Jay Leno

Aero-engined cars are cool; modern aircraft tech is even cooler

- Jeremy Hart

Although I love aircraft engines I've never been much of an aeroplane guy. I love the era when aircraft engines were just bigger, more powerful and better-built versions of car engines. That's how you went fast after World War One. You put an aircraft engine in.

I've got a number of these fascinating vehicles. The oldest is a car called Rabbit One. It was built on a 1910 Mercedes chassis to run at Brooklands racetrack and in 1921 it lapped at 113mph using a 230-horsepower Benz four-valve-per-cylinder aero engine. Next up, a 1914 Fiat race car featuring a Fiat A12 six-cylinder aircraft engine, also four valves per cylinder. And that one's 22 litres! Also a 1915 Hispano-Suiza with an 18.8-litre V8 aero engine, designed by Marc Burkigt, which was the first modern aero V8 with overhead cams.

To my way of thinking, the last great aircraft engine that could be put in an automobile was the 27-litre Merlin. We put that one in a 1934 Rolls P2 chassis (see Octane 215), and no, we didn't break up a car - the chassis came from a junkyard.