Rolls-Royce Merlin: Alternative applications
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Rolls Royce Merlin, although designed as an aero engine, was used in other applications both on land and at sea.
Contents |
[edit] Automotive
Michael Wilcock of Sussex, England built the Swandean Spitfire Special[1], using a Merlin XXV engined acquired from a a scrap yard for one hundred and forty pounds. The engine was installed in a home-brewed chassis confected from two Daimler Dingo scout car chassis. The car was run in the Brighton Speed Trials[2] in 1953, and was sold to James Duffy of St. Louis, Missouri in 1956. As of 2005, the vehicle is still in St. Louis, where it is undergoing restoration.
In the 1960s, Paul Jameson put a Merlin engine (some say it actually was a Rover-built Rolls-Royce Meteor, which was a de-tuned Merlin without superchargers and with steel components replacing some aluminium ones) into a chassis he had built himself. He did not get around to building a body, and sold the car to Epsom automatic transmission specialist John Dodd, who fitted a fibreglass body based on the shape of the Ford Capri and named the machine "The Beast[3]. Originally it had a grille from a Rolls-Royce, but after complaints from R-R themselves he had to change it. According to Dodd's account, he once drove past a Porsche driver on the autobahn who then called Rolls Royce asking about their "new model". The Beast was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most powerful road car. The engine came from a Boulton Paul Balliol training aircraft which would give 1,262 hp (941 kW) at 8,500 feet (2,600 m). No supercharger was fitted to the engine in car so it "only" delivered about 850 hp (630 kW). The car used a General Motors TH400 automatic transmission. The Beast is alive and well in Marbella, Spain and is still owned by Dodd. It is still taxed in the UK; a DVLA search shows the engine capacity as 27000 cc.
In the mid-1970s, Jameson designed a second Merlin-powered car. This one had six wheels - two in front and four driven at the rear - and a mid-engined layout. The vehicle was featured by the British weekly motoring magazine "Motor"), and is said currently to reside in a museum in Sweden.[citation needed]
Around 1990, Jameson began work on a third Merlin-powered car, using a genuine 1930s Rolls-Royce chassis, but this vehicle remained uncompleted at the time of his death.
Recently in Australia, Rod Hadfield, of the Castlemaine Rod Shop, used the Merlin engine in a 1955 Chevrolet BelAir Sports Coupe, which was named "Final Objective."[4]
[edit] Boat Racing
In the mid-forties and early fifties, aviation engines gained in popularity as powerplants of choice for unlimited hydroplane racing, given their relatively high power-to-weight ratio, reliability and availability. Starting with the MISS WINDSOR raceboat at Detroit in 1946, several ever-more-powerful variants of the Merlin were so used, over the next decades, in a heated battle against the equally popular Allison V-1710. In unlimited hydroplane racing, both were eventually supplanted by gas turbine engines, which exhibit even more favourable power-to-size and power-to-weight ratios.[5]
