While we tend to focus on car-related restorations, there is a whole world of enthusiasts who enjoy vehicles as varied as World War I bi-planes to 70’s Honda Scooters. There are even shops that specialize in tank restoration, because there are enough people who there with tank collections. It’s odd, but if you’ve got the money to fund, why not own a tank?
Or better yet, why not drop a V12 tank engine into a custom hot rod? That’s what these folks did, dropping an 1,800 cubic-in Merlin Meteor British tank engine into a completely fabricated hot rod body.
Tank restoration is an expensive, heavy-duty project due to the size of the parts involved. Look no further than this 600 horsepower tank engine, which was actually a de-tuned aviation engine. It had cast pistons rather than forged, the supercharger was removed, and the tune was set for low-grade petrol rather than high-grade aviation fuel.
But we’re still talking about a huge-displacement V12 engine with mountains of torque, sitting in a hot rod body. The driver, Jesse, never really gets on the motor, which unsurprisingly does sound a lot like a tank. Like, obnoxiously slow. We would not want to be stuck behind this guy on the highway…though we don’t imagine he’ll be “stuck” behind anyone with all that motor.
