It would crack me up months ago reading stories about people asking what Jay Leno would do when he finally left the Tonight Show and handed the keys to Jimmy Fallon. They were writing about the guy like he was down to his last $20 and that as soon as he left the show his whole world would fall apart. My own personal belief was that he’d hang out for a while, screw around with all of his bitchin’ cars and make a pile of money doing stand up and other appearances. Jay has been cranking out some awesome videos on his Jay Leno’s Garage channel and while we don’t feature them often, this one really caught our eye because of the fact the 1930 Bentley you see before you is powered by a 27-liter Rolls Royce Merlin airplane engine.
Leno takes us all around the car, shows build photos, and even puts it up on the lift so we can see the underside of the monster machine. He then takes it out for a cruise on the city streets and the highway to prove that this baby is a real deal driver. The huge engine is backed with an Allison transmission, has all kinds of extra cooling and oiling improvements to make it happy to be idling around on the streets, and the whole rig weighs on the order of 6,000lbs. One of the funniest moments in the video is when Leno has a guy park a Fiat 500 next to the car to give some perspective on the size. With power steering and brakes, the thing doesn’t look that hard to wheel around, although the turning radius is roughly of the Queen Mary it doesn’t seem like you need to be that concerned with “planing ahead” while cruising any more than you would with any old car. Then again we love old trucks and this is essentially that in nicer clothes and with way more cubic inches.
We’re kind of in love with this big bastard….what do you think of it?
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE JAY LENO CRUISE HIS 27-LITER 1930 BENTLEY AND TELL US THE TALE OF THE CRAZY BUILD –
Awesome ….. Yup !
And to think .. if one was to dig a little deeper theres even more awesome and better done aircraft powered cars out there than this . Leno’s Hispano Suiza with an HS aircraft engine in front being one of them
Is Jay interested in selling it? I’d trade my wife and youngins for it. Owwwwwww! 🙁
Jay Leno looked really, positively happy driving this thing.
Money, or No Money
PRICELESS
I hate to get picky but that’s not a Merlin. The Merlin was supercharged, the N/A version of the engine is called the Meteor. Interesting note, due to its aero-origins, for its size it is quite light, they weigh about 900lbs, not bad for a 27 litre or 1650 cubic inch motor.