Spotted at Winton Raceway ..

[loanrangie]

Rod Hadfields amazing Rolls Royce V12 powered speedster, all 27 litres 1650 CI of it.Rod started he up to put it on the trailer and nearly burts my eardrums . At 26 ft long its no nimble sportscar.

[Bigbjorn]

Must see if I can download that and send it to Nev. Morris at Dalby. Nev has built a cross between a Mercer Raceabout/Stutz Bearcat and a Brooklands "monster" using a 702 cubic inch GMC V12. Nev also has a running restored Merlin 20 (my best guess) in one of his sheds. He is currently building a replica of a 1910 Fiat racer that used a 28 litre airship engine. He is fabricating an engine from plate and tube. Four cylinders and 16 litres. Heads, crankcase, cylinder barrels, camshaft housing are completed and he is currently engaged in welding on the water jackets. Last year he built a steam tricycle. A replica of a 19th. century one in an Italian museum.

[loanrangie]

A mate of my dads built up a car using a Hispano Suiza WWI aircraft V8 of about 18 ltrs and fitted it into a 1923 French car which the name escapes me, it was another work of art. He drove it to Winton a few years ago and gave some knob in a BMW M3 a view of his rear end, i think it put out about 1000 hp.

[cartm58]

used to lvoe going to the Winton Historic car meets when in Melbourne University Ca r Club, one year a Jaguar with a total oil loss system was pullled off the racetrack as its 8 gallons of oil was dripping onto the track and with light drizzle rain falling made the track dangerous for all the other cars whizzing around.

Great place event to see UK 1920's and 30's race cars like 3 wheel morgans MG's and so on and old motor bikes pity l live in WA now

[loanrangie]

Yep i love it, i go almost every year with my dad and one of my brothers.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Rod Hadfields amazing Rolls Royce V12 powered speedster, all 27 litres 1650 CI of it.Rod started he up to put it on the trailer and nearly burts my eardrums . At 26 ft long its no nimble sportscar.
<snip>

Last time I was at Winton Racetrack I also saw a couple or three, Rolls Royce 27 Litre V12s!


Didn't do any laps though.



Although .....




At Corowa 2009 .......




there was one of them doing laps!

[Bigbjorn]

Diana, just to be pedantic that is powered by a Rover Meteor, not a Rolls-Royce. Rover swapped the jet engine project for the tank engine factory over lunch.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Diana, just to be pedantic that is powered by a Rover Meteor, not a Rolls-Royce. Rover swapped the jet engine project for the tank engine factory over lunch.

Pedantic is O.K. although AFAIK the Meteor is still a Rolls-Royce but build under licence by Rover. There are plenty of P51d s flying around with Meteor blocks under their Merlin* heads and mechanicals.

I guess my point was: "It was Winton Racetrack and 27 litre V12s".

Now you're going to suggest that they were Packard Merlins!

[rick130]

[snip]

Now you're going to suggest that they were Packard Merlins!

[Bigbjorn]

I worked on Merlins, early 1960's. Packard Merlin was a term in common use.

Only minor differences. Some US built engines had US propellor splines, some had British splines. Packard designed ther own supercharger drive. US built engines used US made magnetos and Bendix carburettors. Some Packard superchargers had fewer bolts holding the halves together.

Official production figures published by Rolls Royce are:-

RR Derby 32,377
RR Crewe 26,065
RR Glascow 23,647
Ford Manchester 30,428
Packard Detroit & Continental Muskegon 55,523.

So all told RR made slightly less than half the total production of Merlins.

Packard and Ford worked directly under contract to the British government, not RR.

Those figures do not include Meteor engines.

Former RAF & RAAF wartime fitters told me they preferred the US engines for the sole reason that every US built Merlin came with a high quality tool kit. Tools issued by the RAF and RAAF were of poor quality, heavy black spanners etc.