I C&P'ed this from the Canberra Times.
Note that this is a WWII engine so is older than the car, and is registered in Victoria.
THE WORLD'S most powerful street registered car, with 3000-plus horsepower from its supercharged V12 aero engine, will make its international public debut in Canberra for Summernats 16 in early January.
The machine is called Final Objective and is the culmination of five years of work by Australia's premier street rod builder Rod Hadfield at his Castlemaine Rod Shop.
The 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Sports Coupe has been a labour of love, sweat and gears for the vastly experienced Hadfield, who aims to have the Guinness Books of Records officially verify the car's status within the next six weeks.
After leaving Canberra, Final Objective will begin its touring schedule which is certain to take it and its owner, plus its custom-made trailer and merchandise, all around the world.
Particularly eager to see the completed car are street rod show promoters in the US, because Hadfield has tapped a rich vein of aviation heritage by using the same engine that powered the famous Lancaster bomber, and the Spitfire and Mustang fighters.
It's an extraordinary machine in every detail, with the task of making it street registerable providing its own set of challenges and bureaucratic red tape.
"We bought the car back in '89 and started collecting the bits we needed from then on; I scoured the swap meets, on the Internet and spent hours on the phone to the States hunting down specialist parts," Hadfield said.
He chose a Chev because from a promotional perspective, the popularity of that car and particular model in the US is unsurpassed. Taking the car on tour Stateside was always a primary goal in order to recoup the enormous time and costs in building The Final Objective.
"No car creates as much universal interest as a 1955 Chev two door. If you're a street rodder, that's everybody's dream car," Hadfield said.
"And the Rolls Royce Merlin is one of the world's most famous engines.
"We wouldn't be a free country today if not for the Rolls Royce Merlin," he added. He secured the rare engine as a spare from a Melbourne race boat called "Aussie Connection".
He started the project using a non-supercharged engine and then switched to forced induction when a suitable unit became available about five years ago.
Trying to find a gearbox which would handle the power was the first problem. He uses a Lenco that's customised from a Top Fuel drag car.
"We had to hand-make almost everything on the car, from the headlights back."
The V12 engine fits in the engine bay in a reverse direction. Since there was no fan belt drive off the enormous Merlin the aircraft, of course, didn't need them so all the necessary brackets and ancillaries had to be designed and carefully modified to fit.
He took the car for its first drive up and down his own driveway two years ago "just to prove the concept and the conversion".
"With all the stress and the strain and anguish of the building process, it was a relief to hear it running," he said.
"We had to get a permit to drive the car on the road and prove that what we'd done would work as a street car, then we had to pull it apart again and detail it.
"There are some silly people out there building cars that detail and paint as they're going along; what if you had to change something?"
And as expected, the bureaucrats in Victoria didn't exactly warm to the idea of a machine this awesome being given a rego sticker and licence plates. "I wrote them [Vicroads] a letter explaining what the car was about, what it was for, and didn't pull any punches," he said.
When the engineers wrote back saying they didn't think the car would be eligible for registration, Hadfield went straight to the top. He wrote direct to the office of the Minister for Transport stating his case.
"I explained that I'd been knocked back for rego on a car they hadn't even looked at and I think once they realised how serious I was about this project and that I wasn't going to go away, that seemed to get things happening," he said.
After the engineers visited his shop to see the car and picked their jaws off the floor they had to approve it.
"Why couldn't they? Just because it's got 3000 horsepower doesn't mean it's not safe," Hadfield said.
"It's not as though this engine has been plonked into some flimsy little chassis. This is a very strong construction.
"It's got huge power disc brakes and six pot calipers off a Pontiac Trans Am race car, power steering, windscreen wipers, headlights, treaded road tyres, seat belts, heater demisters, indicators everything you'd expect in a road car. Even a horn." He hasn't yet cruised through Castlemaine in Final Objective and he'll be sure that when he does, it'll be a very cautious outing.
"Crikey, if you flattened the throttle in her, you'd change lanes. It's got a torque output that's almost immeasurable."
And just like the Mustang of old, the starting procedure is extremely complicated. Firing up the Chev sounds more like an excerpt from a Biggles book.
"It almost takes a pilot's licence to start it," he said.
"It's no different to starting an aeroplane; you have to turn on the pumps, prime it, get fuel pressure and oil pressure up, set your idle mixtures to full rich, open the air bleeder, prime the fuel as the engine turns and boost the starting coils together until she fires up."
The cranking is achieved by a heavy duty starter motor from a Ford truck.
And the power output is an estimate only. Hadfield says that "by the time we monkeyed around with it in the workshop" the real numbers were likely to be much more "but we'll never know for sure".
Five years of full-time construction, six days a week with one or two people working on it means that the build cost is incalculable. As yet there's no insured value, either.
The air-brush paint job alone is a masterpiece, the colour scheme "borrowed" from a Mustang P51 fighter. Each of the 7000 rivets is hand-painted, every single one tape-masked and redefined four times. The painting process alone took six months by Marty Everitt, from Alphabet Signs in Melbourne.
"Marty imaged a Mustang plane on to the car, the shape of the wings, the machine guns and incorporated every tiny detail."
The colours chosen for the car are the same as those used for the D-Day invasion of Normandy when on the night before the event, the rear fuselage of every aircraft which was involved in the invasion had to be painted in a specific stripe pattern otherwise it would be shot down.
The striking blue nose belongs to one of the world's most famous and successful US Mustang fighter groups of World War II the 352nd popularly known as the Blue Bastards.
A comprehensive book about the car's construction and a spectacular T-shirt design are among the merchandise that will be on offer when the car goes on display here in January.
Notice: We request that you don't just set up a new account at this time if you are a previous user.
If you used to be one of our moderators, please feel free to reach out to Chris via the facebook Outerlimits4x4 group and he will get you set back up with access should he need you.
If you used to be one of our moderators, please feel free to reach out to Chris via the facebook Outerlimits4x4 group and he will get you set back up with access should he need you.
Recovery:If you cannot access your old email address and don't remember your password, please click here to log a change of email address so you can do a password reset.
Don't tell me it can't be registered!
Moderators: toaddog, TWISTY, V8Patrol, Moderators
Don't tell me it can't be registered!
74 FJ40, 307, Hilux DBC, 35 Claws, welded rear.
'''_ ______
'/|_[_____]__
|?[_L/-\_|o=o|_
?:__;-?__-,==,_
()_)O()_)O== )_)
'''_ ______
'/|_[_____]__
|?[_L/-\_|o=o|_
?:__;-?__-,==,_
()_)O()_)O== )_)
Only in Vic 
How would it fair in QLD
How would it fair in QLD
MY JEEP BUILD
v840 wrote: [Not a shot at Tonka] It's like saying, hell I've got two nuts, I may as well cut one of them off for the hell of it. I ain't using it.[/NAS@T] It's ridiculous!
NICK wrote:my feeling is that summernats has really gone down hill in the last few years, i dont think that i would bother going again.
NICK
You can see heaps more boozies at the beach too.
74 FJ40, 307, Hilux DBC, 35 Claws, welded rear.
'''_ ______
'/|_[_____]__
|?[_L/-\_|o=o|_
?:__;-?__-,==,_
()_)O()_)O== )_)
'''_ ______
'/|_[_____]__
|?[_L/-\_|o=o|_
?:__;-?__-,==,_
()_)O()_)O== )_)
antt wrote:found some more pics->
more can be found here->http://www.rodshop.com.au/project55.htm
geez, you'd think for all that time and effort, that you'd put five wheel nuts on it, and at least some decent wheels
http://www.rodshop.com.au/project55.htm
hands and mums dont count!!!
Half a mungrel
Wonder if thats the same sort of donk as the one malcom cambell ran 300+ mph with in the 30s.. mmmm dinasaur 
bj on roids wrote:BeZeRK wrote:i going again... just for the piss up!
no speeding tickets on the way home this time!
you got caught speeding in a 2.8 diesel? without a turbo? what sort of hill were you going down
Dude, I got caught last week in my 2.4 Diesel going up a hill, CRAZY but true.
$200 and 3 points :(
MY JEEP BUILD
v840 wrote: [Not a shot at Tonka] It's like saying, hell I've got two nuts, I may as well cut one of them off for the hell of it. I ain't using it.[/NAS@T] It's ridiculous!
Hadfield is a true aussie legend, an innovator, an inpsiration. The guys team can just about make anything from scratch. I just want to hear that behemoth crank up and someone yell "Chocks away!..."
"Now should read AVGAS 502... "Yes officer, this engine was a factory option..."
http://www.avgas.com.au
http://www.avgas.com.au
All,
I know this is a 4WD forum but I can't wait until Ken gets this baby out !!!!
Goto the web link
http://www.screamandfly.com/screamandfl ... isit_2.htm
Scroll down to the "The Big Fireball"
Paul
I know this is a 4WD forum but I can't wait until Ken gets this baby out !!!!
Goto the web link
http://www.screamandfly.com/screamandfl ... isit_2.htm
Scroll down to the "The Big Fireball"
Paul
Minion #1
We all know what happened last time cheezy hit the nos button LMAO still at that.
Magin if he had 1000HP little lone 3000HP in the mav, it would be
Sign post
Parked cars (about 20)
fire hydrent
Double brick wall
A 2 storey solid break house
A shopping centre
shopping centre car park
freeway
swimming pool
city gardens
musem
collins st
retaldo or what ever its called
then throught the fish markets
on to the docks
through about 100 comtainers
over a container ship
and into the ocean near
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Geelong
Magin if he had 1000HP little lone 3000HP in the mav, it would be
Sign post
Parked cars (about 20)
fire hydrent
Double brick wall
A 2 storey solid break house
A shopping centre
shopping centre car park
freeway
swimming pool
city gardens
musem
collins st
retaldo or what ever its called
then throught the fish markets
on to the docks
through about 100 comtainers
over a container ship
and into the ocean near
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Geelong
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests