Packard-Engined Bentley. What More Is There To Say?
December 21st, 2010 5:26 AM
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What’s better than a Bentley 8-litre? A Bentley 8-litre with a 42 liter Packard V12 from a World War II-era torpedo boat, of course. [via The Telegraph]
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Somebody call Jay Leno. There's another car he needs to buy...
Ahhh, the irritating Top Gear excessive-closeup-with-pan just can't go away soon enough for me. Awesome car, though.
I believe the PT boats had three of these motors! This is a machine one wants to drive through a tunnel just to enjoy the exhaust sound.
I read something similar more than 30 years ago. My questionable memory claims it was a Rolls Royce rather than a Bentley and that the engine was a Merlin. (It could have been a Merlin built by Packard for the Mustang.) Until now, I thought the story was just a myth. According to the story I read, the manufacturer (Bentley or Rolls) began to receive letters requesting that the author be placed on the waiting list for the model that easily outran Ferraris. The letters contained checks with the amounts left blank. The manufacturer returned each check, explaining that no such model existed or was planned. At the next big British auto show, an owner approached their display with the request that they look at his car. He said it had a modification that might be of interest to them. Given the price of those things, they were willing to humor him. When he opened the hood, they realized what had prompted the letters. His modification was to install a Merlin aircraft engine.