This is a WWII era photograph of trainee aircraft mechanics being trained in the finer details of Merlin engine maintenance. The cradle that the engine is sitting in looks to be mobile, allowing the engine to be tilted to more clearly show the inner workings, each of these Rolls-Royce engines were capable of producing 2,600hp from their 27-litre (1,650 cubic inch) capacity.
I’ve often wished that a company would spring up offering kits for people to build Merlin engines at home, they wouldn’t be cheap or even remotely sensible, but I still want one. It’d be the perfect engine for that Baby Bootlegger project I keep telling myself I’ll build one day.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
Introduction This is almost certainly the most detailed project we’ve ever featured on Silodrome. It includes a functioning pulse-jet powered scooter, accompanied by synthetic historic images, multiple handmade period-correct toys and kits, hand-painted posters, magazine ads, and an insignia chart – all made bespoke by Randy Regier to create the illusion that a jet-powered scooter, officially…
The TobyRich Moskito is a $49.98 USD remote controlled airplane that you pilot using an iPhone, iPad, or Android smartphone. It wasn’t that many years ago that R/C aircraft were an expensive hobby enjoyed by relatively few – with a significant barrier to entry thanks to the fact that it was commonplace for rookie pilots…
The Speakeasy is the latest offering from Fitzke Wood Boards, a small Minnesota based company run by Kevin Fitzke. Kevin was born and raised in Minnesota, known as the land of 10,000 lakes (which he spent countless days exploring), and he spent much of his life admiring the sleek mahogany speedboats of the 1930s. In…
This series of photographs by Benedict Redgrove showcases vintage safety gear worn by drag racing drivers, borrowed for the photoshoot from the world famous Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing. Drag Racing is one of the most dangerous forms of motorsport, in fact if measured in fatalities per mile, it’s possibly the single most dangerous…
The AJS V4 was an advanced engineering effort undertaken by the British motorcycle company in the mid-1930s, the first prototype was intended as a road-going motorcycle and it was shown at the Olympia Show in 1935. Building The AJS V4 Racer The road-going version of the V4 didn’t get a green light for production, it’s…
This short film was shot in 1987 as part of the British sports television show “Grandstand”, it could very well have been lost to history but fortunately it’s been uploaded from an old VHS tape to YouTube. The clip includes Murray visiting the Ferrari headquarters in Maranello to speak personally with Enzo Ferrari about his…
