| Author | Message | ||
     Robert Noel Reddington Prolific User Username: bob_uk Post Number: 200 Registered: 5-2015 |
Out of interest due a conversation with a mate about aero engines fitted to cars. I lookéd up the John Dodds V12 Meteor engined car The Beast. This car has the un supercharged Merlin engine from a tank. The gearbox is GM TH 400. Strong gearbox. This engine was made by Rover. Also Rover chopped off 4 cylinders to make a V8 18 litres called a Meteorite. Every aero engined car has been unsuccessful. The Rover Rolls Royce Meteor ran on low grade petrol and was 600bhp. With a huge mountain of torque guessimate 1200 ftlbs. The cars just spin wheels at any speed. Then run out of revs and then do it again in the next gear. The craziest one is a Meteor in a Rover SD1. The best is a Meteor in a Phantom 2 chassis with a pre 1931 Bentley Touring body. BBC Top Gear £500k. | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 1428 Registered: 6-2009 |
Bob UK aka RNR wrote: Every aero engined car has been unsuccessful. At least as a functional conveyance. You know what they say about boys and their toys . . . These things are nothing more than motorized pissing contests. Brian | ||
| Bill Coburn Moderator Username: bill_coburn Post Number: 1571 Registered: 4-2003 |
Robert twigs my memory of a popular legend concerning Rover. Around 1950 Rover engineers developed a gas turbine engine and installed it in one of their Rover Model 90's. The solution to the exhaust disposal was to exit it through the boot lid. The experimental car had a lotof publicity - well I remember seeing test runs on the news reels at the theatre. Apparently Rolls-Royce people also went to the theatre and got very interested in the 'jet' rover. A deal was struck where RR would hand over to Rover the manufacture and rights to the Meteor engine in exchange for Rover to hand over all their work on the Jet Turbine! So started an empire that was brought to its knees a generation later with the RB211 technical Salient and take over by the British government with the still solvent car department sold off to the highest bidder. | ||
| Robert Noel Reddington Prolific User Username: bob_uk Post Number: 201 Registered: 5-2015 |
The Rover gas turbine car JET 1 is in the science museum Kensington London. Its based on a Rover P3. A guy from India recreated the JET 1 car using a XJ6 engine. For Jools Holland a famous piano boogie woogiest. The recreation was a big dollop of bondo smeared over old car bits. Put shinny paint on any car and TV thinks its great. The original designer said the copy was rubbish. Gas turbines aren't fuel efficient in cars and have lots of turbo lag. However it might work in hybrid car. But petrol engines are so well developed that a hybrid turbine car would need a lot money thrown at it to catch up. A very telling thing is that small aero engines of less than 500 bhp are usually petrol. A flash of inspiration has just paid a visit. A hybrid car with a Stirling engine. | ||
| christopher carnley Unregistered guest Posted From: 86.173.13.71 |
Bill, I think that you have rolled two separates stories into one. For the true story of the Whittle/ Rover engine see"Vikings at Waterloo", from the RRHT. You may have a surprise! The Rover motor car gas turbine was never anything other than a passing interest to R-R, it came in two forms, a 5" centrifugal compressor, and a later 8" centrifugal compressor, but gas turbines only operated economically at optimal output, and idling is very wasteful. (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| Bill Coburn Moderator Username: bill_coburn Post Number: 1572 Registered: 4-2003 |
Chris/ Thanks for that - at my age my past intakes of information are rapidly becoming one great melange. But enlighten me, what is/are the RRHT? | ||
| gordon le feuvre Frequent User Username: triumph Post Number: 78 Registered: 7-2012 |
Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust. Google them! | ||
| christopher carnley Unregistered guest Posted From: 86.173.13.105 |
It is the Rolls Royce Historical Trust. (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| Jan Forrest Grand Master Username: got_one Post Number: 823 Registered: 1-2008 |
Early last month I was at a steam rally just outside Chorley (Lancs, UK) and they had a Meteor engine on a trolley which they fired up from time to time. With open headers the noise was fantastic. However, to put the cherry on the cake, we had a fly past by a Spitfire in the afternoon. She was beautiful to see silhouetted against the low clouds. After an all too short time she gave us a wing waggle, slipped back into them and disappeared leaving a fading V12 rumble from the heavens. Ps. JET 1 is a Rotherham registration and ANN 1 (Princess Anne) is Sheffield. | ||
| Randy Roberson Grand Master Username: wascator Post Number: 469 Registered: 5-2009 |
Gas Turbines do not make good engines for automobiles: they prefer to run at or near full output for weeks on end. Efficiency costs a fortune in advanced materials and engineering, but is pretty remarkable in modern industrial and aircraft engines. We have a 10,500 HP Solar turbine driving a centrifugal gas compressor about 400 feet from where I sit. It is almost perfectly reliable; after 30,000 hours of run time, it is overhauled at a fixed contract price: $1.4 million USD plus labor and tax. | ||
| Jan Forrest Grand Master Username: got_one Post Number: 830 Registered: 1-2008 |
The Rover, JET 1, was raced for a short time, but the turbo lag was so long that the driver had to keep his foot hard on the gas and overcook the brakes for every corner. With braking technology not being up to the task of longer races Rover soon gave up on the project and no more models were built. | ||
| michael vass New User Username: mikebentleyturbo2 Post Number: 2 Registered: 7-2015 |
I saw jet one at lichfield cars in the park. Mike | ||
| Jan Forrest Grand Master Username: got_one Post Number: 841 Registered: 1-2008 |
I haven't seen it 'in the flesh' for several decades, but if memory serves it was part of the Beauliue Motoring Museum Collection. I recall one or two of the World Land Speed Bluebell (Donald Campbell) cars being there as well. | ||
| Robert Noel Reddington Prolific User Username: bob_uk Post Number: 278 Registered: 5-2015 |
Jet I is on display at the Science Museum London. | ||
| michael vass New User Username: mikebentleyturbo2 Post Number: 4 Registered: 7-2015 |
like I said Cars in the park Lichfield uk 2015  | ||
| Patrick Lockyer. Grand Master Username: pat_lockyer Post Number: 946 Registered: 9-2004 |
That is the sort of copy one from the chop shop boys for Jools Holland. Not Rover running gear but Jaguar! jet 1 is still in the science museum. | ||
| Robert Noel Reddington Prolific User Username: bob_uk Post Number: 284 Registered: 5-2015 |
The JET 1 has indicators or side lights at the front. Jools car has no side lights and the number plate JET 1 is not science museum quality. I was surprised when it was suggested that the real car was at a car show parked on the grass. The real car is worth a lot money. It could rain and get wet. | ||
| christopher carnley Unregistered guest Posted From: 86.181.212.5 |
Along with a wrecked early Whittle jet engine, the revised version of Stephenson's Rocket,a sectioned R-R Merlin,and a "few" other bits. It is an awe inspiring weeks tour, and only a small amount on display at any one time. (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| Jan Forrest Grand Master Username: got_one Post Number: 843 Registered: 1-2008 |
One of my friends was visiting the Science Museum just the other day and had the opportunity to get almost within touching distance of both JET 1 and one of R. J. Mitchell's record breaking Supermarine seaplanes. As Chris states: There are far more exhibits than space for them to be displayed. Which is why the trust has invested ££millions££ in lottery funding to convert a couple of airplane hangars somewhere 'out in the sticks' to add much needed storage and display areas. | ||
| Robert Noel Reddington Prolific User Username: bob_uk Post Number: 288 Registered: 5-2015 |
The hangers are at Wroughton near Swindon. | ||
| christopher carnley Unregistered guest Posted From: 86.181.211.253 |
The storage facility for large items is on the site of the former RAF O M U airfield at Wroughton, in Wiltshire. Over 200,000 smaller items are at Blythe House, in London. (Message approved by david_gore) |
