GT Times

In the early seventies, a british automobile enthusiast named John Dodd decided to build a car around a 27 Litre Rolls Royce Merlin engine.The first signs that he succeeded were numerous reports of puzzled supercar owners that were driving flat-out on the German autobahn in their Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis, oly to be blown off the road by a huge and very unaerodynamical looking car that was traveling at least 200 MPH.



Eventually the press found John Dodd and there was a lot of commotion in Great Britain about the weird vehicle. Dodd admitted still having problems with the flywheel becoming unstuck at speeds of way over 200 MPH. Then disaster struck. A fire in Dodds garage destroyed the car, but the engine and chassis remained intact. John asked Fyberglass Repairs to build him a one-off stationcar body with a Rolls-Royce grille.




The exact origins of the Merlin engine in "the Beast", as the car was lovingly called, are unknown. It is unlikely that this engine ever powered anything more charismatic than a tank. The engine delivered an estimated 750bhp at 2500 rpm and redlined at 2800, but you don't even want to think about the torque. At tickover, this wonderfully balanced engine was doing 120 RPM (yes, that's one hunderd and twenty !)

John Dodd finally solved the problem of finding a suitable transmission to harness the torque. He managed to mate a modified and strengthened GM Turbo 400 transmission to the engine. Now the Beast was ready to take on anything. It would break the British speed limit of 70 MPH with a lazy 720 RPM on the tacho. A quick calculation learns that the car was geared to reach 270+ MPH, and there's no doubt about its potential to reach that speed.

The Beast was often found on German Autobahns and was pissing off just about every supercar driver there. Rumour has it that the German Police even asked Rolls Royce not to test their new car on the autobahn. Even though there is no official speed limit there, speeds of over 200 MPH were considered anti-social.



Rolls Royce were not at all happy with the use of their radiator grille on the car and sued John Dodd in 1983. Dodd drove The Beast to court every day and it regularly broke down due to overheating in the London traffic, but despite attracting plenty of publicity in the press. Unfortunately Dodd lost the case and both he and The Beast promptly dissapeared. He is rumoured to be in Spain, but no-one has ever seen The Beast again. That's a shame, because with or without Rolls Royce grille, there's something about a 27 litre V12-engined street-driven car that demands respect.

That really makes me smile. Great story, fabulous! I could only imaging the torque of such a beast. The radiators to keep something that large cool enough to drive must be enormous!! No wonder the overheating problems

When all else fails... Get a bigger engine... Much Much bigger!

Fabulous Stuff!

That RR Merlin engine, ain't that the same that was used in the Spitfire plane ?

The Merlin was probably the most widely used and widely produced aero-engine of WW II (I think about 350,000 built?). Originally built by RR, eventually demand for the engine outstripped their manufacturing capacity which was solved by licence manufacturer by Packard in Canada (hence the term "Packard Merlin")

Off the top of my head, it powered:

Hawker Hurricane
Supermarine Spitfire/Seafire
Avro Manchester Mk III (replaced the disastrous Vulture engine)
Avro Lancaster (4 engined, mostly Packard built)
Bristol Beaufighter
Boulton Paul Defiant
Fairey Battle
Fairey Barracuda
Fairey Fulmar
De Havilland Mosquito(2 engined)
Handley Page Halifax (4 engined)
Vickers Wellington
Westland Welkin

North American P-51 Mustang (B model and upwards replaced the low power Allison engine with Packard built Merlins)
Curtiss P-40 Warhawk/Kittyhawk (another Allison engine replacement job, but not as marked effect as for P-51)

There were other models that also tried it in one Mark or another to try to upgrade the performance of the basic aircraft, the Mustang was the greatest success story going down this path however.

The car in the story was obviously using a detuned Merlin, the early war variants, with single speed supercharger, were making around 1000 bhp, the last dual-speed supercharged variants at the end of the war were making in excess of 2000 bhp under "emergency" power.

I've also seen a drag bike use one here in Australia.

iv always been in love the spitfire best name for anything EVER imho (closely followed by mustang) o and that 27l twin supercharged v12 is just :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
it idles at 120 rpm :shock: hows that for balance it only revs to 3000 rpm and still chucks out 2000 hp and an astonashing 3500 lb ft :shock: :shock:

shock.


This is, imo, the most beautiful UGLYl car to ever have existed. its absolutely hideous but it just screams awesome.

is this guy still alive?? i have to meet him. he made it out of a wagon for christ's sake. a wagon! there's a decent chance this guy might actually understand me.

Two-year old Topic guys.

Pffff, does that really matter in this forum?

No not really, just someone semed surprised that "this guy" was still alive, as if the Topic had just been posted.

Actually, John Dodd is rumoured to be in spain, but his son Paul restored the car. It is still registered and road-legal ( I did a search on the licence plate, and it is registered to a beige 27 litre car), and Paul Dodd is said to be a member of a muscle car club in Surrey. I am planning a little trip to the UK to take some new pictures.

Just another fact : The beast was once listed in the Guinness book of world records as the most powerfull road car in the world.

i think the reason i was wondering if he was still alive was that he built the car 30+ years ago. thanks for the info. are than more links to pics on this car?? there seems to be only one working in this thread.

I have a small collection of pictures, but they are indeed becoming hard to find. Might put them online within a few weeks if I haven't forgotten it by then.

Fixed your post Supra. Was missing the http:// part.

oops, sorry for that. Didn't check it after I posted it.

Well, to finish the story ...

There are several new pictures of the beast. Evo magazine found John Dodd in Spain and did a special on the car. Still need to find the pics and put them online, but the car is still road-registered in Britain despite being in Spain. John Dodd, now in his eighties, still drives it on a regular basis. The rolls-Royce grille has been removed and is replaced by a one-off grille that I can only describe as "hideous"

Here's something i found, Maybe this helps, is that your website link on the site supra?

also found this video on a chevy with a merlin!

Yup, it's a portal I once made for use on I-mode compatible mobile phones. Working on one for internet use, bbut I don't think I'll use a .be extension there.