This was just too far out - 1647 cubic inches? In a 4-door. Of course there is beer involved! http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=245424&mid=0&i=0&nmt=Pics of 27 litre Rolls Royce Meteor engine installation.&mid=0 :laugh:
A friend of mine who lives in Feenix told me that a couple of years ago a car (I think that it was an older Rolls-Royce) showed up at a cruise night, powered by a (Rolls Royce) Merlin aircraft engine. Someone asked where you might locate such an engine. I do not know if they were serious or not, but there are aircraft restorers out there who would have them or know where you could get one. Check with the warbird division of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Planes of Fame Aircraft Museum in Chino, CA might be another source. They were used in British Spitfires and Hurricanes, most of the later American P-51 Mustangs, and some late P-40 Warhawks. They were also used in the British Lancaster Bomber. I believe that they were also used in at least one British civilian airliner although I would not swear to it. The Merlins that have the "transport" heads are the best - non transport head engines can be retrofitted with them, but the transport heads are gold. You will need to get used to some very big dollar numbers to put one together, although some non-airworthy parts would be acceptable for street use, and would be more affordable. I don't think I would tell them it was for automotive use, though.
If memory serves me correct, there were tons of surplus WWII aircraft engines, some Rolls at the end of the war. Seeing as how people who like to go fast don't miss out on a lot of opportunities, they were bought up for the large part by hydro racers. Later as these engines got scarce they went to surplus helicopter turbines. I could be wrong, but I think that's a pretty close representation of what happened to many of these engines. Any way, a surplus WWII aircraft engine would be cool, but since they go into million dollar fighters they may be a little cost prohibitive for a drag engine.
These guys should race. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIj2...DB466E91&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=65
In the early '70's,someone in Britain built a sport coupe of some sort using a RR Merlin engine.Claimed it would do 200mph. I believe there was an article in Hot Rod magazine about back then.
David is correct about the hydro racers. Maybe he knows this because there used to be a big boat racing bash in the Seattle area each year. The Washington hydro races were raised to legendary status when the primary Boeing test pilot slow-rolled a 707 (twice) directly above the race course. Films of this still exist. Most of the racing hydros used Allison V-12s because they were much cheaper then the Merlins. They were also a lot less tempermental due to their lower (but still very high) horsepower output. In a continuing effort to bore you with totally useless knowledge, I had said in an earlier post that "most of the later" Mustangs used Merlins. Actually, there were only a few early Mustangs that did not. These would be serious collector's items. The early Mustangs were equipped with Allisons. The Brits (who were the folks who originally ordered the Mustangs) thought that it was a dog with the Allison and swapped in the Merlin from the Spits and Hurricanes. Perhaps this makes the British some of the earliest hot-rodders. The rest is history.
canadian hydroplane boats, in the 60's & 70's, competing for the harmsworth trophy, used these merlin engines & the boats outclassed & outsped all the competition - for example Miss Supertest II owned by the thompson family of london ontario. i worked for this family at supertest petroleum in london.
:Smarty: BTW: This thread initially was about Rolls-Royce Meteor engines - not Merlins. The Meteor was a detuned version of the Merlin that was not supercharged. It was used in tanks. It did share many Merlin components, but was set up to run on the crappy gasoline that all WW2 land vehicles had to use. Using engines designed for aircraft was not unique to the Brits. Many US tanks including the well-known Shermans used modified aircraft engines.
You are right on every count. I have never seen the hydro races on Lake Washington, but I have been to all but the unlimited at Black lake in Olympia... 35 or so years ago I suppose. The barrel rolls that the test pilot did in that 707 were a surprise to the Boeing executives too! And history was made. As for the engines, the supercharged engine gave them something like 100MPH boost at high altitude and was a major factor in the winning of the war since the Mustang was the only fighter that could accompany the bombers into Europe.
John your knowledge on these engines is amazing! And we still have the "Seafair" annual races in Seattle -- I had to look up where else and there are only a handful of these races. The most surprising is Qatar! Wow http://www.abrahydroplanes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=53 The races are amazing and those boats are revered around these parts. I tried to find my photos of a hydro showing one of these engines, but can't remember where they are... ill be back :grin:
The Germans did the same thing. The Tiger tank used a Maybach engine originally designed for aircraft.
Junkman, I remember the article about the car you spoke of, but I don't think it was in Hot Rod. Maybe Motor Trend. As I recall, the guy handmade a 2 seater body using many RR body parts, including the grille. It was black, sat low to the ground, and look really menacing but sharp. He said in the article that there was a learning curve with the engine. These aircraft engines don't rev like auto engines and he destroyed numerous magnetos with this engine before realizing that 2500 rpm was about all he could use before blowing the magneto. Peak power came well ahead of this, however, and he said that in real life driving he never approached that limit, as the power and speed produced prior to that scared the daylights out of him! That was over 30 years ago and you have to wonder what becomes of toys like that.
You could say that the HL230 had a strong aircraft engine heritage, but calling it an aircraft engine I think is going a bit too far. How many planes used them? Regarding American use of aircraft engines, the M4 used a radial engine and the ford GAA, to mention a few.
Another wierd tank engine was the Chrysler 30-cylinder job. It was basically five of the flathead sixes hooked together in a radial (sort of) pattern. It was seriously strange, but supposedly it worked well.
This looks like a recipe for disaster, but as you say, they worked pretty well! :eek2: http://www.geocities.com/sherman_sn5271/
They also used Merlin V12's in the De Haviland Mosquito twin engine fighter/bomber Lots of Merlins were built by Packard under license because RR couldn't build them fast enough to keep up with demand A guy in Australia has one in a '55 Chevy all painted up like a P-51, and a guy in New Zealand had a V-twin in a motorcycle which was two pots sawed of the end of a Merlin!
:Smarty: I had forgotten about the Mosquito, which was a uniquely British airplane. The fastest twin engined fighter of WW2 - faster even then our "forked tail devil," the famous P-38. It was uniquely British because only they would have built a twin engined fighter out of plywood! Being an island nation, the Brits had a materials supply problem. They used what they could get their hands on. Thus the Mosquito was wood due to shortages of Aluminum, and the Hawker Hurricane was steel tube and fabric. The DeHavilland Mosquito was an outstanding fighter/reconissance aircraft that could escape German fighters by simply outrunning them. The Hurricane was responsible for more German kills then the prettier and more famous Supermarine Spitfire. Packard (among others) made Rolls-Royce Merlins. Believe it or not, they also found their way into PT Boats. You can see a really nice example of one of these marine Merlins at the Battleship Massachusetts memorial/display in Fall River, Mass.
