Ford Crown Victoria getting a 27-litre V12 tank engine swap
General Motors' LS-series V8 engine has been a popular swap for a long time for those wanting easy and reliable power – but what do you do if you want to be a little different?
One car builder in Sweden has decided his Ford Crown Victoria should instead be fitted with a 27-litre Rolls-Royce 'Meteor' V12, borrowed from a World War Two-era tank.
Speaking to US publication Road & Track, Daniel Werner said the project was born from the heart, rather than the head.
"It's not an intelligent choice of engine if you want to have 2500hp and race. This is more just, I wanted to do this out of pure passion," Werner said.
With the goal of 2500hp (1864kW) in mind, Werner has fitted two large turbochargers and is using an aftermarket computer to extract the desired performance. That's a bit of a power bump from the engine's original 410kW.
In order to carry the weight of the Meteor engine, Werner has adapted the front-end from a Chevrolet C10 pick-up, and will use an upgraded TH400 transmission to translate that power into forward momentum.
The Meteor V12 was a de-tuned version of the Rolls-Royce 'Merlin' V12 found in the Spitfire fighter plane and the Lancaster bomber from WW2 – an engine which Aussie Rod Hadfield borrowed from a WW2 P51 Mustang fighter plane to power his 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air sport coupe. He ended up making 3000hp (2237kW), not that it's a competition…
"It will not be an ideal car in any way," Werner told Road & Track. "But for me, it's ideal. Just 1647 cubic inches is cool enough."