Need info, perhaps location of following car.

[6speed]

The car belongs to man in question, Mr. Paul Dodd. Son of the Late John Dodd.

The car is powered by a large 24 litre high capacity Rolls Royce Merlin Engone, or quite possibly a Meteor Engine from an Abrahams Tank. The car was built in the 1970's by Mr Dodd, and a man named Paul Jameson. The car produces somewhere around 2050hp, and can attain a top speed in the vacinity of 280mph. Nicknamed "The Beast", the car is a rwd shooting brake, is beige in colour, has eight rectangular exhaust pipes, a brown thin pin stripe down each side, three louvers on each side, and five spoke mag wheels.

Recent reports of Mr. Dodd say that the car is located in either Surrey or Spain. The car may or may not hold a Rolls Royce grille on the front from a Silver Shadow. This is not some crime stoppers farse. I need to find this man.

If this car is seen, consider it as a menace on the road, and call the local police immediatly. The car is EXTREMELY fast, and has said, quite seriously, to have knocked doors off of Porsches and Ferrari's whilst they travel at 160mph. The car is larger then a Maybach 62, and is built out of reinforced Fibreglass. The car is quite aptly considered a real tank, as it is quite capable of ramming into cars, and leaving not a scratch on itself. It has been done before.

Remember, if you see this car, call the police.

Here is a reference photo:

[Matra et Alpine]

It's still in the DVLA databse
Vehicle Details for registration number KPD67K
Make ROLLS ROYCE
Year of manufacture
Model
Engine size(CC) 27000


27 litres

Also , some history ......
Just to clear up the Jamison Merlin saga you may be interested in my letter which I believe will appear in Practical classics next month:-

In the April edition Malcolm Briggs casts some light upon the notorious Merlin Capri. The history of the car is complex so it is not surprising that Malcolm has not got it quite right.

The highly talented Paul Jamison was one of my teen heroes and it was he who built the beautifully detailed rolling chassis fitted with a brand new, just out of the box, Meteor tank engine, effectively an unblown Merlin. Transmission used a number of Jaguar parts and John Dodds, Epsom autobox guru modified the gearbox. Paul didn't get around to building a body and eventually sold the rolling chassis, riding on Minilites, to John Dodds. John commissioned a lengthened and modified fibre glass Capri body from FGR of Shortlands near Bromley in Kent, when complete John fitted a cut down Rolls Royce radiator shell and changed the Minilites for Woolfrace wheels.

John Dodds made a lot of claims about the car's performance that could easily be refuted with a slide rule and details of the final drive ratios but the car was certainly a goer and made all the right noises. When I saw the car on BBC News I was shocked that such a beautiful chassis could be changed into such a crass looking car. As the car got older and suffered from inadequate servicing Rolls Royce apparently got fed up with the negative publicity and took Dodds to court for copyright infringements. Dodds eventually took the car across the pond and it was later reported that the car had been destroyed by fire and RR backed off.

Paul Jamison was not happy with the press his first creation had attracted and built a proper Merlin powered six wheeler, shown at Earls Court it is now, I believe, in a museum in Sweden.(refer to Guiness book of records for more info).

Around 1990 I was working with Paul's wife Jan and Paul was working on his third 'Merlin' powered car based upon a genuine 1930's Rolls tourer chassis with full Rolls Royce approval, Autocraft (AC) at Brooklands were helping with seats and a few other parts. Even then Paul was getting phone calls from 'an exile over the water' seeking technical advice and reporting the latest exploits of the Capri, some years after it was allegedly burnt to a cinder, it appears that reports of its demise were somewhat exaggerated, so where is it now?

Paul tragically died before car three was complete although it was running. Paul was the Merlin expert and without his skill and devotion many of the Spitfires and other British WW2 aircraft that grace today's air shows would be little more than static displays. A number of Spitfires flew over Paul's funeral in glorious tribute.

Jan described Paul to me as an eccentric engineer, we certainly need more of his type of eccentricity to save us from the curse of the Eurobox.

Hope that clears matters up, the real problem with using a Merlin in a car is that it revs slowly by car standards so you have to arrange to gear up the output or contrive an impossibly high rear axle ratio, the large wheels of a 20s or 30s tourer make that less of a problem. My favorite aero engined car is the Napier Bentley with three rows of exhaust pipes, as a child I lived near the Napier Factory, feats of fantastic engineering were always on display in the 'showroom', if the building was still there you could probably detect the imprint of my nose on the window.

[adamfraser]

Peter, you never fail to amaze me with your knowledge. How the hell did you get all that in 10 mins? Crazy!

[Sauc3]

Originally Posted by adamfraser

Peter, you never fail to amaze me with your knowledge. How the hell did you get all that in 10 mins? Crazy!

He "got all that" because it's all in a letter - as he explained in the start of the post - that he pre-wrote.

[6'bore]

So why does this guy need to find it?

[Matra et Alpine]

Originally Posted by adamfraser

Peter, you never fail to amaze me with your knowledge. How the hell did you get all that in 10 mins? Crazy!

shhhhhh 'bout the DVLA look-up

This came up ages ago on the kit car guys when we were having a few beers trying to think of the craziest one we knew about. Having a brain the size of a planet measn I dont' forget things ( nah seriously I had the link kicking around in a messenger convo history so a quick searhc and voila )

[Clique]

It was featured in a magazine(think it was EVO) a couple of months ago...

[bmwpower]

this car is a menace to society..I thought the post was a fake initially but apparently not. Wonder if i'll ever see it, God knows i would call the police.."officer, he's driving a plane on highway 401" lol

[ScionDriver]

I can hardly believe that thing really exists. That is insane.

[Birdman]

Evo 086 page 096.

[johnnyperl]

Originally Posted by Matra et Alpine

Jan described Paul to me as an eccentric engineer, we certainly need more of his type of eccentricity to save us from the curse of the Eurobox.

hmmm...Ford Focus or 20ft. long, 6-wheeled, Airplane-powered tank?
How do you relate these?

[6speed]

The 280mph top speed and Merlin engine are certainly not fake. This car is quite seriously a menace, and it has actually been seen a couple times over the past few monthes by various sources. It is considered by many kit-car afficiando's to be the epitomy of what a kit car should be.

Although with 2050hp, I reckon it could quite easily give the Veyron a run for it's money.

[Matra et Alpine]

Originally Posted by 6speed

The 280mph top speed and Merlin engine are certainly not fake. This car is quite seriously a menace, and it has actually been seen a couple times over the past few monthes by various sources. It is considered by many kit-car afficiando's to be the epitomy of what a kit car should be.

erm, NO.
Not one kit car guy I've ever met would consider that an "epitomy" ... more accurately an epitaph !!
A merlin engine is fecking MASSIVE , in dimensions and weight


WHere has it been seen ?

Although with 2050hp, I reckon it could quite easily give the Veyron a run for it's money.

Take too long to get there, shred tyres trying to and will go straight on at slightest corner

Here a different one with a Merlin-fetish just to get the sizes into context
A 55 Chevy ( not a small car ) and the Merlin they have squeezed into it

[nota]

Originally Posted by Matra et Alpine

Here a different one with a Merlin-fetish just to get the sizes into context
A 55 Chevy ( not a small car ) and the Merlin they have squeezed into it

As far as context goes, that pic does 'not quite' give an accurate perspective because I've seen this car (got a poster on the wall signed by its builder Rod Hadfield) and in reality the engine block terminates approx one-third of the way along the door

[scottydee80]

What a cool beast. I saw it in the flesh in Benalmadena in Spain when I was 11 years old - it sounded awsome - is it still alive????