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Merlin the Magnificent....?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 4:50 pm
by S2Jay
Merlin the Magnificent....?

For those not familiar, the ?Queen's English Car Meet? is an annual event held each April in the San Fernando Valley [Van Nuys, specifically] North of L.A. These pics are from the 2019 event. I did get some pics of a variety of Lotus cars, but also of general interest may be the latest British based creation from the shop of Mr. Leno. Some may recall that is was at this event several years ago that Mr. Leno chose to present the completed version of his highly modified Elan. This device began with a 1932 Rolls Royce Chassis, into which was inserted a 1944 Roll-Royce/Merlin V12 Aircraft Engine. No doubt some on this forum are far more familiar with this than I.

For those who did not make it to the Queen's English Meet, & have not seen what was apparently one of Mr. Leno's latest creations, here are some samples. This is not to be confused with the "Tank Car" which uses a different V12 beast from a Patton Tank.

And although I do not know the weight of that thing, as far as the engine itself, some quick math would suggest that a 27 liter, 1648 cu. in. Rolls-Royce / Merlin V12 is approx equal to a bit more than 17 of the 1558 cc TwinCam, that's if you don't include a Supercharger the size of a Bass Drum strapped to the back of the Merlin.
In an obvious attempt at moderation, it can be noted that Mr. Leno has only used the ?Single Stage? Supercharger version of the Merlin, not the slightly rowdier 2-Stage iteration. I'm sure any arresting officer will be impressed with that information.

The rest of the show this year seemed to me to have a larger turnout, with more cars, and more unusual cars than last year.

Some of the pics in the albums are captioned, but not all & some I just didn?t have enough info, so you are on your own. If anyone has any info to add, let me know & I can update the pic.

More foolishness here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/68999653@ ... 8072889484
[This Album has the pics of the Leno Rolls & many of the other marques at the show.]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/68999653@ ... 9794719518
[This album features: Lotus, Jensen Healey & also some Tigers & Alpines.]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/68999653@ ... 7814243385
[This album has the Morgans, some parking lot silliness & some Rolls.]

[Edited to reload Flikr links, hope this works]
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Re: Merlin the Magnificent....?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 6:13 pm
by 1owner69Elan
The Flickr links don't seem to work. At least not on my computer.

Re: not so Magnificent....?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 8:13 pm
by S2Jay
Thanks for the advisory!
I have reloaded the links, try now to check if it works.
Link string appears to have been truncated somewhere in the process [surely could not have been my fault :shock: But don't call me Shirley! - sorry, hard to resist.]

Re: Merlin the Magnificent....?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2019 10:18 pm
by bitsobrits
When wanting to post long URL's you might want to consider a URL "shrinking" app as found at tinyurl.com, for example. Just copy and paste the target URL into the app, then copy the reduced length URL to your intended target.

Re: Merlin the Magnificent....?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 11:16 am
by RogerFrench
I am puzzled. I see 12 downdraft chokes, yet it is supposed to be supercharged.
How?
The RR supercharger normally sucks through a carburetter and delivers mixture to an inlet manifold in the vee. What goes on here? Doesn't seem to me to make sense.

Re: Merlin the Magnificent....?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:25 pm
by Bud English
Yeah, no supercharger. More info in this YouTube flic ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AKCnIO2QeM ) where he describes the horsepower output as "without the supercharger".

Re: Merlin the Magnificent....?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 05, 2019 9:57 pm
by S2Jay
"bitsobrits": Amazing stuff, Thanks for that. Never heard of such a thing.
Also I usually avoid anything with the word ?tiny? involved.


"RogerFrench": Yes, that did seem suspect & I just didn?t have the time to check further until now. I had thought that perhaps some Banks magic & trickery would have been involved in hiding the required manifolding under the carbs in the vee, but no.

And thanks to "Bud English" for posting the correction before I got to it.

I did finally find the video of the JLG episode featuring this car. Not sure if it is the same as the one posted by Bud English.
May be found via this link [I think/hope]. Thanks again to ?bitsobrits? for the ?tiny? referral. https://tinyurl.com/y533gfd2

Apparently, at least part of what I had read referred to your basic / generic Merlin, not this Leno adapted version.
So almost everything that I thought I had heard or read about the car was, well, technically, ?wrong?. :oops: :? .

Some additional details. The whole thing is said to weigh 4800 lbs, 1800 of which is the Merlin.
The engine is mounted ?backwards? to what it would have been in an airplane. So the Propeller end is facing the rear of the car and the ?back? end of the engine, which would have had the supercharger mounted, is facing the radiator. Leno did confirm in this video that the supercharger has been removed, and it does not have fuel injection.
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