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.
This is the leather bound scroll edition of the Baja Map, a roll-out map of the Baja Peninsula that includes all of the major cities, towns, landmarks, and roadways. Although it’ll most often be used by those who buy it as a wall hanging, it’s designed to be actively used in the field. Each one…
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…
The Dobbertin HydroCar is an amphibious vehicle that took 10 years to develop with over $1 million USD invested in research, development, and construction. The HydroCar can be driven on land for extended periods thanks to its articulated sponsons (side pontoons) that can be raised or lowered. In the raised position the four wheels are…
The 562 bhp V8 in the back of the Ferrari 458 won both the “Best Performance Engine” and the “Above 4-Litre” category at the 2011 International Engine of the Year awards. Though it’s no longer in production it’s revered as one of the all-time great V8s – with a screaming red line of 9,000 rpm and 398…
Neon White Rose Gasoline signs could be seen on highways and byways coast to coast in the early to mid-20th century. The White Rose trademark belonged to The National Refining Company located in Cleveland, Ohio. The company had started out refining kerosene which had been widely used for lighting homes before the invention of the…
This Porsche 917 door is a unique piece of art by Joel Clark, each piece takes upward of 30 hours to complete, and its basis is a 1:1 scale 917 door made from fibreglass by Kraftwerkz Cars of Melbourne. Clark began his career as a vinyl sticker maker for professional motor racing teams at Silverstone,…
