House-mate here has an extensive collection of old Victa mowers, all the way back to the first Mk1 'toe-cutter' models. Victa had a few stabs at the plastic carby, the final incantations (LM) worked best. The engine itself is very reliable, and long wearing, plus much cheaper/simpler to work on, less maintenance, blablabla. The Victa 2stroke also has a long development history, which remained basically the same over decades, with evolutionary improvements included series after series. By the time they got to the 160cc 'powerstroke' 2stroke engine, they'd pretty much mastered the engine and had it honed down to suit purpose very well.
One of my mate's has an old green ride-on mower ('Craftsman' brand perhaps) -- it's powered by the Victa '500 Twin' 2cyl 170cc 2stroke engine (the '500' referring to the width of cut (500mm/19.7")
They're very much a dedicated low-speed 2stroke power head, and nothing like high-speed 2strokes like in chainsaw or motorbikes etc ; it's why they last so long =)
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