One day I would like to make my own car,something along the lines of the like of Count Zabrovski with a serious engine ,something like a Merlin or Meteor engine.
Would DVLA have a fit or could i do it.
I have seen self propelled sofas and offices so surely it would be possible.
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Nowadays you have the SVA to contend with when building any type of kit or custom car so it would be this that gives you most problems i think.
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SVA ?.
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SVA ?
Single Vehicle Approval Scheme
tinyurl.com/5fxhu
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Try finding a merlin engine!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Are you serious? Is this the Merlin engine from the Spitfire? A 38.8Ltr supercharged V12?
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If you meet the SVA requirements,then no problem-there is a booklet available telling you what the requirements are.
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Ive watched vosa do an sva and to be honest like most things in life its common sense, they just go through the vehicle looking for sharp edges etc, they seem keenest on it not being too loud ,so when the merlin is fitted put some extra baffles on the exhaust till you get your pass paper.
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Merlin + quiet does not compute!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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And why not ?. Babs, Parry Thomas's has a 27059 litre Liberty aero engine, two of the original Chitty's had a 23 litre Maybach and a 18882 Benz aero engines.
The problem would indeed be availability of said engine but i am sure something appropriate would turn up.
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That was a reply to codefarm by the way.
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A Merlin is 27 litres supercharged V12, most cars are built around Meteors which the tank engine & around 850BHP none-supercharged. Loads of them around, huge amount built for generators etc. The Merlin is rated at full horsepower on over boost for around 3-4 minutes!
Guy in Practicle Performance Car is putting one in a Rover SD1 & he's not the first.
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One second of a merlins life.....
In that one second, the V-12 Rolls-Royce Merlin engine would have gone through 60 revolutions, with each of the 48 valves slamming open and closed 30 times. The twenty four spark plugs have fired 720 times. Each piston has traveled a total of 60 feet in linear distance at an average speed of 41 miles per hour, with the direction of movement reversing 180 degrees after every 6 inches. Three hundred and sixty power pulses have been transmitted to the crankshaft, making 360 sonic booms as the exhaust gas is expelled from the cylinder with a velocity exceeding the speed of sound. The water pump impeller has spun 90 revolutions, sending 4 gallons of coolant surging through the engine and radiators. The oil pumps have forced 47 fluid ounces, roughly one-third gallon, of oil through the engine, oil cooler, and oil tank, scavenging heat and lubricating the flailing machinery. The supercharger rotor has completed 348 revolutions, it's rim spinning at Mach 1, forcing 4.2 pounds or 55 cubic feet of ambient air into the combustion chambers under 3 atmospheres of boost pressure. Around 9 fluid ounces of high octane aviation fuel, 7843 BTU's worth of energy, has been injected into the carburetor along with 5.3 fluid ounces of methanol/water anti-detonant injection fluid. Perhaps 1/8 fluid ounce of engine oil has been either combusted or blown overboard via the crankcase breather tube. Over 1.65 million foot pounds of work have been done, the equivalent of lifting a station wagon to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
In that one second, the hard-running Merlin has turned the propeller through 25 complete revolutions, with each of the blade tips having arced through a distance of 884 feet at a rotational velocity of 0.8 Mach. Fifteen fluid ounces of spray bar water has been atomized and spread across the face of the radiator to accelerate the transfer of waste heat from the cooling system to the atmosphere.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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One of the shooting grounds I use is at the end of Popham airfield which is the home of the Spitfire Flying Club. Charles Church owned and used the airfield as a base for his collection.
In the late 80's, most Sunday mornings while we were shooting he would be flying overhead.
Now, I am a big fan of American V8 engines but there is absolutely nothing, repeat nothing, that wrenches my gut more than the sound of a Merlin on full song.
Kevin...
PS.
Charles Church was killed in '89 when EE606 apparently suffered a crankshaft failure.
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There are some RR Griffons around, 37 ltr V12 also fitted to the Spitfire, served well into the 80' in the Shackletons.
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SVA is nothing to be scared of just do it by the book, infact there are people who specialise in getting kitcars specials etc through SVA'S
The problems i've had is with regestering kits, has been with the local DVLA Office they are just civil servants doing there job i know but they have no car knowlage and do everthing from a book. Which very often has no indepth information into what they are looking at
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I spoke to a guy an an Alfa meet last year who has built a Ferrari F1 lookalike from scratch, with an Alfa boxer engine in it. He had to go through the SVA procedure and it didn't cause too many problems. As said above, most of the things they made him change were to do with sharp edges.
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The Essex office used to have one girl who handled all the queries on kitcars and the like and knew it all inside out;she got promoted;result-I leave you to guess!!!
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There was guy in the 70's, name escapes me, who put a Merlin in a one-off car of his own design, he was sued by RR for using a RR grill. Can't find a link to it though I found this:
"With 3000 horsepower on tap from the supercharged 27-litre V12 Merlin engine, this is the most powerful street machine in the world. Originally fitted to P-51 Mustang fighter planes in World War 2, it would be the world's biggest understatement to say that it was "a bit of work" to get it to fit the Chev.
Check out a few of the pics below and you may get some idea of how much thought and planning went in to this car. It is an amazing engineering feat and yes, the number plates are real. It is registered in Victoria, Australia."
carpoint.ninemsn.com.au/Tig/Minisite/Minisite.aspx...2
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It was almost certainly a Ford Merlin-most of which went into Mustangs and Lancasters.Packard Merlins were used in MTB's.Production of both these engines far outnumbered the quantity actually built by Rolls themselves though they matched the quality and no-repeat-no Ford built engine ever failed the RAF's acceptance tests.
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Packard Merlins went into p51 mustangs.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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and no-repeat-no Ford built engine ever failed the RAF's acceptance tests.
I remember reading that Ford reduced the machining processes and thus the time it took to produce an engine by around a 3rd though with no effect on quality. IIRC Packard replicated precisely what Ford did.
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There was guy in the 70's, name escapes me, who put a Merlin in a one-off car of his own design, he was sued by RR for using a RR grill. Can't find a link to it
>>John Dodds.
Not much on Google. e.g.
www.migweb.co.uk/forums/printthread.php?t=167947
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Yes John Dodds, even the reg number rings a bell, the article says 1500 bhp without the superchargers, sounds too much to me, reckon more like 800 - 900 ish.
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As it says:
"In the car the supercharger was removed so it "only" gave about 850 bhp (630 kW)"
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Great site and Merlins for sale under what's new!
members.lycos.co.uk/pwgrieve/
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WOW, I am seriously impressed with all your knowledge.
I just love the older cars with the headlamps outside and running boards, so this is what i would aim for, Chitty style or Bentley Speed Six.
I would even consider the final drive being chain as was Babs but hopefully with a stronger chain (don't fancy loosing the top of my head).
Maybe its worth looking into the plans for of that era and build from them with modern material.
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Someone, I think his name was John Dodds, built a road-going (just about) car powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin or Meteor.
I once saw a tractor-pulling special powered by two RR Aero-Griffin engines - bigger V12s based on merlin design. These engines were claimed to rev to 6000, way above their proper rated max. The noise was fearsome and you could feel the air being sucked away from some distance. Apparently these engines woould begin to melt if they ran at anything like full power for more than 30 seconds.
I'd be amused to try a punk-heretic conversion like a Perkins 4-cylinder diesel in a 1970's Ferrari Daytona!
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