Warbird Information Exchange

A colleague at work tells me he has a friend that is building up a car to take a 27 litre Rolls Royce engine and sends me these pics of the engine. I assume its a Rolls Royce Meteor (tank) engine ... but any Wixers out there that can confirm ?
p.s. ..the car that can be seen in the pic is not the intended recipient of the engine

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Yeah, you would never put a Rolls Royce engine in a Cadillac!

Yes, that is a Meteor. It is still painted British tank interior green color.

A few years back there was Rolls Royce 25/30 at the Barret Jackson auction fitted with Merlin I. Seems it was put together about 1938 by bored RR Aero engineers. The only modification to the body work were a pair of small bulges at the corners of the bonnet....and whopping great exhaust pipes<G>

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

Yeah, I'm guessing that aftermarket Rolls Royce plates are considered classier than Rover plates!

Cheers,
Matt

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Matt Austin - playing with warbirds since the early 80s.

See my Lee-Enfield videos at - http://www.youtube.com/user/Jollygreenslugg

…not the first time this has been done…Try Mr. Leno’s collection of auto oddities…

Jay’s Tank Engine Car:
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/extras/ar ... --article/

Jay’s Merlin Engine Restoration Blogs:
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/segment/r ... tion-pt-1/
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/segment/r ... -update-2/

John Gates

neat project. this guy wins the cluttered shop award.

Back in the middish 60's Rolls was surprised by a number of letters from Germany asking about how to purchase a copy of the Rolls that had blown the doors off their BMW on the Autobahn. Rolls of course had no idea what they were talking (or asking about) as their fastest model then would just make it over the century mark. Then someone sent them photos of the custom bodied quasi Rolls saloon he'd built around a Meteor engine, said he loved scaring the poo out of BMW drivers on the autobahn by coming roaring up behind in the left lane @ around 180 MPH while flashing his headlamps.

Around the same time HOT ROD Magazine had an article on a guy who had wedged an ALLISON into a 57 PLYMOUTH BELVEDERE sedan and he drove it from the back seat.
Then there's the 55 shoebox Chevy in Australia with a MERLIN and Jim Lytles ALLISON powered drag cars from the 60's including one with 4 ALLISONS

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Pics and further detail on the RR hotrod Inspector is talking about here:

http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/car-talk ... -info.html

I have seen a prewar RR sedan with a Merlin stuffed into it at a car show in NY, but don't know if it was build prewar or later. Hardly anything about the rest of the car was altered and I was told it was basically undriveable. Have pics somewhere.

August

That's the one! it either heavily impressed itself on the designers of the CAPRI or the CAPRI influenced the builder.
www.dragracingonline.com for pictures of Quad AL

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Anybody been to the Garlits? drag racing museum in Florida? They used to have a dragster, built in the '50's with an Allison on it. very cool..... must have been interesting to drive........

That is Art Arfons' 'Green Monster'. Art and his brother Walt were legends in the early days of drag racing using an ALLISON. Eventually both moved up to Bonneville and LSR cars, and became deeply divided and estranged. Art's J-79 car held the LSR against Craig Breedloves 'Wingfoot Express' for a while in a three way battle over ultimate speed between Art, Walt, and Craig (up until Andy Green that is). Always a clever scrounger and adapter, Art bought a shelled J-79 engine, removed every other turbine blade on the shaft to rebalance the engine and went racing. It eventually got up to about 650 MPH with another owner driving it sitting next to the compressor section as the car had dual cockpits. one on either side of the car.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-