After the war these assumptions were nonsense but habits, will to change and money to build new engines meant engines were a bodge till after the sixties.
It is interesting just how old some designs were. One might think BL stuck with things, but the AC light six engine (the Weller engine) was designed in 1919, and remained in production till 1963!
The Ford cross-flow engine while a decent bore and stroke ratio quite obviously comes from the same stable as the pre WW2 E93a engine as fitted to F types. And while there are problems with some aspects, crossflows have been inserted in more than one F type!
