Aero-engined car

There have also been some non-racing automotive applications for aircraft engines, including production vehicles such as the Tucker 48 and prototypes such as the Chrysler Turbine Car, Fiat Turbina, and General Motors Firebirds.

[1] A number of early European automobile manufacturers experimented with the automotive use of aircraft engines, including Hispano-Suiza, Renault, and Rolls-Royce, although it was Fiat that made perhaps the first true aero-engined car when it created the Tipo S76 in 1910.

[1] Nicknamed "The Beast of Turin", the vehicle consisted of a 1907–08 Fiat production chassis mated to a four-cylinder Tipo S76DA airship engine that had a displacement of 28.4 liters (1,730 cu in) and developed 300 hp (220 kW) at 1,500 rpm.

[1][2] Daryl Murphy speculates that the car was built to capture the world land speed record, which at the time stood at 125.95 mph (202.70 km/h) after the Blitzen Benz had established the mark at the English track Brooklands in 1909.

After its rediscovery, the Argentine company Pur Sang, which is noted for creating exact replicas of Alfa Romeo 8C 2300s and Bugatti Type 35s, reconstructed the Botafogo Special.

Although the origin of the name is unknown, it is thought to derive from either a lewd World War I soldier's song or simply the sound of the aircraft engines that powered the cars.

The first car, Chitty 1, featured a customized pre-war Mercedes chassis and a 23-liter (1,400 cu in), six-cylinder Maybach airplane engine that had powered a Gotha G.V bomber before it was surrendered by Germany as a war reparation.

[1][8] Zborowski himself was killed at Monza while competing in the 1924 Italian Grand Prix, and Chitty 2 passed through a series of owners (including Arthur Conan Doyle) before being acquired by the Crawford Auto-Aviation Collection in Cleveland.

With an engine producing 450 hp (340 kW) and the gearbox and chain-drive of a pre-war Blitzen Benz, the Higham Special achieved a speed of 116 mph (187 km/h) with Zborowski at the wheel.

[10] The following year, Campbell raced at Daytona to retake the record with a speed of 206.95 mph (333.05 km/h), only to have it eclipsed just two months later by Ray Keech and his Triplex Special, which was powered by three V12 Liberty engines.

[1] On 11 March 1929, Segrave captured the world record once more at Daytona with a speed of 231.446 mph (372.476 km/h) in his Golden Arrow, which was powered by a W12 Napier Lion aircraft engine with a displacement of 23,944 cubic centimetres (1,461.2 cu in) that manufactured 925 bhp (690 kW) at 3,300 rpm.

The very next day, while attempting to re-take the record with the Triplex Special, driver Lee Bible lost his life in a fatal crash that also killed a film cameraman.

By 1933, Campbell had created another Blue Bird that was powered by a Rolls-Royce R, which had achieved fame as the engine that helped the Supermarine S.6B seaplane win the Schneider Trophy.

[17] The T80's engine ran on a fuel mixture that consisted mostly of methyl alcohol (63%), as well as smaller percentages of benzene, ethanol, acetone, nitrobenzene, avgas, and ether.

The first was a two-ton Ford truck chassis mated to an Allison V-1710 piston engine that was altogether capable of a record 144 mph (232 km/h) in a quarter-mile drag race.

[18][19] After a serious crash at Bonneville, a tail fin was added to the original design before the Bluebird-Proteus CN7 made another run at the world record at Lake Eyre, South Australia.

[18] A number of other turbine-engined racing cars have been built, including two designed to compete for the world land speed record: Pioneer 2M and the Renault Étoile Filante.

[28] Art had opted for a General Electric J79, the same engine that powered the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Convair B-58 Hustler bomber, and built a new, jet-powered Green Monster.

[1][28] After Walt Arfons crashed and suffered a heart attack while testing the Wingfoot Express, designer Tom Green was selected to drive the car.

The car, which was powered by two Rolls-Royce Spey jet engines that manufacture a combined 110,000 hp (82,000 kW) and 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg) of thrust, became the first vehicle to break the sound barrier on land.

[35] In the 2010s, jet cars have continued to be major attractions at NHRA events, participating in exhibitions such as four-wide races and achieving speeds in excess of 270 mph (430 km/h).

[36] During the 2012 season, Elaine Larsen and Marisha Falk both drove jet dragsters powered by General Electric J85 engines capable of producing 5,000 hp (3,700 kW).

The car's body, which was made of plastic reinforced by fiberglass, was designed by Harley J. Earl, while its Whirlfire Turbo-Power engine was developed by Charles L. McCuen and the GM Research Laboratories Division.

In addition to its regenerative gas turbine, the car featured a titanium body, fully independent suspension, power disc brakes, electric gear selection, and air conditioning that could be individually controlled.

Noted for its extravagant tailfins, Firebird III also broke a number of Earl's styling rules with its very reserved use of chrome and lack of parallel lines.

[47] The turbine engine offered numerous advantages in a road car, including less need for maintenance due to fewer moving parts, general operating smoothness, greater dependability of starting in cold weather, lack of a need for antifreeze, minimal oil consumption, and the ability to run on almost any combustible liquid; the car is claimed to have run on fuels as diverse as peanut oil, Chanel No.

The Packard-Bentley is made up of a Bentley 8 Litre chassis and a 40.8-liter (2,490 cu in), V12 Packard engine taken from an American World War II torpedo boat.

The engine gives the car 1,500 bhp (1,100 kW) at 2,400 rpm, while allowing it to achieve a top speed of approximately 160 mph (260 km/h) and a fuel efficiency of four imperial gallons (18 L) per minute.

[50] Aero-engined cars also made an appearance on the British television program Top Gear on 4 March 2012, during the sixth episode of Season 18, when both the BMW-engined "Brutus" and Rolls-Royce-engined "Meteor" were featured.

[51][52][53] The Brutus was built in Germany shortly after World War II, when a 1908 American LaFrance car was fitted with a 46.9-liter (2,862 cu in) V12 BMW aircraft engine that dates to 1925.