A British artist is aiming to become the first person to build a race car around the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine from a WWII-era Spitfire fighter plane.
Piers Dowell is best known for his stunning motorcycle helmet paint jobs, but has spent six years designing the Fighter Ace. It will be powered by a 27-litre supercharged V12 engine with up to 2000bhp, which Dowell already owns, installed in a tubular steel chassis with independent suspension and Girling disc brakes.
Drive to the 21-inch rear wheels will be via a three-speed manual gearbox with planetary overdrive. A target weight of 1400kg – about the same as a modern hot hatch – means the Fighter Ace will certainly fly.
Although it would never be road legal, Dowell hopes the car will one day run at events such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed and is currently seeking funding. “Every year I’m at the Goodwood Festival of Speed I keep saying, what this event needs is a car with a Spitfire engine!” he told Goodwood Road & Racing.
We’ve seen the tank-based Rolls-Royce Meteor V12 fitted to cars before, but Dowell claims that the Fighter Ace will be the only vehicle ever made with a genuine Merlin motor from a Spitfire and he reckons it will be spectacular. “A cross between the Beast of Turin and Ken Block’s Hoonigan,” he says. Now he just needs someone with deep pockets to make it happen.
This article originally appeared on Hagerty US.
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You may be interested in the Rolls Royce Phantom 11 Handlye Special, powered by a Rolls Royce Merlin, but from a Hawker Hurricane rather than a Spitfire.