It's a car powered by an airplane engine that could fly … so to speak.
"The Beast" is a famous custom that was built in the 1970s by Englishman John Dodd from the bones of a project started by an engineer named Paul Jameson in 1966.
Jameson constructed a box frame chassis with suspension and drivetrain parts from Jaguar and Wolseley vehicles and installed a 27-liter Rolls-Royce Meteor tank engine in it.
He then hired Dodd to build a transmission, which was his profession, according to the Cars and Classics auction company.
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The project stalled, and Dodd ended up buying the 19-foot-long car a few years later and had a fiberglass coupe body made for it that featured hood nearly half as long as the entire car.
It was damaged in a fire while being transported home from a car show in Sweden in 1974 and rebuilt with the even more unusual design it wears today, which has a two-door station wagon-style body.
Dodd also swapped the engine for a 27-liter Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 aircraft motor with its superchargers removed that is estimated to produce at least 750 hp.
That was enough to earn The Beast a Guinness record as the world's most powerful road car in 1977, but it proved its mettle a few years before that.
The over two-ton car was certified by the Royal Automobile Club at a top speed of 183 mph during a test in 1973, which was enough to claim it was the world's fastest street car at the time, ahead of the Lamborghini Miura's 179.3 mph production car record. It was unofficially reported to have been drive above 200 mph in later years.
The car spent its life visiting shows and putting on demonstration runs until Dodd died in December of last year. It has now been put up for auction online through Cars and Classics.
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"Well, we can tell you first hand that when The Beast fires into life, the earth shakes. No hyperbole, no sales talk, you can feel it shake everything around it. It is LOUD," the auction house said.
"The engine is every bit the symphony of mechanical noise you would expect from a war-era engine. It’s exciting, captivating and even a little bit scary, but in a good way. Like a 183 mph rollercoaster if you will."
Offers are being accepted until March 16 and bidding had reached 64,500 pounds at the time this story was published, which was enough to meet its unlisted reserve price.
