The Beast!

BrianD3

A few years ago, Top Gear featured an outrageous 1 off road car known as The Beast. Anyone see the programme? It was basically an estate like thing with a huge long bonnet and a 27 litre V12 Rover Meteor tank engine. Cool or what?

The Meteor engine is similar to the Rolls Royce Merlin used in the Spitfire (that's the Supermarine Spitfire, not the Triumph Spitfire ) Major difference being the presence of a supercharger on the Merlin. Despite the lack of a supercharger the Meteor develops 700 bhp plus at ridiculolusly low revs and god knows how much torque it produces.

Not much info on The Beast on the web. it was built by a guy called John Dodd. Some info and pics here:
http://www.theminifarm.com/john_dodd.htm

So what do you car nuts think of that, eh?

BrianD3

Robbo

God only knows how badly it handles with that long bonnet and all the weight up front.

x in the city

what a pile of crap........

how far would that get ypu before it needs a full service.......not far i'd say.

NEXT!!!!!!!

BrianD3

how far would that get ypu before it needs a full service.......

Boring boring boring I just knew people would have boring comments on things like economy, insurance and reliability. If the only thing you can say about a 27 litre car is that it would need servicing too often, you're not a real car enthusiast in my book....

BrianD3

Doctor J

It's a wimps car.

A few years ago the Darwin awards recounted the tale of a man who strapped a jet engine (I believe it was from a F4 Phantom - but am probably wrong) to the roof of his car.

Long story short - Insufficient downforce, death in a cliff 4 miles away. Now that's how to do it

BrianD3

A few years ago the Darwin awards recounted the tale of a man who strapped a jet engine (I believe it was from a F4 Phantom - but am probably wrong) to the roof of his car.

Think I heard about that one too. There have been a few attempts to strap jet and even rocket engines to cars - with predictable results

The thing about the Beast is that it was/is completely road legal. But there's a lot of folklore associated with the car and exactly what the powerplant was - some say a Rover Meteor tank engine, others say a RR Merlin modified to run on pump fuel and with the blower removed. Hard to know what the true story is.

It wouldn't be the only car to use a piston aircraft engine of course. In the 1920's and 30's a number of cars were fitted with humungous aircraft engines. Pure madness

BrianD3

Blitzkrieger

Made by some Russian company wasn't it? Driven by Vicki Butler Henderson? They've probably gone out of business - who would seriously consider spending £70,000 on a car like that. They still repeat old top gear on UK Horizon.......it's a long shot though.

unkel

I remember the Darwin award as well for the rocket car

This thread reminds me of an item on one of the UK motoring programs about 2 years ago where a guy had built a bigfoot. Can't remember much detail but I think it did 0-60 in 2 seconds - on any terrain - and did about 70 yards to the gallon

Don1

How bout a 9000bhp gas turbine fitted to a heavily modified Renault Twingo? Anyone else heard of that one?

Doctor J

Ahhhhhhh, here it is!

ColinM

Originally posted by BrianD3
I just knew people would have boring comments on things like economy, insurance and reliability. If the only thing you can say about a 27 litre car is that it would need servicing too often, you're not a real car enthusiast in my book....BrianD3

Exactly. Cars aren't about A to B and boring practicality. Some people don't see what more there is to cars then that. You either get this, or you don't. Just like any other passion, some people can't see the what all the fuss is about, others get a reason for living from it.

I think it's the bloody coolest thing I've seen in a long time. I especially like this quote: Reports of a large ponderous car traveling at around 200mph on the autobahns and autostradas appeared. German police are rumoured to have asked Rolls Royce not to test their new car on the autobahn!

That'll be sure to have surprised a few Gerries, what chaps!

Alot less of a monster comparatively, but awe inspiring nonetheless for similar reasons, was the seriously modified Rover SD1 "piloted" by Jeremy Clarkson. Again, this car was totally impractical - a huge 5.2 litre V8 engine, and handled like a rhino on an icerink. But that's kind of the reason why it was so fricking cool. It was what it was meant to be - a beast. Apparently it was too loud to be allowed to race at Castle Combe.

I think it looked absolutely great as well. Here's a pic of it doing a nice burnout:


Read more about it here: http://www.rpiv8.com/projects-033-clarkson.htm

unkel

Originally posted by Don1
How bout a 9000bhp gas turbine fitted to a heavily modified Renault Twingo? Anyone else heard of that one?

Where's the link m8? LOL

BrianD3

Just thinking about outrageous and wild cars, what about the Lancia Delta S4. Not to be confused with the Delta Integrale - the S4 makes it seem like a Micra

The S4 was a Group B 80's rally car which was also made in a road going version for homologation. Road versions were heavier and in a low state of tune, still producing 250 bhp from a 1.8. The rally car had an "official" output of 470 bhp but most people estimate that it was far higher possibly 600+ bhp. The rally car used exotic composites to bring the weight down to 1000 kg or less (road cars were around 1200 kg)

Very special thing about this machine - it's the only car I know of with a turbocharger AND a supercharger.

Also it's the car that rally legend Henri Toivonen was killed in. He burned to death when he crashed on a rally special stage in Corsica. Group B rally cars were banned soon afterwards.

http://freespace.virgin.net/shalco.com/lancia_S4.htm

BrianD3