The Beast - 27Litre and 70s styling inside!

[Mr K]

Dad showed me this and though it was well worth putting up on here!

the guy built it with a rolls royce meteor, and a custom capri alike body...
the 27litre tank engine propelled it to over 200mph and it could do 70mph at 780rpm!!



at the pod, where it ran 12s:





then after bottoming out and damaging the oil tank it caught fire, destroying it, so they rebuilt it, this time with a proper rolls royce merlin and a weirder body!



Beleive it or not it was used reguarly on the roads and was completely legal!!!

check out www.superjohn.f9.co.uk/thebeast.htm for the full story...

[stinkwheel]

Coincidence.............

I just bought some old 'street machine' mags on the 'bay. A 1981 issue has a feature on the beast, originally built in 1970.
Its a wicked machine and every now and then someone remembers it and features it or posts about it. A real legend :-)

[trg1984]

hands up if uve just filled in an online insurance qoute hahaha

[MiniDan]

I remember seing a car called 'The Besat' somewhere before, same spec as above, but it was pink??? and looked like a Yank tank.

Am I imagining it?

[marinanut]

I love that trike....... ;D

[Lewis]

Michael Wilcock of Sussex, England built the Swandean Spitfire Special, using a Merlin XXV engined acquired from a a scrap yard for fifty 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 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 Dodds, who fitted a fibreglass body based on the shape of the Ford Capri and named the machine "The Beast". Originally it had a grille from a Rolls-Royce, but after complaints from R-R themselves he had to change it. According to Dodds' 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 Dodds. It is still taxed in the UK; a DVLA search shows the engine capacity as 27000cc.

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.

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."[1]

Wether that's accurate or not......IIRC most of it is, mind - seen photos of most of the cars and it's in the "Wierd cars" book too

[Joncedric]

I remember reading about 'the Beast' in a newspaper many years ago, probably early 80s. There was a law suit regarding the use of the Rolls Royce grille and Flying Lady. The builder of the car lost.

Last I heard, the car was living on the Costa del Sol.

[bodieanddoyle]

got an issue of "hot car" burried somewhere that depicts the owner parking the thing outside court. it was in the later guise then, I don't remeber seeing the capri-like shell.
cool find, BTW

[Smiler]

I wonder if anyone's linked this thread to the PPC forum yet?

I take it the creators not related to one Charlie Broomfield is he?

[UtterPiffle]

Leno's Tank engined beastie racing a errr, tank...

Makes interesting reading - www.caranddriver.com/features/8789/tank-vs-crank.html

[phatphord]

thats strangely beautiful...

[TwincamGTi]

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."

^
This is the one I would like to see pictures of (seen plenty of the rest).

[MiniDan]

^^^ I do as well!

I think this is the one I'm thinking of.

[vicsmith]

I think that Capri like shell is actually a Capri, or part of one (rear pillars). What sort of quotes were you getting, trg?

[jackandcicely]

Bit more to amuse







I'm sure there's a web link on here somwhere to a site that dispels some of the myths and brings the story up to date