monty2 Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 (edited) THIS is the story of the astonishing Swandean Spitfire Special car, brainchild of Spitfire aircraft enthusiast and Worthing garage proprietor, Michael Wilcock. He built the car in 1952 around a 21-litre 12-cylinder Rolls-Royce Merlin engine rescued from a Supermarine Spitfire World War Two fighter. Also change the last part of the first photo caption to :"It left its Worthing home for St Louis in 1957." The power unit was so large and heavy the single-seat car had to be built on chassis from two Daimler Dingo scout cars (Mark IA monty) , welded end to end. It had full-time four-wheel-drive – four speeds forward or four speeds in reverse. Wilcock named the car the Spitfire Special and entered the less than gentle giant in the Brighton Speed Trials of 1953. On its first run, the brakes failed, causing it to crash through a wooden barrier on its way to Black Rock. Subsequent trips to the unique Brighton event in 1954 and ’56 were more successful, but with retirement looming, Michael Wilcock sold his pride and joy and moved to Jersey. All we knew after that was a rumour that the Spitfire Special had been sold to America. Recently, I have learned what happened to the car in the 50 years since it left Worthing and can happily report that the remarkable vehicle is today in better mechanical and bodily condition than ever. In 1957, American sportsman and aviator S.J. “Casey” Lambert, of St Louis, bought the car. The following year, he painted it black and renamed it the Lambert Engineering Special. It became a permanent fixture at his summer home in Minocqua, Wisconsin, where home movies exist showing Casey driving the car on the road, followed by a lorry loaded with aviation fuel and coolant. Hardly surprising, as the 12-cylinder Rolls-Royce engine consumes three gallons of fuel every mile! In the late ’60s, the car was “retired” for the second time and donated to the Sunflower Museum and Boatworks on Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin. Unfortunately, in the early ’70s, snow brought down the roof of the museum and badly damaged the car’s body. Ownership then passed to the Schuette Brothers of Wasaur, who kept it until 1984, then sold it to the Traeger family in Chicago. After 20 years of relative stagnation, it was acquired by Hunter Classics and in the past few months has undergone a complete expert restoration to its Lambert Engineering Special configuration. Meanwhile, Michael Wilcock, from his retirement home in Jersey, has supplied a few more fascinating details about his giant “baby”. The car employed a steering box from a Daimler Double Six limousine that previously belonged to King George VI. It had a Leyland truck clutch and, when first built, a pre-selector gearbox from a Stoke-on-Trent bus. Later, a Crossley prime mover gearbox was used. “Below 100mph, wheel spin was possible on all four wheels and on courses like Brighton’s Marina Drive, with a cambered road surfaced, that was dangerous. “Top speed in first gear was around 45mph, 80mph was ed in second and in third gear we reached 150mph plus. I have no idea how fast it would go in fourth!” Monty: It can do 150mph forward but also reverse, how dares??? Doing 40 with a Dingo in reverse is scary enough for me on a straight end Edited March 30, 2013 by monty2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jchinuk Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Oddly, not uncommon This one was quite famous, as RR took action because it was originally built with a RR grill, Later it was , though overall styling was never it's strong point... This one is a more traditional 'hot rod'. and it's a Meteor rather than a Merlin jh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick W Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Very nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griff66 Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 is it? think the side view looks terrible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 If it the man I think it is, he has also put a V12 Jaguar engine, In a Massey 35 tractor. The clutch had to be weackened, as it kept trying to climb over the back wheels at idle! When asked WHY? his reply was, 'Seemed like a good idea'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RattlesnakeBob Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 .............. When asked WHY? his reply was, 'Seemed like a good idea'. and that's exactly what I really do love about an 'engineering mindset'.... .....I guess there's no point to an awful lot of what we do in life but I do so applaud anyone that looks at a pile of bits .....(be it a military vehicle or whatever)..... and think to him or her self.. "ah .....why the hell not ?" :-D sort of off topic I know but... ...near to me is where the original Severn Railway Bridge was...way back in 1874 a Victorian Engineer turned up there one day, looked out across that river and said something like ...."right then !" I defy anyone, even with all the modern engineering and constructional skills and knowledge that is available to us today to look out across the river from the remains of the old railway approaches embankment..... and not still wonder .........."how the heck did he set about that ?" ..........must have been the same kind of fella built this car I reckon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 I've a photo of it somewhere. I'll dig it out. :-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Johns Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 (edited) Oddly, not uncommon This one was quite famous, as RR took action because it was originally built with a RR grill, Later it was , though overall styling was never it's strong point... This one is a more traditional 'hot rod'. and it's a Meteor rather than a Merlin jh The Swandean spitfire special from the 1950's never had a Rolls grill, and it does have a supercharged Merlin engine. I think you are confusing this car with the much later built car from the 1970's with a fibreglass coupe body,and Meteor engine owned by John Dodd, it had automatic transmission and was rear wheel drive, that car had much publicity including the run in with Rolls Royce over the use of the radiator grill, eventually that caught fire and was burnt out Edited March 31, 2013 by Nick Johns Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diamond-t-steve Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 If it the man I think it is, he has also put a V12 Jaguar engine, In a Massey 35 tractor. The clutch had to be weackened, as it kept trying to climb over the back wheels at idle! When asked WHY? his reply was, 'Seemed like a good idea'. It seemed like a good idea when the RAF Thought "Wonder if a Merlin would improve a Mustang" . The rest as they say is history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Was it John Dodd who also built a "Lady Penelope" car round a Merlin? Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rog8811 Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 (edited) Was it John Dodd who also built a "Lady Penelope" car round a Merlin? JD only did the transmissions and the body for his one. Paul Jameson built a reverse penelope:D 2 at the front and 4 at the back, I have posted a picture somewhere on the forum, I will see if I can find it.... *EDIT* found it, half way down this page. http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?19153-ALVIS-LEONIDES-areo-engine/page2&highlight=paul+jamison Edited April 3, 2013 by rog8811 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R Cubed Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 The Swandean spitfire special from the 1950's never had a Rolls grill, and it does have a supercharged Merlin engine. I think you are confusing this car with the much later built car from the 1970's with a fibreglass coupe body,and Meteor engine owned by John Dodd, it had automatic transmission and was rear wheel drive, that car had much publicity including the run in with Rolls Royce over the use of the radiator grill, eventually that caught fire and was burnt out That car built by John Dodd was called the Beast after it caught fire it was rebuilt and I think it is now over in Spain still running, looks like a strange sort of Ford Capri with a looooong bonnet. A story goes that it was on a German autobahn and roared past a driver in a Porsche so much so that the Porsche driver rang Rolls Royce wanting the new model that just passed him as it had a RR grill on the front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnwardle Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Was it John Dodd who also built a "Lady Penelope" car round a Merlin? Andy The Lady Penelope car was built on a 6 wheel Bedford bus chassis, I don't know what engine was in it, but it was rather big, I saw it on a transporter heading towards Coventry a couple of years ago Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels v Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 There was also a second merlin engined dingo base special. Build by Ted Lloyd, build before 1952, subsequntly scraped to restore a Hawker Hart plane. this was mid engined Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gritineye Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 A couple of more stylish ones... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226932/Classic-Bentley-fitted-27-litre-SPITFIRE-engine-goes-sale-500-000-Top-Gear-stars-wince-fuel-bills.html The builder of this one is local to me, to my mind he has caught that 30s look perfectly [video=youtube_share;6O1fSfANxbM] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monty2 Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share Posted April 4, 2013 Pictures please There was also a second merlin engined dingo base special. Build by Ted Lloyd, build before 1952, subsequntly scraped to restore a Hawker Hart plane. this was mid engined Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monty2 Posted April 4, 2013 Author Share Posted April 4, 2013 (edited) got it Niels thanks for the tip, amazing a second Dingo racer with RR Aero Kestrel 21 litre engine. Based on Dingo Mark IA or IB. Suspension is very much changed compare to the previous one. It nick name "Triangle Flying Saucer" Edited April 4, 2013 by monty2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_bish Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 got it Niels thanks for the tip, amazing a second Dingo racer with RR Aero Kestrel 21 litre engine. Based on Dingo Mark IA or IB. Suspension is very much changed compare to the previous one. It nick name "Triangle Flying Saucer" [ATTACH=CONFIG]74868[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]74869[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]74870[/ATTACH] Its like a mini AutoUnion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_bish Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 A couple of more stylish ones... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226932/Classic-Bentley-fitted-27-litre-SPITFIRE-engine-goes-sale-500-000-Top-Gear-stars-wince-fuel-bills.html The builder of this one is local to me, to my mind he has caught that 30s look perfectly [video=youtube_share;6O1fSfANxbM] he has captured the bodywork perfectly but like a lot of these specials the wheels are the wrong diameter, need to be much bigger to get the look right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gritineye Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 (edited) he has captured the bodywork perfectly but like a lot of these specials the wheels are the wrong diameter, need to be much bigger to get the look right I'm with you on that detail Paul, but given the attention to detail, I wonder whether the compromise of smaller size wheels is to allow radial tyres and less leverage on the drums, giving better braking for a modicum of safety.. I'll try and ask him next time I see him. I took a video of it once, may show more detail, I'll try and find it. Edited April 5, 2013 by gritineye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_bish Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 I'm with you on that detail Paul, but given the attention to detail, I wonder whether the compromise of smaller size wheels is to allow radial tyres and less leverage on the drums, giving better braking for a modicum of safety.. I'll try and ask him next time I see him. I took a video of it once, may show more detail, I'll try and find it. A little bit of safety never goes amiss, though with that length and weight over the front it must handle like a truck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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