Hot rodding is really a singular activity. We all enjoy hanging out with other hot rodders but the things that we do individually, we do for ourselves. Maybe other people like them, maybe they become trendy, but the bottom line is when someone builds something, anything in their garage it likely is not going to have a huge value to someone else. Take this incredible hand made steam engine that is currently for sale on eBay.

The seller matter of factly states that the entire engine was handcrafted by a father and son over the span of 35-45 YEARS. It is for sale for $15,000.

Why did they build it? According to the seller the idea was to put it in a 1950s era car and make what would basically be the most modern, old-school steam car in the world. It would have been bitchin’ had that come to pass. They did complete the engine and the seller will run it on compressed air to show you. Advertised as a”four cylinder” steam engine the more complicated sounding “quadruple compounding” would be the way steamers would talk about it. Steam has such expanding power that you can “use it” more than once. After the initial injection happens in cylinder one, it is send to cylinder two wherein a slightly smaller bore it will send that piston down, and onto three, and onto four, before heading back to be condensed and process continues along. Using the steam multiple times is super efficient and a quad compounding engine is freaking awesome.

We have no idea what transmission would go behind this thing but what we can say is that this thing likely makes incredible torque and would send any normal passenger car down the road with gusto.

A work of mechanical art…but does anyone want it?

eBay: This custom built quadruple compounding steam engine rules