I am writing this for all the DV haters. David Vizard was a trained aerospace engineer who went on to build his own racing car (classic mini) which he raced with an A-series engine(s) he built for it, in Britain. He first made his name with the book How to modify your mini. So, yes he has pulled on the spanners and got his hands dirty. Not sure when he spent time with the Ford 2000cc OHC engine. At some point (70s or 80s) he moved to the USA and set up a business with the late David Anton, specialising in A and B Series engines from BMC and also Triumph engines. I'm not sure if this is when he first used a flowbench or not. Anyway, my second point is that he spend a lot of time grinding heads and flow bench testing them - getting his hands dirty again. He also never simply said this head flows this much but took flow readings at various valve lifts. I doubt he was the first person to undertake such extensive testing and research but almost certainly he was the first motoring writer that wrote about that. He would have had his own dyno as well at this time and so would have undertaken many pulls. His Mopar connection, as far as I know was when he worked with the competition department of Chrysler UK to work on turbocharging a Hillman Avenger - what I think you guys had as the Plymouth Cricket. When I met him in the early 1990s it was at Mountune Racing Engines in England who were and are highly respected. I went with him to Kent Cams where he was working with them and then and now Kent Cams are highly respected. I guess over all those years he was never far from a dyno and a flowbench.
So now some of you aren't impressed with his Youtube material and you may or may not be justified in your opinion. DV may have forgotten more than some of us have learned. He may also have forgotten some of what he had learned himself. So why does he continue to produce Youtube material? Well he simply may like keeping busy or he may need the money. What I do know is that my personal experience of DV was that he was a helpful friend to me and the very best advice he gave me wasn't related to building engines or anything to do with cars. Maybe DV is like a boxer than never quit when they were at the top of their game? He made a significant contribution to motoring enthusiasts worldwide by testing parts and publishing data on what worked and what didn't. He must also have made significant contributions to performance and race engine development by virtue of the companies he worked with when he was based in the USA and in Britain when he came back for what must have been working holidays.
David always struck me as being kind, compassionate, patient, willing to help and willing to share his knowledge. He may come across wrong to some, but maybe that is because he has to be a self-publicist. Life hasn't always been as kind to him as it has been to most of us yet I never heard him complain about his health or anything else that never worked out for him. Once he did share with me how shamefully he had been treated by a very large company and it makes me sad to recall that. People here have been ruder about him than he ever would be about them. So if you disagree with his comments on Youtube, pause before hitting that keyboard and cut an old man some slack.
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