PACKARD AND MERLIN POWER:
Obvious really, take one giant Aero Engine of the day and slot it into a decent
car chassis! Of course one imagines that there are limits, not here! This page
is devoted to two massively over powered
but nevertheless magnificent cars, a 42 Litre Packard powered fire
breathing Bentley and a somewhat
smaller capacity 27 Litre Merlin powered
Rolls Royce.
PACKARD POWER IN A BENTLEY CALLED 'MAVIS':
Forty two (42) Litres in a V12
configuration as used in a Second World War American Motor Torpedo Boat, just
slot that into a Bentley Eight (8) Litre chassis and call the whole thing MAVIS!
Chris Williams, yes the man that owns the Napier-Bentley, is responsible for
this vehicle, Chris built the car over a seven year period at weekends and night
time.
The Packard engine was
developed before World War II by Jesse Vincent, Packard's Chief Engineer for use
in Motor Torpedo Boats. Forty two (42) Litres configured as a V12 equates to 3.5
Litre cylinder displacement and the pistons were as big as 'coffee tins', the
nickname stuck and the motor was widely known as the Packard 'Coffee Tin' Motor.
The engine specifications included a centrifugal supercharger, a SOHC per bank,
four valves and two spark plugs per cylinder. A four pole magneto ignition
provided the spark.
