of course, with that kind of power output figure, it means the engine is not stressing itself to death, you'd expect the engine to run forever : )
must be quite a cruiser mobile.... is it an automatic?
I think all the Lexcens are automatics, in fact, so are most Commodores, save for the sports models.
The advantage of the Commodore is that they're EVERYWHERE, so parts are dirt cheap. One of my friends had an old VN Commodore with the 3800, ran fine until he ran it without oil at 340,000km and seized it. It was trashed during that time, too.
Of course it is, it is GM's super reliable 3800! While it may lack in horsepower, it has, like most GM engines, a usable torque curve.
IMHO, people who only focus on horsepower and conveniently dismiss an engines torque rating and curve are grossly ignorant.
You're right that for an engine that's in essentially a family car, a good linear torque curve is much more useful than bucketloads of outright power (although the Falcon of the same era had a better engine than the Commodore's engine, more power and torque).
Would anyone agree with me that making a good normal car engine would be harder than making a good race engine? After all, the race engines would have higher budgets, not have to last as long, and concentrate mainly on outright performance. They'd be revving higher and running hotter, but they'd be running top-grade oil and top-grade fuel.
However, the car engine would have to have a good linear torque curve, last for >300,000km with 10-15,000km service intervals, run on ordinary low-grade pump fuel without detonation, not use very much fuel, meet current and future emissions requirements, run quietly and smoothly, and not be too expensive to produce.
It's amazing they can still get decent performance out of normal car engines.
