27 liters and 12 cylinders, with a practical station wagon body
If you had to name one of the most famous individual road cars in the world, what would it be? If you're British and of a certain age, your nomination may be for sale, because 'The Beast', [John Dodd's] unique creation using a 27-litre Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine, is up at auction. [Jonny Smith] of the Late Brake Show gave it a thumbs up, and we pasted the resulting video below the break.
A used engine isn't the usual Hackaday fare, but it's the way to build this car that we think will appeal to you. [John] originally acquired someone's failed project not featuring a Merlin but its detuned derivative for tanks. He solved the problem of finding a transmission that could handle the immense power and built it with a nice 1970s coupe body. After a fire a few years later, he ordered a new body from a dragster manufacturer , which is the vintage station wagon you'll see in the video. It originally had a Rolls-Royce Cars grille, which it ended up in court for in the 1980s as the automaker sought to have it removed.
The story of this car is one of full-scale hacking, because there's simply nothing else like it. It was once the most powerful road car in the world and it is still capable of well over 200 miles per hour. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford to buy it even though we could fit its immense length in our parking space.
Fancy an even more epic British car hack? Do we have the roadster for you!
If you had to name one of the most famous individual road cars in the world, what would it be? If you're British and of a certain age, your nomination may be for sale, because 'The Beast', [John Dodd's] unique creation using a 27-litre Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine, is up at auction. [Jonny Smith] of the Late Brake Show gave it a thumbs up, and we pasted the resulting video below the break.
A used engine isn't the usual Hackaday fare, but it's the way to build this car that we think will appeal to you. [John] originally acquired someone's failed project not featuring a Merlin but its detuned derivative for tanks. He solved the problem of finding a transmission that could handle the immense power and built it with a nice 1970s coupe body. After a fire a few years later, he ordered a new body from a dragster manufacturer , which is the vintage station wagon you'll see in the video. It originally had a Rolls-Royce Cars grille, which it ended up in court for in the 1980s as the automaker sought to have it removed.
The story of this car is one of full-scale hacking, because there's simply nothing else like it. It was once the most powerful road car in the world and it is still capable of well over 200 miles per hour. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford to buy it even though we could fit its immense length in our parking space.
Fancy an even more epic British car hack? Do we have the roadster for you!
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