Jay Leno's Merlin engines.

I’ve only just now watched the whole of the Jay Leno video, interesting to see that he forgets to open the mixture when the engine fires. He keeps it running on bursts of primer and the accelleration pump until he finally pushes the mixture forward a bit. Still, a nice looking and running engine to play with!

What’s really impressive is the giant WWII Packard he has from a boat that makes a Merlin look like it was built for installation in an Atco mower.

Packard 4M-2500 from a PT Boat I pressume?

Fabulous engines, almost 3,000lb in weight, 42 litres capacity, and a marvellous noise. When growing up in the 60’s, our next door neighbour was ex-RN MTB crew and I was well versed in tales of those mighty Packard V12’s.
There’s one fitted in a Bentley here in the UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ0u9iRTWyI

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Jay Leno’s engine was previously owned by Graham White, who restored the engine and built the trailer, exhibiting it at various shows. He told me recently that he has decided to sell all his other engines.

If mods permit a rather specialist ad, they include a P&W R-2800, Griffon, Franklin flat-12, and a very rare Continental IV-1430:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jkLFgr-WDU&t=188s

DAI

Jameson Merlin (with none too beautiful bodywork fitted) at the Brighton Speed Trials, presumably in the 1970s.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]255425[/ATTACH]

More on the Swandean Spitfire Special here:-

http://www.hadesign.co.uk/worthing_history/history_pages/html/Spitfire.html

Apparently two Daimler Dingo Scout car chassis welded together.

Ah, the Dingo…fond memories of the many miles driven in these in the T.A.

Mark

F.M. Wilcox of Worthing operated the ‘Swandean Spitfire Special’ car with Merlin at the Brighton Speed trials in September 1954.

Noted that the chassis used component assemblies from a ‘Daimler Armoured Car’ and that looks suspiciously like a Spitfire radiator crudely mounted on the front.

Mark

My computer has shrugged off whatever was preventing me from seeing the OP’s link/video yesterday. btw, the shop is adjacent to Burbank airport, not LAX… although at 110,000+ sq ft I’m not sure *shop* is an adequate description.

Want another?

http://www.platinumfighters.com/p-51-partsmerlins

That looks familiar…. (Sun ‘n Fun 2002):

IM001270_edit by Jelle Hieminga, on Flickr

John Dodds’ Beast is apparently still around at Malaga, whatever happened to Paul Jameson’s Merlin car? Does it still exist?

“he has another Merlin on a trailer with a paddle prop & exhaust stacks that look like the newer ones made in the Balkans (Romania?).”
https://youtu.be/GYcKdK7hmEo

The ’34 Rolls has a Merlin, the Bentley is apparently Meteor & he has another Merlin on a trailer with a paddle prop & exhaust stacks that look like the newer ones made in the Balkans (Romania?). There’s also a spare Meteor engine stuffed in one corner of the shop. What’s really impressive is the giant WWII Packard he has from a boat that makes a Merlin look like it was built for installation in an Atco mower.
The Rolls used a Jaguar trans as the “weak spot” in the power train as they didn’t want to grenade the original RR rear axle. They blew so many trans that they got the replacement time down to about 20 minutes.

And if I remember correctly he took the “Beast” to Germany, for some fun on the autobahn’s where he allegedly hit 300KM/H.
And I do remember RR taking him to court for using the grill and a girl with wings.

It didn’t sound too healthy when I saw it. Clouds of black smoke out of the (four?) exhaust pipes and quite some time before it decided to run on all twelve.

Regarding the court case, I believe following that if anybody needed to buy a Rolls-Royce radiator shell or bumpers, they had to produce the damaged items first to prove they were needed to repair a real Rolls-Royce.

Back in the 70’s when working for Jack Barclay’s the Rolls-Royce dealer I had to try and fix “the beast” as it had broken down outside the works in Battersea, after cleaning out the inlet filter on the fuel intake of the single puny looking single four barrel Carb. the only way we could get it started was for me to cover the carb intake with my hands and crank it over! when it fired it almost sucked my hand in with it and the noise was so bad/loud I almost needed clean underwear…………I remember that the valve gear made more noise than the exhaust and that it ran like a bucket of bolts. It eventually had to leave on the back of a low loader as it was due at court for an inspection for the Radiator shell copyright infringement. But for a young lad it was a most memorable experience.

The Jameson Merlin was run at Brighton Speed Trials at least once.

Again from memory, Paul Jameson was disgruntled that John Dodds was saying it was Merlin powered and that’s why he built one that really was.

Yes, that is correct.

Mark

“The Beast” was also built by Paul Jameson. IIRC, He was struggling to get a suitable transmission to handle the power, torque rather than bhp I assume, and sold the unfinished project to John Dodds who owned an automatic gearbox business.
I think he beefed up a production American ‘box and then had the original Capri-ish body built.

I saw it once in 1974-75 at a site he had on the A21 near Farnborough, Kent. It was certainly an imposing beast and aptly nicknamed. When he pulled out somebody in a hotted-up Anglia tried to keep up. There was a sort of rumble from the Beast and then it wasn’t there any more.

Again from memory, Paul Jameson was disgruntled that John Dodds was saying it was Merlin powered and that’s why he built one that really was.

I remember Leno mentioning that the Merlin that is fitted to his Rolls-Royce Phantom II originally came out of a Mosquito.

It’s a Bentley that he bought in the U.K as the finished article. It was driven by Clarkson in Top Gear. Never figured if it’s a Merln or Meteor

RR Meteor.

Most ‘cars’ are Meteor, rather than Merlin powered.

This ’55 Chevy in Australia, is Merlin powered though, with working supercharger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIj2GVfua84

:D:D

The John Dodd ‘Beast’, I believe, was technically a RR Meteor engine from a Centurion tank.

At this time Paul Jameson built a genuine Merlin Car driving a pair Mk 10 Jaguar rear axles….the clever bit.

On a visit to his workshop I was treated to a ride around the property on the chassis before bodywork was designed and fitted.

Mark