5 monster motors (Part 1)

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By Admin
Published: March 25, 2009
Smaller engines are certainly getting faster and more powerful.
However, there is an inclination to give buyers a wider than ever choice of colossal V8s, V10s, V12s and W12s before they even begin to consider whether they want it supercharged, turbocharged or whatever.
Furthermore, today’s big hitters are small-fry in historic terms, a quick glance at some real old behemoths is all it takes to put these modern vehicles into perspective and to silence anyone who thinks an addiction to excess is a purely modern affliction.
Biggest engine in a concept car: 13.6-litres
In the 1930s Cadillac created the luxurious V16 for the likes of Pope Pius XII, starlet Mae West and, er, Al Capone – and 70 years later revisited the idea with the 1,000 hp/1,000 lb ft Cadillac Sixteen Concept. This time it came with a ‘green’ twist though, something called Displacement on Demand.
This shut down half the cylinders to reduce emissions then automatically reactivated them when the driver’s right foot decided they’re needed. Unfortunately its chances of going into production are about the same as that of Pius XII lending his car to Capone when the latter’s was in for repair.
Biggest engine in a Smart: 5.67-litres
The brainchild, if that’s the word, of rally driver Stefan Attart the Smart Forfun2 mated a Smart body to Unimog 406 underpinnings including the latter’s six-cylinder OM 352 diesel engine. Outputting 84 bhp this makes it by far the puniest car here, despite having twice the punch of the original.
It nevertheless turns heads wherever it goes thanks to its mammoth 65 cm ground clearance, 26 inch rims and 3.7 metre height. Despite appearances, it’s quite a serious vehicle, Attart having insisted on manually controlled air suspension to give the driver a very real advantage on extreme downhill gradients.
Biggest engine in a limousine: 12.7-litres
Twenty-one feet long and with a fourteen-foot wheelbase, the Bugatti Type 41 – invariably known as the Royale – was the right car at the wrong time, or maybe just the wrong car. Launched in 1929 just as a worldwide recession began to bite, it found no takers at all among its target audience – Europe’s ruling families.
After just six examples had been built for sale a number of its straight-eight engines were redeployed pulling railway trains. One later sold at auction for a record-breaking £5.5 million, but not before Mrs Bugatti had disposed of hers by swapping it for a couple of refrigerators.
Biggest engine in a Rolls-Royce: 27-litres
Everyone knows the Spitfire had a Rolls-Royce engine so eventually someone was bound to put a Spitfire engine into a Rolls – and that someone was Nick Harley. No stranger to expensive exotics – he’d previously bought a Grand Prix Mercedes and a Bugatti Royale – dropping a half-tonne Merlin into a 1938 Phantom II Continental must have seemed obvious.
Fuel feed was a problem for the 1,000hp V12 – eventually NASCAR pumps did the trick at a rate of 100 gallons an hour – but now it’s complete the towering torque means there’s no need to shift out of top.
Biggest engine in a Ferrari: seven litres
For years European sports car makers snootily dismissed the Yanks’ simple trusting faith in cubic inches, choosing instead to combat their crude ‘lazy litres’ with clever technology – at least until the Ford GT40 and McLaren’s Chevrolet-engined M8 began to dominate at Le Mans and in Can-Am.
Eventually even Enzo was stung into action, wheeling out the Ferrari 712 – seven litres, 12 cylinders – in an attempt to silence the American upstarts once and for all. In this it failed, of course, and the reds stepped back from sports car racing, but the car still looks, and is, magnificent.

Smaller engines are certainly getting faster and more powerful.

However, there is an inclination to give buyers a wider than ever choice of colossal V8s, V10s, V12s and W12s before they even begin to consider whether they want it supercharged, turbocharged or whatever.

Furthermore, today’s big hitters are small-fry in historic terms, a quick glance at some real old behemoths is all it takes to put these modern vehicles into perspective and to silence anyone who thinks an addiction to excess is a purely modern affliction.

Biggest engine in a concept car: 13.6-litres

In the 1930s Cadillac created the luxurious V16 for the likes of Pope Pius XII, starlet Mae West and, er, Al Capone – and 70 years later revisited the idea with the 1,000 hp/1,000 lb ft Cadillac Sixteen Concept. This time it came with a ‘green’ twist though, something called Displacement on Demand.

This shut down half the cylinders to reduce emissions then automatically reactivated them when the driver’s right foot decided they’re needed. Unfortunately its chances of going into production are about the same as that of Pius XII lending his car to Capone when the latter’s was in for repair.

Biggest engine in a Smart: 5.67-litres

The brainchild, if that’s the word, of rally driver Stefan Attart the Smart Forfun2 mated a Smart body to Unimog 406 underpinnings including the latter’s six-cylinder OM 352 diesel engine. Outputting 84 bhp this makes it by far the puniest car here, despite having twice the punch of the original.

It nevertheless turns heads wherever it goes thanks to its mammoth 65 cm ground clearance, 26 inch rims and 3.7 metre height. Despite appearances, it’s quite a serious vehicle, Attart having insisted on manually controlled air suspension to give the driver a very real advantage on extreme downhill gradients.

Biggest engine in a limousine: 12.7-litres

Twenty-one feet long and with a fourteen-foot wheelbase, the Bugatti Type 41 – invariably known as the Royale – was the right car at the wrong time, or maybe just the wrong car. Launched in 1929 just as a worldwide recession began to bite, it found no takers at all among its target audience – Europe’s ruling families.

After just six examples had been built for sale a number of its straight-eight engines were redeployed pulling railway trains. One later sold at auction for a record-breaking £5.5 million, but not before Mrs Bugatti had disposed of hers by swapping it for a couple of refrigerators.

Biggest engine in a Rolls-Royce: 27-litres

Everyone knows the Spitfire had a Rolls-Royce engine so eventually someone was bound to put a Spitfire engine into a Rolls – and that someone was Nick Harley. No stranger to expensive exotics – he’d previously bought a Grand Prix Mercedes and a Bugatti Royale – dropping a half-tonne Merlin into a 1938 Phantom II Continental must have seemed obvious.

Fuel feed was a problem for the 1,000hp V12 – eventually NASCAR pumps did the trick at a rate of 100 gallons an hour – but now it’s complete the towering torque means there’s no need to shift out of top.

Biggest engine in a Ferrari: seven litres

For years European sports car makers snootily dismissed the Yanks’ simple trusting faith in cubic inches, choosing instead to combat their crude ‘lazy litres’ with clever technology – at least until the Ford GT40 and McLaren’s Chevrolet-engined M8 began to dominate at Le Mans and in Can-Am.

Eventually even Enzo was stung into action, wheeling out the Ferrari 712 – seven litres, 12 cylinders – in an attempt to silence the American upstarts once and for all. In this it failed, of course, and the reds stepped back from sports car racing, but the car still looks, and is, magnificent.

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