Merlin on a P-51B

Here it is, I think, the connection from the coolant tank at the front, just behind the propeller.

Looks rusty inside, could it be a piece of a coolant system, with a couple of securing clamps on it?

So their web site should correct its name to “what was new”!

This was covered in an earlier thread, where a Spitfire was tested against an English Electric Lightning. IIRC the Lightning would, with suitable tactics, wipe the floor with the Spitfire.
Now I’ve found the reference (pages 158 and 159 in Alfred Price’s “Spitfire – the complete fighting history”) in which he says:
“Using such tactics (climbing from behind and below then climbing out of range and repeating the process) in the end a competent Lightning pilot could almost always get the better of and equally competent Spitfire (or Mustang) pilot.”

Windsong, It’s one of the first and most important rules of cyberspace! Other items to avoid putting on line are your address and phone number, or anything else that permits you to be identified. That’s what the Private Message (PM) facility is for, but don’t even put sensitive stuff on there until you are sure you are not writing to a nut case (we may have a few on this Forum, who knows?)
That also is why we all have pseudonyms, although some of us “know” each other after a while and put our real names up occasionally. Confusing at first, but you’ll soon get used to it!
Have a nice day!

My bet would be hollow steel, but I am sure there is someone here who really knows!

How about a piece of bent and broken crankshaft with two big ends still hanging on?

According to the Winter 1974 Air Classics Quarterly Review, page 39, this was N5672N, originally a P-40E that had a 2-seat business conversion, with the fuselage tank removed and a completely new canopy installed. It later became N151U and Tom Camp painted it in an inaccurate RAF camouflage scheme.