The individual reprint would have a min price of $300.

Clearly, Hot Rod magazine is not looking at the casual or research reader here. Wendell recommended that I look for historical articles on Ebay and buy the used magazine. This department is for vanity reprints for the company or car owner in question and pricing is going to be from the hundreds to thousands of dollars.

This almost ( but not quite ) moves this into the realm of posting articles from magazine titles which no longer exist. In this case, the publisher still does exist but they no longer have any way to effectually monetize the article *themselves*.

A very strange state of affairs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2013 05:27PM by Todd McCreary.

I might actually have this 1985 Hot Rod magazine. Need to do some treasure hunting during the weekend.

Fair use clearly covers a full zerox copy made at the library to be used for individual study or research, particularly where reprints are not available, so it is not too much of a stretch to claim that an online copy is the equivalent where no business purposes are related. For instance, in the library section of a web site. But I really do think that placing banner ads on the page when it comes up converts that rather directly to a business use, which would be a pretty clear violation.

But, I haven't attended an IP conference for some time now and the state of interpretation is always changing. So as always, YMMV.

Jim

I have this issue of Hot Rod magazine.