The Taipan 40 R/C glow-plug motor has the distinction (if you can call it that!) of having been the very last member of the highly respected Taipan range which had been produced in Australia for many years by the late and much missed Gordon Burford. By the time of its appearance in 1976, Gordon was settling back into a well-earned returement and his son Peter had assumed primary responsibility for the ongoing manufacture of the Taipan engines. Peter’s vision was to produce a new .40 cuin. engine in large quantities for the upper end of the worldwide “sport” R/C engine market.

The Taipan 40 was unique in a number of respects, most notably its use of a front exhaust which fed into a side-mounted muffler. It was an extremely well-made unit having a very respectable "sports" performance by mid-1970's standards. However, its introductory year of 1976 also saw the appearance of the OS Max F-SR 40 and Webra Speed 40 Schnuerle-ported engines, which along with the HP40F immediately established a new performance standard for the crowded “sport 40” market segment. Because of this, the Taipan 40 was effectively left at the starting gate. Although it had been a very expensive engine to develop, it could only realistically sell in a lower price bracket along with the remaining “old school” 40’s of comparable performance. This doubtless contributed to the fact that Gordon Burford & Co. were forced into liquidation soon after the engine's introduction, with only some 1,500 examples having been made.

The full story of the Taipan 40 may be found in Maris Dislers' excellent article which appears elsewhere on this web-site.